On this remote episode we are grateful to have Lloyd Noble, whom I met while visiting Paris. At the time, Lloyd was working at a great restaurant, Bistrot Paul Chene, and spoke fluent French and English. His father was from the US, where he visited often, and mother from Paris, where he grew up. Our conversation about food, gratefully, led to this conversation.
[Music] all right so hello and welcome welcome welcome to the podcast heat better food today I’m your host Ken Kahan and I’m excited to be sharing insights and why we believe that Health and Longevity begin of the food weat the goal of this podcast will be to inspire educate and enable folks to live a healthier life and do it affordably my wife and I have been on this journey for over 10 years and continue to work on it every single day percentage of the profits from this podcast will be put towards child hunger with an initial focus on one of the four suburbs in America East Cleveland Ohio by the way I have my first donor for that project so that’s pretty exciting to happen this week um as a reminder please be sure to visit my website you better fre today for links to the show videos and all the recipes books and articles that I just provide on this episode we’re grateful to have Lloyd no whom I met while visiting Paris with my wife over holidays at the time Lloyd was working at a I consider a great restaurant we had great food there uh he stro Paul Shen I said that prop and spoke fluent French and English it’s like everybody in the restaurant was speaking French including the waiters until you came over I was like oh thank God um I mean I don’t think there was maybe there was another American restaurant but um or English whatever anyways our conversation about food gratefully Le led to this conversation today so in this episode we’ll explore L thoughts on food Health and Longevity discuss what continues to inspire him as he uh kind of continues on with his work and now new ucation um so welcome Lloyd oh thanks thanks for having me Ken I know it’s close to dinner time there but uh Curious what I always start off with what you had breakfast this morning um so actually I don’t and I know it’s a big no no but I don’t eat breakfast um I straight to lunch so um yeah no breakfast this morning but I did have lunch um and lunch what did that consist of uh lunch was actually not very French it was a it was a mixture so my girlfriend is Turkish and we had suuk which is a type of Turkish salami uh with a lot of spices uh it’s really good we had it with eggs and bread and a little salad on the side so nothing too crazy and nothing French for for lunchtime so I just had a a a doctor um from the University Hospitals here in Cleveland a couple weeks ago and actually talked about it when I had the uh interview Wednesday and she her recipe she brought was cir you ever had that cassir yeah oh the Turkish the Turkish yeah yeah yeah CU sheese Turkish sorry c yeah is it a type of white cheese uh kind of fresh no it’s a it’s like a bugar it’s like a tabuli it’s like a bugar wheat with a lot of vegetables in it basally nice I’ve never never had that before haven’t tried that before I’ve tried a lot of things including Lambs head like the full head not yeah the pig’s head was a big thing in the states at one point so couple years ago right so um what why don’t you give for the listeners here just a little background on yourself because you basically speak fluent English you speak fluent French not a lot of people I don’t know anybody else that does that quite honestly so uhbe a little bit of background for the listen yeah so um I’m uh half French half American this is how I got uh both languages I grew up in Paris though uh most of my life so during the episode you you’ll definitely hear a slight French accent come to life on certain words um but yeah I grew up in Paris my whole life uh originally started studied business um I studied in England for three years at the University of exor and then uh realized it wasn’t at all the path I wanted to go down uh so I stopped uh well I finished my studies and then I started working within Hospitality especially um uh food and beverage so I’ve worked um I started my first experience as a waiter uh was in a private golf club in oron so just in the center of France um called Leal and then I worked in Corel for a winter season uh in a festar hotel and then I worked in s uh for a full summer season in in a Japanese restaurant called matsuhisa you have you have some some matsas in the states as well in Los Angeles it’s part of the whole noou uh noou uh um atmosphere um and then I uh applied for a master’s uh which I’m currently doing just started two weeks ago in hospital at the loan Hotel school and between my season and my masters I worked at the pan beastro in Paris just because it was so close to home and it’s such a good uh little place uh it has such good food that it’s always it’s always good you know when you’re waiter to to be serving food that you actually believe in and it was very good everything we had we’ll go back we’ll go back to Parish so what what are your plans after graduation what do you plan on doing after you graduate uh well I’m just uh trying to figure it out so far I don’t know if I want to continue within uh uh food and beverage uh for now I’m probably looking at strategy in Hospitality uh for big Hospitality groups um maybe operations Business Development all of that uh all within luxury