Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Friday, March 6, 2015
Coffee with the Chef: Christine Nunn of Picnic on the Square
Christine Nunn wasn’t always on course to work in the kitchen — the 50-year-old chef and co-owner of Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood was once a journalist, and worked for the Ridgewood News after graduating with an English degree from Montclair State University in 1986.
By 2001, the Fair Lawn resident was working in Manhattan doing technical writing, but after 9/11, she decided that life was "too short to not do" exactly what she wanted to do.
She enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America in January 2002 and even lived in the dorms for a semester at age 37 (which was "horrifying"). She graduated in December 2003 and created the catering company Picnic. In 2005, she opened a storefront in Emerson, where she stayed for five years before opening Picnic, The Restaurant in Fair Lawn, which garnered rave reviews. After 2 1/2 years, Picnic served its last meal on New Year’s Eve 2012.
In 2013, Nunn published "The Preppy Cookbook" and worked as executive chef at Grange restaurant in Westwood. Three months ago, she opened Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood. The lovely, brick-walled 34-seat New American restaurant received 2 1/2 stars from The Record last month.
Here, she talks about the technique home cooks should master and the best way to cook fish.
Favorite dish to cook: The Parisienne gnocchi ($14), which is served with a wild-mushroom sherry cream sauce — even though it’s a pain to make, and it takes a while to do. People flip over it.
The one technique home cooks should master: A good braise. And if I’m braising, I specifically make [the butcher] leave a little fat on top of the meat — if you used trimmed meat and try to braise it, it’s going to be dry. So if I do short ribs, I do it fat-side up … so the fat goes into the meat.
What home cooks should make at home but don’t: People are afraid to cook fish, afraid they’re going to overcook or undercook it. But fish, while it’s not forgiving, is quick to cook and it’s not hard. Give it a quick sauté first and finish it in just a little white wine, chicken stock and lemon juice, so the fish tastes moist — it’s much more forgiving that way. Don’t do just white wine and lemon, because it’s too acidic. You have to cut it with chicken stock or even water.
What diners would be surprised to learn about chefs: We love when other people cook for us. Most people are afraid to. We’re thrilled if someone makes us a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Food fad I hate: Ancient grains, like quinoa or freekeh. They’re kind of boring. They don’t have much flavor, and there’s not much you can do with them.
Favorite local restaurant: Axia Taverna in Tenafly [whose owner is also part-owner of Picnic]. Chef Alex Gorant makes chicken like nobody’s business. I love Greek food, and it’s a nice, lemony, Greek-y chicken.
My favorite cheese shop: The cheese department at Fairway, or at Super Cellars in Ridgewood on Broad Street because they have such variety. I’m a big cheese snob; of course, I adore Stilton [blue cheese], but when I can get my hands on it I like Oxford blue, also from England. And I enjoy Affindelice au Chablis, which is a strong cheese similar to an Époisses. And of course, the terrific golden bits of doodle dust that grace the bottom of a bag of Cheez Doodles.
My feelings about having a BYO: Who wouldn’t love a liquor license? But at 34 seats, it would take an awful long time to pay for a liquor license at New Jersey prices. But we have a very nice wine store down the street.
Most valuable tool in my kitchen: Any fish turner; everyone should have one. I use it as a whisk, I use it as a spatula, I use it to stir sauce if I’m in a rush — and it picks up fish beautifully.
Three herbs and spices every home kitchen should have: Dried herbes de Provence — it’s such a nice blend of French herbs, and it gives everything a really nice flavor; white pepper — it’s got a little more bite than black pepper; and tarragon — it pairs with so many things, it’s great with any mushroom sauce, tomato sauce.
More info: Picnic on the Square, 26 Wilsey Square, Ridgewood, 201-444-4001; picniconthesquare.com. Appetizers: $8 to $20; entrées: $21 to $36.
— Steve Janoski
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http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/christine-nunn-of-picnic-on-the-square-on-the-one-technique-home-cooks-should-master-1.1281892
By 2001, the Fair Lawn resident was working in Manhattan doing technical writing, but after 9/11, she decided that life was "too short to not do" exactly what she wanted to do.
She enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America in January 2002 and even lived in the dorms for a semester at age 37 (which was "horrifying"). She graduated in December 2003 and created the catering company Picnic. In 2005, she opened a storefront in Emerson, where she stayed for five years before opening Picnic, The Restaurant in Fair Lawn, which garnered rave reviews. After 2 1/2 years, Picnic served its last meal on New Year’s Eve 2012.
In 2013, Nunn published "The Preppy Cookbook" and worked as executive chef at Grange restaurant in Westwood. Three months ago, she opened Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood. The lovely, brick-walled 34-seat New American restaurant received 2 1/2 stars from The Record last month.
Here, she talks about the technique home cooks should master and the best way to cook fish.
Favorite dish to cook: The Parisienne gnocchi ($14), which is served with a wild-mushroom sherry cream sauce — even though it’s a pain to make, and it takes a while to do. People flip over it.
The one technique home cooks should master: A good braise. And if I’m braising, I specifically make [the butcher] leave a little fat on top of the meat — if you used trimmed meat and try to braise it, it’s going to be dry. So if I do short ribs, I do it fat-side up … so the fat goes into the meat.
What home cooks should make at home but don’t: People are afraid to cook fish, afraid they’re going to overcook or undercook it. But fish, while it’s not forgiving, is quick to cook and it’s not hard. Give it a quick sauté first and finish it in just a little white wine, chicken stock and lemon juice, so the fish tastes moist — it’s much more forgiving that way. Don’t do just white wine and lemon, because it’s too acidic. You have to cut it with chicken stock or even water.
What diners would be surprised to learn about chefs: We love when other people cook for us. Most people are afraid to. We’re thrilled if someone makes us a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Food fad I hate: Ancient grains, like quinoa or freekeh. They’re kind of boring. They don’t have much flavor, and there’s not much you can do with them.
Favorite local restaurant: Axia Taverna in Tenafly [whose owner is also part-owner of Picnic]. Chef Alex Gorant makes chicken like nobody’s business. I love Greek food, and it’s a nice, lemony, Greek-y chicken.
My favorite cheese shop: The cheese department at Fairway, or at Super Cellars in Ridgewood on Broad Street because they have such variety. I’m a big cheese snob; of course, I adore Stilton [blue cheese], but when I can get my hands on it I like Oxford blue, also from England. And I enjoy Affindelice au Chablis, which is a strong cheese similar to an Époisses. And of course, the terrific golden bits of doodle dust that grace the bottom of a bag of Cheez Doodles.
My feelings about having a BYO: Who wouldn’t love a liquor license? But at 34 seats, it would take an awful long time to pay for a liquor license at New Jersey prices. But we have a very nice wine store down the street.
Most valuable tool in my kitchen: Any fish turner; everyone should have one. I use it as a whisk, I use it as a spatula, I use it to stir sauce if I’m in a rush — and it picks up fish beautifully.
Three herbs and spices every home kitchen should have: Dried herbes de Provence — it’s such a nice blend of French herbs, and it gives everything a really nice flavor; white pepper — it’s got a little more bite than black pepper; and tarragon — it pairs with so many things, it’s great with any mushroom sauce, tomato sauce.
More info: Picnic on the Square, 26 Wilsey Square, Ridgewood, 201-444-4001; picniconthesquare.com. Appetizers: $8 to $20; entrées: $21 to $36.
— Steve Janoski
-
http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/christine-nunn-of-picnic-on-the-square-on-the-one-technique-home-cooks-should-master-1.1281892
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Coffee with the Chef: Pastry chef Vicki Wells of L'artre della Pasticceria in Ramsey
Vicki Wells, pastry chef and partner at L'arte della Pasticceria in Ramsey, was inspired to cook at a young age by her grandmother, who grew up on a farm in Italy and loved to spend her days in the kitchen. The 56-year-old Hoboken resident studied under the famous Madeleine Kamman in Massachusetts on and off for two years, and also at La Varenne in Paris.
Back in America, she worked at Sarabeth's Kitchen and later became Bobby Flay's executive pastry chef, a position she held for nearly a decade. She was also executive pastry chef for Buddakan in New York before coming to L'arte as the executive pastry chef in January 2014.
Wells has taught at three cooking schools: the French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center); the Institute of Culinary Education; and City University of New York (Brooklyn). She still makes an annual trip to Italy in the fall to teach a class in desserts at a small school in Umbria called Cucina della Terra, which caters to those taking culinary vacations.
Here, she talks about her love for bread pudding, what makes a good baker and why she refuses to work with rolled fondant.
What makes someone a good baker: Everyone always says pastry chefs and bakers have to be very precise and measure things exactly — and that's kind of true. But you've also got to have an instinct for making things taste good … and playing with flavor to get the most out of your ingredients.
The most difficult pastry to make: Making a menu of plated desserts is difficult; it has to have a wide range of texture and flavor, and it has to be very visual. I create all my own recipes and I've been doing that for quite a while; they're all difficult.
Pastry I wish I created: Pavlova. It's one of my favorite desserts. I don't make the classic version, but I really like the combination of meringue, whipped cream and fruit.
Best tip for home bakers: Don't be a slave to the recipe. You have to be flexible. Don't be afraid to make a mistake. We're not doing brain surgery here.
Best shortcut baking trick: There are no shortcuts. Making pastries is very labor-intensive. So just enjoy the process.
My favorite dessert: Bread pudding. I just love it. If it's on a menu, I almost always order it.
Favorite cookbook: I love any cookbook by Alice Medrich. She has the same philosophy that I do: focus on flavor, it's not about making things real sweet, so cut down on the sugar and bring out the flavor. Her recipes are beautiful. There's one called "Bittersweet" that I like.
What will replace the cupcake craze: Doughnuts. And I love doughnuts. I like exotic flavors like passion fruit. … I like citrus.
Favorite food movie: "Chocolat."
Best-selling item in the shop: A crumb-cake called torte sbrisolona, which is like a classic Italian crumb-cake filled with chocolate and ricotta cheese ($3.50 per slice, $28 for an 8-inch).
Worst ingredient to bake with: Rolled fondant. It's popular because you can mold it into anything, but every time someone comes in and I say, "I don't actually use that," they say, "I hate the way it tastes anyway." I'm focused on flavor. … We don't do a cake that looks like a Ferrari here.
More info: L'Arte della Pasticceria, 109 E Main St., Ramsey; 201-934-3211; larte.biz.
--
http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/pastry-chef-vicki-wells-of-l-artre-della-pasticceria-in-ramsey-on-pastry-making-1.1277388
Back in America, she worked at Sarabeth's Kitchen and later became Bobby Flay's executive pastry chef, a position she held for nearly a decade. She was also executive pastry chef for Buddakan in New York before coming to L'arte as the executive pastry chef in January 2014.
Wells has taught at three cooking schools: the French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center); the Institute of Culinary Education; and City University of New York (Brooklyn). She still makes an annual trip to Italy in the fall to teach a class in desserts at a small school in Umbria called Cucina della Terra, which caters to those taking culinary vacations.
Here, she talks about her love for bread pudding, what makes a good baker and why she refuses to work with rolled fondant.
What makes someone a good baker: Everyone always says pastry chefs and bakers have to be very precise and measure things exactly — and that's kind of true. But you've also got to have an instinct for making things taste good … and playing with flavor to get the most out of your ingredients.
The most difficult pastry to make: Making a menu of plated desserts is difficult; it has to have a wide range of texture and flavor, and it has to be very visual. I create all my own recipes and I've been doing that for quite a while; they're all difficult.
