Natural Gourmet participates in Cafe Day with Wellness in the Schools

Natural Gourmet Instructor Elliott Prag with some new friends

Today I had the privilege to attend Cafe Day for Wellness in the Schools (WITS) at PS 89, an elementary/middle school in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. Natural Gourmet volunteered with WITS and was partnered with PS 89 this year. PS 89 is a school where almost all students avail themselves of the lunch program. This was the first opportunity I had to see firsthand what WITS was up to in its initiative to bring healthier food to the city’s lunch rooms.

I met our liaison and Natural Gourmet graduate, Stefanie Devic, at 8:30 am to finish preparing  new menu items she was introducing to the students at lunchtime. This cafe day included quesadillas with whole wheat tortillas, beans and brown rice, pico de gallo, and fresh greens (kale and collards) with Canadian bacon. I sampled all of these offerings, and had to honestly pronounced them delicious. The new dishes were presented alongside an impressive daily salad bar, fresh fruit, and the always-reliable stand-by: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I thoroughly enjoyed dining with the students and getting their take on the food. Competition may have run neck-in-neck between the cafe day menu and peanut butter and jelly among the youngest, but i noticed it was particularly well received by the older students.

I’m glad I attended. Talking to the students, seeing the dedicated staff at PS 89, working alongside Stefanie and seeing her passion, reminded me how important this work is to our communities.

The final days: Chef’s Training Group 205 Takes the Improvisation Exam

One of the final rites of passage in Chef’s Training – before graduation – is the Improvisation Exam. For this test, the class is split into 2 groups, each group to create a 3 or 4 course vegan meal, balanced according to all of the criteria students have learned throughout the program.

Students are presented with a list of surprise ingredients, from which they are to design and prepare a meal that is vegan, seasonal, colorful, varied in texture, representative of the 5 tastes, and using a variety of cooking techniques learned throughout the program. It’s all very Food Network/ BravoTV.

Students have approximately 2 hours to brainstorm, design, and create their menu for critique by their instructor. For the instructor, it’s always exciting and gratifying to see the growth and proficiency the soon-to-be-graduated students demonstrate on the exam. The results are a testament to all the hard work students and instructors put into the Chef’s Training experience.

Check out these final improvisational dishes created by CTP 205:

Natural Gourmet hosts Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) and Your Health, a special presentation by renowned expert Jeffrey M. Smith

Jeffrey M. Smith

Most of us suspect Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are not good for us and we don’t want them in our food supply.  But that might be all we know. Exactly how do GMOs affect us? To what extent are GMOs already in our food? What can we do to protect ourselves and future generations from GMOs? What can we do now to stop genetic engineering of food?  GMO expert Jeffrey Smith can answer these questions.

Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts invites internationally renowned speaker, bestselling author and world’s leading consumer advocate for healthier, non-GMO choices, Jeffrey M. Smith to present “GMOs and Your Health” on Friday, April 20, 6:30 – 8:30 pm in the Community Church of New York’s Assembly Hall.

Jeffrey Smith is Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology and leads the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America, designed to create a tipping point for consumer rejection of GMOs and forcing them out of the market.

In this presentation, we will learn how GMOs:

• Have been linked to thousands of toxic and allergic reactions
• Result in sick, sterile, and dead livestock
• Damage virtually every organ of lab animals.

Scientists who challenge the safety of GMOs have been fired, threatened, and effectively gagged; reporters and critics have been silenced.

In his first book, Seeds of Deception, Jeffrey Smith introduced us to the dangers of GMOs. His second book, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, continues documenting health dangers of GMOs and makes a strong case to end genetic engineering of our food.

Smith stresses going beyond understanding the dangers of GMOs by learning to protect ourselves from them, while taking effective steps to eliminate them from our food supply. He has counseled world leaders from every continent, campaigned to end the use of genetically engineered bovine growth hormone, and influenced the first state laws in the United States regulating GMOs.

Jeffrey Smith is a riveting keynote speaker and popular guest on TV shows worldwide. He has lectured in more than 30 countries and has been quoted by government leaders and hundreds of media outlets including, The New York Times, Washington Post, BBC World Service, Nature, The Independent, Daily Telegraph, New Scientist, LA Times, and Time Magazine.

To purchase tickets ($20) for the presentation, please call the front desk at the Natural Gourmet  at 212-645-5170, extension 0.

