AT THE CENTER OF THE PLATE | CHEF MATTHEW KENNEY

We are always up for a very flavorful plant-based meal and we're truly excited about this interview from a superstar chef that is known for elevating the vegan, raw vegan and plant-based space, Chef Matthew Kenney! We had the pleasure of being introduced to raw vegan at his restaurant Pure Food and Wine here in NYC which was a culinary experience. We also attended an editor event where he was in attendance at Ladurée Soho to launch the inclusion of their vegan menu back in 2019. It was a pleasure to hear him share his partnership with them and unveiling his vegan menu!

As someone who has used his fine dining, classical French training to elevate this cuisine, we couldn't wait to talk about how he got into culinary, his background, how he entered the plant-based space, his journey to creating restaurants that are all over the world and how Matthew Kenney Cuisine as a business model allows him to focus on his passion for staying engaged and creative! We also talk about one of his newest ventures, Ntidote and well as upcoming projects.

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you first fall in love with food?

CHEF MATTHEW KENNEY: Well, my entire life, I’ve loved food. I grew up in Maine and it was all about seasonality and the ingredients. It was all about wild blueberries in the summer and wild strawberries that grew across the street in our garden. We made our own honey, maple syrup and apple cider. I always loved food and I didn’t realize that I had an affinity for cooking per se until probably after college when I moved to NYC. I just fell in love with the diversity of so many amazing restaurants, different cultures, and melting pots that you could see through food. So this was probably in 1989.

AM: That’s amazing!

It’s interesting that you decided later on that you wanted to be a chef. I’m based in NY as well, the first vegan restaurant I went to was your restaurant Pure Food & Wine.

CHEF MK: Oh wow!

AM: Yes, so it’s exciting to talk to you as your food was my first experience in that area. I'm not vegan myself, but when introduduced to it and getting to taste the flavor profile it was a great experience. Tell me about your culinary journey from where you went to school and kitchens that you started in.

CHEF MK: I basically moved to NYC right after college because I knew that I had friends there and I knew that that was where I wanted to be. I had planned to go to law school and instead, I took my first job at Christie’s when it was on 5th Ave. That was great and I realized that I wanted something social in my life. I was taken out to dinners and it was always so exciting going out to restaurants. I went to Hawaii for a little while and I did some hiking to decide on what I was most passionate about and I just had this idea that I wanted to open a restaurant in NYC. I had no skills or training whatsoever. So I enrolled in the French Culinary Institute (editor’s note: now called the International Culinary Center) and studied there and in the evening, I worked for about a year at a really amazing Southern Italian restaurant that was on 60th street I think called Malvasia and it was a chef from the island of Lipari and I just fell in love with the Mediterranean diet and flavors, the non use of butter for the most part, wild fennel and all of the exotic but clean flavors. That really resonated with me because that’s how I like to eat and live, but I had never seen it in that fashion. That had a really big impact on me, even though it wasn’t a 4 star restaurant or anything, it was really nice. The chef was kind of a known chef at that time. Gael Greene and all of the food critics from the NY Times, New York Magazine came through there so I got a real education at school, but also at this restaurant because I was there when it opened and I was able to see the whole thing come together and what was important in NY. I just got a massive education in one year.

When I graduated from the French Culinary Institute, some of my friends had gone to work at La Caravelle, which I think was a 3 star restaurant in those days. It was one of the top French restaurants like La Grenouille and so forth, but La Caravelle had a new American chef and he was hiring a new team and I went there and worked – it was very classic French. I then got a call from the manager of the Sicilian restaurant that I had worked at and I had only been out of cooking school for a year maybe. He said that he was hired to resurrect a restaurant that had been doing great, but the chef left and it had come apart. It was really struggling and it was a very high profile location and expensive restaurant. He said that he told the owners that he would only take the job if he could hire me to be the chef! I had no management experience, I had never been a chef, but I knew that I could do it. I took that job and I think that that was in 1991 and we got great reviews. Somehow, I worked around the clock and the owners were Brazilian and they asked me to open a second restaurant with them and then in 1993, a taxi cab went through the window of the first restaurant. Nobody was hurt, but it was full, but somehow, no one was hurt. It didn’t go through the dining room, but it smashed through the window and ruined the store front.

I said to them that this was a good time to change the concept. I wanted to do something North African inspired, Mediterranean, but not strictly Italian and they said that they would do it if I put my name on it. So, I did, we opened a Matthew’s in 1993 and that was my first restaurant. It was really an intense, well my whole career has been intense! It was very fast moving. My life was all about food and whatever exercise that I could get in. I would go home after 10 or 12 hour days and I would cook for my wife at that time. It was really a love affair with food.

AM: That is an amazing story of how you know, you got to have your name on the restaurant and opening it! Did you think at that time that you would be who you are now in terms of writing 12 cookbooks and all of these restaurants, concepts, and partnerships that you have?

CHEF MK: Well, that was before it was common for chefs to be able to do that. Daniel Boulud at that time was the chef at Le Cirque and Jean-Georges Vongerichten was the chef at Lafayette and then he opened JoJo his first restaurant right around the corner from me at the same time that I opened. So it was something hard to visualize in those days because it wasn’t very common for restaurant owners. There was a guy called Tony May who had a bunch of Italian restaurants – he had 3 or 4 places, he was like the king, but it just wasn't common in it just wasn't common in those days for chefs to be licensing and franchising. Wolfgang Puck did it a little bit, but that was mostly relegated to California, Vegas, and San Francisco. But there weren’t any chefs that were doing it on a global scale at that time. There may have been 1 or 2, but it wasn’t a thing like it is now.

AM: You are known as a super star chef who focuses on vegan and plant-based. Why did you want to go into this area? For those readers and listeners who may not be familiar, what is the difference between raw, vegan and plant-based?

CHEF MK: Sure! Well first, I’ll answer the last question first if that’s ok. Raw vegan which is what I got into first, it’s an entirely plant-based diet where nothing is heated over 110˚ F/120˚ F which is where enzymes are more active below that threshold and so you have to get creative with raw vegan because a lot of things aren’t good raw. It prohibits certain things that aren’t great for you. So it’s a really good diet for the digestion and great for so many things – elasticity of skin, hydration, but it’s tough to do it all year around.

Whereas, vegan, you can make anything – pizza, muffins, scones, anything! Raw vegan is more limited, but at the same time, that limitation encourages creativity. So they’re quite different although we create raw components to our non-raw food restaurants all the time.

AM: Very interesting and tell me about Matthew Kenney Cuisine which seems to be the umbrella that houses your restaurants, partnerships, products, innovations and concepts.

CHEF MK: Well as time evolved, even after Matthew’s, we had a really successful place and then the neighboring restaurant that was a block away wasn’t doing well so he said to me, “you’re always full and I have this great space and it’s not working, why don’t we do something together?” So I opened a second place, a casual place a block away. It did really well, but the partnership didn’t do so well and I left that. Matthew’s was just a really hot place for the first few years and I had a lot of offers and I couldn’t help but say yes too many times. I opened Mezze in Midtown next to the offices of Conde Nast at that time. Then, I opened a restaurant in Soho across from the Mercer Hotel and another one on 22nd street and one in Atlanta and in Maine. These were pre vegan days. That kind of got in my blood not just creating menus, but creating experiences through design. Whether it’s through music or uniforms, I just really fell in love with the idea of building restaurants. Running them is a different kind of challenge! Up until 1999 and 2001, I was running this decent sized company from my late 20’s to my mid 30’s.

You also asked me about vegan! I had gotten more and more into longevity and I have always been interested in fitness and exercise. In college, I made my own meals that were really healthy. They weren’t vegan because it wasn’t a thing then. It was in NY when I started to get more into yoga and more aware of how I felt and I started talking out loud to friends saying that I thought that I could be a vegetarian. In Maine, I grew up hunting by the way and fishing. But I just felt drawn to it – I liked foods that were clean, less stimulating, earthy and balanced cuisine. I felt that, but I didn’t know how to translate that into my career. I was also at a point where I was doing food that was more comfortable American like Truffle Mac & Cheese – these things that were trendy then. I didn’t really enjoy that because it wasn’t creative enough and it also wasn’t what I wanted in my body. I was disconnected a little bit, there wasn’t an alignment between my profession and my personal life. So, my old girlfriend at that time, made a reservation to go to a trendy restaurant at that time in Tribeca with a friend of ours. He called us after we made the reservation and said, that he had only been eating raw food which I had never heard of as a type of cuisine and he wanted to take us to a place called Quintessence which happened to be a block from our home – we didn’t know about it. We went there and the food was kind of weird and it wasn’t particularly exciting and it had strange names, there was no music, no wine, but everyone in there was so passionate about their diet and their lifestyle. They were just glowing with health! I had not seen people like that and it was full! It was just a lightbulb moment where I thought, that if somebody could actually make plant-based cuisine or raw cuisine sexy and fashionble and contemporary by applying classical culinary training to it, that could really change the way that we eat. So that was the moment where I pretty much went vegan right away!

AM: Wow!

You have a number of restaurants around the world. What goes into your thought process when it comes to deciding where you want to locate next, a partner that you want to have, the kind of concept and aesthetic that you want to bring forward?

CHEF MK: Well, we’re changing that model a lot. Basically, I always felt that focusing on the brand, the mission, the narrative and forming a team that can enhance that vision and keep creating. Just keep innovating because this space has so much runway and so much opportunity to make a difference by adding new styles, new recipes, formulas and new science. I really wanted to create a brand that would be attractive to the outside world that was looking for solutions and was looking to transform their business or their real estate property or to bring plant-based into their schools. So really, it’s all about the innovation aspect and the content and it stems from there. We’ve been fortunate to have opportunities that approached us for the last 5 years constantly from all over the world. But I’m making a shift.

I’ve been opening a lot of restaurants and have sold or closed a few restaurants over the pandemic because I want to be able to reach a larger audience and really expedite the shift in the global food dynamic and having plant-based be the center of the plate. That’s why we launched education during COVID, we had over 4,000 students in over 80 countries online at the Food Future Institute. It’s why we’re doing media projects and a bunch of partnerships with different brands and companies that serve food or products in different ways and experiences. Lastly, with restaurants we’re shifting towards more of a licensing model because it’s very hard to run restaurants in multiple states much less other countries and so pretty much at this point, we’re partnering with larger groups, developers, hotels, and brands that we think can grow a relationship at scale.

For example, we work with Kushner International, they’re based in Duabi. They have 15 or 20 properties and we work with them, we have a full service restaurant at one of them and we’re opening a second and then we’re working with them on 8 or 10 of their properties to do enterprise training by providing their chefs with tools and content to add plant-based to their existing menu. So those are the kinds of situations where we develop relationships where we can grow with them and we don’t have to do things that we’re not good at such as dealing with construction and all of that. So we’re really shifting to be entirely of that model within the next year.

AM: Which I think is really smart. Like you said, it allows you to focus on the things that you’re good at and that you want to be able to spend more time on.

CHEF MK: Yeah, it’s not our skill set. I grew up and my dad was a contractor, but I can’t be on a construction site and running a company doing a lot of things. The people that are really best at culinary for example, they don’t have experience with this type of thing. It’s just not practical for us and when we have the opportunity to do it through the licensing platform, that’s best.

AM: I actually met you back in 2019 in the fall at Ladurée’s event here in NY when they released their vegan menu at an editor event at their Soho restaurant. It was a fun event and it was inspiring to hear you talk about that at the luncheon. What does it mean to you when you are instituting plant-based menus in restaurants that still have non-plant-based dishes on the menu? People such as myself who eat plant-based half of the week or certain meals are able to be exposed to these innovations.

CHEF MK: Well, that’s where I see it going. That’s why I use the term “shift the global food paradigm,” because really what I’m looking at realistically is that the whole world will not go vegan. But I do believe that there will be a major shift to plant-based being 70-80% of what we consume. Therefore, we’re in a world where we’re all connected one way or another. So, I don’t have a problem with that as long as we’re not promoting or serving the non-plant-based. I’m not an activist per se. I'm not an activist per se. I'm an activist through art and that’s how I do it.

“I want to be able to reach a larger audience and really expedite the shift in the global food dynamic and having plant-based be the center of the plate.”