Pastry I wish I created: Pavlova. It's one of my favorite desserts. I don't make the classic version, but I really like the combination of meringue, whipped cream and fruit.
Best tip for home bakers: Don't be a slave to the recipe. You have to be flexible. Don't be afraid to make a mistake. We're not doing brain surgery here.
Best shortcut baking trick: There are no shortcuts. Making pastries is very labor-intensive. So just enjoy the process.
My favorite dessert: Bread pudding. I just love it. If it's on a menu, I almost always order it.
Favorite cookbook: I love any cookbook by Alice Medrich. She has the same philosophy that I do: focus on flavor, it's not about making things real sweet, so cut down on the sugar and bring out the flavor. Her recipes are beautiful. There's one called "Bittersweet" that I like.
What will replace the cupcake craze: Doughnuts. And I love doughnuts. I like exotic flavors like passion fruit. … I like citrus.
Favorite food movie: "Chocolat."
Best-selling item in the shop: A crumb-cake called torte sbrisolona, which is like a classic Italian crumb-cake filled with chocolate and ricotta cheese ($3.50 per slice, $28 for an 8-inch).
Worst ingredient to bake with: Rolled fondant. It's popular because you can mold it into anything, but every time someone comes in and I say, "I don't actually use that," they say, "I hate the way it tastes anyway." I'm focused on flavor. … We don't do a cake that looks like a Ferrari here.
More info: L'Arte della Pasticceria, 109 E Main St., Ramsey; 201-934-3211; larte.biz.
--
http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/pastry-chef-vicki-wells-of-l-artre-della-pasticceria-in-ramsey-on-pastry-making-1.1277388
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
Chef Carlos Valdez of Oceanaire in Hackensack on cooking lobster and ramen noodles
Carlos Valdez, the newly crowned Ultimate Chef Bergen County, started cooking for himself around middle school — his mom was always good at it, he says, but he was very "particular" about how the meals were prepared.
"I wanted certain things a certain way," says the 37-year-old executive chef of the Oceanaire Seafood Room in The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack. He'd question his mother if, say, the lasagna tasted a little different on a given day.
The Hawthorne native started his career at Houston's (in the same Hack- ensack mall) as a bartender part-time for four years while completing his bachelor's degree in culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. After graduation, he completed the management training program at the Hillstone Restaurant Group (Houston's parent company) and was transferred to the Rutherford Grill in Napa Valley, Calif., where he was the assistant kitchen manager (similar to a sous chef). A year later he was transferred to the Hillstone Restaurant in New York City, where he was also assistant kitchen manager, before leaving the company in 2006 for the executive chef position at Halcyon Brasserie, a fine-dining spot in Montclair.
He worked there for a year before opening his own restaurant, the Red Hen Bistro in Wood-Ridge but sold the 35-seat French-American bistro three years later and became executive chef at the Oceanaire Seafood Room in September 2013.
Here, he talks about how to cook seafood, the key to a perfect lobster, and why he loves ramen noodles.
The secret to cooking seafood: Realizing that what you are cooking is very delicate. You have to approach it with medium heat and less [cook time], and when you pair it with flavors, be careful not to mask the essence of the fish. I try never to make fish with pasta dishes that have very robust, tomato sauces; it's like you're eating two different things.
Favorite fish: Skate wing. The taste is very buttery, almost steak-like. That with some dark winter greens is just phenomenal.
Toughest dish to cook at my restaurant: The hash browns. You have to have good technique to flip them over. Not everybody can pull it off.
Key to cooking a perfect lobster: Knowing the weight of the lobster tail, because that's going to tell you how many minutes it goes in the steamer or pot — it's about a minute per ounce. A 1 1/4-pound lobster usually has a six-ounce tail, so you want to go six to seven minutes.
Guilty pleasure: In college, my wife put me onto cheap, packaged, really spicy ramen noodles. One of those and an egg cracked into it, I'm in heaven. It's great.
Simplest tip to improve home cooking: It's always fine to start with high flame to warm up your pan, but the minute the protein or vegetables hit the pan, you should lower it to medium. Even when you want to sear something: If you leave it on high, you'll over-caramelize the surface, and the inside probably won't yet be cooked.
What diners would be surprised to learn about chefs: That we are a lot less intense when we're out to eat. I just want to eat something and enjoy it – I don't want to take it apart.
Favorite local restaurant: Café Matisse in Rutherford. Chef Peter Loria has a way of being playful with flavors … I can almost close my eyes and point [at the menu], it's always great.
How I know I'm being ripped off in a restaurant: When you get a luxury item at a price that's too good to be true, you have to wonder, because good food is expensive. It happens a lot unfortunately with scallops.
My culinary hero: My executive sous-chef Justin Manzi. Working with him is a pleasure — as soon as we start talking about food, it's energizing, and it creates such a good energy. And that's necessary to work in a kitchen.
More info: The Oceanaire Seafood Room, The Shops at Riverside, 390 Hackensack Ave.; 201-343-8862; the oceanaire.com. Appetizers: $6 to $37; entrées: $22 to $60.
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http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/chef-carlos-valdez-of-oceanaire-in-hackensack-talks-on-cooking-lobster-and-ramen-noodles-1.1263930
"I wanted certain things a certain way," says the 37-year-old executive chef of the Oceanaire Seafood Room in The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack. He'd question his mother if, say, the lasagna tasted a little different on a given day.
The Hawthorne native started his career at Houston's (in the same Hack- ensack mall) as a bartender part-time for four years while completing his bachelor's degree in culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. After graduation, he completed the management training program at the Hillstone Restaurant Group (Houston's parent company) and was transferred to the Rutherford Grill in Napa Valley, Calif., where he was the assistant kitchen manager (similar to a sous chef). A year later he was transferred to the Hillstone Restaurant in New York City, where he was also assistant kitchen manager, before leaving the company in 2006 for the executive chef position at Halcyon Brasserie, a fine-dining spot in Montclair.
He worked there for a year before opening his own restaurant, the Red Hen Bistro in Wood-Ridge but sold the 35-seat French-American bistro three years later and became executive chef at the Oceanaire Seafood Room in September 2013.
Here, he talks about how to cook seafood, the key to a perfect lobster, and why he loves ramen noodles.
The secret to cooking seafood: Realizing that what you are cooking is very delicate. You have to approach it with medium heat and less [cook time], and when you pair it with flavors, be careful not to mask the essence of the fish. I try never to make fish with pasta dishes that have very robust, tomato sauces; it's like you're eating two different things.
Favorite fish: Skate wing. The taste is very buttery, almost steak-like. That with some dark winter greens is just phenomenal.
Toughest dish to cook at my restaurant: The hash browns. You have to have good technique to flip them over. Not everybody can pull it off.
Key to cooking a perfect lobster: Knowing the weight of the lobster tail, because that's going to tell you how many minutes it goes in the steamer or pot — it's about a minute per ounce. A 1 1/4-pound lobster usually has a six-ounce tail, so you want to go six to seven minutes.
Guilty pleasure: In college, my wife put me onto cheap, packaged, really spicy ramen noodles. One of those and an egg cracked into it, I'm in heaven. It's great.
Simplest tip to improve home cooking: It's always fine to start with high flame to warm up your pan, but the minute the protein or vegetables hit the pan, you should lower it to medium. Even when you want to sear something: If you leave it on high, you'll over-caramelize the surface, and the inside probably won't yet be cooked.
What diners would be surprised to learn about chefs: That we are a lot less intense when we're out to eat. I just want to eat something and enjoy it – I don't want to take it apart.
Favorite local restaurant: Café Matisse in Rutherford. Chef Peter Loria has a way of being playful with flavors … I can almost close my eyes and point [at the menu], it's always great.
How I know I'm being ripped off in a restaurant: When you get a luxury item at a price that's too good to be true, you have to wonder, because good food is expensive. It happens a lot unfortunately with scallops.
My culinary hero: My executive sous-chef Justin Manzi. Working with him is a pleasure — as soon as we start talking about food, it's energizing, and it creates such a good energy. And that's necessary to work in a kitchen.
More info: The Oceanaire Seafood Room, The Shops at Riverside, 390 Hackensack Ave.; 201-343-8862; the oceanaire.com. Appetizers: $6 to $37; entrées: $22 to $60.
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http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/chef-carlos-valdez-of-oceanaire-in-hackensack-talks-on-cooking-lobster-and-ramen-noodles-1.1263930
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
TV reality star Rosie Pope teams with Valley Health System
Call Rosie Pope a pregnancy "expert," and she'd politely disagree.
"It's a dodgy title," said the 35-year-old London native, who recently moved to Ridgewood with her four children and husband. Yes, she may have been the star of Bravo's TV reality show, "Pregnant in Heels," in which she helped expectant New York City moms with most everything from choosing nannies and names to nursery décor. And, yes, she may have published "Mommy IQ: The Complete Guide to Pregnancy" — touted on Amazon as "the ultimate girlfriend's guide to pregnancy" — and launched "Conversations with Rosie Pope," a series of YouTube vignettes on a variety of subjects, from how to ban the pacifier to sex after pregnancy. And, yes, she may have two maternity and kids clothing-and-accessory lines — Rosie Pope Maternity and Rosie Pope Baby — and three stores (two in New York City and one in Santa Monica, Calif.) to sell the stuff.
But an expert?
"I'm more of a friend, or translator," Pope said, adding: "You know what I'm an expert at? Being honest, and talking about my problems. That helps people sort through their problems. I have no filter."
Thin, blond and unpretentious, Pope, who uses her hands a lot when talking, has a talent for taking what could be serious points about the nerve-wracking pressures of raising a child and turning them into animated, laughter-inducing snippets — like when she throws herself around to simulate a mother's guilt about buying a kid the wrong sweat pants ("Oh my God, he's going to be so unhappy at school and everyone is going to tease him!") or riffs in her rapid-fire way about celebrity moms that spout "kooky" theories about parenting ("I'm going to chew my food up and spit it into my baby's mouth!" "I'm going to eat my placenta!")
That unabashed frankness and easygoing humor are the reasons for her appeal, said Danielle King, an executive producer for Bravo TV who became close with Pope while she was filming "Pregnant in Heels."
"She gives mothers permission to be themselves — flaws and all," King said. "And you feel safe asking her all those crazy questions you might not feel comfortable asking anyone else — she provides a wealth of knowledge and absolutely no judgment."
Pope's husband Daron — they married in 2006 — worked for Lehman Brothers on Wall Street before becoming president and CEO of his wife's company. He attributes his wife's success to the fact that, he said, "she's mindful that every parent's experience and every household equation is different, and yet she's also very real — she opens up, and allows people to understand that she, too, is not perfect."
This is exactly what attracted the Ridgewood-based Valley Health System to collaborate with Pope on a new campaign that launched in January to promote pregnancy health and wellness, said Maureen Curran Kleinman, Valley's media relations and social media coordinator.
"Rosie's philosophy is very non-judgmental, informative and entertaining," she said, "which is very much in mind with our programs."
As part of that collaboration, Pope will provide educational information and personal posts on Valley's Fertility Center and Center for Childbirth Facebook pages, and be the keynote speaker at three events hosted by Thrive!, Valley's free membership program for women. Although she'll touch on a variety of subjects, Pope's message to moms tends to be uniform: have confidence in your decisions, and understand that you're going to make mistakes — and that's OK.
"It's the one thing you'll do that you want to do better than anything else, so you get nervous — it's like taking the biggest exam of your life," Pope said. "But I tell people that's a good thing, because it's a sign you care. They're going to do some things wrong, but that doesn't mean you're a bad parent."
