Grubtrotters

You’ve probably heard the term, “Never trust a skinny chef.” But in LA, chefs often have to be camera ready. You never know when the Food Network might call. This city is full of beautiful chefs serving food to beautiful people, and I’ve always wondered how they manage to stay so trim amid all that temptation. Then one night while watching late-night TV, I ran across Ford’s Filling Station’s new chef, Kristi Ritchey, in an infomercial for Barry’s Boot Camp. She was touting the fact that she’d lost 100 pounds.

I decided to dig a little deeper and came up with this piece that will appear in Monday’s LA Times. The answer, of course, is working out really hard and watching what you eat — unless you’re Table 8 Chef Govind Armstrong, who is blessed with an inability to gain weight no matter what he eats. But what surprised me most is how many chefs refuse to eat their own food.

Here’s Page Moll, chef at the beachcomber Cafe in Malibu: “I’ll make you a great crème brûlée or flourless cake, but I’m not going to eat it.”

“Every dish we do we taste over and over,” says Sona and Comme Ca Chef David Myers. “You get sick of it.”

I suppose I can identify. Back in college, I had a summer job at Billy Bakers in San Pedro. Oat bran muffins were all the rage at the time. For years after leaving that job, I couldn’t eat another muffin. The thought made me cringe. In fact, the first muffins I truly have enjoyed since then were the fresh ones baked every day on a recent Wilderness Safaris trip to the Kalahari Plains Camp and the Okavanga Delta in Botswana. Enough time and distance from the saturation source, I suppose. Plus, those muffins were goooood.

So if cooking is an appetite suppressant, maybe those who want to lose weight should get a job in a kitchen. Then again, if you have a serious sweet tooth or issues with impulse control, that strategy just might backfire. Here’s Kristi Ritchey: “There were definitely times after a workout — I’m not going to lie — there were a few days when I ate cheesecake for breakfast.”

Good to know that chefs are only human. — Jenny

We’ve all heard of organic and fair trade chocolate. But there’s a new product on the market called Intentional Chocolate, which has the blessing of the Dalai Lama. In fact, the chocolate itself has been blessed by Buddhist monks and other expert meditators who infused it with good intentions: “Whoever consumes this chocolate will manifest optimal health and functioning at physical, emotional and mental levels, and in particular will enjoy an increased sense of energy, vigor and well-being….for the benefit of mankind.”

Sounds nice, but does it really work? Well, the founder of Intentional Chocolate wanted to find out, too. So he commissioned Dr. Dean Radin, author of “The Conscious Universe” and senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences to conduct a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled pilot experiment. Radin’s study, published last November in Explore, the Journal of Science and Healing, found that people who ate an ounce of Intentional Chocolate for three days scored themselves 67% higher on a standard psychological scale measuring well-being, which was much better than those in a control group who ate regular chocolate. You can watch Radin give a one-minute explanation (aka commercial) here.

This is one small pilot study, and perhaps it was a fluke. But what if it’s replicated, and we someday learn that the mood and intentions of the people making your food actually affect the food and how you feel after eating it? Perhaps someday we will all get to know our restaurant chefs before eating out. Angry chefs will be considered hazardous to your health. We’ll light a candle and set the mood when we cook at home. Sound far-fetched? As a fledgling yoga teacher, I can tell you that we always set an intention before class because sankalpa, as it’s called, is a powerful thing.

Regardless of what you think of the study, I can definitely recommend Intentional Chocolate for its flavor. The truffles are especially divine. Among the most nirvana-inducing chocolate I have tasted, for sure. It comes from the makers of Hawaiian Vintage Chocolates, which is a favorite of chefs such as Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay and Charlie Trotter. It may have been the power of suggestion, but I started having some pretty interesting insights after eating it. The chocolate isn’t cheap, but you can feel good knowing that 10% of the proceeds go toward the Deer Park Buddhist Center. Log onto www.intentionalchocolate.com to order some chocolate, boost your mood and make a difference. What could be better? –Jenny

The Los Angeles Times explores speed eating in this odd Health section piece titled “Competitive Eating: Are winners born or made?” I’m not sure which I find more surprising, the fact that someone has done a scientific study of competitive eater Tim Janus:

In a study of competitive eating published last year in the American Journal of Roentgenology, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine compared Major League eater Tim Janus (Eater X) with another male who was a hearty eater. They were both told to eat as many hot dogs as they could in 12 minutes. Before the test, they were given a dose of high-density barium, and the researchers used fluoroscopy to observe their stomachs.

The amateur ran out of room before he ran out of time. After hot dog No. 7, he said that even one more bite might make him sick. At that point, fluoroscopy showed minimal stomach expansion. Janus was going strong, and not feeling full or uncomfortable, after 10 minutes and 36 hot dogs. At that point, the researchers stopped the test because fluoroscopy showed his stomach had assumed such proportions they feared it might be dangerous.

…or the revelation that competitors use yoga to stretch their stomachs:

Conti trains too — and this year, he says, he and Janus have both hired a yoga instructor to teach poses and stretches for the stomach to help them achieve at the table. These include Ardha Matsyendrasana (seated spinal twist) and Nauli Kriya (churning of abdomen)…

Indeed, Conti hopes his yoga lessons won’t just make his stomach more flexible but will also make his mind more relaxed.

As a yoga teacher in training and a big eater, I’m wondering: Could this be a new niche to explore? — Jenny