— Chef Matthew Kenney

AM: We’ve been enjoying some of the new items from your brand, Ntidote which you launched at Expo West. The Pizzalmonds are amazing. Why did you want to launch this company which focuses on nutrient dense, functional foods, and supplement powders?

CHEF MK: Well, I just like Dr. Amir Marashi. He’s passionate, we have the same taste and he’s wonderful to work with! I know that whatever we do is going to be aesthetically pleasing, he’s committed to quality and I like where he is coming from as a doctor. He’s a very passionate person and that’s a big part of it. That’s the thing about Ntidote, I had the Trail Mix for breakfast and they’re very functional foods and also foods that really help us eliminate toxins that go into our bodies. It’s a big market segment and I felt that we had a perspective on where to get the best ingredients and how to activate them through the sprouting process and it’s really quite straight forward, but it’s meant to be very high quality, straight forward, non challenging for people to understand and I think that it can grow in a lot of different ways. I love the brand itself. It started off as an idea in doing a bar.

AM: Oh!

CHEF MK: We did a Ntidote Bar. It had ingredients that no other bar had like pine pollen and some really cool things and it was hard to produce them for a reasonable cost. So then it was higher to sell them at the right cost. We pivoted and then this is where we are now. I’m really happy with it and we did a nice job I feel. I love the branding and I’m just really pleased that it’s simple.

AM: I like that you were talking about that. I love the packaging. I’m a huge fan of almonds myself, so having these different flavors was really great to enjoy. I also received Golden Magic Powder, and I have found that to be lovely as well.

What’s your process like in terms of onboarding the different assortments that you'll eventually have and are there new things that you’re looking to add later in the year?

CHEF MK: We’re launching with a pretty large portfolio of products, so I think that a lot went into that and the branding and now, a lot will go into developing relationships with retail outlets or whoever will be carrying it. We want to nurture those relationships first and then once that part is stable, we’ll certainly look at other ideas as I have too many ideas and I have to learn to shut them down a bit because I really want to be able to do it right. So I want to be able to do this first phase in the right way.

AM: That’s exciting and I will definitely keep my eye out for it. I like how clean it tastes and then you begin to think about how you can incorporate it into things like my salads and other dishes. I think you guys did an amazing job with that.

How did the two of you come together to decide to do this? Had you worked together previously?

CHEF MK: No, I had a restaurant at the 1 Hotel in Miami and Amir came to a talk that I was doing. It was just a sunny weekend day and I gave a talk and maybe there was a demo. He approached me after and we just started talking and he asked me if I wanted to do something. We talked about what we wanted to do and he mentioned that we could do a bar because he’s a doctor and he really wanted to add value to his patients health by focusing on food. We decided to collaborate to do it together.

AM: Are there upcoming projects outside of this brand specifically or anything that’s coming up that we should keep an eye out for?

CHEF MK: Yes, we have a lot. We’re involved in a new company called Mates Brands and Jamison Ernest is the founder and he’s a very talented entrepreneur, he has a great eye and a really great style a great way of bringing people together. Mates is a company that will take experts in their fields and celebrities and pair them with a producer of a certain kind of product or service that they co-develop that will fall under that umbrella. The initial group is Venus Williams, Kate Hudson, Vanessa Hudgens and somehow, I got in there.

So that’s really exciting and we’re working on a few TV projects and I’m excited about both of them at production studios here in California. We just recently opened our restaurant in Doha it’s beautiful! They created this gorgeous green restaurant for us and that just opened. The next opening is in Palm Beach and then in the fall in Monaco. These are all licensing and strategic partnerships and we’re working on a sort of bespoke alcohol line where we just partnered with an influencer Sean Wotherspoon and then Matt Fontana my friend that owns BESTIES, the best vegan convenient store in the country and we opened Vegan Coffee, but it’s actually a curated sneaker shop in East Hollywood. We’re partnering with a group that has a yacht it’s solar and electric sustainable beautiful yacht that will have charters with high end plant-based cuisine. We’re actually training the chefs here today that have been with us here all week and we’ll be on the boat. So, we do a lot of different things probably involving 70 or 80 different types of projects!

AM: That’s great! I was literally going to ask you if there was anything that you would want to do that’s on your list of things to do and in just hearing you, you’re covering so many different verticals. How do you take time for yourself because I’m sure you’re traveling a lot and you’re checking on projects. But what do you do to kind of center yourself and to get back to self-care?

CHEF MK: Good question! Well we look at the entire spectrum from food growing to when it’s served and actually beyond that. My partner Charlotte, she is also my Creative Director, she has 5 towers and some of them are in the ground and she grows more food then what wecan eat here at home and she starts everything from seed. So we look at that and we partner with different groups that are going to be sustainable growing methods and we get involved with them. But on the back end, we work with Lomi which is a really cool composting machine for the home and they’re developing one for the business. It’s really cool because you put all your waste in there, press 1 button and 12 hours later, you have your compost which goes back into the garden. So we look at the whole spectrum, anything that is sustainable and promoting longevity not just for humans, but for the planet that is pleasurable, well designed, and stylish, that’s when we really get engaged into that whole entire process.

It used to be strictly food and I used to stay in my lane on that, but then I realized that sometimes that’s not enough because a lot of people are environmentalist and other people only care about their health whether it’s vegan or they’re not. Some care about animals. So we really have to embrace the whole thing and that’s why we leaned out our model to the point where we’re not physically going to be running business because instead of us being 70% operational and 30% innovation – it’s going to be 90% innovation and maybe 10% supportive of the various partnerships. That’s why I made that change because the other way of doing it which is what I have been doing for the last many many years, it wasn’t sustainable for me. I’m 59 this summer, I’m healthy, but I don’t sleep enough and I don’t feel like I give or work to the best of my potential when I’m not rested and taking time for yoga and meditation and so forth. That’s why I’m taking this model so that we will remove the majority of that operational aspect and I feel like we’ll be much better and we’ll add more value to society that way. I can also take care of myself better!

“That’s why I use the term ‘shift the global paradigm,’ because really what I’m looking at realistically is that the whole world will not go vegan. But I do believe that there will be a major shift to plant-based being 70-80% of what we consume.”

— Chef Matthew Kenney

AM: You touched a little on TV projects that you’re working on. Do you envision doing a TV series or there are so many interesting culinary shows beyond the competition ones that are a travel meets cooking experience. Do you forsee or do you have plans for that?

CHEF MK: We do! I’ve been approached many times over the years for competitions and reality shows and it wasn’t really my thing. I’m more reserved. I’m comfortable on camera, but I don’t have the desire to be on camera. If I can tell a story and make a difference then I’m happy to do it and it’s also good for our company and for exposure. So, I get excited for that reason and the reason that we can make an impact, change habits, and inspire people hopefully. We’re working on 2 shows. 1 is more of a 1-on-1 type of solutions based talk show almost with celebrities and athletes that are looking to become plant-based. I don’t want to drop names, but I have names but I have had experiences with quite a few in the past and we want to do a show like that, because we believe that will be entertaining and the known figures will draw an audience, and people are interested in them, and also they will be influential in changing habits because watchers, viewers will see that and see them taking that initiative and then we’ll support it. I have a really large global network and one of my really good friends is an expert in hydration. It’s simple, but it’s not. So we have a lot of contacts like that that we will bring into the show.

The other one will be more travel. I always loved No Reservations.

AM: Same!

CHEF MK: It would be around food travel and food technology. The innovations in the food space globally. We might go to Finland where someone is creating an alternative protein with air or whatever! But it’s not about running into a laboratory it’s more about another person, what inspires them, what their background is, their local culture and the team that they built. So it will be great. I could drink a bottle of wine with them and who knows. So that will be the 2 shows that I’ll be working on.

It's not out of a desire to be on television. When I was young, Bobby Flay and I used to share a summer home in the Hamptons for 2 or 3 years in a row. He really wanted to be on TV and I really wanted to be behind the scenes. But now that I’m closer to 60, I feel like that I have a story to tell about longevity. It’s not just about people who are older, it’s about preparing for longevity when you’re young. So I think that there is something to tell in this show and to share. There will be cooking involved, but it’s not just that.

AM: I think that is awesome and I would definitely watch something like that.

When you’re cooking for yourself, what are 3 ingredients that you tend to have on hand and feel is so versatile to the dishes that you cook?

CHEF MK: Lemons, good olive oil, and sea salt. It’s not just that, I love Fuji apples, broccoli and greens but Charlotte grows them here so they’re always here. I love having a nice pantry. I love oils and seasoning. I love yuzu. I could give you a really long list but the first things that come to mind is great sea salt, lemons, and olive oil.

AM: As someone who has done so much in this space, have received a number of accolades and you have such a passion for it, what do you want your legacy to be seen as when people look back to the work that you have done?

CHEF MK: It’s not really about me. I don’t care about the legacy of me. But, I do want the work that I have done for so many years, because there are much easier things that I could have done, and I really want that to be able to carry on and to see plant-based to where it should end up. Having it at the center of the plate. I want people to be able to understand it and hopefully, it’s part of our education to kids. We learn the capitals of states, names of countries, algebra, and so forth, but we don’t understand our own bodies where food comes from and I don’t want to see a society that’s ill unnecessarily. I want people to be able to enjoy their lives much longer into their later years and to feel better while they’re young to have more of a productive society and hopefully one that’s also more emotionally balanced because of what foods can do for our well-being. So, I want to do everything that I can to put that momentum out there and to be part of it. That’s my goal. I don’t have any personal aspirations.

AM: As a personal question and one that we have talked about throughout our issues - so many people are talking about gut health and some eat gummies, take supplements, drink tonics etc. From your point of view, what are ingredients or items that people should be eating for their positive gut health.

CHEF MK: I think that most people are dehydrated, including myself because water can get boring and even when we do drink enough water, it’s not always assimilated in the right way – certain types of water, certain types of pH balances. Supplements we can do to kind of cover that. I think that's probably #1. I would say that #2 is chewing food because our digestive system doesn’t have teeth and it’s really critical. Those 2 things, can make such a difference to our digestive system. But then also, some things digest more quickly. We’re not animals so that’s why plants are so valuable. But understanding food combining, and what to layer and not to layer, eating watermelon on top of a big meal for example is not a good idea. Digestion is everything. Removing toxins and potential toxins from our body is everything and it’s critically important. I never thought about it. As young people, we don’t think about it. But when I got into plant-based, I did a cleanse with this really quirky doctor and it just changed my entire digestive system. I felt like I was flying! Ever since then, I have been acutely aware of how my digestion is, what I eat and how it will impact my digestive system. I love sweets, I love ice cream and I indulge. I eat whatever I want. But I’ve trained myself to eat what’s good for me without much effort, because I already like these foods anyway. I’m always excited to walk into a health foods store, but I think that it’s a big subject and it’s definitely everything. Because you can be on the most beautiful place on the planet, gorgeous sunny day, and be on vacation and if you’re digestion is not working properly, you cannot enjoy it!

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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | This feature + PG 150 63MIX ROUTIN3S - Chef Matthew Kenney

Read the MAY ISSUE #89 of Athleisure Mag and see AT THE CENTER OF THE PLATE | Chef Matthew Kenney in mag.

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4 X Oscar nominated writer/director of Last of the Mohicans, The Insider, Ali, Miami Vice, Collateral and Heat, Michael Mann collaborated with Edgar Award-winning author, Meg Gardiner to return to the characters of the classic crime film with

this story which talks about what is going on in the years prior to and after this iconic movie!

In Heat 2, we find ourselves with Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) after the events of Heat who is in Koreatown, wounded and trying to escape LA. He is being hunted by LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). Hours earlier, Hanna killed Shiherlis’s brother in arms Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) in a gunfight under the strobe lights at the foot of an LAX runway. Now Hanna’s determined to capture or kill Shiherlis, the last survivor of McCauley’s crew.

Heat 2 explores the events prior to the movie and after the movie and brings us into this world of heists and settling scores. We can only hope that there are plans to also bring this to the screen!

THE GRACIAS MADRE COOKBOOK: BRIGHT, PLANT-BASED RECIPES FROM OUR MEXI-CALI KITCHEN

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Gracias Madre is a popular L.A. restaurant that is plant-based and brings the fresh, bright flavors of Mexico to Southern California. In The Gracias Madre Cookbook, you can enjoy all the Cali-Mexican dishes that are available there.