Pope, an only child, always knew she wanted a big family. She came to America at age 18 for her "gap year" between high school and college, and never went home — she spent the next four years modeling and ballet dancing in New York City before "realizing I needed an education" and enrolling in Columbia University at age 22. Four years later, she graduated with an undergraduate degree in neuroscience, but six months of research work convinced her that the lab wasn't for her.
"I liked it, I just didn't see myself doing it forever," she said.
So she got a job at A Pea in the Pod, a chain that sells trendy maternity clothes, and used her time on the sales floor to explore whether or not there'd be a market for the new, fashionable maternity line she wanted to start. Using the skills she learned from her grandmother, who taught her to make clothes, she began designing dresses, one at a time, for pregnant women attending galas or balls, and later got a small group of investors together to fund the creation of Rosie Pope Maternity in 2008. Two years later she launched MomPrep, a roster of classes and workshops on pregnancy and parenting taught out of the stores, and Rosie Pope Baby followed in 2014.
Major career changes seem to be a family trait — her father was a successful geophysicist who, at age 36, became a professional dancer before going into construction in his late 40s, and her mother, a trained dentist, is a consultant in complex healthcare systems.
"It didn't seem strange to me to go from studying science at Columbia to making maternity clothes … [my parents] really taught me that if you believe in something, do it."
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http://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/tv-reality-star-rosie-pope-teams-with-valley-health-system-1.1263959
"It's a dodgy title," said the 35-year-old London native, who recently moved to Ridgewood with her four children and husband. Yes, she may have been the star of Bravo's TV reality show, "Pregnant in Heels," in which she helped expectant New York City moms with most everything from choosing nannies and names to nursery décor. And, yes, she may have published "Mommy IQ: The Complete Guide to Pregnancy" — touted on Amazon as "the ultimate girlfriend's guide to pregnancy" — and launched "Conversations with Rosie Pope," a series of YouTube vignettes on a variety of subjects, from how to ban the pacifier to sex after pregnancy. And, yes, she may have two maternity and kids clothing-and-accessory lines — Rosie Pope Maternity and Rosie Pope Baby — and three stores (two in New York City and one in Santa Monica, Calif.) to sell the stuff.
But an expert?
"I'm more of a friend, or translator," Pope said, adding: "You know what I'm an expert at? Being honest, and talking about my problems. That helps people sort through their problems. I have no filter."
Thin, blond and unpretentious, Pope, who uses her hands a lot when talking, has a talent for taking what could be serious points about the nerve-wracking pressures of raising a child and turning them into animated, laughter-inducing snippets — like when she throws herself around to simulate a mother's guilt about buying a kid the wrong sweat pants ("Oh my God, he's going to be so unhappy at school and everyone is going to tease him!") or riffs in her rapid-fire way about celebrity moms that spout "kooky" theories about parenting ("I'm going to chew my food up and spit it into my baby's mouth!" "I'm going to eat my placenta!")
That unabashed frankness and easygoing humor are the reasons for her appeal, said Danielle King, an executive producer for Bravo TV who became close with Pope while she was filming "Pregnant in Heels."
"She gives mothers permission to be themselves — flaws and all," King said. "And you feel safe asking her all those crazy questions you might not feel comfortable asking anyone else — she provides a wealth of knowledge and absolutely no judgment."
Pope's husband Daron — they married in 2006 — worked for Lehman Brothers on Wall Street before becoming president and CEO of his wife's company. He attributes his wife's success to the fact that, he said, "she's mindful that every parent's experience and every household equation is different, and yet she's also very real — she opens up, and allows people to understand that she, too, is not perfect."
This is exactly what attracted the Ridgewood-based Valley Health System to collaborate with Pope on a new campaign that launched in January to promote pregnancy health and wellness, said Maureen Curran Kleinman, Valley's media relations and social media coordinator.
"Rosie's philosophy is very non-judgmental, informative and entertaining," she said, "which is very much in mind with our programs."
As part of that collaboration, Pope will provide educational information and personal posts on Valley's Fertility Center and Center for Childbirth Facebook pages, and be the keynote speaker at three events hosted by Thrive!, Valley's free membership program for women. Although she'll touch on a variety of subjects, Pope's message to moms tends to be uniform: have confidence in your decisions, and understand that you're going to make mistakes — and that's OK.
"It's the one thing you'll do that you want to do better than anything else, so you get nervous — it's like taking the biggest exam of your life," Pope said. "But I tell people that's a good thing, because it's a sign you care. They're going to do some things wrong, but that doesn't mean you're a bad parent."
Pope, an only child, always knew she wanted a big family. She came to America at age 18 for her "gap year" between high school and college, and never went home — she spent the next four years modeling and ballet dancing in New York City before "realizing I needed an education" and enrolling in Columbia University at age 22. Four years later, she graduated with an undergraduate degree in neuroscience, but six months of research work convinced her that the lab wasn't for her.
"I liked it, I just didn't see myself doing it forever," she said.
So she got a job at A Pea in the Pod, a chain that sells trendy maternity clothes, and used her time on the sales floor to explore whether or not there'd be a market for the new, fashionable maternity line she wanted to start. Using the skills she learned from her grandmother, who taught her to make clothes, she began designing dresses, one at a time, for pregnant women attending galas or balls, and later got a small group of investors together to fund the creation of Rosie Pope Maternity in 2008. Two years later she launched MomPrep, a roster of classes and workshops on pregnancy and parenting taught out of the stores, and Rosie Pope Baby followed in 2014.
Major career changes seem to be a family trait — her father was a successful geophysicist who, at age 36, became a professional dancer before going into construction in his late 40s, and her mother, a trained dentist, is a consultant in complex healthcare systems.
"It didn't seem strange to me to go from studying science at Columbia to making maternity clothes … [my parents] really taught me that if you believe in something, do it."
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http://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/tv-reality-star-rosie-pope-teams-with-valley-health-system-1.1263959
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Cholesterol might not be the villain we've been told it is
For decades, cholesterol has been considered one of the great evils of the dietary world. It's a major factor in heart disease, we were told, and the higher your levels, the higher your risk. So eat the egg whites but throw out that cholesterol-laden yolk, and don't you dare go near that lobster or shrimp unless you want to turn your arteries into little cement-filled tubes.
But with the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's declaration that cholesterol is "not considered a nutrient of concern for over-consumption," that advice might be thrown in the garbage itself.
The statement worked its way into a December draft report issued by the committee, which provides recommendations for the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans that are issued jointly by the secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and updated every five years.
The final 2015 report hasn't been issued yet — it's expected to be released in a few weeks — but even the advisory committee's preliminary statement might be enough to make even the most health-conscientious Americans throw their hands up in frustration. The last time the guidelines were updated in 2010, they considered consuming less dietary cholesterol a "major goal" for Americans, and advised less than 300 mg per day (an egg has about 186 mg).
So why the turnaround?
Recent (and not-so-recent) medical research. Studies are showing that cholesterol might not be the culprit we've been told it was for the past 40 years. For instance, a national study issued in 2009 by UCLA found that nearly 75 percent of patients hospitalized by a heart attack had cholesterol levels "that would indicate they were not at high risk for a cardiovascular event," and close to half had LDL ("bad" cholesterol) levels classified as "optimal."
One article, published in 2010 in Current Atherosclerosis Reports, noted that recent studies documented the "lack of effect of dietary cholesterol on [cardiovascular heart disease] risk, suggesting that guidelines for dietary cholesterol should be revisited." Another study, published in 2013, "suggests that egg consumption is not associated with the risk of CVD and cardiac mortality in the general population."
Jennifer Haythe, M.D., assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology, Center for Advanced Cardiac Care at Columbia University Medical Center, said that this research is showing that "maybe cholesterol isn't the bad guy."
Nate E. Lebowitz, M.D., a cardiologist with the Advanced Cardiology Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center Cardiovascular Partners Plus, said cholesterol itself doesn't cause disease — after all, our livers produce about 75 percent of the cholesterol in our bodies, and we need that waxy, fat-like substance because it helps our bodies make vitamin D, hormones and the substances that help digest foods.
What actually creates problems for the heart are the lipoproteins, which are the particles that shuttle cholesterol through the bloodstream, Lebowitz said. For many years, though, there wasn't a good way to break down lipoprotein counts in the doctor's office, and so the cholesterol test was used as a sort of general indicator. This led to the concept of "good" cholesterol (high-density lipoproteins, or HDL) and "bad" cholesterol (low-density lipoproteins, or LDL), and the utterly simplified story that went something like this: LDL particles collect in the arteries, and HDL particles "scrub" them off. So you want more HDL cholesterol because it keeps your arteries clear, and the better your ratio of HDL-to-LDL is, the safer you are.
But, Lebowitz said, the standard cholesterol blood test was "a very poor attempt" to represent what was going on, because there's actually different types of LDL particles — the small, dense kind that worm their way into artery walls and cause plaque buildup, and the larger, less dangerous types that are less likely to do that.
So even though higher LDL numbers aren't particularly good — the more total LDL floating around, the higher the likelihood that some will be the more threatening type — treatment should depend on what type of particle is present, he said.
For instance, two brothers could have the exact same LDL count, Lebowitz said, but depending on the type of LDL particle, one could be at "incredibly high-risk" while the other, not so much — but on the old test, you'd never know which brother had which type. Newer tests are now readily available, however, and they'll break down what types of lipoprotein particles are present, leading to more individualized treatment, he said.
Jeffrey Matican, M.D., chief of cardiology and medical staff president at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, added that overall cholesterol counts are the "least important" of the numbers given to patients, and traditional factors like age, weight, or an individual's history of smoking or diabetes, as well as the type of LDLs present, are better for assessing risk.
"There's a disconnect quite often — someone can have very good LDL cholesterol, but their particle numbers are very high, and they have a lot of small, dense particles ... And I've had people with reasonably high LDL cholesterol, but their lipoprotein particles are very low. And those people you don't really have to treat, because the things that are invading the [artery] walls are the lipoprotein particles — not the cholesterol."
So is it time to change your diet once more?
First, understand that your genes play a much greater role in your cholesterol level than your diet.
"Whether what you're eating actually changes the blood concentration [of cholesterol] seems to be what's called into question here," Haythe said. "It may be more genetically geared."
"I don't think that dietary cholesterol is much of an issue at all," said Lebowitz with the Advanced Cardiology Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center. Genetics, he said, are a better predictor of cholesterol levels than how many eggs one has for breakfast.
So, if you've been avoiding eggs and shrimp like the plague for heart health, then yes, you can relax on that (unless you're diabetic, in which case experts advise to keep avoiding cholesterol). But, like every dietary dictum, this one comes with the caveat that moderation is best, because overindulging in high-cholesterol foods carries its own risks. You may be hypersensitive to dietary cholesterol (which means that what you eat actually does affect the cholesterol levels in your blood), and many high-cholesterol foods like steak, cheese, onion rings, and ice cream, are also loaded with saturated fat — still (as of now) a dietary no-no.
And the real villains — experts say — are simple carbohydrates like sugar, white bread, pasta and corn syrup, which, they note, while low in cholesterol and fat, have led to increases in obesity, diabetes, and blood pressure, and cause inflammation in the arteries.
Matican said that those who eat a low-carbohydrate diet will likely have less to worry about than those who eat a higher-carbohydrate diet.
Dr. Roger Blumenthal, director of the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease and co-chairman of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Prevention Guidelines Committee, said that the best advice is the same advice that doctors and nutritionists have been repeating for generations: Eat a well-balanced diet heavy on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in things like fish, nuts and olive oil, while limiting red meat, fried foods and sugary desserts.
