When it comes to cooking, I'm an amateur.

I say this because I just assume that lasagna has to be baked and the only way to make caramel is by melting sugar.

True chefs, however, don't need a little thing like heat to "cook." Instead, gourmet chefs and gastronomes are perfecting the art of how not to cook.

Unlikely as it sounds, the chefs are turning raw ingredients into haute cuisine. But they won't heat any of the ingredients above 118°F, because raw foodies believe that cooking destroys vitamins, and nutritional value in food. A raw-food diet, however, is believed to boost energy, delay aging, and cure disease.

I never really expected the raw foods movement to catch on, except with a small fringe group that consisted of vegans, fruitarians, and anyone who swears by tofu bratwurst.

But uncooked foods are surprisingly popular with gourmands who pride themselves on eating anything, from moldy artisinal cheeses to "delicacies" that most of us think of as garden pests, or worse.

On first glance, it makes no sense that uncooked food would delight people with an intense appreciation for fine cuisine. On second glance, however, I can begin to see the appeal.

Tasty raw dishes demand the freshest ingredients. Dehydrating fruits and vegetables concentrates and deepens their flavor. And it requires a good deal of finesse in the kitchen. After all, if I tried to make nuts taste like cheese (one of the tricks behind raw cooking), chances are you'd run to the nearest pizzeria ASAP.

Only someone with genuine culinary skills can figure out how to make cauliflower samosas without a fryer and a hot stove.

Epicurious.com -- the website for great cooking magazines including Gourmet and Bon Appetit - has an article by acclaimed chef Charlie Trotter, author of Raw. Trotter is the first world-class chef to re-invent uncooked ingredients into fine cuisine.

There are a few of Trotter's recipes posted on the site for anyone who wants to try a no-cook lasagna or banana chocolate tart with caramel sauce. But the recipes look far too complicated for this amateur cook; to be honest, the ingredient lists alone scared me off.

A while back, I flirted with the idea of trying raw foods. I might still be willing to give it a whirl. But I'm not sure how long I'd be able to stick with it. Recipes for gourmet raw cuisine may be easy to come by, I doubt I'd be able to pull them off in a way that's actually appetizing.

Chances are, my raw foods diet would consist of nothing more inventive than celery sticks and the occasional salad. And I'd definitely need a burger -- a well-done burger -- before long.