Mexican food is one of the original vegan cuisines. Prior to Spanish conquistadores that brought ingredients that included dairy, the Mesoamerican pantry centered around "The Three Sisters" - beans, corn and chiles. With this, they created salsas and moles. In addition, the cuisine focused on whole-foods for traditional meat fillings (mushroom carnitas and al pastor, jackfruit mixiote, dehydrated hibiscus) as well as nut-based cheeses (cashew crema and queso blanco, almond cotija).

This book has 125 simple, entirely plant-based recipes that includes Calabaza and Onion Quesadillas, Coliflor with Cashew Nacho Cheese, and Coffee Flan.

MUSHROOMS: OVER 70 RECIPES WHICH CELEBRATES MUSHROOMS

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Martin Nordin shares his love in MUSHROOMS: Over 70 Recipes which Celebrates Mushrooms. Merging the dishes that his mother created with this ingredient (stuffed mushrooms, creamy mushroom mince on croustades and mock snails) with his passion for cuisines of Asia - Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan. He plays with the textures and the flavors in this plant-based book so that those who are vegan, vegetarian, etc can enjoy this as well by substituting with nut butter, dairy-based milk or cream depending on their dietary approach to eating.

Read the AUG ISSUE #80 of Athleisure Mag and see BINGELY BOOKS in mag.

S2. E1. | ATHLEISURE KITCHEN WITH CHEF DUFF GOLDMAN

On today’s episode of Athleisure Kitchen, we catch up with founder of Charm City Cakes and Food Network Host and Judge, Duff Goldman. A favorite of Athleisure Mag and in the NOV ISSUE #71, we talk about him hosting No Kid Hungry’s Thanksgiving Bake-A-Thon which took place this month! Viewers were able to watch Duff as well as noted bakers and celebrities create holiday dishes and answer questions that enthusiasts have when creating their own works of art! We explore why he is so passionate about working with No Kid Hungry and how he has been involved with them for well over a decade! We also talked about The Holiday Baking Championship and how important it is for him to provide feedback to contestants while also taking people through the culinary journey of enjoying a bite of your favorite treats! I promise you will never look at your Reese’s Cup in the same way! We also talk about 3 items that bakers should be gifted or gift themselves, upcoming projects, being a new father and he shares one of our favorite features that our readers enjoy in Athleisure Mag’s issue, 9LIST ROUTIN3S!

You can stay in the loop on who future guests are by visiting us at AthleisureStudio.com/AthleisureKitchen and on Instagram at @AthleisureKitchen and @AthleisureStudio. Athleisure Kitchen is hosted by Kimmie Smith and is Executive Produced by Paul Farkas and Kimmie Smith. It is mixed by the team at Athleisure Studio. Our theme music is "This Boy" performed by Ilya Truhanov.

ELECTRIC ZOO

EZOO is one of our favorite NYC Festivals and this Labor Day on Randall’s Island Park, EZOO 2021 delivered another brilliant experience of top loved electronic acts, cool stages and tasty food/drink vendors as the US begins to re-open. With big sounds, cool vibes and sunshine abound, here are some of our favorite artists from this year’s event. Minds blown again – EZOO keeps proving it’s definitely a can’t miss event!

IG @electriczoonyc

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY Alive Coverage

Read the SEP ISSUE #69 of Athleisure Mag and see Electric Zoo in mag.

THE ART OF THE SNACK | AMIGO BY NAI

This month's The Art of the Snack focuses on a savory destination from Chef Ruben Rodriguez who has taken culinary inspiration from his home in Galicia, Spain. NYer shave the ability to enjoy a number of the dishes he grew up eating from his mother's kitchen in Spain. In addition, he gives us the scoop on the restaurant group that he is creating as well as a bit on Nai Tapas and his newest venture, Amigo by Nai.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Chef Ruben Rodriguez, tell us about your culinary background and the influence for your style of cooking?

CHEF RUBEN RODRIGUEZ: I spent my days growing up in my mother’s restaurantMerendero Cave in Galicia, Spain, where I learned some of my mother’s coveted secret recipes. Being from Galicia, you will find that in any of my menus I make sure to highlight my culture in some way. NaiTapas is my first restaurant and I opened it ten years ago after working in numerous NYC kitchens around the city. My style of cooking continues to change and now I’m really focused on clean flavor profiles with strong presentations. I like the ingredients to speak for themselves on the plate.

AM: Before we talk about Amigo by Nai, you’re currently celebrating your 10-year anniversary with Nai Tapas. Tell us about your menu and the ambiance here.

CHEF RR: Nai Tapas is my ever-evolving love letter to my mother and grandmother, as I spotlight a number of their traditional recipes. However, I am constantly experimenting with flavors and different techniques to continue to grow as a Chef. My menu is divided into modern tapas and traditional tapas with an option to do a tasting menu, which I always suggest as it allows for our customers to really get the full Nai experience. I’m a serious chef, who doesn’t take himself too seriously, so at Nai it’s all about playful presentations and flavors that pop and surprise my guests.

AM: What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to create Amigo by Nai and when did it launch?

CHEF RR: Amigo by Nai has always been in the back of my head, as I knew I wanted to create a fine dining taqueria while infusing my Spanish heritage into the ta-cos served. I found a spot that I loved, which is just a few blocks away from Nai Tapas and then ironically enough a few months later I came across a video of Billy showcasing his tacos and speak-ing about his heritage and the tradition behind the famed carnitas recipes. I jumped on a plane to Los Angeles to meet Billy and discuss a collaboration. From there, the Amigo vision began to take form and we launched in October.

AM: This restaurant is a collaborative one with Carnitas el Momo – how did this come about and why have you guys combined your efforts in this venture?

CHEF RR: We just got together to talk about the collaboration after I saw his video and the stars just aligned. On the menu you will see his carnitas as well as our collaboration taco with the Amigo, which is pork belly, citrus gastrique and red salsa brava. Apart from those, as mentioned I always want to incorporate my Spanish heritage into each of my menus, so you will find the four other tacos feature those kinds of ingredients.

AM: What can guests expect when they come in to dine at Amigo by Nai?

CHEF RR: At Amigo by Nai you can expect a completely different taqueria experience. We are trying to push the envelope and create tacos that have more of a fine-dining feel complete with incredible signature cocktails from our Beverage Director Niko Hagerty, who I have literally seen grow up in my NaiTapas kitchen.

AM: When creating this menu, can you tell us about where the inspiration for your dishes came from?

CHEF RR: My inspiration will always stem from my heritage and consistently playing with different flavor combinations and techniques. Something that I love to do too is I will draw the dish before trying to create it in the kitchen. The menu at Amigo By Nai was something that took a while to formulate, always ensuring that I was paying respect to the culture.

AM: What are 3 signature dishes that you suggest that we should enjoy?

CHEF RR: I would suggest you try the Rabo, oxtail, red mojo and shishito peppers with an optional side of consommé; Gambas, shrimp, garlic sauce, aioli and red cabbage; and a vegetarian taco with the Coliflor, shawarma roasted cauliflower with avocado-lime chimichurri and Marcona almonds.

AM: What are 3 appetizers and/or desserts that we should try when at Amigo by Nai?

CHEF RR: When it comes to my new apertivos menu the Esquite De Maiz Gratina-do, husk sweet corn, Panela, Oaxaca and Manchego cheese with panko crunch, applewood smoked bacon, Serrano pepper and cilantro; Taco Crujiente De Cordero, braised lamb in a nixtamal hard shell tortilla with majorero cheese, garlic aioli, salsa brava and cilantro; and Pescado Frito, fresh Atlantic cod and squid with Pedro Ximenez sherry vinegar and garlic aioli are all a must!

AM: What are 3 cocktails that you suggest we should have when visiting?

CHEF RR: Everything that Beverage Director Niko Hagerty serves is truly amazing, but if I had to pick three, I would say the hunt for Red October with Michter’s bourbon, apple brandy, allspice, apple, lemon, honey and cinnamon; Athena Goes To TheMarket with Green chili-infused vodka, Greek feta washed singani 63, pistachio oil, fresh dill, lemon, ginger and celery salt; and What Happened To 8th Street with wasabi infused Dewar’s white label scotch, sea salt and sesame seaweed, green chartreuse, matcha, coconut and Aztec Chocolate.

AM: During COVID-19, many restaurants have had to pivot on how they serve the guests and neighborhoods with pickups, delivery, reduce indoor dining, outdoor dining, etc – what methods are you doing to ensure that you’re available?

CHEF RR: We are available for delivery on GrubHub and pick up, and we have a great selection of tacos by the pound, which are perfect for game days or small home get-togethers with friends. We also offer bottled cocktails and bottles of wine. When it comes to our outdoor space, we have a beautiful set up of tables that guests can feel safe and secure in, which are equipped with heaters as we head into the colder months.

AM: You’re launching a new restaurant group, Nai Management LLC. What restaurants are currently within this brand and are there new restaurants that we should keep an eye out for?

CHEF RR: Nai Management LLC will en-compass Nai, Amigo by Nai, the Spring 2021 launch of Avoa, meaning grandmother in Gallego that will serve as an all-day café plating farm to table tapas in the back with coffee creations from Coffee Project at the front, and a num-ber of other concepts that I have already started to lay the groundwork on.

IG @RubenBoilsOctopus

@NaiTapas

@AmigoNYC

Read the Nov Issue #59 of Athleisure Mag and see The Art of the Snack | Amigo by Nai in mag.

BINGELY BOOKS

THE GOOD LORD BIRD

Riverhead Books

James McBride

If you enjoyed watching Showtime's limited series, The Good Lord Bird starring Ethan Hawke (Training Day and The Purge) as John Brown and Daveed Diggs (Hamilton and Snowpiercer TV series) as Frederick Douglass, you will enjoy the novel that it is adapted from.

We meet Henry Shackleford who lives in the Kansas Territory in 1856 - a battleground between those that are pro and anti-slavery. Henry is a slave and meets the infamous abolitionist, John Brown, and ends up joining him in his vision of freeing slaves - doing so as a girl. Their exploits result in working with one another leading up to the events of the historic raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859 which is a catalyst in the start of the Civil War.

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MODERN CIDER

Ten Speed Press

Emma Christensen

The concept of drinking and creating cider has had a renewed interest over the past couple of years. Back in the 1700's cider was considered a medicinal beverage that people consumed. Today, there are restaurants that are creating menus around this and a big growing movement to even make these at home as opposed to buying subscriptions to have them on hand.

Homebrew guru Emma Christensen created this book to talk about this movement, sourcing the fruits and juices as well as instructing us on bottling these beverages.

This book includes an array of recipes along with pictures. In addition, she looks at the world of cider by also sharing the cousins which include perry. In addition, she shares techniques that beer brewers use that are perfect for those working with cider.

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PIE FOR EVERYONE

Harry N. Abrams

Petra "Petee" Paredez

If you have yet to enjoy pies from Petee's Pie Company and/or Petee's Café, then her new cookbook, Pie For Everyone has 80+ recipes that you can enjoy learning to make. She breaks down how to make her sweet treats and focuses on her prime goal - creating the perfect crust that's tender and flaky. Once you have the crust down, it's about making the perfect balance of filling so that each bite has the intended textures together.

She creates an easy to follow cookbook with a focus on using locally sourced ingredients. In addition, her step-by-step instructions take the stress out of making her creations. Recipes include pies that are made from fruit, custard and cream. She even has savory pies which is perfect as we continue to go through the upcoming winter season.

Read the Nov Issue #59 of Athleisure Mag and see Bingely Books in mag.

THAT CALIFORNIA GIRL LIFE WITH GABY DALKIN

Food has always been a great way to bring people together, explore cultures and even to give insight into who you are and your creativity. This month, we talk with cookbook author, founder of What’s Gaby Cooking culinary creator, and who has created a line of seasonings, sauces and cocktail mixers that you can purchase at Williams Sonoma for a number of years – Gaby Dalkin. She shares how she created her culinary universe, her focus of California Girl Living, being inspired through travel and lifestyle as she approaches creating her dishes. We also talk about her popular site and how she grew it as well as her newest cookbook that’s out now, What's Gaby Cooking, Eat What You Want. She even tells us how we can enhance our movie nights in with her dishes as we all do our part to flatten the curve!

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you fall in love with food and realize that you wanted to work in the industry?