"A vegetarian diet is best, but probably not practical for most Americans," Blumenthal said. "But doing things in moderation — that's more practical."
-
http://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/cholesterol-might-not-be-the-villain-we-ve-been-told-it-is-1.1273168?page=all
But with the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's declaration that cholesterol is "not considered a nutrient of concern for over-consumption," that advice might be thrown in the garbage itself.
The statement worked its way into a December draft report issued by the committee, which provides recommendations for the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans that are issued jointly by the secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and updated every five years.
The final 2015 report hasn't been issued yet — it's expected to be released in a few weeks — but even the advisory committee's preliminary statement might be enough to make even the most health-conscientious Americans throw their hands up in frustration. The last time the guidelines were updated in 2010, they considered consuming less dietary cholesterol a "major goal" for Americans, and advised less than 300 mg per day (an egg has about 186 mg).
So why the turnaround?
Recent (and not-so-recent) medical research. Studies are showing that cholesterol might not be the culprit we've been told it was for the past 40 years. For instance, a national study issued in 2009 by UCLA found that nearly 75 percent of patients hospitalized by a heart attack had cholesterol levels "that would indicate they were not at high risk for a cardiovascular event," and close to half had LDL ("bad" cholesterol) levels classified as "optimal."
One article, published in 2010 in Current Atherosclerosis Reports, noted that recent studies documented the "lack of effect of dietary cholesterol on [cardiovascular heart disease] risk, suggesting that guidelines for dietary cholesterol should be revisited." Another study, published in 2013, "suggests that egg consumption is not associated with the risk of CVD and cardiac mortality in the general population."
Jennifer Haythe, M.D., assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology, Center for Advanced Cardiac Care at Columbia University Medical Center, said that this research is showing that "maybe cholesterol isn't the bad guy."
Nate E. Lebowitz, M.D., a cardiologist with the Advanced Cardiology Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center Cardiovascular Partners Plus, said cholesterol itself doesn't cause disease — after all, our livers produce about 75 percent of the cholesterol in our bodies, and we need that waxy, fat-like substance because it helps our bodies make vitamin D, hormones and the substances that help digest foods.
What actually creates problems for the heart are the lipoproteins, which are the particles that shuttle cholesterol through the bloodstream, Lebowitz said. For many years, though, there wasn't a good way to break down lipoprotein counts in the doctor's office, and so the cholesterol test was used as a sort of general indicator. This led to the concept of "good" cholesterol (high-density lipoproteins, or HDL) and "bad" cholesterol (low-density lipoproteins, or LDL), and the utterly simplified story that went something like this: LDL particles collect in the arteries, and HDL particles "scrub" them off. So you want more HDL cholesterol because it keeps your arteries clear, and the better your ratio of HDL-to-LDL is, the safer you are.
But, Lebowitz said, the standard cholesterol blood test was "a very poor attempt" to represent what was going on, because there's actually different types of LDL particles — the small, dense kind that worm their way into artery walls and cause plaque buildup, and the larger, less dangerous types that are less likely to do that.
So even though higher LDL numbers aren't particularly good — the more total LDL floating around, the higher the likelihood that some will be the more threatening type — treatment should depend on what type of particle is present, he said.
For instance, two brothers could have the exact same LDL count, Lebowitz said, but depending on the type of LDL particle, one could be at "incredibly high-risk" while the other, not so much — but on the old test, you'd never know which brother had which type. Newer tests are now readily available, however, and they'll break down what types of lipoprotein particles are present, leading to more individualized treatment, he said.
Jeffrey Matican, M.D., chief of cardiology and medical staff president at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, added that overall cholesterol counts are the "least important" of the numbers given to patients, and traditional factors like age, weight, or an individual's history of smoking or diabetes, as well as the type of LDLs present, are better for assessing risk.
"There's a disconnect quite often — someone can have very good LDL cholesterol, but their particle numbers are very high, and they have a lot of small, dense particles ... And I've had people with reasonably high LDL cholesterol, but their lipoprotein particles are very low. And those people you don't really have to treat, because the things that are invading the [artery] walls are the lipoprotein particles — not the cholesterol."
So is it time to change your diet once more?
First, understand that your genes play a much greater role in your cholesterol level than your diet.
"Whether what you're eating actually changes the blood concentration [of cholesterol] seems to be what's called into question here," Haythe said. "It may be more genetically geared."
"I don't think that dietary cholesterol is much of an issue at all," said Lebowitz with the Advanced Cardiology Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center. Genetics, he said, are a better predictor of cholesterol levels than how many eggs one has for breakfast.
So, if you've been avoiding eggs and shrimp like the plague for heart health, then yes, you can relax on that (unless you're diabetic, in which case experts advise to keep avoiding cholesterol). But, like every dietary dictum, this one comes with the caveat that moderation is best, because overindulging in high-cholesterol foods carries its own risks. You may be hypersensitive to dietary cholesterol (which means that what you eat actually does affect the cholesterol levels in your blood), and many high-cholesterol foods like steak, cheese, onion rings, and ice cream, are also loaded with saturated fat — still (as of now) a dietary no-no.
And the real villains — experts say — are simple carbohydrates like sugar, white bread, pasta and corn syrup, which, they note, while low in cholesterol and fat, have led to increases in obesity, diabetes, and blood pressure, and cause inflammation in the arteries.
Matican said that those who eat a low-carbohydrate diet will likely have less to worry about than those who eat a higher-carbohydrate diet.
Dr. Roger Blumenthal, director of the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease and co-chairman of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Prevention Guidelines Committee, said that the best advice is the same advice that doctors and nutritionists have been repeating for generations: Eat a well-balanced diet heavy on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in things like fish, nuts and olive oil, while limiting red meat, fried foods and sugary desserts.
"A vegetarian diet is best, but probably not practical for most Americans," Blumenthal said. "But doing things in moderation — that's more practical."
-
http://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/cholesterol-might-not-be-the-villain-we-ve-been-told-it-is-1.1273168?page=all
Monday, February 23, 2015
Here's looking at YouTube; video-sharing site turns 10
 |
| Psy's video for "Gangnam Style" spread wildly on YouTube |
Valentine's Day marks the 10th anniversary of YouTube — that's right, it's a decade old — and in that time, the revolutionary video-sharing site has morphed from a place you'd find slow-loading music videos and blurry clips of snowboarding accidents to the wildly popular central hub of all online video sharing.
And although "viral videos" were nothing new when the site went live (before YouTube, they spread via the now-ancient "email chain"), it became far easier to upload a video and share it with an audience of millions. This led to a fundamental change in how we viewed things online, and created stars that might not have shined otherwise.
Here are five stars who owe some (or all) of their success to YouTube, and five viral videos it helped launch.
The people:
Justin Bieber
Yes, we have YouTube to thank for Justin Bieber — the Canadian-born singer/songwriter was discovered by manager Scooter Braun through his YouTube videos in 2008, and Braun put Bieber in touch with Usher. The rest, as they say, is history. Five chart-topping albums later, and the 20-year-old has sold millions of records, been nominated for two Grammys, and is nearly impossible to avoid. Thanks YouTube. Thanks a lot.
Susan Boyle
The 47-year-old Scottish singer didn't look like much when she took the stage for "Britain's Got Talent" in 2009, but when she sang her heart-stopping rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Les Misérables," eyes widened and jaws dropped. Tens of millions of viewers on both sides of the pond watched the clip, and although Boyle didn't win the competition (she came in second), her appearance led to a record deal, two Grammy nominations and several tours. To date, the YouTube clip of Boyle singing "I Dreamed a Dream" has nearly 165 million hits.
Psy
Psy was already a pop icon in South Korea when the video for his irresistibly catchy single "Gangnam Style" exploded onto Western computer screens in August 2012. The flashy-yet-humorous video was punctuated by Psy's now-legendary dancing, and it became the first on YouTube to break 1 billion total views. Now, Gangnam Style has more than twice that — it's at 2,235,839,131 — and its success forced YouTube to upgrade its view counter, which previously topped out at around 2.1 billion.
Carly Rae Jepsen
It might not be brilliant — far from it, in fact — but it's hard to deny the poppy, light-hearted appeal of Carly Rae Jepsen's hit "Call Me Maybe." It was released as a single in Canada in September 2011 but didn't get international attention until Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, who heard it on a Canadian radio station while on vacation, tweeted about it four months later. The song immediately exploded — as did the video — and in the time since, it's gotten 640 million views.
Judy Travis
What started with a 2008 hair tutorial by then-college student Judy Travis on how to get "beachy waves w/ a flat iron" has turned into Its JudyTime, a series in which Travis explains the finer points of such crucial subjects as hair, makeup and skin care in hundreds of easily digestible lessons. Seven years after her first clip, over a million users subscribe to her several YouTube channels, and she has 350 million total views — a bona-fide YouTube celebrity.
The moments:
Miss South Carolina
Maybe it was the wrong thing to ask at a beauty pageant, but watching 2007's Miss South Carolina Teen USA Caitlin Upton stumble through a rambling, cringe-worthy response to the question of why a fifth of Americans can't locate the United States on a world map left many stunned. Her painful soliloquy, which incorporated Iraq, South Africa and something about a lack of maps, has been viewed well over 74 million times and inspired countless parody videos and internet memes.
Charlie Sheen
When Charlie Sheen sat down with ABC's Andrea Canning in 2011, he seemed intent on proving that he had, in fact, given up drugs. By the time the interview was over, his scattered answers and manic demeanor convinced the world of the exact opposite — not to mention giving us new phrases like "bi-winning" and "tiger blood." The YouTube videos (there are several) got millions of views as Sheen's apparent breakdown dominated headlines for months.
'Thriller' in the prison yard
When prison supervisor Byron Garcia uploaded the video of about 1,500 inmates at the maximum-security Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines doing a flawless imitation of the zombie dancing from Michael Jackson's "Thriller," he probably didn't think it would become quite as popular as it has. But at its peak, the 2007 video was one of the most popular on the Internet; it's gotten 54 million total views to date.
'Pants on the Ground'
When "General" Larry Platt sang his song "Pants on the Ground" at a 2010 "American Idol" audition, the eternally surly judge Simon Cowell said he had "a horrible feeling that song could be a hit." Cowell nailed it: Since that audition, the YouTube video has received 9 1/2 million hits, and for a brief while, it seemed everyone was singing Platt's tune, which relied mostly on the simple lyrics of — you guessed it — "pants on the ground."
The Rickroll
It's a classic bait-and-switch prank that began on the Internet bulletin board 4Chan in 2007 but slowly took over the Web: Post a link to a video of something someone might want to see, like a movie preview or news clip, but actually link it to Rick Astley's 1987 single "Never Gonna Give You Up." Known as "Rickrolling," it became so prevalent that on April Fools' Day 2008, YouTube Rickrolled its own users by making all of the videos on its homepage link to the song. The prank breathed new life into a long dead song, and reminded us of just how bad '80s pop really could be.
-
http://www.northjersey.com/news/here-s-looking-at-youtube-video-sharing-site-turns-10-1.1271457
Are superfoods actually super?
First it was blueberries, spinach and salmon. Then it was wheatgrass, green tea and any kind of nut. Now it's kale, quinoa and pumpkin seeds. Next week — who knows?
If you're confounded by the number of foods that have been named "superfoods" over the years, you're not alone. It seems that every six months, some obscure vegetable or oddly colored drink is pushed as the cure-all for everything that ails us, all the while promising to prevent Alzheimer's, ward off cancer and keep us living well into our eighth or ninth decade.
And it's worked — for the vendors, at least. According to the market research firm Global Industry Analysts, the worldwide market for superfoods, which is fueled primarily by baby boomers with disposable income and a desire to stay healthy and live long, is expected to reach $130 billion in 2015.