Natural Gourmet dialogues with kids about What’s Good to Eat

On Wednesday, January 11, Natural Gourmet Instructor Celine Beitchman spoke to an assembly of 5-12 year-olds at Hazel Avenue Elementary School in West Orange, NJ. The topic was What’s Good to Eat, a provocative and interactive 30-minute presentation that encouraged kids to make healthier choices by choosing foods that were both to their liking and more healthy. The event was also covered by the West Orange Patch. We talked with Celine afterward about the event. Here is what Celine had to say about the experience . . .

NGI Instructor Celine Beitchman talks to Hazel Ave. students about healthy food choices

How did you get involved in this project?

My colleague Lisa Boymann, NGI’s Director of Faculty Administration and member of the Hazel Avenue School’s Parent-Teacher Association Executive Board, asked me to speak. She has a son in Hazel Avenue Elementary where they’re busy kicking off a health and wellness campaign. The programs range from healthy food choices to building better lifestyle habits. We devised a healthy eating assembly which mirrors our philosophy at The Natural Gourmet, but a little more fun and engaging for the under-12 year old audience!

How many children did you present to? 

I spoke to two groups, back-to-back, of 200+ kids each, starting with the younger set and then finishing up with the older kids.

What core messages did you want to deliver to the children? What do you think it’s important for them to know?

The biggest message I tried to get across to them is to eat from a rainbow of colorful foods. Naturally colorful, that is. I wanted to make the connection for them that what they like and what’s good for them can be one and the same. We talked a bit about taste buds and trying new things. I think at their age it’s really important to teach them to be open to new tastes as their tastes are evolving everyday.

How did the children receive the information you were sharing?

The room was buzzing! I think the kids had a great time and from the feedback seems like they’re still talking about it at school and at home.

What do you perceive are the major hurdles to children eating more healthfully?

When it comes to healthy eating I think parents bear the brunt of responsibility. We can blame the media and the school system, but I think the onus really rests at home. That said, not enough parents know how to eat healthfully or have the financial or physical resources to do so.

Our kids are going to learn by watching grown-ups especially at the elementary school age. We can’t just expect them to do as we say. More than a few parents and teachers approached me after the presentation saying they’d learned something that will really change their mind about healthy eating.  So for me it’s about changing the way the whole family relates to their diet to really get the message to stick.

What message(s) will students carry to their parents after this presentation?

We created a weekly food calendar to post at home so kids can keep track of their food choices and keep the conversation going at the dinner table. At the end of the assembly, each kids was given a punch card to use at the lunchtime salad bar. Every time they eat from the salad bar they get their card punched. When they accumulate enough punches by the end of the challenge, they’ll be awarded a certificate recognizing their participation. We’re hoping that by creating an ongoing challenge, it will keep the topic on their minds until they become habituated to eating healthfully.

Are you intending to make this presentation at other schools?

Yes!  It was an awesome experience. If you know of an elementary school you’d like us to visit with ourWhat’s Good To Eat? assembly please reach out to us! Contact Lisa Boymann at 212-645-5170, extension 104.

Natural Gourmet Instructor Celine Beitchman shares her wine expertise with students in extracurricular classes.

On Wednesday, January 31, 5-8:30 p.m., our Chef’s Training Instructor Celine Beitchman, will teach an extra-curricular wine class, The Principles of Wine,  for CTP students. Students can register by speaking to Jeri, Olivia, or Judith at the front desk.

Along with a formal tasting, students will receive a foundation in basic factors that influence wine styles and quality, from how grapes are grown and harvested to proper storage of bottles in your home. Other subjects covered will include the “Noble Grapes,” wine and your health, and the key countries producing and exporting quality wines.

To find out more about Celine’s love of wine and where she gleaned her expertise on the subject, we decided to ask her a few questions . . .

NGI Instructor Celine Beitchman confabs with students at PS 89 over lunch about healthy eating

Tell us about your background and education with regard to wine. You have a certification?

Having grown up in the food business, I’ve always had an interest in wine . . . more or less an end-of-shift-drink interest.  The subject of wine seemed so vast and daunting that I just kept putting off learning more, figuring I could always count on the front-of-house staff to fill me in on the very basics and enough to make simple pairings.

While I was private cheffing for the Barnes & Noble clan, I got my first taste of what wine is capable of when its well made, well cared for and, of course, well paired.  The family had an extensive cellar and, every night as they opened and decanted another incredible bottle, they’d pour a glass for the cook.  So by the sipful over a hot stove, that’s where my wine education really began.