GABY DALKIN: So I fell in love with food really when I was in high school. I used to come home from school everyday and watch the Food Network and I just loved watching them cook. It was mesmerizing to me. I would watch it everyday for a couple of hours when I would do my homework. Then when I got to college, I started cooking for my tennis team. I played tennis in college and I met my husband, he was my boyfriend at the time. He was on the men’s team and I would cook for everyone – we have both not picked up our rackets in years. I would cook for the men’s and women’s teams right before matches. I loved getting people around the table. It brought me so much joy for me to be able to feed them and just watch the conversation happen when you bring people to a table and include food.

After college, I got a job in the fashion and marketing/PR industry for a couple of months. The whole company folded and then instead of getting another job, I decided to go to culinary school – just for fun. I had no intention of going into the culinary world fulltime. I ended up loving it and falling in love with food. I got a job as a private chef and I started my blog and it just snowballed and that was a little over 10 years ago.

AM: That’s a great story and one of the things that we enjoyed reading about you is that you’re all about the California Girl Life. We’re based in NY and we wanted to know how you define the California Girl Life?

GD: To me, the California Girl Life is not about being in California. It’s more the state of mind as opposed to an actual place. I think it’s all about living your life in balance, being your own sunshine and making sure you’re happy and all of that. I think that that is what my definition of California is. I can have a beautiful salad with all of these incredible vegetables and I can also indulge in pizza, pasta and cookies – that’s the balance part of it. I mean, we’re very fortunate in California to have incredible weather most of the year. Whether or not, you can experience that or not, I think that we can all bring a bit of sunshine into our kitchens via food.

AM: Would you define that as your style of cooking or since you went to culinary school, do you have a specific way that you like to cook?

GD: I would say that I am very California focused, but I would say that I was trained in French cuisine, but I wouldn’t say or even qualify myself to say that I am a French trained chef. I like to say that the way I cook is very carefree, I like to do simple ingredients – I would say that I am a Mediterranean style cook and that really resonates with California. I also grew up in Tucson, Arizona so there is definitely some South West and Mexican influence in my food.

AM: We can definitely see that. You are a recipe developer. What does that mean and what does it involve?

GD: A recipe developer is someone who has an idea and takes it from an idea to a finished recipe. Normally, it takes anywhere from 3-6 tries to get a recipe perfect before it gets up on my website or one of my cookbooks. For me, it’s important for me to stay continuously inspired. Pre COVID-19, it came from traveling and being able to eat at restaurants and all of that kind of stuff. Now, I’m finding inspiration from my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Boxes and things that I’m doing because before, I had access to Farmer’s Markets and now I get these things delivered once a week and I’m like, “what do I do with this and this?” It’s creating so many ideas because I’m being forced to cook with things that I normally would not get on my home. It’s been cool to recipe develop during this period of time when things have been more limited.

AM: Can you tell us more about the website, What’s Gaby Cooking?

GD: What’s Gaby Cooking is my website that I started back in 2009. It was originally a blog that I was able to put up things that I was cooking in culinary school and beyond on it. It has now been turned into more of a hub that houses all the What’s Gaby Cooking things. So we have recipes on there, meal plans on there, we feature companies, we do travel guides, menu planning for Memorial Day or Mother’s Day, our podcast is on there now and we just recently launched a culinary school on there as well.

AM: Which is awesome.

GD: I’m basically reliving my culinary days and turning it into videos so that people can get the same education I got A. for free and B. done in quick snippet videos. While everyone is cooking more at home right now, you have access to some cool how to videos.

AM: When we looked at it, we loved seeing how you had all the different ways that you could make eggs because there are some that you know how to do, but then there are others that are a bit more challenging and it was cool to see the one on poached eggs. It’s great how easily bite sized that it is where you can just start from there, do it and then you just roll into other videos. Couldn’t agree more that especially during this time, you may not have cooked a lot but you find yourself doing it a lot more now and you’re looking for fun places that you can kind of make it fun for yourself to do it. Especially since we’re all at home!

GD: I think it’s important to make things accessible. Yes cooking can be complicated, but at its core, it’s not. I’m enjoying being able to dispel some people’s fears around cooking while doing culinary school.

AM: Your husband works with you as well, how is that in your coupleship? As our co-founders are a couple, it’s interesting to see all the roles and those that spill over work between them as well as finding that balance with them.

GD: Thomas came on fulltime about a year ago. The first couple of weeks were rocky because we were so used to – I mean I have a team that helps me but I wasn’t used to having someone in my space every day. It was really interesting getting Thomas and I into a groove. Now a month in, we’ve been smooth sailing. He runs the whole production, tech and design side – he does all the video editing, the website design – all that and creating all the graphics and things. I do all of the recipes and camera facing work. He’s also been apart of What’s Gaby Cooking from the beginning. He wasn’t getting paid as he had an other job, but he knows my business inside and out. It’s hard to find someone who cares about the company as much as I do. So, it’s really cool to have him involved full time now and to have someone who is as equally invested in it every waking moment of every day.

AM: You have so many aspects to your business. What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to include a cookbook within your ecosystem? We were fans of Absolutely Avocados – we’re a fan of the fruit. What was the process like when you decided that you were going to do your first cookbook and how long do you spend doing your cookbooks?

GD: When you write a cookbook, it normally takes you 2-2.5 years start to finish. But when I did my first cookbook which was 8 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing and I walked into it very blind and it was an incredible learning experience for me. I LOVED Absolutely Avocados. It was my first child if you will. I’m very proud of it, but it also came with so many lessons about what kind of person I wanted as my agent, my editor, how I was going to be pushed and did I need someone to be my best friend who would hold my hand the entire time or did I need someone that would push me to make it an incredible book and to make it even better.

From my first book to my second and third book, I actually switched both agents and publishers. What I learned was, I can have both. My editor now, is someone who is going to push me to be a better writer, a better thinker and all of these things. She has now turned into a friend, but at first I was just looking for a friend. I wasn’t looking for anyone to push me because I thought that I was doing it so well to begin with. But we all need to be pushed and I think it’s important to have someone that keeps me accountable. I’m lucky that I have thatwith this team. But the first book, was a really great learning lesson for me.

AM: You just released your third book, What’s Gaby Cooking, Eat What You Want. It has such a great conversational tone as well as pictures. What inspired you to creating this particular book?

GD: Thank you! I get asked all the time, “Yeah you post all of these pizzas, pastas, cookies and salads. But what do you really eat Gaby?” I was like, “this is what I really eat.” I just wanted to really drive the home that you could do it all, you could do it in balance and you really have a great life. I think in today’s world, there is a lot of noise in food. You’re not supposed to have bananas in your smoothie and all of these things that aren’t necessarily true and it’s because of the diet industry that is rebranding as part wellness industry basically. I wanted people to get rid of the noise. Food makes you happy. It’s supposed to nourish your body, make you happy and bring people around your table. I wanted to create a book that was going to celebrate all of that.

AM: To have the section on the sauces, the splurge foods, you have the foods that are definitely the healthy ones – having the balance and destigmatizing it as opposed to saying what should and shouldn’t be really rang true to when we created Athleisure Mag. We wanted to present the options and allow people to decide if they wanted to do something in the manner that works for them. To have it in a succinct and awesomely packaged way, it made us want to make a number of the recipes because there are so many fun things that are in there. The flow and the way that it is broken out is conversational which makes it super approachable which is exactly on point with your brand.

GD: Thank you! That’s exactly what I wanted people to feel when they are reading it. I wanted them to feel like they were in my kitchen with me and they were just hanging out with their friends. I hope that everyone else feels that way as well.

AM: With all of us staying in. We have been doing movie nights 3-4 times a week. We have our projector that goes up, we have our snacks and things together. What are 3 dishes in your book that we should be making when we do our movie nights?

GD: Definitely the Parmesan Pizza Popcorn. It is made for movie night. I would say the brownies in the back – The Caramel Marshmallow, Chocolate Chunk Brownies – it’s a very nice decadent treat to watch a movie to. And then, while it’s not exactly good food to eat on your couch as they’re a little messy. The Chipotle Wings in the appetizer section are such a gamechanger. They’re so good and they’re not – punch you in the face spicy, they’re smokey and they leave you with a nice heat. I think that that is really fun also.

AM: That sounds amazing. Are you already making plans for your next cookbook and what it is going to be?

GD: Oh my gosh, yes! I just talked to my team the other day and they said, “so what’s book number 4?” I was like, “I don’t know.” Give me a few months to think about it. I would love to continue to do cookbooks. It’s so much fun to see people use them in their kitchens, tagging me in their recipes, hearing how food is effecting their lives and making them better. Right now with the quarantine and people being home with their children and homeschooling them, so many moms have been messaging me and saying that they are using my book as a textbook to teach their kids fractions, how to read and colors. I think that that is just the coolest thing and I never would have thought of that and I think it’s just really cool.

AM: That’s huge! You’re really synced into your social media! You were just talking about how people let you know how they are using your books and recipes. It’s awesome to hear that as busy as you are with so many things going on that you’re able to stay engaged with them.

GD: It’s my favorite part of my job! One of my favorite things to do it to talk to my whole audience they’re my family and friends. I have had the opportunity to meet some of these people on book tours and hosted events. I’m with them every day in my kitchens so it’s so much fun to be able to communicate with them via Instagram, Twitter or the blog. I can answer their questions, hear their stories – hands down one of the favorite parts of my job.

AM: With your new podcast, What’s Gaby Cooking… In Quarantine, it focuses on the quarantine and different dishes that you can make, how do you decide what dishes are going to go on the podcast?

GD: So the podcast is all user generated content. So I have a hotline. Remember back in the day when there was, 1-800-Jenny-Craig from back in the day?

AM: YES!

GD: I have one of those numbers now and so people call in and ask questions based on quarantine. How do I cook x y z in my pantry, how do I clean this and how do I this? It’s been so cool to listen to everyone’s voicemails and then to listen for things that are fairly common themes across everyone’s questions and to answer those on the podcast. It’s helping people to get even more comfortable in the kitchen. We just started having guests! My mom was my first guest and we talked about food noise, food shaming, raising children in today’s world and how we shouldn’t pay attention to the crazy food noise as well as how she did that she she was raising me and my sister. It’s going to be cool to see everyone’s response to that.

AM: Looking at Williams-Sonoma, how did that partnership come about and what is it like to create all of these amazing seasonings with them and what’s it like working with them?

GD: Williams-Sonoma came about a few years ago back in 2016. I had decided that the next iteration of What’s Gaby Cooking would be for people to have something tangible that they could use in their kitchens that felt like I was there with them. I knew that they were cooking the recipes and they were watching us on YouTube and all of that kind of stuff. I wanted them to have something that they could literally put in their recipes. I cold called a number of companies and told them my idea. Everyone that you can imagine that sells food products, and a couple of them wrote me and asked me to fly to their headquarters to take a meeting. Williams-Sonoma did not call me back right away, but I knew people there and I knew that everything that they’re about made sense for my brand. I went ahead and went to the meetings for the brands that reached out – they said, let’s get this rolling. I felt that it just wasn’t right yet. 24 hours later, the head food buyer of Williams- Sonoma emailed me and asked me to come up to San Francisco and to cook for the whole team and tell them my story. So, I dropped everything that I was doing and I hopped on a plane, flew up there a couple of days later, cooked for everyone, told them my story and we talked about my social, my website and culinary school.

I didn’t know this at the time, but salsa was not their best SKU. So they said, “let’s try a line of salsas.” I was like, “ok cool.” I’m from Arizona, I love salsa – let’s do it. We crushed it. We developed 3 salsas that came out that were also able to be used as multiuse sauces as well. It did so well and outperformed all their salsas. I think that that was their way of testing me. From there, we expanded into seasonings, oil, perishable products and cocktail mixes. It’s been such an incredible partnerships for the last few years and I feel incredible lucky to work with people that have become like family and friends to me. To be part of a company that has such strong messaging and goals – I feel fortunate to be apart of the WS Fam!

AM: So each season, do you have a particular focus on foods that you want to attack and then create those items that would go under that particular assortment?

