BOOK REVIEW FROM
MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY

A Healthy Pleasure:
Local Chefs Provide Recipes for Fitness
By Mark C. Anderson

May 18 , 2006

For the hedonistic foodie, it’s the cruelest of fates: the orders from Dr. Buzzkill to healthify the diet. No more cream sauce? No more goat-cheese pizza? No need to panic, says Haven Logan, author of The California Wine Country Diet: The Indulgent Approach to Managing Your Weight. With the right approach, she demonstrates, you can have your Crab-Crowned Venison Medallion (page 306) and eat it, too.

Haven’s plan, which she’ll describe this Saturday at the Works bookstore in PG, is as much lifestyle as diet. Her book includes a brief study of nutrition, realistic ways to stay active, notes on how food can translate to good relationships, and advice on how to embark on new food adventures.

“It takes in all aspects that I have found to be essential to long-term healthy weight management,” she says, “which would include not only the nutritional value of what you’re eating, but also the pleasure you get, how practical it is in your life—and how much food is a wonderful part of our life.”

That’s almost enough for me to pick up a diet book for the first time ever…then come clinchers one and two. One (as John Ash notes in the introduction): “wine is food,” and an integral part of this diet. Two: Logan enlists a parade of top-shelf California wine country chefs to share some of their healthiest and most popular recipes. They include Fandango’s Pierre and Marietta Bain (and their Giant Sea Scallops Fandango and Lamb Shanks) and Bouchée’s Walter Manzke. I took it upon myself to attempt a Manzke favorite.

Some quick hints from my test run: 1) Make sure to really clean off the artichoke’s choke, or thistle insides, and all the tough parts thoroughly. You’ll thank me when the artichoke hits the blender. 2) Don’t be afraid to improvise on the temperature—many home ovens don’t do 150 degrees—and the salmon came out great for me after shorter time at a higher temp and a little more pan cooking.  3) Use a tasty Sauvignon Blanc—the flavor is very present in the artichokes. 4) Grab your salmon (I know it’s pricey these days) from the local fishermen at Wharf Number Two—and buy more than four six-ounce filets if you and your guests haven’t mastered portion control. 5) Fully enjoy the seductive aroma and the flavor of the lavish sauce and the super-silky salmon with seven friends—and a healthy grin.

HAVEN LOGAN discusses The California Wine Country Diet 3pm Saturday at The Works bookstore, 667 Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove. Admission is free. 372-2242.