The Restaurant Dieter loves schadenfreude.
I certainly engaged in some of that with a recent post about the impending news that the southern-fried restauranteur and cooking show star, Paula Deen, had Type 2 Diabetes. It was kind of delicious, and her decision to come out certainly had its commercial benefits. She’s touting a diabetes drug now, and one of her son’s is launching a cooking show featuring more healthful cooking.
But former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni had an interesting piece lately. It noted that meals created by some of the world’s more high-brow chefs can be just as bad as the white trash cooking for which Deen is known. So there.
Most interesting, however, was that some of these same chefs and food industry professionals work hard to maintain their movie star looks with diets and exercise regimes that one might not suspect.
Leading up to filming a season of “Top Chef,” frequent judge and “Just Desserts” host Gail Simmons does a 10-day mostly vegetarian diet including a juice cleanse. Several cook basic meals like roast chicken for themselves and have personal trainers.
But somehow, amid tasting all those rich meals on TV, nobody fesses up. Viewers are left to embrace the fiction that they, too, can eat like kings but have the lean figure of a starving commoner.
