‘HELP YOURSELF’ TO KEY WEST

This Green Scene story spotlights an environmentally focused attraction, event, person or place that enriches the Florida Keys

A new restaurant concept has been developed in Key West with the aim of making healthy food tasty, appealing, convenient and accessible to all. Help Yourself is the brainchild of locals Paul Menta, a pioneer in the eco-friendly extreme sport of kiteboarding, and Charlie Wilson, a British trained chef from Canterbury, Kent, who discovered Key West 15 years ago while travelling the world.

The restaurant opened its doors to the public in October 2008 after sparking huge interest throughout Key West.

Paul Menta has kite-surfed from Key West to Cuba and is widely regarded as a kiteboarding pioneer. He adventured around the world and then settled in Key West, where he offers eco-friendly kiteboard training vacations at his unique Kitehouse training centre. Paul also is an experienced restaurateur and dedicated eco-enthusiast. “I’m the guy you want to be stranded on a deserted island with a roll of duct tape because I can make anything happen,” he said.

Charlotte “Charlie” Wilson has always been passionate about food, training at the Cordon Bleu Culinary School in London before going on to own and operate her own catering company in London and France. Six years ago, she became aware of the how the food people eat directly affects their health and the environment, and left Key West for New York to study at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. She returned to Key West to open up Help Yourself restaurant. “There is something about Key West that just keeps bringing you back,” she said.

Paul and Charlie believe that the answer to eating healthily and feeling good is relatively easy if people just eat “real food” — and that food is unprocessed and contains no pesticides, chemicals, preservatives, hormones or antibiotics.

“The organic sector is the fastest growing segment of the food industry, growing 20 percent each year for the past 10 years,” said Charlie Wilson. “However, eating healthier in our busy lives is still relatively hard to find and restaurants serving organic healthy choices are in the minority. We aim to fill this gap by providing natural, organic, healthy food that tastes great, is fun, easily accessible and appeals to everyone.”

The restaurant offers foods such as “No Moo Ice,” homemade ice cream containing no dairy or sugar; “ultimate nutrition” superfoods that energize the brain as well as the body; and a unique dairy-free cashew cheese that tastes like cheese made from cows’ milk but instead is made from nut milk.

No processed or refined ingredients are used at Help Yourself, and everything is made from scratch. The only sweeteners used are natural and unrefined. These include agave nectar from the cactus plant, raw honey and maple syrup. The only salt used is Celtic Sea Salt and Himalayan Pink Salt, both high in natural minerals, and all oils used are chosen for their nutritional benefits.

In addition to its food, Help Yourself also promotes being “green” inside and out. Amongst other things, the restaurant uses biodegradable and compostable take–away containers and eliminates 90 percent of its rubbish by recycling and composting.

Help Yourself is located in what used to be a petrol station on Key West’s Fleming Street, not far from the famous Duval Street. For more information on the restaurant, including a downloadable menu, visit www.helpyourselffoods.com. To see what Paul Menta and Charlie Wilson are pioneering next, visit www.thekitehouse.com and www.charliewilsonsraw.com.