A couple of years back, I decided to take the leap and find out what my tastings alone couldn’t reveal.  I spent about a year going through the three-level courses at the International Wine Center in NYC, finishing up with an Advanced Certificate in Wines & Spirits.

When and how did you develop your interest in and passion for wine? How did you become an oenophile?

I had taken a workshop with Sandor Katz in the public program at NGI in 2008 and read his book Wild Fermentation cover to cover. For me, there’s an amazing kind of letting-go in the process of fermentation which I think we could all take a lesson from.  I was experimenting with yeasts and bacteria in my home kitchen and started to think about tackling wines.

Pretty soon, I was swept away, and my counters overflowed with sauerkraut, kefirs and my first batches of honey wine (which caught more flies than…).   I began noticing flavor more and more, the subtleties from batch to batch, and well, in a way that was my first step towards oenophilia. Some French winemakers call themselves grape growers, not wine-makers.  I wonder if yeast cultivators would be more apropos.

What role do you think wine plays in a health-supportive diet?

Well first off, let’s not forget we’re talking about alcohol, which can be very taxing to the body-mind in excess.  Everyone needs to find their personal limit.  There’s a lot of back and forth about what safe drinking levels are – issues like reservatrol, histamines and sulfites – but that still doesn’t give the full picture and certainly doesn’t point to any significant role in health-supportive diets.

At school we talk a lot about balance and the energetics of food within the context of a contractive-expansive model.  I think that wine can play a useful part in that story. If you’ve taken my classes, you might have heard me chase you out the door with the phrase, “Go get expansive!”  Now, maybe, you know what I mean.

What wine essentials does a chef need to know?

First, I think it’s important to taste a lot.  You need to get a sense of what you like and what you don’t like.  That can only come from personal experience.  Second, know that you can’t possibly taste everything, so get some basic styles that you like under your belt and branch out from there.  When you’re in a pinch, the Old World wines from Europe, typically terroir-driven wines are a safe bet for general food pairings.  Start by looking at what foods are native to the region producing that wine you love and you’ll be guaranteed a perfect paring.

What are the challenges of pairing wines with vegetarian and vegan foods?

The challenges are not so obvious.  It will, of course, depend on the style of the meal in all cases. For instance, our 3-course Friday Night Dinners are usually filling and well-balanced enough to handle a multitude of wine pairings.

Typically with foods that combine a lot of flavors, we pair to the most dominant taste, but even in that direction there’s a lot of subtlety.  The biggest challenge is not overdoing it, since vegan and vegetarian meals don’t always have the fat and protein that’s needed to buffer the wine’s alcohol content. So when paring with meat-less meals, I recommend lighter, lower-alcohol wines or a great deal of restraint.

What are your favorite go-to resources for learning more about wine?

The internet is chock-a-block with more information than I ever know what to do with from bloggers to major publications weighing in on every aspect.  I usually start there. I also have a great wine store,  Gnarly Vines, in my Fort Greene, Brooklyn neighborhood, where the owner stocks small-batch artisanal gems that fit my budget every time.  He does multiple tastings throughout the week, and that’s where I get a lot of my first-hand knowledge by the glassful.

Chef’s Training students Maggie Callahan and Nate Marcus highlight the abuses of factory farming in their Humane Week campaign

Be A Humanimal: Interview with CTP 205 Students Maggie Callahan and Nate Marcus

Chef's Training students Maggie Callahan and Nate Marcus, the archtiects of Humane Week

Two Natural Gourmet students Maggie Callahan and Nate Marcus have coined the term “Humanimal” and are  watching it take off. With other members of their class they formed HumaneWeek.org which sponsors the 0% To Factory Farms Pledge, asking consumers to choose humanely raised animal products for a whole week. Their first campaign is Humane Week NYC which runs from January 16 – 22.

What is Humane Week?

Humane Week is a call to action for consumers to stop supporting factory farms. Animals living on factory farms suffer from severe mistreatment.

We started Humane Week to encourage people to think about their choices. Our goal is help participants navigate the market aisles and understand the tricky labels so that they can make an impact by supporting family farms for a whole week.

What is a Humanimal?

We love the definition of  “humane” which is characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, especially for the suffering or distressed. A “Humanimal” is one who always makes the most humane choice.

