So, pretty grossed out by the last chapter?
You and me both. But hair and sand and plastic are what you’re going to be eating until you take control of your food world, and the only way you are truly going to take control is to learn how to cook.
If I could give you one and only one weight-loss tip, it would be this: learn to cook at home. You can lay the foundation for the body you want in the gym, but no amount of intensity is going to overcome a poor diet.
“If you don’t take care of your body, where are you going to live?”
—UNKNOWN
Becoming a chef—and, yes, you can do this—will pay off in many, many ways. You will eat at home more, which is great for the waistline and the bottom line. You will also become so, so, so much smarter when you go out to eat. You will know why something “tastes so much better when I go out.” In most cases, it’s because restaurants heap tons of salt, fat, and sugar onto their food, and then ply you with enormous portions. When a ten-ounce piece of salmon (instead of the six-ounce portion you’d have at home) is on your plate, and it has that great crunchy edge (pan-sautéed in butter or oil) and tastes so flavorful (lots of salt), you will know exactly why. You will learn to tell how an item is prepared just by taste, and you’ll know what all that salt and fat does to your food. You’ll realize that in the end, restaurant food all tastes the same, because most restaurants use the exact same tricks: fat, salt, and sugar.
In fact, a study at Johns Hopkins found that people who cook at home not only consume less sugar and less fat when they cook, but they also consume less when they eat out! That makes total sense to me: once you understand what food is supposed to taste like, you’re less likely to be fooled by restaurant shenanigans.
How Restaurants Trick Us
A piece of salmon. A salad topped with chicken. A grilled steak.
In a normal world, these would be tremendously healthy options, packed with protein and low in salt and calories, without any scary preservatives or creepy ingredients. But in the restaurant world, healthy dishes like this get twisted into big fistfuls of salt and fat, aimed right at your belly.
Here’s the difference between cooking at home versus eating out at one of these popular restaurants:
GRILLED SALMON
|
CALORIES |
FAT |
SATURATED FAT |
SODIUM |
|
|
HOMEMADE (6 OUNCES) |
367 |
22 g |
4 g |
109 mg |
|
CHILI’S ANCHO SALMON |
590 |
27 g |
5 g |
1,910 mg |
|
TGI FRIDAY’S GRILLED SALMON |
970 |
51 g |
12 g |
1,830 mg |
|
CHEESECAKE FACTORY MISO SALMON |
1,670 |
n/a* |
39 g |
2,420 mg |
GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST WITH GREEN SALAD
|
CALORIES |
FAT |
SATURATED FAT |
SODIUM |
|
|
HOMEMADE (2 CUPS) |
465 |
9 g |
2 g |
100 mg |
|
CHILI’S BONELESS BUFFALO CHICKEN SALAD |
1,020 |
72 g |
15 g |
3,480 mg |
|
TGI FRIDAY’S PECAN-CRUSTED CHICKEN SALAD |
1,080 |
71 g |
16 g |
1,650 mg |
|
CHEESECAKE FACTORY CAESAR SALAD WITH CHICKEN |
1,510 |
n/a* |
16 g |
1,450 mg |
GRILLED STEAK
|
CALORIES |
FAT |
SATURATED FAT |
SODIUM |
|
|
HOME-COOKED SIRLOIN (7 OUNCES) |
404 |
18 g |
6 g |
268 mg |
|
CHILI’S 10-OUNCE CLASSIC SIRLOIN |
820 |
43 g |
14 g |
2,230 mg |
|
TGI FRIDAY’S NEW YORK STRIP (WITH JACK DANIEL’S GLAZE) |
1,020 |
49 g |
21.5 g |
2,680 mg |
|
CHEESECAKE FACTORY HIBACHI STEAK |
1,530 |
n/a* |
42 g |
3,720 mg |
* Total fat not available
To put this in perspective, if you cooked these three meals at home instead of going out to eat, you’d save yourself, on average, 2,381 calories and 6,724 mg sodium over the course of just three nights.
If you look closely, these numbers will tell you the same thing your taste buds tell you: All that sodium and saturated fat is coming from butter and salt. It’s the go-to trick for restaurants that want to disguise mediocre food and make it appeal to our taste buds.
