THE ART OF THE SNACK

This month, we're heading to NYC's Flatiron district to abc Carpet & Home, known for its home decor assortment as well as housing 3 restaurants. During COVID-19, like the many restaurants, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's abcv, abc Kitchen and abc Cocina have been available to the community through pickup and deliveries. Now, with NYC entering its Phase 2 of reopening, they are excited to begin having people at limited capacity within their space. Guests can enjoy all 3 restaurants as well as having access to their patio which recently opened. We chat with Jeremy Mustakas, Director of Operations of abc Restaurants about their dishes, cocktails and what to expect when dining in during Phase 2.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Tell us about Jean-Georges Vongerichten in terms of his culinary journey and how he came to creating 3 restaurants abcv, abc Cocina and abc Kitchen at abc Home.

JEREMY MUSTAKAS: Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Paulette Cole (owner of abc Home) partnered in 2010 to create abc kitchen, which they intended to be a neighborhood restaurant that celebrated the best locally grown produce and ethically sourced fish and meats in a setting focused on sustainability. Our proximity to Union Square's Greenmarket, where Jean-Georges has been shopping and sourcing for his restaurants for many years, gave us the opportunity to create a platform for local farmers who were doing things in the way of agriculture and sustainable farming. The restaurant would also celebrate local and global artisans, with handmade plates, vintage silverware, and artwork from around the globe. Shortly after opening, abc Kitchen won a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. abc Cocina, our latin-inspired small plates restaurant, opened a few years later, and finally abcV opened 3 years ago, our first and only (exclusively) plantbased restaurant.

AM: Describe a bit about 3 restaurants and what guests can expect of those menus and the ambiance?

JM: abc Kitchen, our flagship, celebrates farm-table cuisine with a dining room ambiance akin to that of a modern farmhouse. abc Cocina, with it's darker and more dramatic lighting is romantic, lively, and creates a genuine sense of community with our menu concept, focused on sharing and togetherness. abcV, our plant-based restaurant which also features breakfast, is bright and inviting, filled with natural light. It showcases a menu inspired by cuisines from around the world, with a selection that is mostly vegan, with the exception of a few ethically-sourced dairy products.

AM: What are 3 signature dishes and 2 signature cocktails at abcv?

JM: • Whole wood roasted cauliflower, date syrup, red zhug, turmeric tahini, pistachios, fresh herbs, lemon

• Smoky squash baba ghanoush, sungold tomato, fresh pita, market crudite

• Mushroom walnut bolognese, carrot paccheri, celery, mint leaf

• Pandan infused Gin & Housemade Tonic

• Golden Mylk Toddy

AM: What are 3 signature dishes and 2 signature cocktails at abc Cocina?

JM: • Spring pea guacamole with crunchy tortillas

• Griddled fish tacos, chipotle aioli, cabbage-chile pickle

• Arroz con pollo, crackling skin, lemon zest

• Grapefruit Margarita

• Tomatillo Mojito

AM: What are 3 signature dishes and 2 signature cocktails at abc Kitchen?

JM: • Spinach, goat cheese, and market herb pizza

• Campanelle pasta, basil-pistachio pesto, summer squash, sungold tomatoes

• Faroe island salmon, spring peas, ginger, scallion

• Raspberry Fernet (featuring 123 Organic tequila)

• Vodka Thyme Lemonade

AM: During COVID-19, many restaurants have had to pivot on how they served their guests and neighborhoods with pickup and delivery, how did these restaurants do this during the initial weeks of quarantine?

JM: As we closed our doors for months following the government mandate, we watched a lot of our colleagues innovate and create new ways to be impactful through delivery and takeout services. When we were able to safely return in May, we were so grateful to see many of our colleagues had paved the way for a new normal. It hasn't been without its challenges, but we are fortunate to operate in a city with so many great leaders within our industry.

AM: We know that due to Phase 2, your restaurants are allowing guests to dine on site. Tell us about the capacity, rules and systems that you have created to ensure guest safety?

JM: In addition to following all city and state safety regulations for patio dining and operating during this time, we've been able to extend our seating through the NY Open Restaurant plan, allowing us additional seating capcity on 19th street. We also offer a contactless menu through scanning a QR code, which will bring you to the digital version. Guest and employee safety is our number one priority, and we are deeply committed to providing a guest experience that is safe for all parties involved.

