Art Smith's Healthy Comfort: How America's Favorite Celebrity Chef Got it Together, Lost Weight, and Reclaimed His Health!

By Art Smith

Chef Art Smith puts the power of healthy living within your reach with these delicious dishes. Discover some of the great recipes he created on his journey to health and wellness, and then prepared for his celebrity clients.

Bestselling author, Top Chef favorite, and award-winning chef Art Smith was discovering new innovations in the kitchen, including his beloved cuisine of the South, but neglecting to take care of himself. So he decided to make a change in the way he ate without giving up the foods he loved. By reimagining his favorite dishes and making exercise a regular part of his life, he lost 120 pounds and transformed both his body and his health. Art always knew that fine cooking is a way to show love to others—but now he saw it as a way to show love to yourself.

Art can't resist bringing people together through food. It's partly what made him the success he is today—and his unique reimag-ining of classic comfort dishes has added to his wide appeal. After ten years as Oprah Winfrey's personal chef, Smith now cooks for special events for celebrities all over the world. He has been a contributing editor to O, the Oprah Magazine and has made numerous television appearances, including on ABC's A Very Lady Gaga Thanksgiving, Bravo's Top Chef Masters, and ABC's Nightline.

There's no doubt about it: Art Smith's Healthy Comfort is about great cooking and good eating. But Smith also shares his personal journey to good health—including delectable dishes such as Three Cheese Macaroni, Unfried Chicken, and Grilled Hanger Steak with Slow-Roasted Tomatoes that you just won't be able to resist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9780062217790

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

If you’ve picked up this book, congratulations! You might be battling with your weight, or perhaps you don’t feel your best and want to eat more healthfully. Maybe you are interested in good, wholesome recipes for your family. Whatever the motivation, you’re taking the first step! That’s great—and I know from experience that the first one is the toughest. I hope my story and what I have learned will inspire you to take charge of your life. You will be able to drop pounds, regain your health, and learn to love the time spent in the kitchen preparing one great-tasting and good-for-you dish after another.

Before I go any further, I want to be clear: this is not a diet book in the classic sense. I make no claims that the recipes on these pages will help you lose any specific number of pounds. Instead, they are full of healthful, whole foods and great flavors that work with a healthy lifestyle. The advice in this book is my own, too, and by following it, I have turned my life around. Perhaps you can, too!

In the past several years, I have lost 120 pounds, wrestled type 2 diabetes into submission (or at least remission!), and become reacquainted with all sorts of foods in their most natural, whole state. I cook in my beautiful home kitchen far more often than I used to because I realize how important it is to know exactly what I put in my body.

But, Sweetie, let me tell you: it wasn’t easy! And still isn’t.

Back in the day, before my life changed for the better, food tasted the most delicious when I felt the worst inside. Sound familiar? To the world, I am outgoing, fun loving, and flirty. Since my school days in North Florida I have loved an audience, and when I grew up I found a way to direct my skill as a chef into celebrity status so that I could perform as much as I pleased.

Yet below the surface of this jolly façade was a lot of self-hatred and doubt. Like so many people, I ate to combat the negativity and to fill a void. I was around food all day long, so this wasn’t too hard, and no one seemed to notice when I packed on the pounds. I was a fat, jovial chef who cooked good-ole-boy southern food that the world loved.

Where It Began

I didn’t realize how depressed I was when I tipped the scales at 325 pounds, but my health coach, Aaron (Az) Ferguson, recognized it from day one, as I describe in chapter 2, How I Took the Plunge. His solution wasn’t to send me to a psychiatrist but to get me walking, biking, and eating right. That’s his job, and he knows what he’s doing. He made me sweat, made me curb my out-of-control appetite, and taught me the value of a healthful lifestyle. He also assured me that everyone, fit or not, has issues to confront.

Issues? Did I say issues? You bet I had issues!

