After a busy, stressful day where I’m so focused on work, when I get back into my kitchen and I’m cooking, the magic there is that I’m also not thinking about me. I actually decompress. That half hour of putting together a family meal is another yoga for me. I’m constantly engaged in all these small practices that allow me to not get attached to thoughts inside my head, which are usually telling me lies.
Do you do other things besides the treadmill and disc golf?
I just started. My son lifts, and we have weights in the house. I have to be very, very careful when I run. No potholes, leaves, gravel, or things that could alter my gait and hurt myself again. But I got a Hydrow rowing machine. I can’t recommend it enough. It is a full-body workout. It does work out your legs, your core, your shoulders. It also works out your brain. There is a pacing to it, and a form to it, and I happen to be a big fan. I love it because it has a screen, and I can row down famous bodies of water. Weightlifting and rowing, those are the new things.
On the food front, when it comes to cooking at home, what are some meals people can make with things they already have in their kitchen but are also healthy and nutritious?
I tell people, if you want to be a better home cook, you have to be a better shopper. I get asked the question: You have to make a quick pantry meal from what you have on hand. I describe something, and people are like, “You have that on hand?” It’s like, of course I do! I have a process for cooking for my family that I’ve been committed to for over three decades.
If all you have is dry pasta and tinned sauce in the cabinet, then guess what you’re making for dinner? Pasta with sauce, right? If you keep the most basic and rudimentary of vegetables, the ones that traditionally keep longer—carrots, rutabagas, parsnips—you can do a vegetable saute. You can take a vegetable shaver, mimic the pasta shape, and toss them with noodles, and a little olive oil, and actually have a very healthy pasta dish. If you have a dry-aged cheese, whether it’s a pecorino romano, a parmesan, or any of the other dozens of dried cheeses from all around the world, then guess what? You would be able to use those as well.
If you put certain cuts of meat or fish into Ziploc bags and freeze them flat, they’ll defrost in 45 seconds to two minutes, thereby making weekday choices a breeze. You can saute a few cutlets, or scallopini of fish, or a protein to have with these vegetables if you choose not to have any pasta at all. If you have those vegetables in your house, and you happen to have a few salad items—lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, onions—you can make yourself an extremely healthy meal with just a four-ounce piece of chicken. Pound it out on Sunday while you’re watching sports, and freeze it in stacks. I have a stack of probably 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs that I lightly pounded out, put between paper, and put them in a big gallon Ziploc, and froze them. They probably take, I don’t know, 15 minutes, 18 minutes to defrost while I’m getting everything else together. So, you can set yourself up for success. I would caution people: You are what you eat. That is probably the biggest piece of wellness that’s not discussed in doctor’s offices these days. I wish it were. It’s the cornerstone of Eastern medicine. I have a doctor of Eastern medicine that I see, and the first question that he asks me all the time is, “What are you eating?”
What, to you, is America’s most underrated food city?
Well, this is going to sound like a setup, but I think I live there.
Minneapolis?
Yeah, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. We don’t have the depth that other cities have. We don’t have 700 Korean restaurants like New York, but we finally have some really good ones. When you look at the entire breadth of what we have, I think Minneapolis can compete food-wise with any city. The biggest trends right now are what we call hobbyist cooking. [Chefs] don’t buy bacon, they make their own, right? They make their own pickles. They make their own pies. Pies are very in right now. You sit down in a restaurant that describes itself a certain way. It’s almost a given that if there’s a jam, or a jelly—let’s say with a pate, or a terrine, or with your eggs and toast in the morning—it’s made in-house, right? These are all big things. It’s usually said in a very obnoxious way. Chef makes his own seasonal jams and jellies.