What are the goals of Humane Week?

Humane Week is a way to spread awareness about the cruelty of factory farming, and to make humanely raised meat, dairy and eggs the rule, not the exception.

When we created the organization, we wanted to educate everyone about how terrible factory farming is, but focus more on how bright the future could be when it’s a thing of the past. We wanted our message to be positive and optimistic – one where no one feels alienated. There were no examples of campaigns that brought everyone under the same umbrella – vegetarians, vegans, and omnivores – to fight for smaller farms and the better treatment of animals. There is more strength in numbers. So we decided to create the campaign we wanted to be a part of.

Right now a lot of people don’t think about where meat comes from, and that’s because they wouldn’t want to. Factory farms are secretive for a reason. Factory farming is “institutionalized animal cruelty,” according to the Farm Animal Welfare Council. These animals don’t have enough space to move or turn around, see the light of day, breathe fresh air, and can’t experience natural behaviors, like socialization. It’s all about the bottom line. High output, lower costs. And these conditions are the norm. In the U.S., factory farming accounts for more than 99 percent of all animals raised for slaughter. Factory farms have the ability to close down family farms, influence law makers and policy, all because they are so wealthy – because we buy their products.

At the same time, family farms find it hard to compete. Their products are humane and much higher quality, but more expensive. This pledge isn’t without an impact on your wallet. It costs more to raise an animal humanely. But we believe that is the responsibility that comes with eating animal products.

So Humane Week is about addressing all of it – the demand, the infrastructure – asking people to redirect money normally going to factory farming and to support instead a small but growing network of family farms.

Did the idea come about while at the Natural Gourmet Institute?

Yes! The Natural Gourmet has been a real inspiration to us. Chef Jay Weinstein, author of The Ethical Gourmet, taught our animal protein classes and endorsed humanely treated animal products. To think that the Natural Gourmet has been doing this for years— the school is a real pioneer. So it got the conversation started and from there, we created Humane Week.

Are you planning on expanding beyond NYC?

Definitely! At first, we thought to launch a national campaign. But we realized we would have greater results by going more grassroots. We want to empower other people – vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores – to bring Humane Week to their cities. We are making it easy to get started. Someone picks a week and forms a committee, and then everyone works to get the word out. They can provide their own newsletters and local information. Grassroots is the way to go.

Our goal is by the end of 2012 to see 52 Humane Weeks up and running – one for every week of the year.

What about eating in restaurants?

Yes, the pledge definitely includes eating in restaurants. We have volunteers who are calling restaurants in NYC to find out where they source their animal products. Even if a restaurant doesn’t carry humane food products, the inquiries are a great wake-up call. Many restaurants may never have gotten a call bringing this issue to their attention.

We are compiling all of our findings on our website in the link “What To Buy & Eat.” The recommendations are separated by omnivore, vegetarian and vegan titles. The idea is to feel great about eating at any of these establishments. Not only are people withdrawing support from factory farms this week, but they get to support forward-thinking farms and businesses.

How do you differentiate between humane and inhumane practices?

Great question. Actually, that one doesn’t have a definitive answer. Ask different people and you’ll get a different opinion. Ask the factory farming industry and you’ll get a shockingly narrower definition. There isn’t one definition, and as far as we can tell, we’re breaking real ground with our campaign by introducing “Humane” as a criteria for restaurants.

Unfortunately, a lot of labels are misleading. Is it enough that a product is labeled “organic”? Organic means the animal eats organic food and is not injected with antibiotics and hormones. However it might not ensure outdoor space or the ability to engage in natural behaviors. “Free-range” is another misguiding label. It only means animals have access to outdoor space, which in practice might mean a very small patch for a huge amount of chickens, which in reality is no outdoor space at all. “Cage free” is another one. These chickens usually have had their beaks and claws removed to live out of a cage and in close proximity to other birds.

Then there are different “humane” labels. There is a very real difference between them. This is what we are researching and trying to make available to the consumer.

Humane is something consumers have to decide for themselves, but we all have intuitive gauges when it comes to what is humane and what isn’t. Our goal is to give out information so consumers can vote with their dollars for the practices that they believe are humane.

We hope to see 5,000 people take the pledge. We definitely think we’ll be even more inspired by all the Humanimals that are out there.

What are your next steps?

There are many pieces that we have to put together, and we are so grateful for all of the support that we’ve already gotten. We are looking for donations so we can create promotional materials for restaurants. Advertisements, commercials, celebrities, the morning shows – anything is possible.