Where to begin? Childhood is as good a place as any, and mine was both idyllic and distressing. Living in a small southern town and knowing I was different was rough. I was gay and never quite fit in. When I was little, I found refuge in my mother’s and grandmother’s kitchens, hanging out with them and my wonderful aunts and cousins, all of whom were spectacular cooks. Some of my fondest memories are of family gatherings along the Suwannee River, where the deep springs created swimming holes that kept us kids enthralled for hours on end. If we were lucky, we might spot a gentle manatee swimming upstream from the Gulf of Mexico. After working up an appetite in the river, we’d gather along its banks to eat potato salad, deviled eggs, sweet potato pie, fried chicken, and coconut cake.

As I entered my teens, I decided I was adopted. My red hair stood out. I was completely different from my brother, who wanted to farm like our father did, while I wanted nothing to do with it. Instead I grabbed every opportunity to play the piano or perform on stage. Not surprisingly, I was bullied at school, although the misery it created was somewhat assuaged by the food my mother cooked. Later, as a young chef, I got a job at the Greenbrier, a large and prestigious resort in West Virginia. The older chefs bullied me mercilessly, so I escaped to the pastry kitchen, where the kindly pastry chef, Mark Gray, who taught me to make chocolate, which helped to ease the pain. To this day, I think of chocolate when I am upset.

Moving Forward

It might have been my determination to live life in a bigger world or it might have been the wretchedness that came with being so out of step with everyone around me that propelled me into the life I now have. Whatever it was, I have been blessed. Early on, I landed a job as the chef for Florida governor Bob Graham and later moved to Chicago, where I became a personal chef and caterer. I met a guy named Andre Walker, a hairdresser by trade who liked my cooking so much he mentioned me to his most famous client, Oprah Winfrey. I cooked for Ms. Winfrey (as I always called her, being a southern gentleman) for ten years. These days, I am on call for the many special events she hosts across the country. I learned so much from her about love, acceptance, and fellowship that I wouldn’t know where to start if asked to define her most indispensable lesson.

Life was good. I wrote Back to the Table, which was a bestseller, and I also won a James Beard Award. I appeared frequently on Oprah’s television show and discovered how much I liked being in front of the camera. I landed guest shots on food shows such as Iron Chef; Extreme Makeover: Home Edition; and later Top Chef and Top Chef Masters. I became a sought-after speaker and chef at all sorts of events across the nation. With Jesus Salgueiro, I founded Common Threads in 2003, a not-for-profit with a mission to teach low-income children about healthful eating and cooking.

Jesus and I also found love. Working with Oprah and others who accepted my sexuality made this easier than it would have been otherwise, but as anyone who has been in love knows, it wasn’t a smooth road. We had our bumps! Combine the exigencies of romance with the stresses of a high-profile job and then add my embedded insecurities, and it’s no surprise my weight ballooned. It took me a long time to realize I had always turned to food to alleviate stress and ease pain.

As my weight increased, medical experts on Oprah’s show urged me to lose it. Both Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Dean Ornish, two men who have influenced countless viewers and followers over the years, encouraged me to get a handle on my health. Jesus, who has been my partner for thirteen years, got sick in 2003; for the next four years, he battled cancer. I battled it right along with him and, not surprisingly, gained even more weight. Caregivers are vulnerable to this very real problem, and Jesus’s doctor, Jeffrey Raizer, warned me to take care of myself. Three doctors told me to lose weight, and I didn’t listen! Talk about denial.

When I finally decided to pay attention, I got help. That help took the form of Aaron (Az) Ferguson, a 24/7 health coach who, as I talk about throughout the book and particularly in chapter 2, How I Took the Plunge, made all the difference for me. I know most people won’t have the luxury of working with their own coach, but since I needed a lot of babysitting, I took full advantage of all Az had to offer. Years before, Az had overcome chronic back pain with exercise while waiting for Australia’s health system to schedule an operation for him. That event persuaded him to become a professional coach, and to this day he takes on physical challenges as a way to elevate his own life.

