Cookbook Review and Giveaway: Pure Food: A Chef’s Handbook for Eating Clean, with Healthy, Delicious Recipes by Kurt Beecher Dammeier

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 13056 KB
• Print Length: 300 pages
• Publisher: BenBella Books (July 5 2016)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B01E4BQ0IG

Giveaway

How would you like to win a copy of this amazing cookbook!

To win a copy of Pure Food leave a comment below. It is that simple. I will draw a winner on July 19th. I will post the winner here. Canadian and US mailing addresses only.


Book Description

You are what you eat. And what you’re eating isn’t good.

With the proliferation of artificial additives, hormones, antibiotics, and the thousand other man-made substances and chemical cocktails lurking in our grocery bags, eating healthy, natural foods is trickier than ever. It’s no coincidence that America’s health is flagging, with obesity and type 2 diabetes now at epidemic levels.

Taking control of your diet doesn’t have to be a challenge. Pure Food will show you how easy—and how much healthier—it is to cook clean, delicious foods.

Kurt Beecher Dammeier, chef, restaurateur, food entrepreneur, retailer, and educator has spent the past 30 years of his life working to rid his own diet of food additives, and nearly 20 creating and selling pure, unadulterated foods through his Seattle-based family of food businesses (including Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, Pasta & Co, and Bennett’s Restaurant). In Pure Food, Kurt shares his own story, as well as providing a roadmap for readers to forge a diet based on pure, additive-free foods.

Part handbook and part cookbook, Pure Food contains more than 70 delicious and natural recipes for pure living.

Unlike most cookbooks, Pure Food’s recipes are organized in threads—which start with a primary meal component like chicken, and progress through a series of dishes that use the primary ingredient in different ways—to help you get the most from your cooking. Make Braised Beef Chuck Roast for Sunday supper, followed up by Monday night Beef Chili, and Beef and Mushroom Lasagna to use up the leftover roast on Tuesday. It also contains an assortment of sauces and sides, from Red Fresno Sriracha and 4 Year Flagship Aioli to Red Cabbage Peperonata and Wilted Collard Greens. And leave room for dessert, like Apple Pear Crisp and Beecher's No-Bake Super-Light Cheese Cake.

Whether you’re a serial dieter or trying for the first time to improve the way you eat, Pure Food will revolutionize how you approach food and lead you down the path to a healthier life.

Reviews

“This spectacular cookbook reflects all the passion and joy Kurt puts into feeding people. Pure Food will inspire chefs and enliven meals everywhere.”
—Ethan Stowell, chef and owner of Ethan Stowell Restaurants

“Kurt Dammeier’s Pure Food is one of the most compelling books I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Part personal story, part treatise on ‘real’ food and part cookbook; this book sucks you into Kurt’s story, makes your mouth water and teaches you all at once. . . . Read this book—shop—cook with your family and then sit down at the table and enjoy!”
—Ann Cooper, internationally recognized chef, author, and founder of the Chef Ann Foundation

“With Kurt’s book Pure Food, he proves that healthy, well-sourced food doesn’t have to compromise on flavor.”
—Tom Colicchio, founder of Craft restaurants and Colicchio & Sons restaurants

“Kurt’s personal journey, skill as a chef, generosity of spirit, and commitment to helping people eat pure food is inspiring. No matter what your dietary stripes, this beautiful book gives you the tools to ditch processed foods, and instead source quality ingredients, and cook clean healthy foods with mind-blowing flavors.”
—Tess Masters, author of The Blender Girl and The Blender Girl Smoothies

“Let’s follow Kurt's lead and insist on truthful, pure foods and at the same time make our dinner tables tastier, healthier and full of integrity!”
—Tom Douglas, chef, restaurateur, author, and radio host

About the Author

A fourth generation Puget Sound native and nascent New Yorker, Kurt has always felt passionately about authentic, full-flavored foods free of artificial additives and preservatives. In 2000, he officially made his entrance onto the Seattle food scene by buying Pasta & Co, a Seattle icon for over thirty-five years. Since that time, he’s opened and served as head chef at a number of Seattle food destinations under the Sugar Mountain umbrella, including Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, Bennett’s, Liam’s, Maximus / Minimus, and The Butcher’s Table. Sugar Mountain is also home to a line of premium meat products, including Mishima Reserve, a luxury Wagyu beef brand. With each operation, Kurt’s goal is to demonstrate how quality ingredients make for delicious meals, without added food colorings, flavor enhancers, or preservatives. Beyond the retail world, Kurt is effecting change in people’s eating habits through the Beecher’s Pure Food Kids Foundation (501c3), founded through Beecher’s in 2004. Each year, the foundation’s Pure Food Kids Workshop empowers more than 15,000 fourth and fifth grade students in the Seattle Metro area and in New York City to make healthy food choices for life. LEARN MORE AT PUREFOODREV.ORG.


My Review

Pure Food: A Chef’s Handbook for Eating Clean, with Healthy, Delicious Recipes by Kurt Beecher Dammeier is two books in one. It is a guide to healthy eating and it is a cookbook. It is filled with a magnitude of wise advice for clean additive free cooking and eating. I found the information about healthy eating to be extremely helpful and I know it will help me make better choices when selecting the recipes that I choose to make. Healthy food can be delicious!

Pure Food: A Chef’s Handbook for Eating Clean, with Healthy, Delicious Recipes by Kurt Beecher Dammeier is beautifully illustrated and filled with excellent recipes. And speaking of recipes, here is one of my favorites from the book:

Tzatziki

Makes 1 ½ cups

Tzatziki is a cool, tangy yogurt-based sauce from Greece. I pair it with Lamb Gyros, but feel free to use it as a sandwich spread, alongside salads and grilled meats or vegetables, or as a dip. English cucumbers are drier and meatier and have fewer seeds and thinner skins than standard cucumbers. If you can’t find one, be sure to peel and seed your standard cucumber before grating.

1 ½ cups plain, whole milk Greek yogurt

½ English cucumber, coarsely grated (about 1 cup)

1 tablespoon capers, mashed and roughly chopped

1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon dried oregano

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon granulated garlic

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon lemon zest (from ¼ lemon)

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl. Either serve immediately or store for up to 3 days refrigerated in an airtight container.