Adina Steiman - Guy Gourmet: Great Chefs Best Meals for a Lean & Healthy Body: A Cookbook

Years of hard work by Mens Health editors, researchers, recipe developers, and writers gave us a wealth of material to choose from for this collection. Thanks to all of them, especially former food and nutrition editor Matt Goulding and the always hungry Peter Moore. On this project, we relied on the editorial insight, patience, and deep institutional knowledge of our book editor, Jeff Csatari. George Karabotsos and Mike Smith gave the book its brilliant design. Our thanks go out to project editors Erin Williams and Hope Clarke and the team at Rodale Books, including Beth Lamb, Brent Gallenberger, Sara Cox, and Chris Krogermeier for their support and guidance.

Deep appreciation to Chef Thomas Keller for his thoughtful forewordand constant inspiration. And a special thanks to all the chefs who have shared their recipes with usand Mens Health readers.

From Adina:

To my father, who took me to Reading Terminal Market when I was little and sent me to cooking school when I grew up. To my mother, who shared her love of chicken feet and other delicacies with me. And to my sister, who has grown from coconspirator in childhood taco concoctions to the woman I love to dine with most of all.

From Paul:

My heartfelt thanks to my mother, who taught me a love of cooking, my father, who taught me a love of eating, and the love of my life, who will always cook and eat with me.

Great meals dont happen by accident. They require inspiration, planning, and good ingredients, plus the tools and skills to prepare them right.

Wake up and smell the protein!

Weve come a long way from the humble PB&J.

Refuel in between main meals to keep your brain and body humming and your fat-burners stoked.

When you come home tired and hungry, dont turn to a takeout menu. Just make one of these fast, protein-packed, delicious dinners.

Round up the crew. These big-batch meals are designed to feed the masses.

From grilling to barbecuing to camp cookery, heres how to make yourself the lord of the fires.

As long as the food is good and you make the evening all about her, youll earn four stars, chef.

Party smarter with holiday meals that wont wipe you out or weigh you down.

A guide to imbibing.

OLD SCHOOL

NEW SCHOOL

When man first discovered fire, he was quick to realize that the meats and vegetables he foraged in the wild tasted more appetizing with the application of heat. The high temperature lent a marked improvement in their flavor, texture and mouthfeel. Through trial and error, early man mastered the use of fire and utilized the craft of cooking to feed himself and others to have the energy to hunt and forage again and to thrive. In the modern world, we have transcended this natural instinct to prepare food solely for sustenance. We now cook for a myriad of reasons: to entertain, to relax, to bond, to impress, to fulfill our desire to nurtureeven to seduce.

The dishes and recipes included in Guy Gourmet, the cookbook from Mens Health magazine, are a must for ones own survival today. They are important to master not only because they are healthful meals that taste wonderful, but because they will become a springboard for more complex cooking techniques. As with anything worthwhile, practice makes all the difference. It is only through the act of repetition that we develop muscle memory. Once our bodies become accustomed to the proper way of doing something, our brains are free to be inspired by everything else around us. We become adept at interpreting these recipes into something that is meaningful and personal to us, and in the process we evolve into better cooks ourselves.

Preparing good food begins with mastering simple skills that all chefs rely upon every day, skills like , its all about the way to drizzle the hot espresso over the vanilla ice cream.

The resulting successes we encounter through practice and repetition give us the confidence and the courage to try new things. (Be sure to try Eric Riperts delicious .) Cooking is a life skill that will reap tremendous rewardswhether preparing us for crafting more intricate dishes or, more important, in learning how to cook healthier to achieve a balanced lifestyle. Raising our own awareness of what we put into our bodies ensures that the food we consume is nutritious and beneficial.

For these compelling reasons and perhaps a few of your own, it is time to browse through the index of these thoughtfully selected recipes, tie on an apron, and sharpen your knife. Enjoy the cooking process while forging ahead. Because, as our ancestors have certainly proven, trial and error can lead to many great accomplishments.

Thomas Keller

THE FRENCH LAUNDRY

We love to eat. We love to cook. We love the way good food, prepared ourselves, makes us feel insidewhole, if not healthier. In the past 5 years, food and cooking have become increasingly important to the Mens Health brandin our magazine, in our books and digital products, and in our 43 international editions.

Mens Health has always been a leader in reporting and writing about nutrition and the power of food to fuel and heal our bodies. But man does not live on steel-cut oatmeal and sockeye salmon alone. He needs... chili and steak, chicken soup and jambalaya. He must, on occasion, have barbecued ribs. And hot dogs, upgraded with gourmet toppings.

Yeah, even hot dogs. Because in our world, healthy eating means indulging in one of lifes greatest joysthat is, lusciously decadent and satisfying foodsome of the time, while eating lots of plants, fresh proteins, and other whole foods most of the time. Its about creating a healthy balance in an American diet that is heavily weighted toward the fast and processed.

So this cookbook, Guy Gourmet, is not a diet book despite the fact that it comes from Rodale, the worlds leading seller of health books and publisher of Mens Health, Womens Health, and Prevention magazines. Its purpose is not to help you lose 30 pounds in 30 days. You wont find recipes substituting margarine for butter or nonfat cheese for the good stuff. In fact, youll even bump into a few meals that might make a cardiologist wince even as he licks his lips and reaches for a fork. That said, if you take the recipes from this book and work them into your regular mealtime routine, youll see benefits. Youll know exactly what ingredients youre putting into your body (you chopped them up!), youll feast on delicious vegetables (cooked the way you like them), and, yes, we can almost guarantee that you will lose weight and build muscle by swapping your current meal plan for more Guy Gourmet fare. (Look for the recipes tagged with icons indicating extra health benefits!)

How can we be so sure about our grilled cheese and hardy side dishes? Well, consider this: If you cook more of your meals at home, youll eat fewer meals outside your home, where a line cook hidden behind a wall is dishing up who-knows-whats-inside. Government studies have shown that when Americans eat a meal at a restaurant, they consume more calories and eat less nutritious food than they would if they prepared a meal and ate at home. Replace fast-food stops with home-cooked meals and youll save hundreds of empty calories, fill up on more nutrients, and start trimming some inches off your waistline. Heck, cook at home and you can still have dessert!