Az advises those who want to become healthier to seek out the fittest, most health-conscious people they know. Talk to them, find out what they do, and gauge their attitude. Could you model some of your behavior after your chosen role model? Can he or she give you some tips for achieving success?

You’re about to make big changes in your life. I’m behind you all the way. Find others who will take you seriously and be supportive. Believe it or not, some of your closest friends may not be among these folks. Some people are afraid of change, and if you decide to modify how you live and how you approach eating and exercise, it could threaten them. Get rid of these people, at least at the beginning of your efforts, or avoid social situations that include them. These may be the same friends who encourage you to split a large order of fries and a hot fudge sundae when you go out. You know who they are, or you will discover them as soon as you begin to change your habits.

You have to take care of you and you alone during this time. Your health is more important than anything else. If you aren’t feeling your best or can’t do things because your breath is labored and your knees hurt, you won’t be much help to your loved ones. Try not to let anyone sabotage your decision to regain your health. Once your body is in top working order, your life will be easier to manage, you will feel a fantastic sense of accomplishment—and you will be full of joy.

You Can Reclaim Your Health, Too!

Why did I do it? What was the tipping point when I decided enough was enough and I wasn’t going to put up with it anymore? I wish I could point to a single eureka moment, but just as the extra hundred-plus pounds crept slowly onto my body, so the decision to shed them evolved over time.

There were moments along the way. I winced when I saw myself on TV, I struggled to find clothes that fit, and I wasn’t comfortable sitting on planes, but like so many overweight people, I rationalized these away. I could live with these mere annoyances, right?

As do most people who know they are in trouble and should do something about it, I told myself again and again that I was still living the life I had carved out for myself and was doing just fine. My weight was not a hindrance to my success; at the time, I was a partner in two restaurants and a celebrity contestant on Top Chef Masters and other television programs. The phone kept ringing with people wanting me to do this and do that, so how could there possibly be a problem? And yet, in the back of my mind I knew I needed to lose weight. I couldn’t bend down to tie my shoelaces…but even that red flag was shrugged off with slip-on shoes!

Diabetes and Me

Looking back, if there was one moment that convinced me to take charge, it was when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. My father battled diabetes for years and eventually died from complications of the disease, so when in 2008 the doctor told me I, too, was afflicted, I freaked out.

I wish I could tell you that I left the doctor’s office with a resolve of steel to lose weight and change my diet. Sure, I told myself I was going to get it under control, but I also spent a lot of time worrying and arguing with myself about its impact. My blood glucose levels were high enough that the doc put me on medication. Okay, I thought, one pill a day and I will be okay. I’ll do a little something to rein in my voracious sweet tooth, and everything will fall into place.

But I am human and, as I said, my dad suffered from diabetes, so I did what any normal person would do: I panicked. I found myself waking up in the middle of the night, sweating and gasping for breath. I had bouts of insomnia—I feared falling asleep, thinking I might never wake up again. My blood pressure zipped up and down. I even rushed to the hospital a few times with heart attacks, which actually were panic attacks. My mood swings were startling, especially since I am normally an outgoing, gregarious person not given to bouts of sadness and depression.

Unlike type 1 diabetes (which used to be called juvenile diabetes and must be controlled with insulin), type 2, my kind, often is manageable through diet and exercise. It’s also the type of diabetes that afflicts the most people, by far. According to the American Diabetes Association, 25.8 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, and another 79 million, considered prediabetic, are in danger of developing it. In 2010 alone, 1.9 million of our fellow citizens were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The statistics are alarming—particularly as they reflect to some extent our unhealthy lifestyle. Too many Americans are obese and sedentary, two factors that very often contribute to type 2 diabetes.

When I came to terms with what could happen if I didn’t own the disease, I was more than a little anxious. People with out-of-control type 2 diabetes have significantly higher incidences of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, kidney disease, blindness, neuropathy, and amputations. No, thank you!