GD: They do that for the catalog. A couple of years ago, they did a Mexico vibe and that’s when the salsas went into it. Now, they do have priorities like brunch was a focus for them this spring and we introduced our cocktail mixed with that as well as the All Things Eggs Seasonings. That plays into it. But at this point, they know that I know what will resonate with my audience. So we have collaborative brainstorm seasons where I say, “I think that we need to do this or we need to do that.” Then, we can make that happen.

AM: What in the culinary world have you yet to do, but want to embrace that and bring it into your empire – or even outside of it as you are a lifestyle brand?

GD: Interesting question. I haven’t done any travel to Asia and I’m dying to explore the different cultures and food – everything. I want to cook with people for a month or two when we’re able to travel again and to learn all about that. I would love to learn from someone that is an expert or multiple experts and then bring that back to share that knowledge. We have dabbled in it at What’s Gaby Cooking but I really would love to immerse myself in something like that. That is high on my priority list in terms of growing the brand. But it changes so much. What’s Gaby Cooking Culinary School came about because so many people were messaging me on how to prep vegetables. It wasn’t something that we thought about doing until we were like, we should start this. Being a small company and being nimble is so important because you’re able to pivot and adapt to make changes really quickly. Who knows? Whatever we do when we’re over with COVID – it will be interesting to see how we change our business to accommodate that.

AM: What are 3 items that you always have in your fridge?

GD: I always have mozzarella in the fridge, I have fresh tortillas and salsa. I think those are things that I can’t live without.

AM: With someone that is so busy and now with having a number of the issues that we have all dealt with regarding COVID and staying at home. How are you taking time for yourself as well as your husband to taking down the noise and still being able to do the self-care that you need to be a calm and normal person?

GD: It’s really interesting. I do struggle with this and I am attached to my phone for most of the day. When we wind down at night, I leave my phone in the kitchen plugged in and I don’t take it with me to bed because I don’t want to be responding to DM’s until 11pm which I could easily be doing. I try not to. So that’s been helpful. We have been going out for walks every night after dinner - again without my phone to decompress from the day. That’s also been helpful. We also have been using FaceTime and Zoom dates with all of our friends. Honestly, we have talked to and seen them more now then we did before COVID. Because, they all live in different parts of the country. Some of our best friends in Portland, we FaceTime with them and their little daughter, multiple times a week which we didn’t do before all of this and it’s been so fun to be able to hang with them because we wouldn’t have been able to see them in person anyways because they live in a different state. It’s been nice to do that and to pay attention to the conversation rather than what’s going on around us.

IG @WhatsGabyCookin

PHOTO CREDIT | Matt Armendariz

Read the May Issue of Athleisure Mag and see That California Girl Life with Gaby Dalkin in mag.

5 TIPS FOR A SUSTAINABLE LIFE

In this day and age, it is very important that we humans do as much as we can to keep our planet safe and healthy. Most people who are eco-friendly have started leading more sustainable lifestyles.

Leading such a lifestyle can be a difficult task, especially when you don't even know what the term truly means. It is not as simple as just switching a couple of things in your diet or changing your light bulbs, leading a completely sustainable life will take a lot more effort.

To lead such a life means that you live your life responsibly to ensure that future generations can lead a healthy life. It is a type of mindset that understands that the resources we have on this planet are not infinite.

There will come a day when we deplete some of the most important resources of our lives and we have to make sure that day is as far from today as possible.

1. What sustainable living looks like?

It is important to ensure that the message about sustainable lives is correctly spread.

To live such a life does not mean that we have to quit every single luxury of our lives and to give up on comfort, it simply means that we should start being wary of the things we throw away, on the number of resources and energy we consume every single day and how to reduce those expenditures.

The ability to renew the resources we use and to consciously understand the impact we do on the planet is crucial.

Here are some of the things you should be aware of if you want to lead a sustainable lifestyle.

2. Reduce your overall energy use

One of the biggest waste of energy on this planet comes from the unnecessary use of appliances, according to this website.

When you exit your kitchen make sure that everything you won't use anymore is turned off including all the lights. If you are leaving your home, there is no need for the television set to keep running as loud as possible.

You could also consider getting more energy-efficient appliances at home. Sure, it might be pretty expensive to replace your clothes washing machine, but with an energy-efficient one you will save up a lot of money over the years and you are also leading a more sustainable life.

The more energy you save, the better it is for the planet and the better it is for your electricity bill.

Another huge energy spender is the heating system in our homes. You can get a quality thermostat installed for just a couple of dollars that can properly regulate the temperature inside of your home.

A more modern thermostat can be adjusted to lower the temperature inside if you are not home and to raise it when you get home. You can also use an application to warm up your room just before you get home.

By properly managing the temperature at home, you are saving up a lot of energy.

Most people during the winter just crank up the thermostat to maximum and then walk around inside in shorts and shirts. Instead of spending so much energy to keep such a high temperature sustained inside of your home, you can just put on a few layers of clothes on yourself and lower the thermostat.

The same thing applies to hot summer days too. Why should your air condition unit spend so much power to make your room so cold that you have to wear additional clothing when you can just open up a window and take off a layer of your clothes?

You could also save up additional energy during the hot summer days by putting your clothes to dry out in the sun instead of in the dryer. Not only will you save some money by doing this, but your clothes will also smell more natural and will be softer to the touch.

If you cannot force yourself into the habit of constantly turning off the lights in your room, you could consider installing LED lights instead of incandescent light bulbs.

On Energy Focus you can read more about what makes this lights eco-friendly. Not only do LED lights shine brighter, but you can also pick the colors they light up in, they last longer and they spend 10 times less energy than regular bulbs.

So not only are you saving up on energy, you are making your life more comfortable.

3. Avoiding using unnecessary plastic

Plastic is one of the most polluting materials on the planet and we use it every single day. To avoid polluting our environment, you could start using paper or canvas bags next time you go to the market.

You can also avoid using regular plastic bottles since you can get a stainless steel water bottle that will last for years.

According to waterbottle.io, a stainless steel bottle can keep your drinks colder or hotter for much longer than plastic bottles.

4. Start drinking coffee at home

Instead of wasting time and money every single morning to get a cup of coffee before going to work, you should consider getting a coffee maker.

Coffee from most coffee shops is much more expensive and use plastic disposable cups that damage our environment.

Using a coffee maker at home is a much cheaper alternative and may even a tastier, as suggested by GiftWits. If you want to achieve the same taste as most coffee shops, we recommend you to get this book about brewing coffee, Brew: Better Coffee at Home.

5. Try growing your own food

You probably already know how much money you are spending every day on food, especially fresh vegetables or fruits. If you live alone or with a roommate, all those vegetables you buy probably end up rotting in your fridge after a while.

This is just a waste of money, so why not consider growing your own food?

Try planting a few seeds of tomatoes on your balcony or next to your window and see whether they will grow. Next time you feel like eating a tomato, you can easily pluck one off from your plant. Read more here about the environmental benefits of growing your own food.

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

HIGHER ART & GOOD EATS WITH RON SILVER

We head to the studio office of Ron SIlver's restaurant, Bubby's in the Meat Packing District. Bubby's also located in Tribeca as well as 6 outposts in Japan and is known for its comfort foods. We found out about how he created one of the quintessential destinations for brunch with his passion for great food and keeping it simple. We also talked about how his interests and passions in CBD and THC that led him to create Azuca which compliments food as well as the love for creating art which you can see in his restaurants as well as his show in Mexico City.

ATHLEISURE MAG: So what was the moment that you realized that you wanted to be a chef?

RON SILVER: I would say that there were multiple moments where I realized that I wanted to be a chef. One of the things is that when I was a little kid, I realized that I loved to cook and part of that was because it was mischief – it was fire and knives. So, I take to mischief very well and then I would say another small thing was that my mother took my $5/a week allowance from me and I went to get a job washing dishes. That was $80/a week so that was another realization that was my spot. I washed dishes for a long time.

AM: So when did you wash dishes?

RS: When I was 13.

AM: Ok!

RS: And I washed dishes until I was 21 in and out.

AM: That was a long time to wash dishes.

RS: I liked washing dishes – I did other things in between. I was washing dishes in Alta Ski Resort and I wiped out and broke my rib, I was out for 6 weeks. So I decided during that time that I would be a chef. So I think that was when I really decided to go for it when I was 21.

AM: So what were all the places that you went to in terms of culinary school or restaurants that you worked for prior to coming up with Bubby’s?

RS: I worked for some hotels for awhile and then I moved to Atlanta because I lived in Salt Lake and there wasn’t any real good dining there. I moved to Atlanta and worked for some of the best restaurants in Atlanta and I was offered a scholarship to the Culinary Institute but I did a quick cocktail mathematics and realized that I couldn’t afford that scholarship and didn’t go to school. I moved to NY when I was 24/25 and just worked my way up and I opened Bubby’s when I was 28.

AM: What made you realize that you wanted to open this up and to create this kind of cuisine here?

RS: Well the style of cuisine in the 80s was really weird, nouvelle cuisine with small plates and small portions and I wanted a place that really had good home cooking and large portions on small plates. I really just wanted to cook the food that I wanted to eat.

AM: What’s the average day like for you, being at Bubby’s?

RS: I’ve been running Bubby’s for a long time, 28 years - so my average day at Bubby’s, I am sort of regimented about how I do what I do. I go to Tribeca and have a coffee and go around and talk to everybody. I go around and kind of see if things are looking good and then I come up to Highline and I do the same thing and then I come up here to my office and I’m a painter. So that’s what I want to do when I come up here, is paint. Once I know that everything is kind of locked down, I can paint. I am also in the cannabis business.

AM: We’re going to get that too as well. So you have the 2 restaurants here and the ones in Japan as well.

RS: Yes, 6!

AM: How do you decide where the next place will be for your restaurant and the community that it serves?

RS: Well I suppose that the world decides for me. I’m not a business person really. So the Japanese people called me 10 years ago and I was like, “there’s no way that I’m doing that” and then we were having lunch the next day and I was walking around the space about a week later. I don’t really make a plan.

AM: Do you think that you would create another concept that is outside of Bubby’s that’s something different?

RS: It’s a good question. I don’t have a lot of reason to do that, but at the same time, I do come up with a lot of ideas that are interesting sometimes so I think that the jury is still out on that.

AM: We were at the Specialty Food Show here in NYC and we saw Azuca. We know that you launched it last year. Can you tell us more about why you are in this space and what made you want to create this?

RS: I’ve been in cannabis space since I have been washing dishes really. So, I’ve smoked weed since I was a kid - like everyone in the kitchen does. I think what really inspired me to get into this business was that I felt that I really had something to offer it. Maybe 6 years ago, I discovered that there was a very large problem which is how cannabis edibles deliver. So I really set up to solve that problem in that regard. I was able to make really good progress with that. In a way, it sort of fell in my lap, but I did a ton of research.

AM: What did you initially launch and are there more launches for this year?

RS: So what we have is a technology really. Azuca is a cannabinoid edibles technology and what that means is that it allows edibles to be consumed in an understandable way which is helpful for people who want to take cannabis or CBD or also for people who want to make edibles. We’re very much in the business of helping people understand cannabis edibles.

AM: What are your plans for that looking at the rest of this year and going into next year?

RS: Well, we’re working with some of the biggest cannabis companies in the country and we’re just getting started with those guys. We are selling CBD, edibles – like our sugar Azuca packs which will be available online and in stores soon. We have THC edibles in Massachusetts with a partner up there and we are also talking to people and other countries about CBD stuff.

AM: You’re also a painter. How long have you been painting and what is it about that that draws you to that form of creativity?

RS: I’ve always been an artist and I started Bubby’s so that I could make art. I can’t really answer what draws me to it. I know that if I don’t do it, I get very crappy.

AM: How many paintings do you create a day?

RS: It depends. I am always working on something. At the moment, I’m doing it on paper which is a little quicker than oil paint. So then all these paper things will be mounted on fabric so that is going to be a big job. I can paint a bunch of things it’s just going to take forever to get them mounted.

AM: Will you ever or have you ever been in a gallery?

RS: I had a show in Mexico City in August.

AM: Wow how exciting! How many pieces were in that show and were you nervous?

RS: 40 pieces and yes it was my first show!

AM: Congratulations! What are 3 signature dishes that we should eat when we come to Bubby’s?

RS: Well the Fried Chicken and pancakes, that’s a thing to eat, we have really good Watermelon Lemonade – that’s a thing to drink and the biscuits! Well the burgers are great too!

