Healthy Hollywood: Fab Food Friday – Cook Like A Healthy Celebrity Chef!

This week spas, fitness centers, and restaurants nationwide have celebrated wellness week. Hotspots opened up their doors to folks like us who can’t always afford the most luxe treatments to let us in on their secrets to living a healthier life. Besides offering deep discounts on services, wellness week also dishes out simple tips and advice on cooking and nutrition.

Celebrity chef David Burke is one of wellness week’s go-to guys. “A simple suggestion is to eat main course soups that are plentiful in hearty vegetables; be sure to shop for vegetables in season. Large salads as a main course is also a great option – using interesting ingredients in the salad with chopped chicken, grilled shrimp and low fat cheeses. A grilled low fat cheese sandwich with sesame seeds and garlic is a fun and exciting option to enhance your diet!”

David, who owns a number of New York City restaurants, created special menus for wellness week, adding, “We believe in the best ingredients, sustainable products and wonderful plating. We recognize that we need to customize our offerings to different clientele. Wellness week has been a way to show we care about our diners and want them to enjoy and ‘be well.’”

But, you don’t have to live in New York to experience David’s healthy eating, there are simple things all of us can do everyday. “When putting together a daily menu, be sure to eat smaller amounts of beef products and large portions of vegetables. Get creative with different food groups and develop fun sandwiches, soups and salads before you put them down on paper. Be sure to go to the market prior to creating your menu – the fish market, especially,” suggests David.

David shares with Healthy Hollywood one of his favorite healthy salads.

Endive Salad
(4 servings)

Ingredients:

4 white endives

4 red endives

2 baby candy cane beets

20 pitted Kalamata olives

8 grape tomatoes

1 Granny Smith apple

4 oz Manchego

Dressing:

1 cup Kalamata olives, dried and chopped

3 cups extra virgin olive oil

1 orange, zested

.5 cup sherry vinegar

1 tsp Za’atar spice

1 tsp salt

Method:
Cut both red & white endives in quarters and cut out the core. Thinly shave candy cane beets (ideally on a mandolin). Cut grape tomatoes in half. Julienne the Granny Smith apple. Arrange 1 red & 1 white endive on each plate. Drizzle 1tablespoon of dressing over endive leaves. Garnish each plate with sliced beets, 4 grape tomato halves, & 5 olives each. Drizzle another tablespoon of dressing over the top & finish with julienne apples and shaved Manchego.

For more information on wellness week, check out www.wellnessweek2012.com.