I was frightened. The time had come to take charge.

In the end, I count myself among the lucky ones because once I got my act together, I was able to control my disease with diet and exercise. Oprah even devoted a television show to my triumph as a message to other diabetics. Many, if not most, type 2 diabetics can do the same. You still must be vigilant about monitoring glucose levels and seeing the doctor regularly, but you can manage diabetes and live a healthy, active, and long life.

Reclaim Your Health!

Most people reading this book don’t have type 2 diabetes, but a lot of you are struggling with extra weight. If you are heavy, you may also be in failing health, or will be at a later date if you don’t do something about it now.

Let’s see. I checked with the Centers for Disease Control, which confirmed what most of us know. Obesity is a contributor to coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, high cholesterol and triglycerides, liver and gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, some cancers (including endometrial, breast, and colon), sleep apnea, and respiratory problems; it can even affect fertility in women. And, of course, it can cause type 2 diabetes.

I got my health back by working very hard for nearly three years to lose 120 pounds—and keep it off. In the next chapter, I go into more detail about how my coach, Az Ferguson, guided me through the process. I realize most people don’t have a personal health coach, so I decided to write a book that details my journey to help others find their own path.

It’s not easy. God knows I fell off the wagon time and time again. But I got into the habit of waking up the next day more determined than ever to push forward. I ate right, learned a lot about food that even I, a trained chef, didn’t know, and came to value exercise as part of my day. I hope this book will help you reclaim your good health, or hold on to it. As I point out in the introduction, this is not a diet book. The recipes included here are not meant to help you dramatically drop pounds as much as they are reminders of how to eat right, healthfully, and sensibly, day in and day out, without any sacrifice of flavor, satisfaction, or the joy of gathering around the table with those you love.

Good Food, Bad Food

Time was when I didn’t believe any food was bad, and overall I still don’t. What is bad is how we treat the wonderful bounty found on our planet. We tend to cook with a lot of fat and sugar, to transform perfectly honest food so that it becomes a risk to our health. Think about a good-size beef hamburger topped with cheese and bacon. As the saying goes, it’s a heart attack on a plate. Now, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with beef, cheese, or bacon eaten separately and in moderation. All are high in fat, but they also are good sources of protein. None is considered a health food, but that does not mean you have to give them up, and the same is true for any number of tasty foods.

Instead of worrying about giving up certain foods, it’s far more fun and liberating to think about those foods you should embrace when you decide to take control of your health. The most important word in my new, updated and powerful vocabulary is whole. Try to eat foods as close to their whole and most natural states as you can. This means an apple instead of apple pie, steamed green beans and pea pods instead of the same doused with melted cheese, and a perfectly browned roasted chicken rather than a chicken and noodle casserole or fried chicken.

When you eat a fresh nectarine, bursting with juiciness from the summer sun, or a fish recently caught from a nearby body of water, you can almost taste the health. These foods have not been adulterated, stored for too long, or treated with chemicals or additives to prolong their shelf life.

I’m an omnivore. I eat just about everything, including meat, and I enjoy every bite. This does not mean I don’t look forward to meals that are mostly vegetarian or even vegan, because I do. I have a chapter dedicated to vegetarian main courses, and I am very happy with every recipe. When I was deciding on what dishes to include in the chapter on vegetable side dishes, I had a terrible time winnowing it down to a manageable number. I have come to love, love, love vegetables in the past few years and have dreamed up countless ways to prepare them, many of which I share with you in these recipes. I always appreciated vegetables, but now I think of them as the king of the food chain.

If vegetables are the king, fruit has to be the queen—sweet, tempting, and satisfying. Although you can’t eat fruit with the same abandon as vegetables, you can eat it happily and without guilt. It’s a wonderful dessert and a tasty snack. No one ever got fat from eating too many clementines! Fruit is packed with natural sugars and, like veggies, valuable vitamins and necessary fiber. There really is not much to