AM: When you’re not painting and you’re not focused on Azuca and Bubby’s – what are 3 things that we could find you doing in terms of relaxing and getting your athleisure on?

RS: Smoking bong hits, reading and I have 4 kids.

AM: Do you have any philanthropic efforts that you are a part of that you would like to share?

RS: Bubby’s does a lot of philanthropy. We give stuff to people all the time and support a number of things like New York City's oldest men’s shelter - New York City Rescue Mission. Azuca will have a huge amount of social stuff to do because the cannabis business is very ripe for a lot of different opportunities for a lot of different people who deserve them and don’t have them. So we’re very focused on how we are going to sort of set our company up so that it is incorporating the social aspects of things that we need. Especially the War on Drugs that has been particularly hard on brown people and we’re very much focused on making sure that we’re staying aware of creating opportunities almost in an artificial way. We’re getting a lot of help thinking about that and it’s the biggest deal. In setting up our company it’s run by women and my CEO as well as everyone in the company really has a deep moral compass. I think the jury is out on how we are going to be helpful. Not just philanthropically but also responsible and opportunity creating way. Philanthropy is great, but I think it’s a lot of challenge to create actual opportunity and we’re very much so focused on that.

AM: What legacy do you look to leave behind with all of the fingerprints that you have put down on all these areas?

RS: That is a tough question. I hope that I leave something behind that my kids are part of and something that continues to do good work after I’m gone and maybe I hope to leave behind a bunch of beautiful stuff.

IG @Bubbys

You can hear Ron Silver right now on our show, Athleisure Kitchen which is a part of Athleisure Studio, our multi-media podcast network! Make sure to subscribe to find out when the episode drops. You can hear it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts and wherever you enjoy listening to your favorite podcast.

Read the September Issue of Athleisure Mag and see Higher Art & Good Eats with Ron Silver in mag.

S1. E7. | ATHLEISURE KITCHEN WITH LARA MERRIKEN OF LÄRABAR

On today's episode of Athleisure Kitchen, we take it back to basics by talking about whole foods and the creation of the amazing fruit and nut bar which is known for having only 2-9 ingredients in each one! We talk with the founder of LÄRABAR, Lara Merriken about the inspiration behind the creation of LÄRABAR, how her life as an athlete at USC for women's volleyball, being a social worker as well as being a mom shaped her to creating this food innovation when she went on a hike one day in the Rocky Mountains. As someone in the clean eating space for nearly 20 years, LÄRABAR started with its signature 5 bars and has now expanded to nearly 20 that includes their new protein line. Lara shares how she created the initial offerings as well as her need to create a snack that allows those on the go to maintain their health without having to spend time finding the nutrients that they need in this episode that is presented by LÄRABAR/General Mills. After the episode, if you want to see the interview as well as a number of your favorite bars and new ones, make sure to visit our show notes to watch it as well.

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

S1. E6. | ATHLEISURE KITCHEN WITH CHEF RON SILVER OF BUBBY'S

On today's Athleisure Kitchen we head to the studio office of Ron SIlver's restaurant, Bubby's in the Meat Packing District. Bubby's is also located in Tribeca as well as 6 outposts in Japan. We found out about how he created one of the quintessential destinations for brunch with his passion for great food and keeping it simple. We also talked about how his interestes and passions in CBD and THC that led him to create Azuca which compliments his food as well as the love for creating art which you can see in his restaurants as well as his show in Mexico City.

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

With a gorgeous day ahead, the Athleisure Mag team wishes you a safe and happy Memorial Day that closes out Memorial Weekend. We also want to thank our servicemen who keep us safe everyday! Keep an eye out for our latest issue that drops in a few days!

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

S1. E3. | ATHLEISURE KITCHEN WITH FOOD & WINE MAGAZINE + TOP CHEF JUDGE GAIL SIMMONS

On today’s Athleisure Kitchen, we head downtown in New York’s NoLita neighborhood to The Kitchen Table to sit down with Food & Wine as well as Top Chef judge, Gail Simmons. We talk about her food journey and the array of jobs that she took on in professional kitchens to understand the industry in order to be an effective food journalist. In addition, we talk about her unexpected transition into being a TV personality, how it’s like to prepare for being on the show as well as what’s currently in her kitchen as we continue through the Spring in making new dishes, welcoming guests into our homes for Spring celebrations and what key ingredients are in her kitchen for this time of year!

Check out the latest issue of Athleisure Studio for additional episodes.

THE REWIND | #THERETREATAUSTIN

Our friends over at FUNKSHION headed to Austin, TX during SXSW with their Health and Wellness Platform, The RETREAT by FUNKSHION on March 10th at the South Congress Hotel. This event included prominent fitness experts, wellness leaders, and industry shifters that hosted classes and were on panels as well as leading studio classes. This event was focused to create awareness about relevant topics related to the world of wellness.

With a day filled with an array of sessions, guests also had access to a mini-pop up shop with Essie Nail Station, Hair Braid Bar and they were able to shop Blank Label, Milk + Honey and Surterra Wellness.

“We wanted to create an inspiring and interactive event that will cover every angle of this widely-grown lifestyle, and connect the industry on both a national and regional level,” commented FUNKSHION’s Creative Director, Natalija Dedic Stojanovic. “It was a logical move to take The RETREAT to SXSW in our third year of the event. Austin’s market truly celebrates the health and wellness lifestyle like a religion. We match-made Austin founded companies like Outdoor Voices, Milk + Honey and C4 with industry tastemakers like Ron Boss, Bethany C. Meyers and Lo Bosworth (founder of Love Wellness). The result was an extraordinary success. All the panel discussions offered riveting commentary and advice on battling everything from common stigmas to eating disorders; and discovering ways to stay fit and mindful in the most difficult moments” mentioned Stojanovic.

The Retreat will continue to host its annual May event in the Miami Design District and is planning to host its first ever New York edition in mid-September.

PHOTO COURTESY | The RETREAT by Funkshion

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

ATHLEISURE MAG | #38 JAN ISSUE

Our editorial, Winter Chill showcases fitness, lounge, on the go and evening wear and is modeled by Charlie and Alyne of Wilhelmina models. In this issue which focuses on all things regarding a fresh start to the New Year, fitness, wellness and more – we talk with Celebrity Fitness Trainer Lacey Stone of E! Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian to talk about how she got into the fitness industry, her approach with working with clients an the importance of creating superheroes. We also have a fun interview with BRAVO’s Top Chef, Chef Brooke Williamson about her restaurant group, her love for cooking an how she got into the industry. When it comes to nutrition, we like to kick off the year to find out about what we need to be mindful of eating regardless of what are food journeys are, in this month’s issue we talk with Amanda Baker Leimen MS, RD to find out about rich nutrient foods, non-starchy veggies and more.

As always, we have a number of our features and roundups that we include in each issue and on some articles, you will see links to our multimedia podcast network, Athleisure Studio which has a number of shows that we launched in #TRIBEGOALS (Lacey Stone as well as Sara Happ was recently include), The Road To Tokyo 2020 (US Track & Field Natasha Hastings) and more.

See the entire Jan Issue of Athleisure Mag.

CELEBRATING RICE | ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PLANTS WE ALL USE

Rice is the oldest known food and is still widely consumed today. It is the primary staple food of more than half the world’s population -- more than 3 billion people.

Genetic studies conducted in 2001 revealed that all forms of Asian rice, sprang from a single farming region that occurred 8,200–13,500 years ago in the Pearl River valley region of Ancient China.

From there, rice spread to farms in South and Southeast Asia and was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization. To this day, rice is grown anywhere there is water much like is has been grown in Asia on flooded terraces adjacent to wetlands and riparian zones.

Rice is Life

In many cultures, rice is a symbol for life and fertility, which is how throwing rice at weddings became a global tradition.

In India, rice is associated with prosperity and with the Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi.

In numerous countries, the word rice is interchangeable with the word food.

In China rather than asking “How are you?” people will say “Have you had your rice today?” to which one is expected to say “Yes, of course”.

Chinese architects during Ming dynasty (1300-1600) used rice in the walls of the city of Nanjing to add strength and stability to the cement.

The name for the Toyota automobile company translates as “Bountiful Rice Field” and is associated with luck and fortune. The Japanese brand, Honda, translates to “The Main Rice Field”.

Rice is Important Everywhere

Today, rice provides 20% of the world’s dietary energy supply, while wheat supplies 19% and maize (corn) 5%. In many countries, particularly in Asia, rice accounts for more than 70% of the calories people take in.

The average American consumes 25 pounds of rice per year, four of which come from beer. Asians eat as much as 300 pounds of rice annually, while individuals in the United Arab Emirates consume about 450 pounds.

While rice is classified into short, medium and long grained, there are more than 40,000 varieties of rice that are grown on every continent except on Antarctica.

Nearly 85% of the rice consumed in the United States is grown on small family farms across the six rice-producing states: Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas. A barrel of rice weighing about 170 pounds, sells for $17 in Mississippi, which is down from $18 last year. Half of the rice produced in the U.S. is exported, and American farmers seek greater access to foreign markets where rice prices have been rising. In the Philippines, prices are at an all-time high, and government leaders are scrambling to stabilize the markets. The farmers are doing really well, but the high prices hurt poor families.

Rice and Nutrition

Rice is a complex carbohydrate, that also contains protein and many important vitamins and nutrients that are needed to maintain a healthy, balanced diet:

• Rice as a complex carbohydrate, an important source of fuel for our bodies. Simple carbohydrates—like those found in white bread—digest quickly and provide a short burst of energy. But complex carbohydrates provide a more even, steady source of energy.

• Rice is low in calories and is a good source of protein. It contains the eight essential amino acids, which help the body break down food, repair body tissue, and perform many other key functions.

• Rice is loaded with vitamins and nutrients. It contains thiamin, niacin, phosphorous, iron, potassium, and folic acid.

• Rice is one of the few foods that are non-allergenic, has no sodium or cholesterol and barely any fat. Unlike most carbohydrates, rice is naturally gluten free.

• Brown, wild, or basmati rice are healthy choices for diabetics. They have a lower glycemic index than most other carbohydrates, are more slowly digested, absorbed, and metabolized, causing a lower and slower rise in blood glucose levels. Harvard researchers have found that Americans who eat two or more servings of brown rice a week reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 10 percent, compared to those who eat it less than once a month.

Rice—It’s Not Just for Dinner

Cooking isn’t the only way to use rice. It’s also great for craft projects, decorating, and household chores. Try these 10 creative uses for rice:

1. Make a heat or ice compress.

Need to put heat on a sore neck or aching back? How about an ice pack to relieve swelling or help soothe a headache? Simply put a few cups of uncooked rice in a sock, and either heat it in the microwave or put it in the freezer. When microwaving, start with 1.5 minutes. If it’s not hot enough, add more time in 30 second intervals.

2. Dry water out of electronics.

If you’ve dropped your cellphone in the toilet or spilled water on your iPad, rice can be a lifesaver. Fill a bowl or Ziploc bag with rice, place your device inside, and let it sit overnight. The rice will slowly absorb the water and often leave it good as new. (Sadly, this might not work if you’ve spilled soda, juice, or other sugary beverages on a device.)

3. Decorate with it.

Looking for a creative way to hold silk flowers in place inside a vase? Instead of Styrofoam or glass marbles, fill the bottom of the vase with rice. Add a pop of color by dying the rice with food coloring first. This is also a great way to liven up clear candle holders. Make layers of multicolored rice, and place a tea light candle on top.

4. Keep your salt shaker unclogged.

Prevent salt from clumping in the shaker by putting a few grains of rice on the bottom before filling it up. The rice absorbs any moisture and keeps salt flowing freely.

5. Help fruit ripen.

Tired of waiting on produce to ripen? Place it in a paper bag with ½ cup of uncooked rice. By absorbing moisture, rice will help speed up the ripening process so your fruit is ready to enjoy sooner.

6. Clean your coffee grinder.

For coffee lovers who prefer freshly ground beans, a burr grinder is a must-have kitchen accessory. But after many uses, these appliances end up covered with an oily residue that looks dirty and can make coffee taste bad. For a cheap and easy way to clean it, grind ¼ cup of rice for about a minute. The oils and leftover coffee should cling to the rice residue. Dump this out and wipe the grinder with a damp paper towel.