By signing up for the pledge, you will get a newsletter detailing where to go to get humanely treated animal products in the city.

To take the NYC pledge: visit www.HumaneWeek.org and click on “Take The Pledge!!” on the links at the top.

Green Guerillas Honor Natural Gourmet Founder and CEO Dr. Annemarie Colbin

Dr. Annemarie Colbin with her Green Guerilla Award and Gardening Swag

On October 17, Natural Gourmet’s founder and CEO, Dr. Annemarie Colbin, was honored by the Green Guerillas, “as a leader in the realm of whole foods and health-supportive cooking.” The Green Guerillas is a non-profit organization that “uses a unique mix of education, organizing, and advocacy to help people cultivate community gardens, sustain grass root groups and coalitions, engage youth, paint colorful murals, and address issues critical to the future of their gardens.”

The event, sponsored by Bloomberg, Ark Restaurants, and MKCREATIVE, was held at the Bryant Park Grill in Manhattan to celebrate a successful growing season, recognize the efforts of community gardeners, and of course to honor Dr. Colbin with the Fearless Food Advocate Award. The award was for her “commitment to convincing generations of culinary professionals and everyday people they should care about what’s on their plate.”

“I am delighted to be a part of such a festive evening to highlight the hundreds of community gardeners who do so much for New York City,” said Dr. Colbin. “At the Natural Gourmet Institute, we are committed to using fresh, whole foods and applaud those who are growing produce within the city’s confines.”

In accepting the award Dr. Colbin acknowledged the useful work the Green Guerillas do as well as the beneficial relationship between those who grow food and those who cook it.

Spreading the message, Part II: More Natural Gourmet grads in the blogosphere . . .

And we’re back. As I suspected, my last blog roll of Natural Gourmet student and graduate bloggers was far from exhaustive. I’ve waited a while to cull another list of noteworthy food blogs for you. Our graduates are writing daily about food quality, food justice, food politics, food access food trends, nutrition, GMOs, irradiation, veganism, vegetarianism, omnivorism, local food, seasonal food, etc.

So here we go:

• Danielle Krupa is the founder of Wellness Made Natural,  a company consulting in “healthy eating by providing freshly cooked meals based on your personal dietary requirements; in-depth nutritional consulting; one-on-one and group cooking classes; kitchen makeovers; and practical lifestyle adjustments.” Her blog provides posts on cooking, nutrition, recipes, food politics: http://wellnessmadenatural.com
• David Wallace is the champion of “Healthy. Delicious. Food.” His blog is chock-full of creative, plant-based recipes and the enticing food porn that makes you want to make them: http://meinyourkitchen.wordpress.com/
• Erin O’Leary Stewart, owner of O’Cookie Wholesome Bites, also blogs about fitness and the relationship of food and health, while sharing her own healthy recipes: http://www.o-cookies.blogspot.com/
• Ellen of Ellen’s Food & Soul graduated Chef’s Training and our Food Therapy Course. She is a personal chef/instructor, and a passionate advocate of whole, fresh food of the highest quality. Check out her well-researched, provocative blog posts on food issues: http://ellensfoodandsoul.com/blog/
• Our current Chef’s Training student, Roberta Roberti, is already a published cookbook author and chef. On her blog she writes about her career path as well as her experiences in culinary school, sharing recipes as she goes: http://www.mizchef.com
• Our grad Kali is currently starting up a supper club in London, but she’s also a private instructor and has been a pastry chef at a renowned vegetarian restaurant. Her blog, Food Therapy, shares vibrant photos, menus, and recipes from her repertoire: http://kalicooking.tumblr.com/
• Competitive fitness model, yoga teacher,and professional chef Michelle MacDonald (also one of our graduates) gives you an insight into the worlds of competitive fitness and yoga as well as nutritional advice and recipes that support a healthy and fit lifestyle: http://www.yourhealthyhedonista.com/
• A current Chef’s Training student Gabriela writes about her quest for a healthy lifestyle in New York while giving a compelling blow-by-blow of what it’s like to attend Natural Gourmet’s Chef’s Training Program: http://www.une-vie-saine.com/
• Chef’s Training student Sherene writes a blog about her career path, her Natural Gourmet experience, vegetarianism, and other food-related issues: http://thehealthygourmet.wordpress.com/
• Fork Avenue + Knife Street is the blog of our current Chef’s Training student, Rachael Abrams. Follow her culinary  adventures and her cooking school experiences in New York City: http://forkaveknifest.blogspot.com/
• Our graduate, Marianne Cufone, is now the Executive Director of Recirculating Farms Coalition in New Orleans, Louisiana, an organization that advocates more sustainable farming through the use of recycled water in hydroponics and aquaculture. Check out her informative blog on the subject:  http://www.recirculatingfarms.org/