Hospitality of course but I’m yet yet to decide I still have a another year and a half of studies so um hopefully I’ll get an epiphany during that time I got my Epiphany much later in life so we won’t go into that but exactly many decades you got some time yeah so um why don’t you if you could share some of your experiences kind of with we talked about this a little bit more at the restaurant but kind of um American versus French who you’ve experienced both probably more French than American but just kind of some general thoughts so yeah I guess my my uh food experiences concerning the US uh they’re actually pretty much a more of a tourist opinion because I I only go there on holidays I never actually lived in the States but I do I have been there long long I mean I’ve been there enough times I try to go every year I’ve been there enough times to kind of grasp uh the general culture um at least for the East Coast because that’s where I go um experiences uh I guess it’s just uh I can say the the the the one thing I really uh can identify every time is that every time I come back from the US there’s a sort of a relief of like okay I’m coming back to France I’m gonna be able to cook with proper good ingredients it’s like it’s like you’re like the US is great because when you go in the super Market is there’s a thousand choices I mean just Oreo packages there’s like 20 different types in France we only have like two or three um but it’s it’s fun for the first week or so and then you realize that uh all the beauty that you have in France you know the fresh produ Fresh Products uh uh you know just quality simple food is non-existent in the US or at least not at a proportion that you’ll find in France um so I say Yeah in terms of experiences uh it’s it’s really the the one thing that comes after have spending like a week or two weeks or three weeks in the US you come back to France and you’re it’s sort of a relief of like okay we’re we’re now going back to you know uh good simple healthy food uh I mean simp the one thing that I think I miss the most when I’m in the US and that happens very quickly is good bread immediate the uh even if they are trying to open some bakeries Etc on average it’s it’s all Factory bread it’s sweet uh not really crunchy not a lot of flavor it’s missing something I mean for those that had the the uh that were lucky enough to to go to to Paris they can they they’ll be able to confirm what I’m saying that in France the beauty that you just go to any any buer any any bread shop and you find some really good bread at a really cheap price and that’s something that’s really missing in the US yeah and in Paris it’s like every block I mean it’s there’s there’s there’s a B I think there I read somewhere I have to I have to find the The Source again but there’s something like on average a bonger every like 200 meters in Paris it’s crazy wow wow crazy and it’s on average really good bread and you know I mean the there there is there is something we call the the French lunch which is just uh you buy a baguette you buy some butter and you buy some ham and then you make yourself a sandwich that cost you like €2 and you have a honestly really good lunch for close to nothing and it takes you two seconds to make it yeah we did that we took the train from P down of Le own over there that’s exactly what we bought just put in bag we actually got a nice Bas pretty go with it for the year too yeah exactly it’s just simple good um but yeah in terms of So So Gone a bit off the subject here but in terms of experiences in the US um I’ve mainly been to I haven’t done a lot of uh fine dining in the US mainly just simple simple restaurants you know family restaurants um of all ranges whether it’s fast food or at least slightly refined um there’s one thing I that comes keeps coming back to mind is these these Waters full of I mean these glass of water full of ice that they serve in in American restaurants it’s crazy it’s all the time and you get a glass of water that’s basically 80% ice and in you’re in a room that’s full that’s so much AC you’re dying of cold and they serve you a glass um yeah it’s like a tradition here I’m not sure why but that’s yeah pretty standard I I cannot get used it yeah and so on the bread side so when my wife and I travel whether I mean even I’ll just say Europe in general but um she can eat the bread there versus in the states she cannot eat the bread because of the difference in the wheat in Europe versus the difference I don’t know if you have any comments on that but that’s it’s and I’ve talked to I don’t know dozens of people here in the US so they traveled over to Europe and they people that have um in weed intolerances here in the US do not have weed intolerances when they Trel Europe it’s it’s just Inc I think I think that’s linked to um one big major problem and that that also influences many other aspects of fresh produce uh in the US versus in France or in Europe is regulations uh I mean here the regulations when it comes to farming to you know what you can use to grow your wheat um how you can process it Etc it’s there’s me there’s much more regulations in Europe than there is in the US um and I mean that I think that just means that on average the quality of the produce you’ll find uh in terms of the effect it has on health is just gonna be much higher in Europe because they’re actually really strict about um you know what you can and cannot do um and