7. Clean coffee pots and glass vases.

To remove residue and stains from glass coffee pots and vases, add a few tablespoons of rice to hot water and liquid soap, then shake and swirl until it’s clean. The abrasiveness of the rice helps to remove tough stains.

8. Sharpen the blades on your blender.

If blender blades are getting dull or rusty, correct the problem by the pouring ½ cup of rice into the blender and running it for a couple minutes. (Don’t forget to put the lid on first.)

9. Make rice glue.

A popular art supply in Japan, rice glue dries hard and is nearly transparent, making it ideal for paper crafts. You can buy it pre-made or make your own at home. You’ll need one cup of rice (preferably a sticky variety like sushi rice or basmati) and three to four cups of water. Combine these ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes, or until it begins to look like oatmeal. If it’s not the right consistency, add more water and keep boiling. Remove from heat and let it cool. Then push the mixture through a sieve to remove any larger pieces. (You can also put it in the blender.) Pour into a jar and refrigerate between uses.

10. Make noise makers for kids.

Put uncooked rice in a closed container, such as a cup with lid, plastic egg, old pill bottle, or two paper plates that have been glued together. Then send them outside to make music!

Read the latest Athleisure Mag Issue

BINGELY BOOKS

PLATTERS AND BOARDS

Shelly Westerhausen with Wyatt Worcel

Chronicle Books

We've all been there. You're having a get together with your girls or inviting a few people over to go over something. You don't want to go all out with a sit down dinner or maybe you are, but you want a few nibbles to have at the ready. You could buy a platter, but why not make an Instagram worthy presentation with the help of Shelly Westerhausen who has great tips on how to create casually chic spreads anyone can make and everyone will enjoy. This visual cornucopia of a cookbook is the guide to entertaining with effortless style.

You'll find that this book is organized by the time of day and the pairings include recipes, drinks and more to make it easier for you to create your next tasty look. In addition, there is a chart that gives great board suggestions which ensures that they'll photograph well!

PHYSICAL DISOBEDIENCE

Sarah Hays Coomer

Seal Press

Women are constantly being messaged to about size, weight, skin tones and more. It creates a mindset of how we should view ourselves which can create a stigma.

Physical Disobedience asserts that denigrating our bodies is, in practice, an act of submission to inequality. When we decide to take a stand on individual physicality, reclamation of the authority and the ability to sustain our efforts in activism: the protests, community service, and emotional resilience it takes to face the news and stay engaged.

This book's focus on wellness as an act of nonviolence toward our bodies, and embracing them through diet and exercise, fashion and social media, alternative therapies, mu sic, and motherhood. The focus is to ignite the body in a healthy way.

CRAZY RICH ASIANS

Kevin Kwan

Anchor Publishing

Unless you have been in seclusion, Crazy Rich Asians was released the middle of this month and has become a blockbuster movie, that not only showcases the representation of Asians in mainstream film, luxury and a number of storylines from dating, shopping and meeting your loved ones parents!

We're introduced to Rachel and Nick, who have been dating for a while. This summer he wants to take her to his home in Singapore for a friend’s wedding as well as to meet his family. The couple has no worries about spending the summer traveling together. His family, who are “crazy rich” (ridiculously beyond rich) are concerned that Nick is going to propose to someone who they have not vetted and is not from a “good” family.

It's clear that the movie does justice to the book. For those that have seen the film and have yet to read the novel which is a trilogy, it's time to go back and pick up where it all began and then continue on to the other novels: China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People's Problems.

Read more from the Aug Issue of Athleisure Mag and see Bingely Books in mag.

THE ADVENTURE CHEF - CHEF ADAM GLICK

If you're a BRAVO viewer, you're aware of Below Deck, their franchise that focuses on yachting and what takes place on luxury boats, from the craziness of the staff to those who book their trips. The show has a number of crew members and the chef is always a highlight worth noting from keeping up with guests' demands, transforming meals and keeping the crew balanced while they preside over their domain in the galley. We hung out with Chef Adam Glick of Below Deck Mediterranean to find out about how he got into yachting, what it means to be an Adventure Chef and what's next for him with his partnership with Jazz Apples.

ATHLEISURE MAG: We have a number of questions as our readers are avid fans of the show. But first, can you tell us about your style of cooking as we have seen you as a yachting chef.

CHEF ADAM GLICK: I believe in a cooking style that is very simple and not over doing it. I’m not a big fan of over doing food. A lot of chefs kind of push the limit too far. I just don’t think that it’s good to do. I call myself an Adventure Chef. I believe in a rustic style of cooking that is the exact opposite of a yachting chef.

I want to live my life in a way that I am passionate about. I believe that it is inherent in our DNA to want to eat outdoors and to eat food that is cooked over a fire. We are the only species that have the ability to do that on the planet!

When you go to any other country and eat street food, which is 99.9% of what the world eats, it's not about sitting in a restaurant. It's about getting a stick, meat and fire! In all my travels that was when I was the most satisfied. When I'm in Hawaii, I grab a pineapple and chicken and I'm so pumped! I have the chills now because there is something about just talking and enjoying simple food! I don't want to have to have a team of employees to plate a dish and I want to take a stand for this style of cooking. I am convinced that there is a client for me in the way that I want to present my food.

AM: From the show, we would have never expected that. Can you go back and tell us how you got into yachting?

CAG: I was cooking in San Diego at a restaurant at a nice hotel and I was peeling a bag of 50 pound onions and got an email that said, "Hey Adam do you want to cook on a boat?" I quit my job that day. I put the onions down, walked to the chef and said I was done. I was 21, I interviewed and got the job and I have been on a boat ever since and have never looked back.

AM: With your years on the yacht, how did you get onto Below Deck Mediterranean?

CAG: During my 20’s it was the peak of yachting for me. I did get kicked around and beat up a bit, but the end of my 20's I was fired up. It was a Russian Charter that I was on that drove me - a grown ass man to the top of the deck crying as I hated my job. I kid you not, but the same way I got the yachting job initially is how the production crew of the show reached out to me. They had called me 2 years in a row and I turned them down because I didn't want to ruin my career. But on that day with everything going on and knowing that this was going to be the last time that they would call me, I said yes.

I don't yacht like I used to in terms of jobs. I may do 6 weeks a year. I have a few calls from time to time asking me to come back and right now it's about being the Adventure Chef and of course coming to Below Deck which is a different yachting experience.

AM: As someone working on the Below Deck Mediterranean cast, what is that like?

CAG: It's very different than traditional yachting. We sign our lives away for 45 days straight - that's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and knowing that a camera is always there!

My role on the show is to show how I am able to adjust when the guests change their minds with food choices and how to interact with the rest of the crew. I learned to just keep my head down and make great food confidently that I can be proud of! I'm not the captain and I can't say no. I also know since I have been on for a few seasons, that the production team can be interesting and they can put together whole sentences that you never said and literally, put words in your mouth.

I called them out on one the other day and said, "I never said that – I know I didn’t." They sent me back an emoji. That was seriously the response that I got! On the opposite side, there are times when the storylines are going your way! This season, I didn’t give them a lot to jumble up, I kept it clean and I just cooked good food the whole time. I didn’t get involved with anyone. I should have watched my language better, but they wouldn’t hire me if I wasn’t going to say those things.

AM: What makes the show so successful?

CAG: People are curious about yachting. On a traditional boat, people will pay up to 1 million dollars for these kinds of trips. Most people are not booking these charters and they want to be able to behind the scenes which is why the ratings of this show on a Tues. night are doing so well!

AM: You definitely stayed out of the drama this season, but it seems that Conrad has really had a rough go of this season!

CAG: I remember the first day that Conrad started dating Hannah, I told him it was a bad idea and that he needed to nip it in the bud. I took him to an area where they weren't filming so I could just talk to him. I guess he's young and there's only so much you can tell people before they have to learn the hard way. You'll see that as you go through the season that it's a bad idea.

AM: As the Adventure Chef, does that mean we won't see you on Below Deck Mediterranean next season?

CAG: Oh no, I am actually going to fly to the South of France as the next season is filming soon - so that's another 6 weeks with the team.

AM: How big is the production crew?

CAG: Commonly when you watch, you’ll see a sailboat with 2 masts and looks very old school, it’s in all the shots - they're on that boat. Every morning they shuttle between the second boat and the hotels. There are 70 people in that crew. All on location at any time 20-30 are on the boat. Whatever union rules are, as they are union, you can only handle the camera for X amount of hours a day and then they swap.

They work as hard as we do for sure. They’re on the boat and it’s not a lot of room.

AM: The show has been a great spring board. Tell us about your Jazz Apples.

CAG: It's been a cool ride and there have been a lot of cool opportunities that have come out of it like the Jazz Apples. They called me and asked if I wanted to do a roadtrip. I was in as that’s what I do. I’m promoting myself as the Adventure Chef and these guys are promoting themselves as the Adventure Apple – it’s an apple that you would take a picture with on the side of the cliff and I like to be on the side of a cliff with my van. They gave me a case of
the apples to see what I would do with it. That’s how Jazz Apples and I came together through this great brand alignment.

AM: We can't wait to see more of you as the Adventure Chef.

CAG: Seeing brands like REI, Patagonia, Outdoor World etc. that are pushing for outdoor cooking - it's where it's headed and I'm thankful to be on the forefront of it.

IG @ChefAdamGlick

PHOTOS COURTESY | Zev Schmitz/BRAVO (Adam Glick + Hannah Ferrier)

Read more from the Aug Issue of Athleisure Mag and see The Adventure Chef - Chef Adam Glick in mag.

KITCHEN CREATIVE WITH CLAIRE THOMAS

Food has been a large portion of this month's issue especially as it pertains to keeping things fresh as we are in the beginning stages of enjoying all that is Spring. We've been fans of Claire Thomas' Kitchy Kitchen for awhile and chatted with the new mom about Farmer's Markets, her latest cookbook Sweet Laurel and how she stays creative with meals for her family includings pets, Mochi and Buster.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Can you tell us about your journey in the culinary world as in researching you, we realized that you have been involved in a number of areas!

CLAIRE THOMAS: Thank you so much! I started the blog The Kitchy Kitchen 10 years ago and my focus was on ingredient driven, simple food that was delicious and easy to prepare. Now that I am a new mom, that is more important than ever! It needs to be delicious but it needs to be done. I need to be able to put it together pretty easily.

Because of my background in photography as well, the food needs to be really beautiful as well. I do think that the cliché is true, we eat with our eyes first.

AM: The Kitchy Kitchen, what was the thought behind coming up with that?

CT: I grew up in a food family, my mom was a great cook. I grew up in Southern California where I was surrounded by a lot of great produce. I’m so lucky to have the great home that I have. I honestly was just inspired by the food world around me. I am also a huge Food History nerd so that was a part of it. But it was really about creating recipes that I was passionate about and that made people’s meal times a little easier to get inspiration for your home cooking. I love home cooking, I myself am a home cook and I think that it can be just as good as restaurant food.

AM: As you’re such an aficionado on this topic, here in the East Coast, we keep getting teased with the notion of Spring which doesn’t quite get here. What are 3 easy to make dishes that we can make at home that get us to this season even in the midst of the flip-flopping weather?

CT: One of my favorite things ever is a tartine which is just a fancy way of saying, an open faced sandwich. I’m from L.A., the land of avocado toast and I’m sure that this is familiar to everybody! For me, the idea of creating new recipes and trying something new can be a bit stressful for people. You have a new recipe and you’re thinking, “oh gosh, what if this doesn’t work – I don’t know?” I like the idea of taking something that you’re really confident with or familiar with and just adapting it a little bit. In my case, the tartine or open faced sandwich, I took ingredients I know like cream cheese – that full fat, it’s so delicious and then smoked salmon which is so beautiful and such a classic combo and then I add things like fresh lemon zest and fresh herbs chopped into the cream cheese. All of a sudden, it’s a completely different flavor profile. It’s elegant, it’s elevated, but it literally took 30 seconds. I do that with my food, my family’s food and even my pet’s food. I really think that whole delicious ingredients is so important for everybody.

AM: I love the tartines – do you have 2 other quick and easy items that can be made?

