What Do Chefs Eat?

The answer might surprise you.

Recently, for several days, I’ve been eating bread with jam. This has been my main meal, which I have around ten o’clock. I wake up around five. By ten, I’ve burned several hundred calories from activity. Two slices with jam. Working in the kitchen contributes to eating disorders.

When your senses are bombarded by flavors, smells, and images of food for several hours daily, tasting multiple dishes multiple times, especially when desserts are involved, it can make you feel sick. My level of aversion to food at work sometimes reaches a point where I force myself to taste dishes.

My eating disorders are also linked to depression, so I experience extreme fluctuations. I’ve tested both aversion to food and compulsive overeating, which led me to 96 kg. Recently, fortunately, aversion has prevailed, and my weight stays at 83 kg, despite the white bread with jam.

Besides sandwiches with jam? Ideally, something someone else cooked. In a different style and flavor than what I cook. Cooked, served, and preferably eaten by them, but so that I can taste it.

Taste is the most important tool for a Chef. The Great Chef Giro spoke of a “developed palate.” Like the “eye” for a painter or the “ear” for a musician. A musician listens differently than a chef, a graphic artist looks differently, and a chef tastes differently.

Whenever possible, I go to Hamburg to relax and look for places to eat something new. But not every day. When I stay at home, my first choice lately is: not to eat. This usually ends with me devouring chocolate and peanuts. Peanuts are important here. It could also be almonds or other nuts. It’s about protein.

For some time now, yogurt with fruit and, for example, protein muesli, nuts, almond butter, and vegan honey has been a staple in my diet. Vegan honey is the best sweetener based on sugars because it contains a lot of fiber.

When I want something more sophisticated, I opt for ready-made vegetable tortellini. Or I cook and eat plain noodles, possibly drizzled with some oil (like pumpkin or avocado) and hot sauce (hot sauce and pickled jalapenos are my go-to additions for everything except sweet yogurt… but why not try it?). If I really feel like splurging in the kitchen, I fry tofu with onions. Real Michelin-star level!

There’s something about not liking to cook for myself. Generally, I prefer cooking to eating. I could actually cook and then throw it away. When I think about eating it afterward, I lose the desire to cook. And after cooking for ten hours, for several days, you get enough of it. You prefer a sandwich over a good lunch. Or a pizza ordered by phone (unfortunately, nobody delivers food to my place in the woods).

There’s one thing I feel like making, p artly because it’s perfect for using up leftovers and whatever is on hand: tortilla, durum, pita, wrap. I love wraps passionately. And toast. Recently, toast has been a great success for me. For three days, I ate three fairly normal meals. I should start coaching on how to be successful. Among those normal meals was pulled soy, soaked the night before.

Textured soy protein, probably the oldest strictly vegan product on the market, sometimes affectionately called sawdust cutlets, in my favorite Big Steak form. Large rectangular cutlets, with a specific texture that, after soaking, resemble meat fibers and, thanks to this, shred well into strips.

Boil the soy according to instructions with soy sauce and possibly other additives (e.g., marmite, miso, and spices), it’s also good to add a bit of sugar (or something containing sugar like Cremo Balsamico) to trigger Maillard reactions, giving it a roast flavor and aroma. Let it cool, preferably for several hours or until the next day. You can keep boiled soy in the fridge for up to a week.

Tear the cutlets into strips resembling pulled beef and marinate with hoisin sauce, marmite, Cremo balsamico, and soy sauce. It’s important to add something with umami (like soy sauce or marmite) and a bit of sugar (from cremo balsamico) needed for Maillard reactions. There are many possible combinations.

It’s good to let it marinate for several hours to let the flavors, umami, and sugar penetrate the soy. Fry the marinated soy in very hot oil (be careful, it splatters a lot) so the marinade crisps up on the soy. At the end of frying, I added canned red beans (which I love).

Along with it went a mix inspired by classic Mexican tomato salsa: tomato, white onion, cilantro, sprouts (because I had them), and lemon juice. I didn’t add salt because I made enough salad for a few days, and if I salted it, it would become very watery after a few hours as tomatoes release their juice.

Spelled bread (homemade) toasted in a mini oven (highly recommended, very useful device). The bread was topped with lettuce, then soy with beans, a sauce of homemade mayo and yogurt with lemon juice, salt, sugar, and mustard, and, of course, the most important element of my diet, pickled jalapenos.