But are the foods all they're cracked up to be? Or is it just a ploy to keep us searching the shelves at our supermarkets for the next big thing?
The European Union took a definitive stance in 2007 when it banned use of the term "superfood" on packaging unless the claim could be supported by scientific evidence. The United States has no such ban, however, and while there's general consensus as to what the word refers to — a food that's rich in vitamins, antioxidants or other nutrients — it's still "purely a marketing term," said Dr. Ilya Raskin, a professor at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.
"In some cases, what is touted as a superfood may have some advantages over conventional foods — you will not hear that term associated with what we know is bad for you, like fat-loaded junk food," Raskin said. "But I do think it has a misleading ring to it."
Superfoods have been bestowed with "mythological" powers, he said, and although some of these are science-based and quantifiable (blueberries, often placed in the superfood category, have demonstrated benefits for those with such health conditions as metabolic syndrome, but apparently so do strawberries and cranberries), they don't take into account a person's individual needs.
For instance, grapes and watermelon may be packed with nutrients and antioxidants, but they're also high in sugar. That might not be a problem for the average person, but for those with diabetes, it can present a "clear danger," he said.
Green tea is a similar case. Numerous Internet articles claim that the drink can prevent cancer, lower blood pressure and fight off everything from diabetes to tooth decay. But while there is some evidence to support certain claims (such as a 2014 study that found that green tea may benefit cognitive function), other studies have had mixed results, and the Food and Drug Administration won't allow labels to say the drink can reduce risk of heart disease or cancer.
Furthermore, there is evidence that the concentrated doses of green tea extract found in some supplements could actually do harm to the liver.
But still, no one will say that drinking a normal amount of green tea is bad for you, and that might be the biggest benefit of the superfood craze: Instead of being bombarded with marketing from companies that are trying to make unhealthy things sound healthy, superfoods actually are healthy — even if it's not in the overblown way advertisers want us to believe.
Janet Brancato, a registered dietitian and community educator at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, pointed out that a little good publicity for things like broccoli or cauliflower isn't necessarily a bad thing. "[It's] a marketing term for healthy food, and I think it's helped to make it more popular and trendy," she said.
But potential problems can arise when consumers either eat too much of one thing (for some, blueberries can cause serious gastrointestinal distress, and too much kale may cause or exacerbate hypothyroidism), or ignore fruits and vegetables that haven't received that label; blueberries are marketed as superfood, even though there's no evidence that they're any more "super" than strawberries, apples or blood oranges.
Susan Kraus, a clinical dietitian with the Hackensack University Medical Center, said that diversity in food selection is more important than focusing on any individual item.
"People will label anything as a superfood … but we need a good 50-plus nutrients a day, so it's not just one food that we want to hone in on," she said.
And Dr. Patricia Murphy, a cardiologist at Westwood Cardiology, said no one food holds a monopoly over heart health, which comes more from eating a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables.
"The benefit [of superfoods] are exaggerated, but it's good for people to think about what they're eating and make healthy choices," she said. "I still think that the advice from [author] Michael Pollan is the best: 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.' "
So will washing down a steady diet of kale and quinoa with gallons of green tea keep us disease-free? No, probably not. Raskin said that for the best results, the old advice is still the best: Talk to a physician or nutritionist about what diet best suits you. And ignore the next round of articles on "must-eat" foods.
"I try to eat healthy according to the recommendations of dietitians and physicians, and maintain a healthy diet emphasizing sufficient servings of fruits and vegetables," he said. "And that kind of basic nutritional advice will trump any specific superfood at any time."
-
http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/food-news/getting-real-about-superfood-love-1.1192281
If you're confounded by the number of foods that have been named "superfoods" over the years, you're not alone. It seems that every six months, some obscure vegetable or oddly colored drink is pushed as the cure-all for everything that ails us, all the while promising to prevent Alzheimer's, ward off cancer and keep us living well into our eighth or ninth decade.
And it's worked — for the vendors, at least. According to the market research firm Global Industry Analysts, the worldwide market for superfoods, which is fueled primarily by baby boomers with disposable income and a desire to stay healthy and live long, is expected to reach $130 billion in 2015.
But are the foods all they're cracked up to be? Or is it just a ploy to keep us searching the shelves at our supermarkets for the next big thing?
The European Union took a definitive stance in 2007 when it banned use of the term "superfood" on packaging unless the claim could be supported by scientific evidence. The United States has no such ban, however, and while there's general consensus as to what the word refers to — a food that's rich in vitamins, antioxidants or other nutrients — it's still "purely a marketing term," said Dr. Ilya Raskin, a professor at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.
"In some cases, what is touted as a superfood may have some advantages over conventional foods — you will not hear that term associated with what we know is bad for you, like fat-loaded junk food," Raskin said. "But I do think it has a misleading ring to it."
Superfoods have been bestowed with "mythological" powers, he said, and although some of these are science-based and quantifiable (blueberries, often placed in the superfood category, have demonstrated benefits for those with such health conditions as metabolic syndrome, but apparently so do strawberries and cranberries), they don't take into account a person's individual needs.
For instance, grapes and watermelon may be packed with nutrients and antioxidants, but they're also high in sugar. That might not be a problem for the average person, but for those with diabetes, it can present a "clear danger," he said.
Green tea is a similar case. Numerous Internet articles claim that the drink can prevent cancer, lower blood pressure and fight off everything from diabetes to tooth decay. But while there is some evidence to support certain claims (such as a 2014 study that found that green tea may benefit cognitive function), other studies have had mixed results, and the Food and Drug Administration won't allow labels to say the drink can reduce risk of heart disease or cancer.
Furthermore, there is evidence that the concentrated doses of green tea extract found in some supplements could actually do harm to the liver.
But still, no one will say that drinking a normal amount of green tea is bad for you, and that might be the biggest benefit of the superfood craze: Instead of being bombarded with marketing from companies that are trying to make unhealthy things sound healthy, superfoods actually are healthy — even if it's not in the overblown way advertisers want us to believe.
Janet Brancato, a registered dietitian and community educator at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, pointed out that a little good publicity for things like broccoli or cauliflower isn't necessarily a bad thing. "[It's] a marketing term for healthy food, and I think it's helped to make it more popular and trendy," she said.
But potential problems can arise when consumers either eat too much of one thing (for some, blueberries can cause serious gastrointestinal distress, and too much kale may cause or exacerbate hypothyroidism), or ignore fruits and vegetables that haven't received that label; blueberries are marketed as superfood, even though there's no evidence that they're any more "super" than strawberries, apples or blood oranges.
Susan Kraus, a clinical dietitian with the Hackensack University Medical Center, said that diversity in food selection is more important than focusing on any individual item.
"People will label anything as a superfood … but we need a good 50-plus nutrients a day, so it's not just one food that we want to hone in on," she said.
And Dr. Patricia Murphy, a cardiologist at Westwood Cardiology, said no one food holds a monopoly over heart health, which comes more from eating a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables.
"The benefit [of superfoods] are exaggerated, but it's good for people to think about what they're eating and make healthy choices," she said. "I still think that the advice from [author] Michael Pollan is the best: 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.' "
So will washing down a steady diet of kale and quinoa with gallons of green tea keep us disease-free? No, probably not. Raskin said that for the best results, the old advice is still the best: Talk to a physician or nutritionist about what diet best suits you. And ignore the next round of articles on "must-eat" foods.
"I try to eat healthy according to the recommendations of dietitians and physicians, and maintain a healthy diet emphasizing sufficient servings of fruits and vegetables," he said. "And that kind of basic nutritional advice will trump any specific superfood at any time."
-
http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/food-news/getting-real-about-superfood-love-1.1192281
The dos and don'ts of gym etiquette
It's the first month of the new year, and that means your gym is loaded with new faces.
That's not bad, of course, but it does mean that there will be people who don't know the unwritten rules that many (but, alas, not all) gym-goers live by. So consider this a crash-course in how not to drive fellow weightlifters and cardio addicts insane, good for both gym newbies and gym rats who might have forgotten a thing or two.
* Wipe down your equipment when you're done with it. Use an antibacterial wipe if you can (many gyms provide them) or a towel if you can't. Because if there's one thing that drives everyone crazy, it's sitting down to use a machine only to find that someone else has left sweat — or worse — all over it.
Geoffrey Small, a retired 74-year-old from Fair Lawn, recently was at Gold's Gym in Paramus when he saw someone "sneeze all over" a machine and then walk away.
"You're spreading germs, especially at this time of year," he said.
Brenda Eickmeyer, an accountant from Ridgewood, said she goes to the gym after lunchtime specifically because it's slower — fewer people means fewer machines sullied. "Everything should be clean," she said.
* Re-rack your weights when done. Don't leave dumbbells on the floor, or stacks of 45 pound plates heaped on machines. People want to do their own workout — not clean up after yours.
Jaroslav Waznee, a 64-year-old professional trainer from Suffern, N.Y., said that no matter where he goes — he's worked out in gyms from Bergen County to San Diego — this is always a problem.
"They'll leave weights and other pieces of equipment laying around on the floor where you can trip over them," he said. "They become a hazard. And men will leave heavy plates on a leg press machine, and then women will have trouble taking them off. It's really rude and inconvenient."
* Don't use your cellphone. Do everyone a favor and leave it in the locker room.
Eric Thomas, 37-year-old owner/operator of Snap Fitness in Mahwah, called this his biggest pet peeve. "It distracts other people, and I think it's inconsiderate," he said. You're here to work out — do your workout. No one wants to be walking on a treadmill and hear someone yelling about what they had for dinner last night on a cellphone next to them."
* Use perfume and cologne sparingly. People who wear too much cologne or perfume can make it unpleasant for others, although Waznee said that some people, especially those who come right from work, might not notice how much they're wearing.
"When they perspire, it becomes even stronger, and some people are allergic to those smells," he said. "It gets obnoxious."
Joe Nici, a 58-year-old businessman from Bridgewater, added that taking deep breaths around perfume abusers "can really kill you," he said.
"It's usually the kind that you buy at the five-and-dime in the big bottles."
* Don't slam barbells or dumbbells on the floor. Slamming, Chris Reyes, a 42-year-old retired police officer, "is ridiculous. Even with headphones, it just scares you."
When asked if he was guilty of any offenses himself, he smiled sheepishly.
"I sing," he said. "You can't hear yourself! And then people look at you and you say, 'Oops … that was loud.' "
--
http://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/know-the-unwritten-rules-of-the-gym-1.1232537
That's not bad, of course, but it does mean that there will be people who don't know the unwritten rules that many (but, alas, not all) gym-goers live by. So consider this a crash-course in how not to drive fellow weightlifters and cardio addicts insane, good for both gym newbies and gym rats who might have forgotten a thing or two.
 |
| Photo by Steve Janoski |
* Wipe down your equipment when you're done with it. Use an antibacterial wipe if you can (many gyms provide them) or a towel if you can't. Because if there's one thing that drives everyone crazy, it's sitting down to use a machine only to find that someone else has left sweat — or worse — all over it.
Geoffrey Small, a retired 74-year-old from Fair Lawn, recently was at Gold's Gym in Paramus when he saw someone "sneeze all over" a machine and then walk away.
"You're spreading germs, especially at this time of year," he said.
Brenda Eickmeyer, an accountant from Ridgewood, said she goes to the gym after lunchtime specifically because it's slower — fewer people means fewer machines sullied. "Everything should be clean," she said.
* Re-rack your weights when done. Don't leave dumbbells on the floor, or stacks of 45 pound plates heaped on machines. People want to do their own workout — not clean up after yours.