And it’s partly why restaurant food all tastes the same. They use salmon, or steak, or chicken as a delivery system for fat and salt.
Open Your Taste Buds
When you cook at home, on the other hand, you get to choose how things taste. You get to experiment with flavors and techniques, and create custom meals that satisfy your desires.
And this is my point: Eating healthy is not boring—it is quite the opposite. The range of colors, flavors, textures, and spices you will use will please not only your eyes, but your taste buds, too. Here are my top sources of inspiration:
“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”
—JULIA CHILD
Use cookbooks. Recipe sites and apps are great if you know exactly what you want to make—it’s easy to Google “how to grill a chicken breast” or to find an inspiring chicken recipe on Pinterest. But nothing beats perusing a cookbook—especially one with great photos and fun side notes—to spark new thoughts, or to get you to try a food or a style of preparation you’ve never heard of before. It is the only way you are going to learn new preparations, cook foods you never have, and season with spices that are new to you.
This is how I learned. It takes some time and preparation, but the next time you make that recipe you will be able to put your own twist on it and do it a lot faster! (I’ve listed some of my personal sauce-splattered favorites at the back of this book.)
Watch cooking shows. Lord knows I have watched a million hours of these. I remember back when I came home from England when I was twenty years old, I was eating a lot of chicken and veggies, and watching a lot of cooking shows. I have watched them since. My love for the show Chopped landed me a guest spot on the show, and I actually won the competition! (Proof that all those hours of watching paid off!) Cooking shows explain exactly how the food is made, and that’s a very helpful tool. Sometimes you just don’t know what the heck to do with spaghetti squash or those boring Brussels sprouts. I’ve learned, and I will show you!
Take cooking classes. One more fun way to learn how to cook is to take actual cooking classes. This can be a great thing to do with your girlfriends or another couple, topped off with some wine and of course a meal at the end! I planned a whole trip to Napa around a two-day cooking course at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena. I learned how salts affect food and the basics of wine pairing. I learned how to cook with peppers and olive oils, and how to make fresh pizza on the grill. It’s probably the least likely way you will learn, but it’s a good time if you make a vacation out of it!
Make Your Kitchen a Sacred Space
If you have the space, time, and money, go ahead and deck out your kitchen any way you want. A big ceiling rack filled with shiny copper pans, a little herb garden in the window, a collection of gadgets so high-tech that your countertop looks like it’s ready for the Food Network. If it makes you feel at home, terrific!
Last year I splurged on my longtime kitchen dream: a La Cornue stove. Just looking at it makes me want to cook. But for much of my life I’ve made do with whatever was already installed in the house or apartment I was staying in. I feel confident that if I walk into anyone’s home and can find a frying pan and a knife, I can make a great dinner.
My point is, you don’t need to spend a ton of dough, or have a massive array of tools, to cook like a pro. Here are the essentials I recommend:
- A high-speed blender. If your blender can’t turn ice into snow fast, it can’t handle all the tasks you’re going to want it to tackle. Look for one that has a wide mouth, for easy blending and cleaning, and a pulse feature. This may be the most expensive item you buy for your kitchen—a good one can cost as much as a smartphone—but a great blender can double as a food processor and wind up saving you money in the end.
- A slow cooker. If you have a busy life, a slow cooker will be your best friend. Sear your favorite meat in a frying pan, toss it into the slow cooker with some spices and vegetables, then go to work. When you get home, magic will be waiting.
- A great chef’s knife. A solid, sharp chef’s knife will make your kitchen prep so much easier.
- Cast-iron skillet. Cast iron is best because it actually imparts a tiny bit of iron into your food as you cook, which is particularly good for women, as we tend to be low on this mineral. If you can’t find cast iron, look for a good heavy pan that’s not coated with nonstick chemicals. (Because guess what they impart into your food?)
- A big pot to boil in. Big enough to cook enough chili or soup for your whole family.
- A spatula. I designed one for Williams-Sonoma each of the last two years to help raise money for No Kid Hungry, so if you need one, you can feed yourself and someone in need with one purchase!
- Tongs. Use them for everything from turning meat to serving salad. Just make sure that if they touch any uncooked meat, you clean them before using them on another part of your meal.
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