The Dining Diva Dives Into the Golden Door Cookbook

Well, your Dining Diva can’t eat out all the time. When we cook at home I prefer light and simple fare. I’m pretty creative but always looking for inspiration and voila I found it in Chef Dean Rucker’s Golden Door Cooks at Home (Clarkson Potter/Publishers)–a gorgeous, coffee-table like tome featuring “favorite recipes” from the illustrious , just turned 50-year-old, health and fitness resort in Escondido, California–where Dean, a graduate of California Culinary Academy,   has been turning out delicious, low-calorie, gourmet-style cuisine since 2000.

A Golden Door regular I’ve  been enjoying Dean’s cuisine for the past 9 years (he  began as sous chef in 2000 and was named executive chef in 2005), and I must say my last sampling during the week of April 12-19 of this year proved sensational. He’s never been more on his culinary game, everything I ate was perfectly prepared. And as you know, if you’ve been following my blogs, I only tell it like it is.

Anyhow I digress. I just sunk my teeth into his new cookbok and will be reporting back on my finds. Can’t give away any recipes though, unless they give me permission. Anyhow it looks great. There’s not only recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and desserts, but tips on exercise, nutrition, meditation and more. It’s a must  have for any health-conscious cook. 

 

So I’m reading through Chef Dean Rucker’s “Golden Door Cooks at Home” culinary guide and getting very hungry for tastes of my favorite health resort where I have spent many salubrious weeks during the last two decades or so.

 

I;ve been going to the Door for so long I practically grew up with much of the staff, who still work there leading exercise classes, guiding guests on mountain hikes, playing water volley ball, personaltraining and all the many activities that make the Door so special. There’s Marta who heads the kitchen staff and ensures guests meals are in order of caloric content (you can eat small, medium or large portions and I usually opt for the middle). She’s also the one you tell if you want to dine in your room, by the pool, in the TV lounge, dining room or by the Koi pond–guests of the Door have many choices. And there’s Judy, Diane, Suzy Q, Julie, Ellen, Brett, Lacey et al, along with ace massage therapists and facialists, wait persons, room attendants and of course Rachel  Caldwell who adeptly ensures  it all runs to the Golden Door perfection bar set by spa doyenne,  Deborah Szekely, who founded the resort 50 years ago.

 

                               You Won’t Believe Its All Good for You

Anyhow back to the cookbook. Dean seamlessly takes readers through preparations for spiny lobster and mango gazpacho shooters, soft rosemary-lemon polenta with sweet corn, porcini-crusted bison New York strip steaks,  walnut-crusted turkey scallopini and yummy desserts like  angel food cake with fresh peach coulis,  orange almond tuiles, almond pear dots and even guilt-free chocolate chip cookies.
 Deans also teaches reductions–in food not body weight–how to caramelize onions, preparing semolina dough for pizzetas or burger buns, concocting dressings like cranberry vinaigrette or lemon-tahini or whole-grain mustard and honey vinaigarette.

 

 

 

The beautifully illustrated 288-page,  The Golden Door Cooks at Home is a must for discerning cooks who care enough to serve the very best health-conscious cuisine. It only costs $40 plus shipping and tax from the go to www.goldendoor.com for more information.