Jaroslav Waznee, a 64-year-old professional trainer from Suffern, N.Y., said that no matter where he goes — he's worked out in gyms from Bergen County to San Diego — this is always a problem.
"They'll leave weights and other pieces of equipment laying around on the floor where you can trip over them," he said. "They become a hazard. And men will leave heavy plates on a leg press machine, and then women will have trouble taking them off. It's really rude and inconvenient."
* Don't use your cellphone. Do everyone a favor and leave it in the locker room.
Eric Thomas, 37-year-old owner/operator of Snap Fitness in Mahwah, called this his biggest pet peeve. "It distracts other people, and I think it's inconsiderate," he said. You're here to work out — do your workout. No one wants to be walking on a treadmill and hear someone yelling about what they had for dinner last night on a cellphone next to them."
* Use perfume and cologne sparingly. People who wear too much cologne or perfume can make it unpleasant for others, although Waznee said that some people, especially those who come right from work, might not notice how much they're wearing.
"When they perspire, it becomes even stronger, and some people are allergic to those smells," he said. "It gets obnoxious."
Joe Nici, a 58-year-old businessman from Bridgewater, added that taking deep breaths around perfume abusers "can really kill you," he said.
"It's usually the kind that you buy at the five-and-dime in the big bottles."
* Don't slam barbells or dumbbells on the floor. Slamming, Chris Reyes, a 42-year-old retired police officer, "is ridiculous. Even with headphones, it just scares you."
When asked if he was guilty of any offenses himself, he smiled sheepishly.
"I sing," he said. "You can't hear yourself! And then people look at you and you say, 'Oops … that was loud.' "
--
http://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/know-the-unwritten-rules-of-the-gym-1.1232537
"Why are cocktails so expensive?" and other mystifying questions about restaurants finally answered
Eating at restaurants might be familiar territory, but how they function business-wise — and the
impact that has on their prices — is foreign to many of us. Here, we deconstruct the menu to show how restaurateurs and chefs arrive at those prices, and why their menu looks the way it does.
How much of a profit do restaurants make?
Like any business, a restaurant must balance revenues and expenses. Revenues come from customers buying food and/or alcohol. At a restaurant with a liquor license, 35 to 40 percent of the profits tend to come from liquor sales; at a BYOB, all profit comes from selling meals, which is why food prices are sometimes higher.
About a third of the profits goes straight towards food costs, and another third pays for labor. About 15 to 20 percent goes towards fixed costs like rent, insurance and something called the "Q factor": the things a restaurant must buy but doesn't actually sell, such as salt, pepper, napkins, plastic wrap, bathroom supplies, tablecloths … "That has to be worked into your menu price," said Michael Ventura, co-executive chef of The Plum & The Pear in Wyckoff. "Otherwise you're giving that money away. And it could be another 5 percent on your menu prices."
Christine Nunn, chef/owner of Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood, said that her Q factor includes Riedel wineglasses, each costing around $30. Break one, she said, and she's already lost money on your table. Nunn also spends between $800 and $1,000 a month renting napkins (15 cents each) and tablecloths ($6 each) from a linen delivery service.
A restaurant's profit margin is likely to be between 8 percent and 15 percent — and if it's at the higher end, it's doing well.
Is there seasonality for meat?
Yes, but it relies more on customers' tastes than availability. In the depths of winter, heavy dishes featuring venison, lamb and braised meats will rule, but as snow melts and temperatures warm, you're more likely to see lighter dishes like brisket, flank steak, chopped meat and pork.
"I can get anything at any time of year, but do you really want to sit down with a nice steaming bowl of beef stew when it's a 100-degree day?" asked Kevin Portscher, owner/chef of Village Green in Ridgewood. "Probably not. You'd rather have a grilled chicken breast with a salad."
Why are mixed drinks so costly?
Liquor is often viewed as the most profitable thing a restaurant can sell, and that's because it's easy to prepare and tremendously marked up — sometimes as much as 400 percent.
But when it comes to cocktails, other factors are involved, said Andrew McIntosh, resident mixologist at the Park West Tavern in Ridgewood. There are ingredients to pay for, and some, like small-batch bourbons and ryes, aren't procurable by the average consumer and are more expensive than what's found on liquor store shelves. And although anyone can pour a draft beer or glass of wine, not everyone can mix a good drink — that, McIntosh said, is a skill all its own.
"It's not something we're just throwing together willy-nilly — we're putting our time and effort into it," he said.
Why do restaurants serve pre-made desserts?
Ideally, all restaurants would serve fresh desserts made in-house, but two factors get in the way: space and cost. Ventura of The Plum & The Pear (who has, he reported, a talented salad chef prepare his desserts) said that pastries and desserts need their own space away from the line in order to prevent cross-contamination, and it can be difficult to cross-train a chef working the grill or salad station.
The money also isn't there. Kevin Kohler, chef/owner of Ramsey's Café Panache, said that if a restaurant sells 25 desserts at $8 each, the resulting $200 in profit must cover both the ingredient cost and the labor.
"It's a losing proposition financially," he said. "Restaurants choose to go to an outside bakery, or get frozen desserts, because that's their only solution to selling desserts and profiting."
What happened to the bread basket?
In Europe, bread and napkin/tablecloth charges are often tacked onto the bill automatically, but in America, we expect them for free. But it's not free … for the restaurant; Nunn said she gives out about $100 worth of bread each weekend. Still…
"I'm not going to say to someone, 'I don't mind that you're paying $38 for the lamb, but if you want bread it's another two bucks,' " she said. "You can't do it."
Portscher has his waiters deliver one piece per diner (they can always request more) — and not offer a bread basket. Therefore, at the end of the night, he doesn't have to throw out uneaten bread.
Kohler said he'd "like to smack" the first person who gave free bread because it's "the most filling item on the planet."
"A restaurant gives you an array of breads, a hunk of butter, and they start you off with that … and then when [customers] order, they don't order much, because they're full of bread."
Why is pasta on every menu?
Simple: It sells well, and restaurants make money off it. The profit margin on things like steak or other proteins is slim, but pasta sales offset that — if a steak costs a restaurant $20, many will charge $40. However, a plate of pasta that sells for $20 might have cost the restaurant $5 or less.
Plus, everyone is comfortable with it — Kohler said that many customers who find themselves bewildered by the intricate menus and unfamiliar terminology used at upscale restaurants can always fall back on a pasta dish and know they'll be full by meal's end.
Why are there so many red-sauce restaurants in Bergen County?
Blame our Italian ancestors. New Jersey has one of the highest concentrations of people of Italian descent in the country, and even those who aren't Italian have grown comfortable with red-sauce meals because it makes it easier to feed a larger number of people, said Peter Loria, owner/chef of Café Matisse in Rutherford.
"Italian-style food was a cheaper way to raise a family," Loria said.
Kohler agrees, but added customers are comfortable with red-sauce meals — especially those who aren't familiar with refined-yet-limited menus. At a red-sauce restaurant, any customer will know everything listed. "It's about comfort. They want a great big pile of food that they'll never eat in a million years, a menu with more than 30 items on it, none of it can be fresh … that's the general public."
How does a BYOB make any money?
It's not easy. Nunn of Picnic on the Square said that alcohol-serving restaurants are "making more on a bottle of Kendall Jackson chardonnay than I'm making on a plate of food." Controlling labor costs, reducing waste and counting pennies becomes crucial, and Ventura said that selling enough profitable items like homemade soups and pasta is even more important. So is customer service: Replacing a diner's overcooked steak might cost money, but it's the best way to ensure they come back, Portscher said.
Why do restaurants have prix-fixe menus?
Not all restaurants offer an a la carte menu — some favor a "prix-fixe" setup that promises several courses and a dessert, all for one price. Loria's restaurant has functioned this way since 2000, and he said the benefits are two-fold: It helps track inventory more accurately, and keeps out customers who might only want to buy one course and skip more profitable items.
"There's less guessing," he said. "Overall, it's better for the bottom line for ordering, and not [having to] throw away product and make the garbage can your friend."
Is buying wine by the bottle a better deal than by the glass?
Given the high markup on wine, yes.
"If two people are sitting down and drinking the same wine, they might have two glasses each — you're drinking a bottle right there," McIntosh said. House wines aren't typically the highest quality, either, because the restaurant is trying to satisfy all palates, and they're sometimes left open overnight.
--
http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/why-are-cocktails-so-expensive-and-other-mystifying-questions-about-restaurants-finally-answered-1.1228052?page=all
How much of a profit do restaurants make?
Like any business, a restaurant must balance revenues and expenses. Revenues come from customers buying food and/or alcohol. At a restaurant with a liquor license, 35 to 40 percent of the profits tend to come from liquor sales; at a BYOB, all profit comes from selling meals, which is why food prices are sometimes higher.
About a third of the profits goes straight towards food costs, and another third pays for labor. About 15 to 20 percent goes towards fixed costs like rent, insurance and something called the "Q factor": the things a restaurant must buy but doesn't actually sell, such as salt, pepper, napkins, plastic wrap, bathroom supplies, tablecloths … "That has to be worked into your menu price," said Michael Ventura, co-executive chef of The Plum & The Pear in Wyckoff. "Otherwise you're giving that money away. And it could be another 5 percent on your menu prices."
Christine Nunn, chef/owner of Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood, said that her Q factor includes Riedel wineglasses, each costing around $30. Break one, she said, and she's already lost money on your table. Nunn also spends between $800 and $1,000 a month renting napkins (15 cents each) and tablecloths ($6 each) from a linen delivery service.
A restaurant's profit margin is likely to be between 8 percent and 15 percent — and if it's at the higher end, it's doing well.
Is there seasonality for meat?
Yes, but it relies more on customers' tastes than availability. In the depths of winter, heavy dishes featuring venison, lamb and braised meats will rule, but as snow melts and temperatures warm, you're more likely to see lighter dishes like brisket, flank steak, chopped meat and pork.
"I can get anything at any time of year, but do you really want to sit down with a nice steaming bowl of beef stew when it's a 100-degree day?" asked Kevin Portscher, owner/chef of Village Green in Ridgewood. "Probably not. You'd rather have a grilled chicken breast with a salad."
Why are mixed drinks so costly?
Liquor is often viewed as the most profitable thing a restaurant can sell, and that's because it's easy to prepare and tremendously marked up — sometimes as much as 400 percent.
But when it comes to cocktails, other factors are involved, said Andrew McIntosh, resident mixologist at the Park West Tavern in Ridgewood. There are ingredients to pay for, and some, like small-batch bourbons and ryes, aren't procurable by the average consumer and are more expensive than what's found on liquor store shelves. And although anyone can pour a draft beer or glass of wine, not everyone can mix a good drink — that, McIntosh said, is a skill all its own.
"It's not something we're just throwing together willy-nilly — we're putting our time and effort into it," he said.
Why do restaurants serve pre-made desserts?
Ideally, all restaurants would serve fresh desserts made in-house, but two factors get in the way: space and cost. Ventura of The Plum & The Pear (who has, he reported, a talented salad chef prepare his desserts) said that pastries and desserts need their own space away from the line in order to prevent cross-contamination, and it can be difficult to cross-train a chef working the grill or salad station.
The money also isn't there. Kevin Kohler, chef/owner of Ramsey's Café Panache, said that if a restaurant sells 25 desserts at $8 each, the resulting $200 in profit must cover both the ingredient cost and the labor.
"It's a losing proposition financially," he said. "Restaurants choose to go to an outside bakery, or get frozen desserts, because that's their only solution to selling desserts and profiting."
