Ready, Set, Cook!

How do you know when your body is screaming for attention?

Hey there! I’m Emily and it’s safe to say that I live to eat. So far in my career, I’ve worked in just about every area of the food industry. I’ve been a writer, chef, publicist, casting recruiter, food stylist, recipe tester, blogger, hostess, barista and everything in between. It’s taken me years to get to a point where I’m ready to put aside my cravings and focus on my health. It’s going to be hard, but I’m going for it.

Here’s a little backstory:

There’s no denying that I was one of the lucky ones, working straight through the height of the pandemic as a private chef in the Hamptons. This meant leaving my life in Brooklyn to live in someone else’s Covid bubble for the unforeseeable future. Once I was tested and quarantined, I wasn’t allowed to see anyone outside of the staff household. Since all of my other restaurant jobs were paused, I knew I needed to do this. I knew it would be a refreshing change, but I’d be sacrificing my relationships and emotional support system for stability.

I spent six months working as the sous chef for a very well-known New York family. We prepared lunch and dinner for groups of 10 to 20 people, every day. The spreads that we prepared were all kinds of elaborate. We sourced from top purveyors around New York City and the rest of the country, whether it was imported Japanese Wagyu, summer truffles, Hawaiian Opah for weekly sushi dinners, or juicy Spanish prawns for paella night.

When you’re cooking all day, six days a week, for six months straight in a Covid bubble (and you’re isolated from your friends and family) you indulge. You also realize it’s pretty hard to pay attention to yourself and your needs when you’re juggling this level of responsibility. I wanted to do my job well and self care wasn’t a priority. Yes, I loved this job and the skills that I learned along the way have been invaluable, but my body was pissed off at me. It was time for a change.

I came back to Brooklyn in October of 2020 and I started to have debilitating back pain. I assumed those months of hunching over the cutting board (tall chef problems) were catching up with me. During those six months out in the Hamptons, I ignored my stomach issues and rewarded myself almost every night with mac and cheese. There’s only one problem with this - I’m lactose intolerant. I know a lot of people can relate to this one 😂. Soon after my back pain kicked in, I started to see a physical therapist, but it seemed like that was just the tip of the iceberg. My energy levels were brutally low, I felt aches in my joints, numbness in my legs, I was depressed, bloated, generally uncomfortable, and everything that I ate was irritating my stomach.

A week or so later, I was venting to a friend about my various health issues and he suggested that I contact this holistic nutritionist he had been seeing. It seemed like a no-brainer to me. After I met with the nutritionist for lunch, I was finally feeling some kind of hopefulness. I’ve been having digestive issues for the past 10 years and every time I go to the doctor, they try to calm me down with medication and blanket statements. Finally, with this new nutritionist, someone was asking me health questions that were digging under the surface. It felt really good to be seen and not dismissed as being overly paranoid.

After an in depth consultation, she came up with an eight-week health plan for my recovery that would involve a ton of supplements and self-control. This would mean cutting out all forms of sugar (alcohol, bread, fruit, starchy vegetables), caffeine, legumes, grains, nuts, anything with carbonation, nightshades, and dairy. I would have to avoid anything that could have bacteria (pickled things, canned foods, and leftovers.) Worst of all - no garlic, onion, or avocado. HELP! I’m Jewish and Italian, so I’m basically made of onions.

I was in complete shock at how intense this would all be. After all, exploring new foods is my passion. The nutritionist suggested avoiding most restaurants during this program because they tend to cook with vegetable oils (this leads to inflammation).

Let’s move on to what I CAN eat. I can eat good quality meats, good fats like coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil. I can have all of the fresh herbs and I can eat a lot of green vegetables, leafy greens, certain squashes, and a couple of root veggies. I decided that my health is more important to me right now than my cravings and I need to give this a shot. This is a time for me to get as creative as I can with what I have to work with. The coolest part about all of this is that my nutritionist, Linda Lin, created this plan based on my body and not based on a bunch of statistics.

Join me as I cook my way to a much healthier place. If you know me, you know I usually love to cook with a lot of ingredients, so this minimalist style will be a huge change for me. HERE WE GO.