that’s actually one of the reasons why at the moment Farmers aren very happy here it’s because there’s so many regulations and especially in France they have so many regulations compared to other uh markets that they’re left uh with you know they they have non-competitive prices they don’t have competitive prices because they have too many regulations so we’re now we’re we’re at quite an extreme where literally they they have a guideline of exactly what they can and cannot do and it’s quite strict but I say on average on on average it is a good thing because uh I mean gluten gluten intolerance is not a big thing here in the US it feels like one% out of two uh is intolerant to gluten in France I mean I don’t know I don’t think I might have one or two friends that can have gluten but that’s it yeah it’s a recent recent meaning the last let say 20 years I mean it was not an issue 20 plus years ago in States either so it’s definitely I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole but there’s there’s definitely some things that have happened agriculturally here that are not in the best health interest of people in the states yeah there was an interesting um I’m GNA kind of jump over it so um the British medical journal came out with a study um the last couple weeks and they were talking about Ultra process Foods when you’re talking about going to American grocery store and all of the selection that they have um and the comment they made was that 58% of the American diet is based on Ultra processed foods so and to me an alter processed food I don’t know what your definition is if you look at something in the label and you can’t understand what the ingredients are that’s an alter process food yeah versus you know buying nuts and it says cashews salt olive oil that’s that’s not a process so so that’s 58% and then and when you they also compare to like um Italy and said that the Italians eat about 10% of the processed foods I didn’t see what the french number was but I’m just going to assume it’s pretty low as well but yeah yeah and so but so I don’t know if you have any thoughts there but it’s kind of like Ultra processed foods is kind of like pouring water into your car as gas tank it doesn’t give your body the fuel it needs to go I mean and that’s what we’re consuming in the states too the other study I read was 80% of the diet of children here is Health process foods and then so it leads to all kinds of there have been other studies done you know chronic diseases are up in the US kids are um Al have behavior issues because of some of the sugars that they’re eating in these Foods so anyways that’s my soap box I guess I want to see what your thoughts are on kind of that Whole Foods versus or process for conversation yeah it’s uh I mean it is it is very clear that in the US it’s it’s a huge problem just I mean um we can next time you go into an American uh supermarket and you’re in the US go to any big super whatever Target you have name name anyone go there you go go inside pick one category like you know biscuits and then take a picture of the aisle and then just type in like uh supermarket in France and look at the difference there’s going to be a million choices of same thing yeah and it’s and it’s it’s it’s everything is processed I mean even something as simple as I don’t know parrots they’re going to be Cuts in squares and then extra crunchy or extra whatever uh you know it’s not just simple plain carrots it’s they have to be their processed in some way and that’s just for cares I mean any there’s so many so many different uh uh uh you know uh ingredients that that are just overprocessed because it’s just part of the culture I mean I I I we have a quite funny thing in Europe it’s that we have in supermarkets now we have sections of foods from other parts of the world including American American uh food and in the in the American section is like it’s stuff like um marshmallow cream and you know just uh the the Hershey’s liquid chocolate I mean it’s it’s crazy uh the culture that is that is in the US about just food in general it’s like uh you know if if the food isn’t processed it isn’t good it’s like have lost touch of the fact that you know the the best food is made with the simplest ingredients yes could agree more it’s it’s like people it’s like people have forgotten that you can make an amazing dish with pasta um two Tomatoes a mozzarella and a bit of olol like you can have that’ll be more an Italian style dish but I mean you can make a really good dish with really simple ingredients and people have just lost this culture and I mean if you have a if you go on um on uh on YouTube uh and you have a look at uh American uh you know um uh channels that’ll show like American food channels it’ll be like oh the special special recipe whatever and you realize it’s just very simple stuff it’s like people are discovering that the simplest uh ingredients to make the best food um and this is a culture I think it’s is really in the US unfortunately the parents don’t uh stress this enough with their children they just you know like they’re just going to go out they’re not they don’t not as much as in France at least they don’t go and just buy simple ingredients like vegetables and butter milk and that’s it you know uh they they’re always going to buy you know stuff that’s already been prepared all that stuff and it’s the the children nowadays especially in the US are just not educated