February 2, 2013 by Anne Leggett-Walker

Elaine  Dodson’s  Sacred  Journey:  From  Hare  Krishna    beauty  maven  to  globe-­‐‑trotting  Ayurvedic  chef  

 

   

   

 

Elaine  —  Dallas’  Most  Unique  Beauty  Maven  “Never  would  I  have  ever  thought  I  would  be  cooking,  much  less  become  an  Ayurvedic  and  vegetarian  chef,”  said  Elaine.    “I  never  liked  to  cook,  never  ever  thought  about  it  growing  up.    Only  when  I  became  a  vegetarian  in  my  20’s  did  I  have  to  learn,  because  I  did  not  know  anyone  else  who  was  a  vegetarian.”  

Elaine  started  her  beauty  career  first  at  age  19,  uncovering  in  1963  at  a  beauty  school  that  chemicals  create  dis-­‐ease  and  illness,  and  that  “one  learns  very  little  about  wellness  there.”    She  began  using  only  organic  products  in  the  1970’s  and  expanded  to  food.  Eventually  Elaine  became  a  vegetarian.    

Sambar,  hing,  urad,  jiggery,  channa,  asafetida,  garam  masala,  dhanna-­‐jerra  powder,  chaunce.    Quite  an  Enigma  intelligence  code  that  would  have  made  in  WW  II.  As  it  is,  it  forms  another  kind  of  code  for  health,  vitality  and  serenity:  the  lexicon  of  Ayurvedic  cooking.  

Elaine  Dodson  —  founder  of  Kalachandji’s  restaurant  in  Dallas  in  the  1970s;  Ayurvedic  chef  for  her  guru  in  Cambridge,  England;    named  “Beauty  and  Wellness  Guru”  by  the  Today  Show  who  started  and  founded  holistic,  organic  health  and  beauty  spas  in  Dallas  —  is  still  making  it  her  goal  to  educate  people,  now  about  Ayurvedic  cooking.  Shared  Elaine  in  an  interview:    

“Preparing  food  consciously  is  all  about  energy  and  (you  yourself)  being  ‘present’.  It  is  all  about  the  thoughts  you  are  having  while  you  prepare  the  food.  If  you  are  thinking  that  you  are  preparing  the  food  for  God,  or  the  higher  powers  that  be,  then  the  food  you  prepare  will  have  a  higher  vibration  and  a  healthier  affect  on  your  body.  Spices  and  the  food  you  eat  are  medicine;  they  can  lower  blood  sugar,  heal  the  body  and  soothe  the  mind.”

Easy  to  understand  when  you  have  tomato  sorba  coconut  soup  with  panir  set  before  you,  or  a  snack  of  spiced  hot  organic  apple  juice.  For  a  full  Ayurvedic  meal  one  Saturday  afternoon  in  January,  a  group  of  us  were  served  tridoshic  Vegetable  curry,  vangi  bhath  (rice  dish  with  eggplant  and  green  peas),  mixed  sprout  salad  (which  keeps  for  a  week  in  the  refrigerator  and  in  high  in  protein),  “Vitality  Dressing”  composed  of  spices  and  oil,  and  a  square  of  a  “sweet”.  

During  another  Saturday  class  in  November,  2012,  we  created  and  dined  on  apple  chutney  –  which  can  be  made  with  peaches  or  mango  or  apricot  and  is  absolutely  delicious  –  khitchari-­‐rice,  dal,  Bengali  royal  rice  (pushpanna),  Ayurvedic  sesame  peanut  rice,  coconut  rice,  and  cilantro  chutney.  Learn  more  with  Ayurvedic  101  at  the  end  of  the  feature.

To  learn    how  to  combine  science  and  nature  to  create  healthy  beauty  and  wellness  avenues,  Elaine  trained  under  the  “top  scientists  in  the  beauty  industry  beginning  with  Jherri  Redding,  and  ended  up  studying  with  Horst  Rechelbacher  who  developed  the  Aveda  concept”.    She  built  from  “scratch”  six  large  holistic  day  spas  and  salons  in  the  Dallas  area,  including  the  first  all-­‐Aveda  concept  spa  and  salon.  She  brought  natural  organic  products  to  the  fore  and  introduced  aromatherapy  as  a  healing  tool  to  the  Southwest.  

“I  opened  my  first  6000  square  foot  salon  in  1977,”    said  Elaine.  “We  named  it  ‘Backstage  Dallas.'  It  had  everything  from  healthy  snack  bars,  to  skin  care  and  hair  care  treatments,  to  a  photography  studio,  boutique.  We  sold  many  lines  of  organic  products.  I  had  some  who  believed  in  me  who  backed  me.  From  there  I  went  on    to  build  five  other  large  studios  myself,  creating  and  funding  them.”    

Elaine  primarily  operated  in  the  Park  Cities  (Highland  Park,  Snyder  Plaza,  McKinney  Avenue,  Travis  Street)  and  North  Dallas  (North  Park  East,  Lovers  Lane  at  Inwood,  Tollway  at  Inwood).  

 

From  being  trained  for  hair  cutting  and  styling,  Elaine  became  a  tricologist  (hair  doctor),  esthetician  (skin  care  specialist),  master  colorist,  make-­‐up  artist,  image  consultant,  and  fashion  expert.  So  much  so  that  the  Today  Show  called  her  the  “beauty  and  wellness  guru”.  She  was  featured  on  the  front  page  of  the  Dallas  Morning  News  as  “the  Baptist  who  became  a  Hare  Krishna”  devotee.  