What happened to the bread basket?
In Europe, bread and napkin/tablecloth charges are often tacked onto the bill automatically, but in America, we expect them for free. But it's not free … for the restaurant; Nunn said she gives out about $100 worth of bread each weekend. Still…
"I'm not going to say to someone, 'I don't mind that you're paying $38 for the lamb, but if you want bread it's another two bucks,' " she said. "You can't do it."
Portscher has his waiters deliver one piece per diner (they can always request more) — and not offer a bread basket. Therefore, at the end of the night, he doesn't have to throw out uneaten bread.
Kohler said he'd "like to smack" the first person who gave free bread because it's "the most filling item on the planet."
"A restaurant gives you an array of breads, a hunk of butter, and they start you off with that … and then when [customers] order, they don't order much, because they're full of bread."
Why is pasta on every menu?
Simple: It sells well, and restaurants make money off it. The profit margin on things like steak or other proteins is slim, but pasta sales offset that — if a steak costs a restaurant $20, many will charge $40. However, a plate of pasta that sells for $20 might have cost the restaurant $5 or less.
Plus, everyone is comfortable with it — Kohler said that many customers who find themselves bewildered by the intricate menus and unfamiliar terminology used at upscale restaurants can always fall back on a pasta dish and know they'll be full by meal's end.
Why are there so many red-sauce restaurants in Bergen County?
Blame our Italian ancestors. New Jersey has one of the highest concentrations of people of Italian descent in the country, and even those who aren't Italian have grown comfortable with red-sauce meals because it makes it easier to feed a larger number of people, said Peter Loria, owner/chef of Café Matisse in Rutherford.
"Italian-style food was a cheaper way to raise a family," Loria said.
Kohler agrees, but added customers are comfortable with red-sauce meals — especially those who aren't familiar with refined-yet-limited menus. At a red-sauce restaurant, any customer will know everything listed. "It's about comfort. They want a great big pile of food that they'll never eat in a million years, a menu with more than 30 items on it, none of it can be fresh … that's the general public."
How does a BYOB make any money?
It's not easy. Nunn of Picnic on the Square said that alcohol-serving restaurants are "making more on a bottle of Kendall Jackson chardonnay than I'm making on a plate of food." Controlling labor costs, reducing waste and counting pennies becomes crucial, and Ventura said that selling enough profitable items like homemade soups and pasta is even more important. So is customer service: Replacing a diner's overcooked steak might cost money, but it's the best way to ensure they come back, Portscher said.
Why do restaurants have prix-fixe menus?
Not all restaurants offer an a la carte menu — some favor a "prix-fixe" setup that promises several courses and a dessert, all for one price. Loria's restaurant has functioned this way since 2000, and he said the benefits are two-fold: It helps track inventory more accurately, and keeps out customers who might only want to buy one course and skip more profitable items.
"There's less guessing," he said. "Overall, it's better for the bottom line for ordering, and not [having to] throw away product and make the garbage can your friend."
Is buying wine by the bottle a better deal than by the glass?
Given the high markup on wine, yes.
"If two people are sitting down and drinking the same wine, they might have two glasses each — you're drinking a bottle right there," McIntosh said. House wines aren't typically the highest quality, either, because the restaurant is trying to satisfy all palates, and they're sometimes left open overnight.
--
http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/why-are-cocktails-so-expensive-and-other-mystifying-questions-about-restaurants-finally-answered-1.1228052?page=all
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
The 'Fighting Grandmas': These women over 50 punch, kick and defend themselves
Rodlyn Park isn't the least bit intimidating. She's short — only 5 feet, 3 inches — and weighs just 107 pounds. She's not exactly young, either: she turns 70 in February. But don't be fooled by the Wyckoff resident's small stature or the number of candles on her birthday cake; the blond-haired mother of three and grandmother of four can kick butt with the best of them.
She can hit so hard, in fact, that new classmates at Krav Maga NJ in Ramsey, where she trains three times a week in the hard-core Israeli self-defense art, are shocked at how adept she is, said owner/instructor Tony Racciatti.
"You would have never thought that anybody could talk her into defending herself — but now she'll punch. And it hurts, 'cause she's bony," he said with a laugh.
But Park is not the only woman of a certain age who can hold her own. She's part of what Racciatti calls his "fighting grandmas," a group of women over 50 who train in Krav Maga, which was developed for the famously well-trained Israeli military and combines techniques from boxing, wrestling and a variety of other martial arts with a focus on real-world applications.
"It's not just physical exercise — it's a mental thing for me," Park said, moments after her hourlong class ended on a Tuesday night. "For women, when you get older, your comfort zone starts to shrink. And I don't want my life defined by my comfort zone. I can't stop the physical aging, but I can stop the mental aging."
Suzanne Lippe, an art teacher from Mahwah in her mid-50s, has three daughters and a granddaughter, and began studying martial arts after she was attacked in New York City about 15 years ago. She didn't know how to react, she said, so she panicked and froze. After six years in Krav, she believes it would be different if it happened again.
"At least with Krav Maga, I have a game plan," she said. "You learn to react very quickly and very decisively. And it keeps you completely aware of your surroundings — scanning your environment, making sure no one is following you."
Many women, both young and old, have difficulty with Krav because of the inherent brutality in the techniques — Racciatti often yells things like "Jam your fingers in his eyes!" or "Grab his hair, and then flatten out his nose a little bit!" — but that's what his students are here to learn, he said. (They don't sacrifice safety — all men and women must wear cups at all times, Racciatti said, and many of the most dangerous moves, like eye pokes, are simulated — but the intent is there.)
"The hardest thing for me was learning to actually punch somebody or kick them in the groin," Park said. "For the first couple months Tony would be yelling, 'Rodlyn, kick him in the groin! You can't do the move unless you kick him in the groin!'"
But Racciatti also teaches his students to head off problems before they begin through de-escalation and avoidance by, for instance, quickly getting away from those who invade their personal space.
"Any time you get into a confrontation there's a chance of getting hurt. So we try to avoid them at all costs," he said. "Older women have been around longer, they've seen the stuff that can happen. They don't want bad stuff happening to them, because they know they're a little more vulnerable."
These techniques might have helped Rockland County resident Maritza Echevarria, 54, a mother of two with three grandchildren, when she was kidnapped in the Bronx about 15 years ago. She survived unharmed — the kidnappers meant to snag someone else, she said — but it left quite an impression. She's been doing Krav Maga for the last nine months.
"I was dealing with a man who had a knife," she said. "Knowing what I know today I would have felt much more secure."
As for Park, she's found another benefit: She can share war stories with her 10-year-old grandson, who does tae kwon do.
"Every time I see my grandson, the first thing he says to me is, 'Hey Nana, did you learn any new moves at Krav Maga?" she said. "That's our link now."
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
--
http://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/the-fighting-grandmas-1.1186168
 |
| From left: Suzanne Lippe, Rodlyn Park and Maritza Echevarria |
She can hit so hard, in fact, that new classmates at Krav Maga NJ in Ramsey, where she trains three times a week in the hard-core Israeli self-defense art, are shocked at how adept she is, said owner/instructor Tony Racciatti.
"You would have never thought that anybody could talk her into defending herself — but now she'll punch. And it hurts, 'cause she's bony," he said with a laugh.
But Park is not the only woman of a certain age who can hold her own. She's part of what Racciatti calls his "fighting grandmas," a group of women over 50 who train in Krav Maga, which was developed for the famously well-trained Israeli military and combines techniques from boxing, wrestling and a variety of other martial arts with a focus on real-world applications.
"It's not just physical exercise — it's a mental thing for me," Park said, moments after her hourlong class ended on a Tuesday night. "For women, when you get older, your comfort zone starts to shrink. And I don't want my life defined by my comfort zone. I can't stop the physical aging, but I can stop the mental aging."
Suzanne Lippe, an art teacher from Mahwah in her mid-50s, has three daughters and a granddaughter, and began studying martial arts after she was attacked in New York City about 15 years ago. She didn't know how to react, she said, so she panicked and froze. After six years in Krav, she believes it would be different if it happened again.
"At least with Krav Maga, I have a game plan," she said. "You learn to react very quickly and very decisively. And it keeps you completely aware of your surroundings — scanning your environment, making sure no one is following you."
Many women, both young and old, have difficulty with Krav because of the inherent brutality in the techniques — Racciatti often yells things like "Jam your fingers in his eyes!" or "Grab his hair, and then flatten out his nose a little bit!" — but that's what his students are here to learn, he said. (They don't sacrifice safety — all men and women must wear cups at all times, Racciatti said, and many of the most dangerous moves, like eye pokes, are simulated — but the intent is there.)
"The hardest thing for me was learning to actually punch somebody or kick them in the groin," Park said. "For the first couple months Tony would be yelling, 'Rodlyn, kick him in the groin! You can't do the move unless you kick him in the groin!'"
But Racciatti also teaches his students to head off problems before they begin through de-escalation and avoidance by, for instance, quickly getting away from those who invade their personal space.
"Any time you get into a confrontation there's a chance of getting hurt. So we try to avoid them at all costs," he said. "Older women have been around longer, they've seen the stuff that can happen. They don't want bad stuff happening to them, because they know they're a little more vulnerable."
These techniques might have helped Rockland County resident Maritza Echevarria, 54, a mother of two with three grandchildren, when she was kidnapped in the Bronx about 15 years ago. She survived unharmed — the kidnappers meant to snag someone else, she said — but it left quite an impression. She's been doing Krav Maga for the last nine months.
"I was dealing with a man who had a knife," she said. "Knowing what I know today I would have felt much more secure."
As for Park, she's found another benefit: She can share war stories with her 10-year-old grandson, who does tae kwon do.
"Every time I see my grandson, the first thing he says to me is, 'Hey Nana, did you learn any new moves at Krav Maga?" she said. "That's our link now."
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
--
http://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/the-fighting-grandmas-1.1186168
Monday, January 5, 2015
This Ridgewood chef lived homeless, on the streets of Paterson
Vaughn Crenshaw always loved to cook. It is in his blood, he said — everyone in his family knows how to "put flavors together." But from the moment he saw Emeril Lagasse's cooking show at age 9, he knew the kitchen was his calling.
Four years later, however, he was living on the streets of Paterson, sleeping in an abandoned Volkswagen hatchback on Van Houten Street, hustling and selling drugs just to get by.
"It was a little two-door wagon, a blue joint," he said. "I remember that like it was yesterday. It was hard to stay clean, my clothes were extremely dirty, and I became very upset with anybody who looked at me wrong. I became very aggressive. I felt like nobody wanted me."
His future — if there was to be one — was bleak.
Things are different today. Sporting a shaved head and perfectly coiffed goatee, Crenshaw, 29, is the executive chef at Pearl Restaurant in Ridgewood. He lives in Hackensack with his wife of three months, Erica, and listens to jazz and plays basketball. He teaches conversions — how to use math the way a chef does — at the Paterson Adult and Continuing Education school, and is often involved in food drives in his old hometown.
He swears that cooking is his "savior," and refers to it as "playing" or "dancing." Although he is fond of saying that his is a "typical bottom-to-the-top story," there is little typical about his narrative. His life has always been an uphill fight.
He started out living with his mother, stepfather, and seven brothers and sisters in a tiny apartment next to a crack house on 12th Street in Paterson. At 4 years old, he and one of his brothers were badly burned after a pan of boiling chicken grease and fat fell on them. Third-degree burns covered 70 percent of his body ("The skin was bubbling and exploding"), and he still bears the scars all over his body.