that they’re just not aware of the fact that originally uh you know a dish has four ingredients at best yeah yeah and the reason I have some hope here this is g g to make a couple other so that’s kind of the I’ll say the the uh negative side but at least our President and Vice President recently recently in the last couple years have started a uh funded a uh food initiative to end Hunger and improve nutrition and reduce diet related diseases by 2030 so there there’s at least a recognition that things need to change here and in the city of Cleveland um I just I’m going to release my podcast interview I did a couple weeks ago with the um director food and nutrition there um Bob and uh and Becky and um so they started in 80 those 85s I got remember the number right 85 schools in the city of Cleveland I forget how many 30,000 plus kids it’s probably higher than that but anyways they now have a salad bar for lunch in every single school and they gotten rid of Pop-Tarts got rid I didn’t even know there was such a thing as blue applesauce and uh so they’re starting to make changes here they’re getting you know help from different organizations to do that so it’s it’s I think things are starting to change it’s going to take years for it to happen but that’s that’s one of the positive things that we’re starting to see here so I mean it it is a start um but then again I mean if if then the sell is turned into you know uh if the the the salad available is like some sort of modified Ultra crunchy salad with a really creamy cheese that isn’t actually cheese like 90% plastic and then they add bacon and whatever on top we just go back to the same circle of you trying this I mean it really there has to be a shift from I they just the parents and at School teachers educating the children to like really make them aware of the fact that they have to go back to just simple primary ingredients and that you know a salad with just green salad a bit of oil and uh salt is the best thing ever I mean it’s the the the the they should be looking for the taste of the actual vegetables not to hide that taste with cheese and ham and whatever well if you grow if you have good growing practices your your vegetables are just going to taste better versus so I just interviewed get released in about a little bit behind but probably about four weeks but somebody in Cleveland that just started they make basically take food scraps and uh turn them into compost and healthy soil and then kind of distribute out so if you have good so we talked a lot about healthy soil and how it grows good tasting you know vegetables so I think you yeah so we have to we have to do a better job here in the states doing that so I mean there there is it’s really just about educ and I read uh yes I think it was yesterday or the day before anyways uh now the the biggest nutrition problem in the world isn’t hunger anymore it’s obesity officially there are more obese people than people starving in the world yes at the moment and that’s a real problem because that I’m I’m not have no medical background or anything but I can guarantee you that I mean if you walk around France you see people on average are going be are GNA be Slimmer because they eat they eat less processed food they eat less trans fats they eat you know just simple ingredients that the body is naturally used to uh you know uh uh how does it like a decompose you know your body is used to break down these natural ingredients and if you if you if you eat over complexified stuff that’s been transformed in every direction with things that probably aren’t even edible to start with obviously your body is not used to to you know breaking down that stuff and creates FAT and Etc I mean I think that it’s I’m pretty sure it’s been proven that the link between obes obesity and people eating uh uh transform uh produce is is I mean there’s a causality between the two too yeah they did a uh um had this series called the Blue zones I don’t know if you heard of that there but it’s basically it’s um uh locations around the world that have people that live to be a hundred plus years old and they kind of done studies on why they live in basically exercise they have good I’ll say community relationships and then they eat the way you’re talking about they eat natural Whole Food simple ingredients and that kind of thing so one of the blue zones that they talked about um which was in Southern California went from eating and and living that way and then they started introducing some of these um alra processed foods into that City and into their super markets and the obesity rate like went skyrocketing so it’s just yeah it’s it’s there’s definitely a direct relationship between the two so so so what are your kid what what did so when you were growing up what what did you have for like a school lunch what just give us an example of um a school lunch uh let’s see well it’s there we first of all there’s one when I’ve think about how it was at school in general it was I I really you could see all the time there’s a thing we say in French which which is it means five fruits or vegetables per day and it’s something that was really really it was stressed all the time at school 247 so we really got in our heads the fact that we do need to eat a v variety of vegetables and fruits per day so I mean a meal at school was probably something like uh you know a little uh green salad or uh you know grated carrots uh to start and