Brunch, the Natural Gourmet Way, with CTP 197

Chef’s Training students Roberta Roberti (text) and Elyse Prince (photos) team up again to give you a recap of a student favorite, the Brunch Class.

Recently, CTP 197 had its brunch, our first opportunity to cook a la carte in real time. We invited friends and family to the school to enjoy our offerings and to see what we’ve learned. Guests ordered off a menu and we worked in the kitchen to give them the best brunch we could muster up. (See our menu below.)

It was a busy day, beginning at 9:15. We had an hour overview of the recipes and how things would work. Then we began prepping. We chopped, measured, assessed components, and discussed presentation of the food. Sometime in the afternoon, we got a 20-minute break (that allowed me to run out for a desperately needed cup of coffee — after all, it was going to be a very busy afternoon).

I was on the crêpe station, and my task was to turn out Moroccan-style chickpea crêpes with mango sauce. The batter was made with chickpea flour and the filling was coconut-curried chickpeas and spinach. The chickpeas, soaked overnight, were ready for a short interlude in a pressure cooker. Then, I sautéed them with onion, curry powder, coconut milk, spinach, and a few other ingredients. That simmered until it was thick and flavorful. The result was a rich and complex flavor, a nice balance between the intense curry and the sweet coconut. I wasn’t sure I’d be crazy about it because coconut curry is not my first choice of flavor profile, but when I tasted it, it really “wowed” me!

My first crêpe was questionable, but by the second one, I had it under control. It was unfortunate that not many people ordered the crêpes—I was looking forward to improving my technique with each one. But the students enjoyed the leftovers. When the time came to start desserts, the Crêpes Suzette turned out to be quite popular, so I stepped in to help with those. Again, my first one was questionable, but each one got a little better.

Everyone did a great job at their stations and we did indeed give our guests a great brunch. It was also an opportunity for students to meet each other’s loved ones. We met husbands, parents, grandparents, and friends. It was nice to see the people who my fellow students have been talking about for months!

At the end, we were exhausted but, I think, exhilarated at our first real meal service. It’s getting better and better.

CTP 197W Brunch Menu

Salad

Spinach Salad, Crisped Shiitake Mushrooms, Pickled Red Onions with a Sherry Vinaigrette
Mixed Greens, Roasted Beets and Walnuts with a Creamy Horseradish Dressing and Herbed Goat Cheese on Toast

Entrée

Omelets with Choice Filling of:

Sautéed Peppers
Sautéed Onions
Cheddar Cheese
Sautéed Mushrooms
Tomatoes

Tofu Scramble with Pine Nuts, Tomatoes, Onions, Garlic, and Spices
Belgian Waffles topped with Fresh Fruit and Whipped Cream
Moroccan Style Chickpea Crepe with Mango Sauce
Tempeh Reuben on House-Made Spelt Bread with Sauerkraut, Pickles, Tomatoes, Avocado and Russian Dressing

Dessert

Chocolate Pudding with Optional Whipped Cream
Crepes Suzette with Whipped Cream

NGI Grad Eddie McNamara Refuses to “Diet”

NGI Chef's Training grad Eddie McNamara circa 2009

Since enrolling in the Natural Gourmet Institute’s Chef’s Training Program (The fightin’ 172^nd) I’ve lost 70 lbs. When I tell people that, the first question I hear is always, “So, how did you do it?” They usually don’t like the answer. There was no quick-fix gimmick or diet book. I didn’t join a diet cult; I didn’t avoid carbs like a bedbug-infested movie theater; I didn’t adopt a Flinstones-esque caveman eating protocol; I didn’t get strung out on pills or spend a week seated on the toilet during a “cleanse.” I learned how to eat like a healthy human being, then put it into practice.