Elaine  also  has  had  numerous  television  appearances:    on  the  Today  Show  from  New  York;  on  Channel  4  in  Dallas  with  focus  on  a  news  story  titled  “From  Baptist  to  Eastern  Religion”;  Channel  21,  weekdays,  in  “Vegetarian  Health  and  Lifestyle:  Kalachandji’s  Vegetarian  Restaurant”;  Channel  11,  Point  of  View;  Channel  8,  PM  Magazine  in  “The  Making  of  a  Star”  and  on  Channel  4  again  in  Lifestyles  as  “Fashion  Transformations”.  

Elaine  Takes  Her  Talents  on  the  Road  

 

Then  Elaine’s  guru  request  that  she  be  “trained  for  two  years  with  various  cooks  from  different  regions  of  India  before  we  went  to  live  with  him”  at  his  request  to  Cambridge,  England,  for  several  years.  There  she  served  as  chef  for  her  guru  and  her  husband,  Michael  Roth,  acted  as  secretary.  

When  she  met  Michael,  her  husband  of  25  years,  in  1986,  Elaine  recalls  that  “he  had  to  become  a  vegetarian  to  marry  me.  He  had  to  respect  I  was  a  devotee  of  Krishna  who  had  just  moved  out  of  the  Temple  after  being  celibate  for  five  years.    He  honored  all  that  and  eventually  became  initiated  himself.”      

Interestingly,  Michael’s  heritage  is  Russian  Jewish  beginning  in  Transylvania  –  as  Elaine  says  –  “home  of  true  gypsies  and  that  has  always  attracted  me.”  

“I  struck  out  on  a  journey  that  changed  my  life.  I  really  learned  to  embrace  cooking  when  I  ‘retired’  and  moved  to  Mexico  for  seven  years  with  my  husband,  who  was  working  for  NAFTA  and  water  purification.  Living  our  lives  in  Mexico  was  an  incredible  upscale,  sacred  experience.    I  had  full-­‐time  maids,  gardener,  and  someone  to  chop  and  prepare  Ayurvedic  vegetables  for  me.    It  was  then  I  devoted  a  lot  of  time  to  cooking  in  the  Ayurvedic  style.”  

 

But  Elaine’s  heart  is  here  with  her  community.  She  recalls  how  one  day  she  was  walking  down  the  hall  in  the  Kalachandji’s  Temple  with  her  Dallas  guru  and  he  asked  “How  can  we  get  people  to  come  here?”    Elaine’s  answer  was  “a  restaurant”  and  thus  Kalachandji’s  was  created.    One  of  Elaine’s  spiritual  teachers  when  visiting  Dallas,  said  it  was  her  destiny  to  bring  enlightenment  and  knowledge  of  the  Vedic  tradition  to  the  public  here.    

 

About the author: Anne Leggett-Walker has studied yoga since the ‘60s, first with The Mother and Sri Aurobindo of India, Yogi Bhajan in Los Angeles, and has taught Kundalini Yoga and Meditation in Dallas since 1995. Anne began her journalism career at The Ventura Star-Free Press and has written steadily ever since. Email: leggett.walker@gmail.com

 

                 Elaine  Dodson

AyurvedicCookingClasses.com ElaineDodson.net SacredJourneyRetreats.com

Elaine Dodson is author of Cooking for The Guru: A Karma Free Diet, a cookbook filled with healthy, delicious Ayurvedic vegetarian recipes. She is a pioneer in the field of natural/organic beauty care and wellness with over 40 years experience in self image, fashion, skin care, and hair design in her award-winning day spas and teaching others to “Stay Younger Longer” with Vegetarian and Healthy Lifestyle choices.

Elaine has lived, studied, and taught the Ayurvedic Lifestyle since the early 1970’s. She is a makeover specialist, image consultant, writer, author, teacher, gourmet vegetarian chef, and retreat leader. To learn about her organic beauty practices visit ElaineDodson.net, and AyurvedicCookingClasses.com for everything you need to know about living and eating healthy in the 21st century. Her next Sacred Journey Retreat is planned for 2016. To view photo galleries and read more, visit SacredJourneyRetreats.com. Email Elaine at ElaineDodson@SacredJourneyRetreats.com or call (214) 948-7266.

Elaine  remembers  that  her  guru  “had  always  been  thrilled  that  I  was  from  Dallas,  as  most  devotees  are  from  all  over  the  world.  I  had  very  successful  businesses,  was  on  TV  regularly,  had  huge  networks  of  friends  and  customers,  made  lots  of  money”  —  expanding  the  public  perception  of  the  Hare  Krishna  faith.  Now  she  is  taking  that  one  step  further  by  leading  Sacred  Journey  Retreats  to  Hare  Krishna  and  Ayurvedic  centers  in  India.    

Elaine’s  Heart  is  Here  at  Home  

She  got  her  Dallas  guru  booked  at  special  events  like  speaking  to  the  City  Council,  and  got  the  Hare  Krishnas  into  the  Cotton  Bowl  parade,  with  Mayor  Annette  Strauss  also  honoring  the  group  with  a  special  day.  

Elaine  helped  open  Food  for  Life  centers  to  feed  the  poor  healthy  vegetarian  foods.    Her  guru’s  last  request,  after  she  had  served  him  in  England  and  before  he  passed  on,  was  to  create  cookbooks,  workshops,  and  more  to  teach  vegetarianism  and  Ayurvedic  cooking  to  the  public.  Her  book    Cooking  For  The  Guru  –  A  Karma-­‐Free  Diet  is  available  on  her  website.  

Concluded  Elaine:  “In  this  world,  nothing  stays  the  same  –  change  is  the  only  constant.  While  that  is  undeniably  true,  you  must  also  admit  that  change,  particularly  change  that  relates  to  the  body’s  appearance  and  its  state  of  health,  can  go  in  either  direction.  Things  can  go  up  or  down;  we  can  regenerate  or  degenerate.  It  depends  on  your  desire  and  commitment.”