then uh as simple you know meat Ragu with rice and an apple to finish um and usually there was also that culture about um you can only everything you pick and you put in your plates you have to finish and you would get punished if you uh you know left a trade that was half full wow um it’s yeah it’s it’s I mean at school they really do that that that that job of like making sure children are eating a very Diversified diet and it’s not just pizza I mean the the time when it was pizza at school it was like a party day it happened like three times a year three times we have pizza and it was the greatest day ever but the reason why it was great it was because it was only three times a year right right um and I mean don’t get me wrong like it’s not we’re not talking about Michelin star uh quality meals in in in in uh French schools I mean the on average it is really bad I mean the T it doesn’t have a lot of taste Etc but at least we’re eating tasteless rice meat vegetables and not you know uh fast forood transform stuff all the time uh even if it’s low quality at least there’s that whole culture of having a diversified meal with not just uh protein like you have some vegetables Etc right right definitely need to eat more vegetables still need the protein but you know doesn’t have to be yeah 80% what and you know meat is great but you know uh diversifying the meat first of all you know not just beef all the time try a bit of fish bit of a bit of lamb a bit of anything you got your hands on really uh um and sometimes you know a meal without meat is is always beneficial I’m a meat lover myself but uh once in a while if I can do a pasta that has no meat you know just with mushroom and and cheese you know that it’s it’s always good to to have allow your body to rest a bit because meat is the one of the hardest things to digest well I think here again in the states I think where the portion size is for people you know when they order a steak for example instead of a a normal size steak to get a 16 o or 20 o it’s just your body can’t digest that much yeah that reminds me uh it was a feeling I got when I was a child traveling from uh us to France uh it was like as a child I thought it was really cool because when you went to an American McDonald’s the for the if you the same meal you ordered in the US was like twice the size of the meal you had in France so as a kid it was great but now thinking back on it it’s a bit depressing to think that you know when a kid or orders a you know I don’t know if you have best off or Maxi best off in the US that’s how call it’s like the difference it’s like it’s like between medium and large you have a large meal in the US you get a drink that’s about 10 feet tall and and you know and was really sweet and it was it was great as a kid because you were like oh my God everything is huge but you realize that if people are getting used to that I mean that that’s where the problem is right right yep it’s all about um I listen to the the podcast yesterday just talking about you want to have different colors on your plate different variety not just you know yeah the color game is a good is is a good game you know try to you know have at least three or four colors in you play it’s not so much about the colors themselves it’s more about diversifying what is in your plate right right um but then you know again I think the one of the key the keys to a a a good good and healthy meal is simp Simplicity um another example if you look in the US you see a thing that’s very trendy is stuff like mix and matches you know uh Sushi Pizza I mean stuff like that there’s like there’s like so many meals that are just a combination of everything and that means there’s so many different ingredients and it just becomes a mess if you look at countries that are known to eat healthy and eat well France even Japan a Japanese meal has three ingredients as you know you look at a typical Japanese meal it’s a a bowl of rice with a bit of fish on top and maybe I don’t know some some some marinated cabbage or something it’s very simple simple meals and they are some of the best meals out there but they’re simple you know I mean I was looking at a an American YouTuber um who was talking about this meal he had where it was a cookie pizza so it was like a a pizza size cookie with cream and ice cream on top and whipped cream Etc and it was just it’s a it’s a mess and the sizes the order sizes are way too big people are losing Touch of what uh what you should be eating in a day you know I mean it’s like it’s like having a kilo of meat in a day is normal when you should be having maybe 250 grams at best right yeah at least per yeah there’s been some recent studies done too in the US just about eating meat and how much protein and so you know if you’re a vegetarian you can do it through to or what means but how much protein is you should be eating for meal and it’s not what we’re consuming today but just to put a little different so just so I want to make sure people we’re not saying to never have uh chocolate never have a pastry never have a piece of cake that’s not that’s not the conversation we’re just saying that shouldn’t be the problem is it’s become the norm versus a you know an Indulgence like you were talking about pizza in the schools it happen two times a year I’m not saying you should only have a piece of cake three times a year but it’s just you should be eating healthy most of the time and