Just days before starting culinary school, I sat in my doctor’s office learning the specifics of what a physical wreck I had become. My weight was 287 pounds — down from an all time high of 293 (after curbing my drinking to weekends in preparation for 9 a.m. classes). My total cholesterol was 285, my HDL (good) cholesterol was lower than Obama’s approval rating at a Tea Party rally, and I had a 44-inch waist and an unrecognizably bloated face. Worse still, the words coming out of my doctor’s mouth included “at risk,” “metabolic syndrome,” “heart disease,” “stroke,” and “diabetes.” I swore that I would make the necessary changes to become healthy.

Those changes were shockingly simple once I learned a few key techniques for preparing foods that came from the ground, and not from a box. Just talking with my enthusiastic classmates opened my mind to a new way of eating and living. Within a week, I was eating real food and not a processed science project cleverly engineered to trick my taste buds into believing it was food.

I wasn’t just training for a new career — I was losing weight. And not by eliminating things from my diet, but by adding them: new cooking techniques, exotic vegetables, grains, and legumes that I had never even heard of before. Turns out, cooking is not that difficult or time-consuming. You can prepare perfect quinoa in 12 minutes, chop a dinner salad in five minutes, or have gorgeous blanched asparagus or broccoli in 60 seconds.

Besides enrolling in NGI (my top weight-loss tip), here are some other diet secrets I learned along the way:

THE ONLY GOOD DIET IS NO DIET. Dieters are miserable people who think that they’re depriving themselves of something in order to lose weight or gain health. Instead of giving something up, expose yourself to a variety of new real foods and change up your palate. After eating well, you won’t feel like you’re missing out on the dog food you thought you were enjoying before. After getting used to natural foods, your body will reject fast/junk food in a way that those probiotic poop-aid yogurt commercials can only dream of.

TOSS YOUR OWN SALAD. I eat a salad a day— sometimes at lunch, sometimes before dinner, sometimes as a late afternoon snack. I use a spa ratio (1 part oil to one part acid) for my vinaigrette in place of the traditional 3:1 ratio. It cuts down on fat and calories, and really lets the ingredients speak for themselves.

WHEN COOKING, GIVE YOURSELF AN IRON CHEF CHALLENGE. I love shopping in ethnic markets for spices and produce that I have never worked with before. I’ll read a little about what I had just bought, then head to the kitchen and start improvising. This practice invites variety and excitement—though, unfortunately, never Chairman Kaga — to your table.

CHOOSE QUALITY OVER QUANTITY. Have you ever heard of someone scarfing down multiple burgers made from grass-fed, pasture-raised beef as opposed to the ones on a fast food dollar menu? I believe that people who respect a meal’s ingredients — high-quality, real food— are satiated in a way that those who eat mass-produced, garbage food are not.

FIGHT SUGAR CRAVINGS WITH FRUIT. Sometimes you want something sweet and nothing in the world is going to stop you from getting your fix. Instead of picking up a packaged cake-like thing with an infinite shelf life or a pseudo chocolate bar, I’ll grab a mango, or grapes, or watermelon on my midnight deli run. Despite what anti-carb zealots say about sugars in fruit being awful, I have yet to meet someone who got fat from eating too much fruit.

SAVE RESERVATIONS FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS. Restaurant food tastes awesome because along with calories, it’s packed with fat and bloat-inducing salt. If you’re cooking for yourself and your family, you aren’t going to use anywhere near the same amounts of fat and salt you’d get outside the home. The average American dines out five times a week. Do you want to be anything like the average overweight American? Save your restaurant trips for a meal that you know is going to be great. When I ate at restaurants all the time, I never looked forward to it; it was just eating. Now I take great pleasure in ordering and enjoying a meal that I can’t or won’t make at home.

LIVE A LITTLE. Since our heaviest weights, my wife and I together have lost approximately one-and-a-half Olsen twins (about 170lbs) — and in all honesty, it wasn’t that hard. Why not? Because though we watched what we ate, if we really wanted the tempura poached egg and grits at Dirt Candy or the mushroom lasagna at Gramercy Tavern, we enjoyed them, following John Waters’ sage dietary advice: “Eat healthily during the week and eat irresponsibly on Saturdays.”

Two years later and I feel like a different person — or more accurately, the person I was before wearing a fat suit. I lowered my cholesterol to a healthy 160, my blood pressure is a perfectly normal 110/70, and I fit into a size 34 jeans. But my favorite accomplishment? My doctor gave me a high-five at my last check-up.

Eddie McNamara today - less is more