CT: I am also a big fan of scrambled eggs and being a mom I basically have 5 minutes to whip things together. Eggs are just a really brilliant canvas. So I’ll do things with scrambled eggs where for instance, if I have cheese left over from a cheese board – so fancy cheese, you can grate that in or melt it into the eggs and all of a sudden it has a completely different flavour, it's really delicious, it's also beautiful topped with things like fresh pro, it's really delicious, it's also beautiful topped with things like fresh prosciutto – and honestly, I’ve done ones where I have added a little bit of orange juice which is kind of an unique idea but my aunt from Australia showed me that and it adds a really beautiful brightness. So that’s one of my easy breakfast moments.

For dinner, I love pasta but my husband is paleo, so I had to come up with a few options there. I know everybody knows about zoodles doing zucchini noodles and sweet potato noodles.
I really love doing sweet potatoes that have been sliced thinly, but in sheets so that you can make lasagna with it. I love doing a nut milk cheese if you are trying to go dairy free as well. It’s really easy to put together as well. I have my second cookbook that just came out that I co-wrote with my dear friend, Laurel Gallucchi, it’s called Sweet Laurel. It’s all grain free, refined sugar free and dairy free baking recipes and you can find our recipe for our own Nut Milk Cheese, Everything Bagel Bread, pies, cakes, but they are all completely paleo and grain free. So I have been using that a lot for my husband’s meal.

AM: That’s fantastic, when it comes to your home, because we spend so much time running around so when we want people to come over and to have your friends and family with you, what should people have on hand whether you’re watching a game at home, brunch or a girl’s night in?

CT: I love that and it’s such a good point. For me, I’m so bad and my brother will come over and open my fridge and will say, “you have no snacks,” and I will say, “I know, I have a million ingredients though, so let’s make something.” One of my favorite things that I like to call my Lazy Hostess Recipes because you get to look very fancy and put together, but it takes about 10 seconds.

My favorite thing for movie nights, because I love Movie Nights, is I take out my air popper and, I let people pop popcorn as they need but then I set up my table where I basically clean out my pantry. I have all those flavored salts, different types of olive oil, brown butter, melted butter, truffle oil – all those things so that people can make their own DIY popcorn and it’s fun because all I have to do is put things out and I don’t have to do anything! So that’s the trick! So I’m actually not even making anything!

That same idea of flexibility and versatility is so important to me in the kitchen whether
it’s for friends, for family or my cat Mochi.

AM: How do you juggle your schedule and keeping meals creative?

CT: Dinner time is getting kind of hectic as we have our 8 month year old son now in the mix, we have our 2 pets and everybody eats at the same time - pets included. For me, I saw that I had eaten my 1,000th bowl of cereal and I was getting kind of bored with what I was eating and then looked over and saw Mochi eating out of her bowl  and then I thought, "well my goodness," she eats the same thing everyday too. So, I was really excited when I came across the Purely Fanciful Feast Filets because they are a whole ingredient snack which is beautiful compliment to Mochi’s meals. Now that I am a mom, I literally read the nutrition menu to see what’s in it. I was really blown away by how simple the filets were. They were beautiful for my cat and Mochi was my first pet so she’s my fur baby so I want to make sure that she still feels like she is getting love and attention. So, the filets are a really great way to do that. So, I just flake them off, sprinkle it on top of her regular food and all of a sudden it’s new and exciting OR I just let her snack on it like a whole filet – while she likes it like that.

So, I kind of take a similar vibe with what I am doing with my own food. I use recipes that I am already confident with that I know how to make and then I just do a little adjustment – let’s add some new ingredients to the mix, what herb can I do that’s different then what I’ve had before? Things like that are small tweaks that take 30 seconds to do but all of a sudden it tastes really different and it’s not the same old same old.

AM: Being someone that is so creative, how do you maintain your creativity to bring it across the range of projects that you have going on?

CT: For me, it’s about finding inspiration in the world around me. For me that means, if I’m in a rut, I go to the Farmer’s Market and it’s spring time. Here in L.A., it’s 85 degrees and I know that in the rest of the country, it’s like Spring is eventually coming. When it finally arrives, it’s Farmer’s Market season! It’s across the country and they’re popping up everywhere. I love going because the best kept secret is that farmers actually know how to prepare their food better then anyone. If you talk to a farmer and you say, “what do you do with these carrots?” They’ll tell you and it’s usually something super simple and it’s usually different then what you would expect. They may shave it really thinly and put it in a salad because that specific kind of carrot has a really fabulous crunch and is already very sweet.

So I love going to the Farmer’s Market, and I love eating which sounds silly but to be a good cook you have to be a great eater. So if you’re in a rut, go ahead and eat, try something new, a cuisine you haven’t had before, try an ingredient, be adventurous that way, I think you can inform the food you make at home. Because adding a sprinkle of something or sometimes just reshuffling the deck in terms of how you incorporate the ingredients, that can make a huge difference. I feel that way about the food that I make for myself, but then also for Mochi and Buster, my dog’s food as well. I want to make sure that they are eating whole ingredients that makes them feel great because they are part of my family too.

AM: Do you have 3 favorite veggies as I had to ask!

CT: Well right now, it’s so fun as I have the veggies that I eat all the time because of my husband being paleo. So it’s like sweet potatoes is literally 90% of what we eat right now. Other than that, I’d say that in the season, right now everything is so fresh, bright and green. English peas is probably one of my favorite things in the world – I love doing a smashed pea tartine as they are the new avocado toast as that’s what I have heard. It’s so delicious, fresh and sweet. Zucchini blossoms are coming in so stuffing those with different types of fillings like a veggie quinoa filling, a nut cheese if you are trying to keep things a little lighter. Another veggie that I am really loving is Romensco, which looks kind of like a psychedelic cauliflower if you look at it very closely. But it’s beautiful with bright colors and when you roast it, it’s like candy. So that’s one of my favorite things to serve as a side with meals.

AM: Fantastic, where can we find out more about you and everything that you have going on?

CT: Absolutely, please check out TheKitchyKitchen.com for more information on my recipes, my DIY’s, my family content and then to find out more about Mochi’s new favorite snack, please check out FancyFeast.com/FiletYourWay.

Read more from the April Issue and see Kitchen Creative with Claire Thomas in mag.

NUTRITION FOR YOUR SUMMER BODY 2018 BY VANESSA RISSETTO RD.

Vanessa We know that the summer is coming and with that comes the realization, for some that they need to get on it when it comes to showcasing the summer body that has been under layers for the last few weeks. Whether you've been a Disciplined Debbie or a Late to the Party Lucy, we sat down with Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist, and gastrointestinal issues and was formerly a Senior Dietitian at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC.Rissetto, RD who specializes in Weight Loss Management and Medical Nutrition Therapy as it pertains to diabetes, cardiac disease

As you work on the physical goals of your summer body, Vanessa shares with us how to get our food plan in sync whether you've been diligent or just starting!
 
Summer bodies are made in the winter… at least that’s what my trainer tells me.  

Well, I’ve got news for him - Mother Nature hasn’t been on her meds this winter, so most of us have been hibernating more than usual since November. And, if you’re like me and you’ve been getting your cardio by pushing your cart down the aisles of your local grocery store, then I’m sure you’ve noticed that how, er, unappealing the produce is looking these days, while over in the chip aisle that strategically placed new Doritos flavor has never looked so good! Spoiler Alert: yes sometimes I do eat Doritos, and Original is still the best.

HOWEVER, this is not the time for Doritos (new or original), or cookies, or wine, or any of that fun stuff we have been making excuses for because it was from Thanksgiving, or a holiday party, or Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are getting married. 

Summer is upon us, people, and you're either going to be cool and comfortable basking in the sun with your shoulders exposed, or you're going to be searching for the a/c while hiding in leggings, and tunics. Side note - my daughter, who is six, only wears leggings, she doesn't see any reason for trying to squeeze into jeans when leggings are way more comfortable - her words not mine; clearly I’m raising a confident genius. 

Wait, where were we… oh right, summer bodies - DUH! Which is likely the reason you’re even still reading, hoping I get to the point soon! You want me to impart my pearls of wisdom so you can get to work on that summer body the Friday before Memorial Day. Don’t worry, I got you; and you got this, with a few tricks and tips to help.

Rome was NOT built in a day

Guys, if you’ve been boozing it up every weekend, and ordering a daily takeout, you’re not going to do well if you start to subsist on kale and lemon water all of a sudden. Let’s be realistic here - If you’re used to drinking 6 drinks over the weekend, let’s aim for 4 this weekend. 

“How can I even do that,” you ask. “Going out to bars on the weekends is basically what keeps me sane, with my job/office drama/family/single life (delete as applicable).” Well, I am a realist! So here are my tips:

Firstly, only drink spirits - vodka, rum, tequila – pure, no mixers. You’ll find you’ll drink less, which will make you consume fewer calories but still get your weekend buzz. And, if you’re tempted to drink more, (we’ve all had THOSE weeks) order a seltzer in between each drink since that will make you feel full, while disguising the fact that you aren’t really drinking. Which leads me to my next point.

Plan ahead

OK, I know that wasn’t the perfect segue way, but I’ll try to come up with something more clever for the next one…  So, you know when you’re watching RHONY and Ramona and Bethany are fighting over some nonsense that is the same nonsense they've been fighting over since the show's inception? This is the perfect moment for step two!
 

This is the time where I pick up my phone and start scrolling around for recipes that are quick and easy. Now I KNOW you’re on your phone while you watch TV, so instead of searching around IG and ending up on Beyonce’s mother’s European vacation, navigate towards pages that can actually help you. I personally love @SkinnyTaste for her easy recipes, @AllRecipes has pretty quick delicious meals, and you could also visit my page - @VanessaRossettoRD - but that would be a shameless plug and I wouldn’t do that sort of thing.

But do your own searches, find the things you like, and – if it’s really great, send it to me on IG in my comments, I’m always looking for new recipes!

To the Store!

Now that you’ve planned ahead, you can shop! 

Meal prep is less daunting if you know what you’re making. Staples on my grocery list are: eggs, oats, almond milk, arugula, lemons, limes, avocados, onions, garlic, raspberries (8 g fiber per 1 cup when you’re craving something sweet), individually portioned 100 calorie bags of nuts, skinny pop (individually portioned bags), mini Kind bars (100 calories), non-fat Greek yogurt, peanut butter packets (Justin’s has 80 calorie individual packs), frozen bags of broccoli, green beans, and frozen cauliflower rice.  

I then add in ingredients from the recipes I found. 

My tip here is to plan 3 proteins, 1 starch, and 6 servings of vegetables that you can have on hand at home for dinners when you get home. That way when you come home from a long day, you don't have to stare into the abyss that is your fridge wondering what to eat - especially when it probably doesn't have any food INSIDE it right now anyway, but has plenty of those takeout menus stuck to the OUTSIDE, amirite? If your fridge is stuffed full of delicious food, you will heat it up and eat it instead of making that tempting call to your favorite pizza place. Trust me this is a way to avoid temptation, save money, and limit waste.

Get out there and exercise

Exercise will definitely help your summer body cause. But it’s also really good for your brain. And, it’s a great way to break up your day and stop you from raiding your cabinet, you know, the one with all the chocolate. If you’re looking longingly at your cabinet where you hid the cookies but the weather outside is nice, then even going out for a quick 30-minute walk is a win. It shifts your focus, makes you feel good and by the time you come back, you probably won't want those cookies anyway.

35 opportunities for greatness!

Look at your week as a succession of chances to reach your goal: you have 35 of them, actually. Every day, you get to enjoy breakfast, lunch and dinner and two snacks – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. That means you have 5 chances a day, and 35 chances a week to eat well! And, if you can eat well about 33 of those 35 times, you should be able well on your way to that summer body. 

And for those of you thinking to yourself “eat well” is not a tip, anyone can say that! Here are some specific guidelines: have 1-2 cups of vegetables at your lunch and dinner, make sure the serving size of carbohydrates is no more than about ¼-½ cup, and don’t drink your calories, try to keep to water and seltzer (or fizzy water as my kids call it).
Follow these five tips to get you ready for the summer, and you’ll see the difference – and whenever you decide to cast aside your leggings and tunic and dip your toes in the ocean, I’ll be right there with you.

See you on the beach!
 

Read more from the April Issue and see Nutrition for Your Summer Body 2018 by Vanessa Rissetto, RD. in mag.