then you know I mean France has a lot of good Bas shops too it’s not just you know it’s it’s balance I guess don’t don’t get me wrong I love you know a really meaty cheesy Burger once in a while the problem is that it’s you know it should be once a week in says instead of five times a week right right um yeah so let’s so let’s trans so a little bit of so healthy meals I don’t know how much you eat out versus how much you cook at home but um what what what can be done I guess to encourage people because that’s part of what this podcast is about too is encouraging people to make healthy meals and more healthy me home versus all the alter at least in the states all the alternative drive-throughs that are out there that are easily available I guess my my first tip is move to Switzerland because the price of EA out here I’ll calm you right down I mean it out here is a real budget so definitely at some point you just don’t have a choice uh but no on a more serious note um I’d say it’s actually one of one of the the the things that impire inspires me the most when I’m when I’m cooking is uh if beforehand when I’m hungry I watch a video about some recipe some you know good and healthy recipe usually try and watch French YouTubers that speak English or like European YouTubers that speak English it’s always better uh because it’s been in their culture to to you know have good simple healthy food um and just watch the video while you’re hungry because it’s going to create that you’re G to want to recreate that and then when you try to recreate that meal I say the first thing is it’s not always important to follow the exact recipe just because you know I mean it’s there’s no perfect recipe that’s why there’s a thousand different ways of making uh uh you know a uh no idea some Von which is a classic French uh classic French dish there’s a thousand ways of making everything so don’t don’t try and follow the recipe letter by letter that’s it’s fine if you go a bit of bit improvise a bit on the side add things you want in it that’s fine um second of all is if the if the first time it doesn’t taste great don’t give up because it only comes with practice I mean the amount of dishes I tried to do and the first it was like the worst thing but at least I learned you know okay so maybe should put a bit less of this try a bit of that Etc change it up and just practice practice practice and practice practice makes perfect the more you’ll be cooking trying to to make a recipe the better you get at it and at some point you’ll be so easy you’ll just you’ll just be going through supermarket in two seconds just pick up the three things you need go home Chef it up real quick and then enjoying your meal and having a really good time and the best part is that you’ll probably be eating better than at a restaurant and you’ll be paying like an eighth of the price and it doesn’t take that long when you have a few ingredients it does not take that long to make it exactly if you keep it simple it’s also going to be simple to cook I mean that’s the bottom line um and I say if you’re if you’re lazy if if you don’t really want to you know go through a whole in new recipe in that case just keep it simple go for uh you know a the base of the meal so whether it’s meats or fish you know something really simple like a some salmon or you know just a small piece of steak cook it fry in the pan then decide what you want to have on the side something like uh you know rice or a mashed potato something really easy to make you make that you add a a green salad on the side and that’s it you have a healthy meal simple easy to make yeah and that’s yeah that’s absolutely we did that last night we had a small steak cook asparagus in the same pan for like literally a minute and then I had a side Sal and that was it and just watch honestly the the the I wasn’t great at cooking and then during Co I started watching a lot of videos and even if you don’t even if you’re not concentrating if you watch some uh you know good chefs working at some point you’ll pick up some things even you know in your self-conscious even if you don’t you’re not realizing that you’re seeing it at the moment when you’re going to be facing that situ of like you know for example um oh why don’t I exactly like you said why don’t I cook my vegetables with my my meat sauce you know it’s just stuff like that it’s just reflexes that will come naturally when you’re cooking um and that you have picked up just by watching videos you know yeah you been doing it for thousands of years so it’s not exactly there’s there’s a million videos out there that can really inspire you and and teach you how to just make good simple meals and you know I mean even if you look at a a a video with some some complex recipe you can just take bits bits and parts of it you know if you don’t want to make uh the complicated part you can just use the Baseline of the recipe and improvise with that absolutely absolutely so what would you say your favorite meal that you’ve had at a French restaurant whether you work there or D there yourself what would what’s been your favorite um I’d say it’s the favorite type of meal the I mean there’s there’s one meal that I really try to do at least two or three times a year it’s going out to a restaurant and having a nice uh beef rib for know sharing style for three four people with some friends and a nice Bott of wine this is the best thing ever because if you provided