When he was 9, the family moved to Fair Street, but he was kicked out by his mother at age 13 after arguments about him not caring for his siblings the way she expected him to. He lived in the blue hatchback a few blocks away for a year, he said, and he and his teenage friends became "like [drug dealer] Nino Brown in [the 1991 movie] 'New Jack City.' " But he was always looking for a way out.
"I knew there was more to the world, and I knew that I could do more … I just couldn't get there," he said.
That world opened to him at 14 when his mother, believing it would be better for her son, signed him over to his godparents, who lived in Hackensack.
Teacher helped mold him
Crenshaw wasn't used to being outside a six-block radius of his home in Paterson, and still recalls his incredulousness at seeing a black guy talk to a white girl — in Paterson, that wouldn't have happened, he said, admitting that he was "very close-minded."
"I always had the mean frown face on, because the streets build you that way."
His life changed again when he met English teacher Barbara Caruso at Hackensack High School in his freshman year. When he walked in, he could barely spell, said Caruso, who retired in 2005, but when Crenshaw left four years later, he had "taken off." Caruso admits that she was hard on Crenshaw, and many other kids didn't understand why she was pushing him so incessantly — but he understood.
"He had this tremendous desire to improve himself, to improve his circumstances …. There was a light in his eyes," she said. "I was a tough cookie … but I saw that he was willing to take on what I was offering him."
"She didn't cut me any slack," Crenshaw recalled. "If I messed up, she didn't pass me. Every year she was on my back, and she wouldn't take anything less than 'A' material. If it wasn't 'A' material, she would fail me."
He became captain of the football and track teams his senior year, and scholarship money paved the way to Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island (Lagasse's alma mater) where he could focus on his dream of being a chef.
On breaks from school, he'd work at the Stony Hill Inn in Hackensack, where he was hired in 2005 after telling chef Gregory Sutton that he'd work for free just for the experience. Sutton placed him in the banquet hall, and was impressed with what he saw.
"That kid was just talented as hell," Sutton said. "He had the motivation — and passion. And if you're going to work with food, you've got to have passion."
Crenshaw worked there off and on for three years, and after he graduated (with an associate's degree in culinary arts and bachelor's degree in food service management in-hand), he followed Sutton to the Brick House Inn in Wyckoff and became assistant banquet chef.
A year later he took the head chef position at the Caribbean/soul food restaurant Jacksonville in Paterson, but two years later, still had nagging doubts that he'd assumed the top kitchen spot too soon. So he became executive sous chef at Mocha Bleu in Teaneck, where he learned to cook kosher under the watchful eye of the restaurant owner and a rabbi. Although he couldn't make a good matzo ball, his soups and specials "slapped their heads off," and Crenshaw added another skill to a growing list.
"My thing is this: Closed minds equal limitation. I don't like to limit myself. Period," he said. "I think once you get stuck in how things are supposed to be that's when you become confined, and that's as far as you're gonna go."
A year later, he became executive sous chef at Fort Lee's Khloe Bistrot, where he cooked for celebrities like Ice-T and Tahiry Jose from the VH1 show "Love and Hip Hop." In 2012, he landed on an episode of the Food Network's "Chopped," but got cut in the second round after struggling with the odd ingredients and the show's time constraints. His work was below subpar, he said, and he's still disappointed that he wasn't more prepared.
"It was the wake-up call that I needed. At the time I thought I was pretty good and I was a little full of myself. But this was like, 'Listen guy, you're not as good as you thought you were. So what are you going to do about it?' "
He rededicated himself to being a student of cooking, and spends his time searching for new trends by talking to vendors, subscribing to every culinary magazine he can find, and living by the "Flavor Bible" — a well-known index of flavors and ingredients — in a determined effort to get his flavor "on point."
His enthusiasm has become contagious — Alex Garibian, owner and chef at the New Milford Delicatessen, often cooks with Crenshaw for fun at his establishment
"He's a very entertaining guy," Garibian said. "When the dish is done, he's got this ecstasy, this 'Oh my God! This came out so good!' He's a natural chef."
"Food is art at the end of the day," Crenshaw said. "You can mix colors and manipulate things the way you want to … and I was able to create something of my own. You kind of take over the world through someone's palate."
Reconciled with mother
Dishes like his quinoa chicken and red velvet waffles, which have a bourbon cream cheese drizzle on the top, exemplify his style, which, he said, has grown during his year and a half at Pearl Restaurant. The menu has an Italian flair but changes daily, and includes unconventional dishes like duck prosciutto or duck meatballs. In 2014, he started his own catering company, the Jersey City-based Fre Food Catering and Events, which creates customizable menus for events.
His relationship with his mother has also healed, and he now said that being thrown out of the house was "probably the best thing she could have done for me."
"It made me mature very, very early," he said. "Me and my mom have a very good relationship now. We've put that in the past."
But if, somewhere, there's a 13-year-old kid reading this by flashlight in the back of an abandoned car, Crenshaw offered four pieces of advice: Do the work. Be open to change. Take the help people give you. And keep your eye on the prize.
Ignore those, and life is going to be terribly difficult.
Take it from Crenshaw. He learned the hard way.
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
-
http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/this-ridgewood-chef-lived-homeless-on-the-streets-of-paterson-1.1183573
Four years later, however, he was living on the streets of Paterson, sleeping in an abandoned Volkswagen hatchback on Van Houten Street, hustling and selling drugs just to get by.
"It was a little two-door wagon, a blue joint," he said. "I remember that like it was yesterday. It was hard to stay clean, my clothes were extremely dirty, and I became very upset with anybody who looked at me wrong. I became very aggressive. I felt like nobody wanted me."
His future — if there was to be one — was bleak.
Things are different today. Sporting a shaved head and perfectly coiffed goatee, Crenshaw, 29, is the executive chef at Pearl Restaurant in Ridgewood. He lives in Hackensack with his wife of three months, Erica, and listens to jazz and plays basketball. He teaches conversions — how to use math the way a chef does — at the Paterson Adult and Continuing Education school, and is often involved in food drives in his old hometown.
He swears that cooking is his "savior," and refers to it as "playing" or "dancing." Although he is fond of saying that his is a "typical bottom-to-the-top story," there is little typical about his narrative. His life has always been an uphill fight.
He started out living with his mother, stepfather, and seven brothers and sisters in a tiny apartment next to a crack house on 12th Street in Paterson. At 4 years old, he and one of his brothers were badly burned after a pan of boiling chicken grease and fat fell on them. Third-degree burns covered 70 percent of his body ("The skin was bubbling and exploding"), and he still bears the scars all over his body.
When he was 9, the family moved to Fair Street, but he was kicked out by his mother at age 13 after arguments about him not caring for his siblings the way she expected him to. He lived in the blue hatchback a few blocks away for a year, he said, and he and his teenage friends became "like [drug dealer] Nino Brown in [the 1991 movie] 'New Jack City.' " But he was always looking for a way out.
"I knew there was more to the world, and I knew that I could do more … I just couldn't get there," he said.
That world opened to him at 14 when his mother, believing it would be better for her son, signed him over to his godparents, who lived in Hackensack.
Teacher helped mold him
Crenshaw wasn't used to being outside a six-block radius of his home in Paterson, and still recalls his incredulousness at seeing a black guy talk to a white girl — in Paterson, that wouldn't have happened, he said, admitting that he was "very close-minded."
"I always had the mean frown face on, because the streets build you that way."
His life changed again when he met English teacher Barbara Caruso at Hackensack High School in his freshman year. When he walked in, he could barely spell, said Caruso, who retired in 2005, but when Crenshaw left four years later, he had "taken off." Caruso admits that she was hard on Crenshaw, and many other kids didn't understand why she was pushing him so incessantly — but he understood.
"He had this tremendous desire to improve himself, to improve his circumstances …. There was a light in his eyes," she said. "I was a tough cookie … but I saw that he was willing to take on what I was offering him."
"She didn't cut me any slack," Crenshaw recalled. "If I messed up, she didn't pass me. Every year she was on my back, and she wouldn't take anything less than 'A' material. If it wasn't 'A' material, she would fail me."
He became captain of the football and track teams his senior year, and scholarship money paved the way to Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island (Lagasse's alma mater) where he could focus on his dream of being a chef.
On breaks from school, he'd work at the Stony Hill Inn in Hackensack, where he was hired in 2005 after telling chef Gregory Sutton that he'd work for free just for the experience. Sutton placed him in the banquet hall, and was impressed with what he saw.
"That kid was just talented as hell," Sutton said. "He had the motivation — and passion. And if you're going to work with food, you've got to have passion."
Crenshaw worked there off and on for three years, and after he graduated (with an associate's degree in culinary arts and bachelor's degree in food service management in-hand), he followed Sutton to the Brick House Inn in Wyckoff and became assistant banquet chef.
A year later he took the head chef position at the Caribbean/soul food restaurant Jacksonville in Paterson, but two years later, still had nagging doubts that he'd assumed the top kitchen spot too soon. So he became executive sous chef at Mocha Bleu in Teaneck, where he learned to cook kosher under the watchful eye of the restaurant owner and a rabbi. Although he couldn't make a good matzo ball, his soups and specials "slapped their heads off," and Crenshaw added another skill to a growing list.
"My thing is this: Closed minds equal limitation. I don't like to limit myself. Period," he said. "I think once you get stuck in how things are supposed to be that's when you become confined, and that's as far as you're gonna go."
A year later, he became executive sous chef at Fort Lee's Khloe Bistrot, where he cooked for celebrities like Ice-T and Tahiry Jose from the VH1 show "Love and Hip Hop." In 2012, he landed on an episode of the Food Network's "Chopped," but got cut in the second round after struggling with the odd ingredients and the show's time constraints. His work was below subpar, he said, and he's still disappointed that he wasn't more prepared.
"It was the wake-up call that I needed. At the time I thought I was pretty good and I was a little full of myself. But this was like, 'Listen guy, you're not as good as you thought you were. So what are you going to do about it?' "
He rededicated himself to being a student of cooking, and spends his time searching for new trends by talking to vendors, subscribing to every culinary magazine he can find, and living by the "Flavor Bible" — a well-known index of flavors and ingredients — in a determined effort to get his flavor "on point."
His enthusiasm has become contagious — Alex Garibian, owner and chef at the New Milford Delicatessen, often cooks with Crenshaw for fun at his establishment
"He's a very entertaining guy," Garibian said. "When the dish is done, he's got this ecstasy, this 'Oh my God! This came out so good!' He's a natural chef."
"Food is art at the end of the day," Crenshaw said. "You can mix colors and manipulate things the way you want to … and I was able to create something of my own. You kind of take over the world through someone's palate."
Reconciled with mother
Dishes like his quinoa chicken and red velvet waffles, which have a bourbon cream cheese drizzle on the top, exemplify his style, which, he said, has grown during his year and a half at Pearl Restaurant. The menu has an Italian flair but changes daily, and includes unconventional dishes like duck prosciutto or duck meatballs. In 2014, he started his own catering company, the Jersey City-based Fre Food Catering and Events, which creates customizable menus for events.
His relationship with his mother has also healed, and he now said that being thrown out of the house was "probably the best thing she could have done for me."
"It made me mature very, very early," he said. "Me and my mom have a very good relationship now. We've put that in the past."
But if, somewhere, there's a 13-year-old kid reading this by flashlight in the back of an abandoned car, Crenshaw offered four pieces of advice: Do the work. Be open to change. Take the help people give you. And keep your eye on the prize.
Ignore those, and life is going to be terribly difficult.
Take it from Crenshaw. He learned the hard way.
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
-
http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/this-ridgewood-chef-lived-homeless-on-the-streets-of-paterson-1.1183573
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