Interview: Chef Devin Alexander
Third Book: The Most Decadent Diet Ever! Has a Sweet Eating Plan
Apr 23, 2008
Devin Alexander doesn’t get along with vanilla cupcakes. It’s not that the author of The Biggest Loser Cookbook and Fast Food Fix hates the treats, it’s just that she hasn’t been able to devise a low-fat version of them. When you’re renowned for creating low-fat, high-flavour cuisine, being stumped by batter is frustrating.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that vanilla cupcakes are really butter cupcakes. And when butter is 80% of the ingredients, well, I’m dead in the water.” Chef Devin hasn’t conceded defeat though. She laughs as she points out that she makes killer red velvet cupcakes and orange ones as well as her own gooey, drippy, and delicious version of Cinnabons.
This week her third endeavour, The Most Decadent Diet Ever! hit bookstores. The L.A.-based celebrity chef also hosts Healthy Decadence on Discovery Health Channel. She’s cooked for Reba McEntire and catered the green room for Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show.
Over The Moon Chocolate Cake
In Decadent, the recipes are fun and easy and "freeing" she says. Freeing in the sense that you’re not really on a diet. This cookbook presents a plan for eating everyday foods including Buffalo wings, cheesy enchiladas, meatloaf, jambalaya, and, a Suite101 favourite, a warm, flourless chocolate espresso cake (only 200 calories per serving and 2 grams of fibre per serving she beams), among other things. Chef Devin explains that it’s based on the notion that if you can cut 100 calories a day you can lose 10 lbs in a year.
Readers won’t find tofu, sprouts, and carrots in Chef Devin’s pantry and there’s no sign of those unsavoury diet staples in her book either. “If I say I’m making you mac-and-cheese then I won’t give you something made of cauliflower.”
Brownies, Brownies Everywhere
She uses less fat and adds fibre to favourite family recipes and focuses on adding more flavor. “My motto is every morsel should taste delicious.” Her 80-calorie brownies are legendary. “I always have brownie batter on my jeans,” she says by phone from her sister's condo in New York City during a press stop on her book tour.
She speaks from experience. Some 15 years ago Chef Devin was an overweight teen sitting on the couch watching the telly and feeling miserable about her body. When out for dinner with friends she would have entire conversations in her head over whether or not to dip into the bread basket. “Instead of talking to everyone I was debating with myself, ‘should I or shouldn’t I have a piece of bread?’ I was miserable and in hell. I was obsessed with food.”
Fifty-Five Pounds Lighter…
She began to experiment with recipes, grilling chicken for chicken parmiggiano, for instance, instead of deep-frying it. After losing a few pounds she started to tinker with all her favourite meals. She lost 55 lbs in three years. The rest is history.
So has she given up on vanilla cupcakes? Not yet. “My career is trial and error and error.”
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