you to choose a restaurant that has good Quality Meats you’re going to have such a good meal uh and you know the pairing with the the red wine is I mean also in France you get a nice choice when it comes but I think it’s you know eating I mean uh going to a restaurant is not just about the food it’s about the people you have the food with so you know I I really like just you know picking four or five friends make a reservation we go there have a nice piece of meat some wine and we just sit down talk and relax all evening and yeah that’s that’s the I say that’s the my go-to meal just the as we say in French that’s that’s how we call it and the one at Bush is actually uh really good very nice very nice so um if you had the attention of the world for five minutes given your life experiences so far what would you want to tell or explain to people could this broadcast being broadcast around the world right now well um I’d say God I don’t know uh just you know take things down Notch make them simple like anything you you anything you’re planning on obviously we’re talking about food but anything you planning on do it just simplify you know don’t don’t don’t make crazy plans oh I’m gonna even when it comes to food like uh just go for the simplest form because usually the simp the simpler the better especially with and that’s not just about food it’s it’s more like in general you know like we have really fast-paced lives nowadays um and people have kind of lost this touch of just you know sometimes sitting back and just relaxing uh you know and just taking the time to just enjoy life you know people are about oh now we got to make money we gota we got to work twice as hard Etc I mean don’t get me wrong we money is great working hard is great but sometimes you’ve got to take the time to just you know it’s a it’s a it’s a Sunday afternoon or a a Saturday evening you’re on a weekend call two friends up go to a restaurant with a Terrace provided when we’re in the summer order a bottle of wine and just sit down and do nothing but talk and have a glass of wine with them just simplify things don’t plan you know holidays with a million things going on because the more you expect the more you’ll be you’ll be sad when things don’t come through just go for simple stuff you know um it’s great to go on holiday but then don’t plan a lot just let things happen on the go because the more pressure you put the the the the sadder you’ll be when things don’t happen just make things simple basically yeah yeah I have I had a friend that’s a chef that was on the show and he’s going to um abon this summer for it’s either a week or two and um he’s going with a friend staying with a friend but um Family said um well why don’t we go to here here they wanted to go to all these places goes no we’re going to on we’re going to stay there we’re going to enjoy the people we’re going to enjoy the food in the town we’re not going to like travel all over Europe so so that’s and so I mean and we went once to Paris in the summertime we went to a restaurant called larine and there was a river across the street and it was I don’t know Thursday or Friday Saturday I don’t remember but it was packed with just people sitting around on blankets tables playing cards eating chees drinking wine EXA just relaxing go I mean that when I think about it the best times the best evenings I’ve had the best moments I’ve had are moments that weren’t planned so in order to have these moments you’ve got to leave room for improvisation stuff just comes you know I mean taking your friend’s example that’s going to a if you’re planning to go to a city you know maybe plan if few must do things but other than that just let yourself give yourself enough time to just for Just For Stuff to happen to you because that’s where you get the F experiences the that’s when you get the you know the the the the crunchy details right right yeah I think you made one restaurant reservation that’s it so exactly and then you know when you’re go make one restaurant reservation go there talk to the owner let like if you if you have a good time of course tell them well you know what you what would you recommend in the same in the same Vibe and I mean no uh no um uh tourist guide is ever going to match a local uh restaurant owner’s knowledge of what there is good to eat around you right right so did you bring a recipe to talk about today uh talk a lot about different ways of preparing food but any particular recipe so I got two for you I’ve got one healthy one and one uh if you know if you if you want to just have a really gour as we say in French you know a really nice uh meal that res sits on your stomach and you have to go take a nap afterwards because it was that that so so the first one uh the healthy one let’s start with the healthy one um all you need is uh a cabbage so so you basically you take a cabbage you boil it and then you cut you cut in half you boil it and then you uh cut out the inside leave it uh Hollow and then you stuff it with a sauce you’ll make with a bit of cream Tomatoes an chetta or you know some sort of ham and cheese don’t that cheese already and you just make that sauce put it in the Cabbage thick it in the oven put a bit of cheese on top and let it let let it let it cook and once the cheese is grated you can have it and that’ll be basically some sort of stuffed cabbage basically okay so is it did you say boil the Cabbage first yeah so you boil the Cabbage first that allows for the Cabbage to be cooked and that way in the oven it just kind of you know um melts the cheese Etc but it doesn’t there’s not much cooking going on that way as soon as the cheese is is crusted it’s ready to go okay gotcha um and that’s it’s healthy because you’ve got some cabbage you got some Tomatoes but it’s also really nice because you have some cheese you have a bit of panata or ham or or any I mean and of course you can Mi you can replace some of these ingredients it’s really simple it doesn’t cost much and it’s actually healthy because you do have some healthy uh stuff in there and it’s simple yeah so you can use ground beef ground lamb tofu if you’re a vegetarian fancy really yeah yeah um it’s just as long as you really get make sure you get enough cream in there so you get that creamy sauce that’s going to go really well with the Cabbage which can be a bit dry but if you have that creamy sauce inside of it it’s going to be perfect okay um and another so the the other more gou meal uh really simple all you need is uh some small pasta probably like ciet it’s a very typical French pasta but a small size pasta um and so what you you start by putting it in a pan and then you add a tiny bit of water not a lot just a bit just so that the pasta is submerged in it and then on the side you um mix some hot water with some beef stock and then you’re just going to slowly add the beef stock to the pasta as it Cooks so that the pasta absorbs that beef stock okay so make sure that there’s no don’t ever drown the pasta completely just make sure that it’s always humid so that the pasta isn’t burning mm is absorbing all that beef stock once you once the pasta’s reach you know normal cooking size and you you I mean taste it of course see if it’s cooked once it’s cooked just add um a bit of uh cheese whereas parmesan con anything anything you can put your hands on uh provid that it melts add a bit of that cheese add a bit of ham and you’ve got some delicious pasta that’ll be very flavorful from that beef stock and we’ll have know cheese and ham very simple there’s four ingredients beef stock pasta um you know ham and cheese so when you put the pasta in the pan rling with the water you’re just covering the pasta barely just just a bit so that the p and the water can start heating and have that have that beef broth usually in France here we have cubes uh very like salt Cube like very salty beef broth cubes that you mix with hot water um and then you just add that gradually just so that basically you should be you should have uh the water level should be just above the pasta okay at all times okay and you just mix it a lot so that the pasta we get all of the the different pieces of pasta get to absorb some beef broth okay it sounds it sounds complicated but it’s really easy you just as long as you’re keeping a steady uh inflow of of broth it’s really easy then you just add the cheese the ham and you’re good to go and if you want to make it a bit a bit more fine dining just add a bit of truffle oil and that’s it so and you just have like a side salad of that yeah um and I mean we talked about you know getting your veggies in uh every day if ever the the the meal you’re making doesn’t have it in it just make a green salad on the side make a little sauce with olive oil uh a bit of vinegar and pepper a bit of salt and you’re good to go and then you you’ll have healthy meal because you’ll still have a salad on the side make sure you eat the salad though but you know you know even if there’s no no no veggies in your meal just bit of salad on the side or you know start with carrots with mayonnaise it’s really good you get you get some carrots in with mayonnaise it goes really well together at crunches it’s perfect just make a quick side dish of whatever whatever vegetables you have you can make a salad with anything any any vegetables whether it’s Tomatoes salad of cucumber anything makes a good salad as long as you there’s some doctors here in the States now saying you should eat your salad first and then eat your whatever your protein second so my my mom always said make a bed of salad in your on the bottom of your stomach before putting the food in then and you can eat you know salad gradually but start with a bed of salad so that the food can rest well so there you go your mom was telling you that however however many years ago and it’s just becoming known here in the US in the last literally I’ve just heard about in the last six months so exactly I think I don’t think the the US I think at least they the US is they’re realizing in general that they’ve got to get better you know how they eat um but yeah it’s just is the good news is that the path to recovery isn’t complicated just make it simple yeah three four ingredients Max there you go fresh yeah we talk about any less than six ingredients on the show so there you go exactly exactly just a few ingredients make it simple and it’ll be good yeah and healthy all right well thank you for being on the show today much me it was great a great conversation yeah um um please subscribe to the show every week where you listen to your podcast please leave comments Below on my website eat better food today so we can continue to provide content for healthier longer lives thanks Lloyd appreciate it thanks Ken thank you very much have a great uh have a great weekend here yeah you too have a good weekend see you soon thanks thanks [Music]