AM: Although you have 3 restaurants, you are creating a menu that has elements of all 3 restaurants – tell us more about this.

JM: All of the items listed above are available on our limited patio menu, and are worth trying! This combined- restaurant menu is only available for a limited time (and will end once Phase 3 begins).

AM: Looking forward and based on how you have had to navigate the past few months, what are your goals for these restaurants as they continue through the summer as well as the fall?

JM: Our goal, above everything, is to create a safe and welcoming environment for our employees and our guests. One that allows us to serve our community and provide an exceptional guest experience. We are grateful to operate in a city that understands how pivotal this moment is in continuing to make progress and learning to adapt in the new realities of dining out.

IG @abccarpetandhome

@abccocina

@abckitchen

@abcvnyc

@jgrestaurants

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDIT | Courtesy of abc Restaurants

Read the June Issue of Athleisure Mag #54 and see The Art of the Snack in mag.

S1. E13. | ATHLEISURE KITCHEN WITH GABY DALKIN

On today’s episode of Athleisure Kitchen we talk with cookbook author, founder of What’s Gaby Cooking culinary creator, and who has created a line of seasonings, sauces and cocktail mixers that you can purchase at Williams Sonoma for a number of years – Gaby Dalkin. We talk about how she created her culinary universe, her focus of California Girl Living, being inspired through travel and lifestyle as she approaches creating her dishes. We also talk about her popular site and how she grew it as well as it concepts and her newest cookbook that’s out now – Eat What You Want. She even tells us how we can enhance our movie nights in with her dishes as we all do our part to flatten the curve!

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

ATHLEISURE LIST | MAPLE LEAF FARMS

Maple Leaf Farms, Inc. has been a leading provider of premium Duck products throughout the world since 1958. Family-owned and family farmed raised, their ducks are all natural and humanely raised in a free to roam environment. They are fully integrated throughout every step of the process, making the quality of the utmost standards. Their commitment to animal care and top quality products has set them apart as one of the most recognized and well respected duck brands.

Available online, their assortment is selected with the customer in mind. This year, they're focusing on the healthier side of duck and have created a skinless duck breast (4 oz. is only 110 calories and 2 g in fat - making it healthier than the average chicken breast), low fat duck brat (60% less fat and 40% less calories than pork brats) and a low fat duck bacon (57% less fat than pork bacon). Duck is a great alternative protein because it's lean & delicious. Duck is also rich in monounsaturated fat, so the fat that you are eating is very similar to the nutritional content of olive oil.

Maple Leaf Farms raises white pekin ducks whose flavor is a milder, slightly sweet taste and the meat is really tender. Essentially you get the taste and feel of a steak with a duck breast, but you get the nutrition of the poultry side. Some describe it as a perfect tossup between steak and chicken. Duck is high in iron, so that results in a red meat taste. Duck is also great on the grill and can be cooked in pretty much any way a steak or chicken breast would be as well.

When cooking with duck, there are a lot of flavor pairings with rotisserie rubs, garlic rubs, and it really pairs well with most spices. Traditionally duck is frequently paired with orange sauce, hoisin sauce or sometimes a berry sauce like cherry or raspberry.

It's also recommend to drink a Pinot Noir with duck since it has a mild tender flavor. A medium bodied red is the best to pair since it borders the line in taste between chicken and steak.

Maple Leaf Farms has been working with a variety of restaurants throughout the nation to help serve meals to frontline healthcare workers and furloughed restaurant employees. Due to COVID-19, they had a large spike in online sales, so they started developing kits. They currently have a Duck Grill Kit which includes: 32 duck brats, 4 lbs. of ground duck, 8 skinless duck breasts, a recipe guide, and an exclusive independence day themed “FireQuacker” apron. They wanted to focus on duck items best for the summer since most people think of duck as a fall or winter dish. 3rd and 4th generation owners Olivia and her father, John T., have been running a recipe video series on their Facebook to talk about the kit as well as showing how easy it is to make these items for a great summer family meal. Another kit may be available around Labor Day.

MAPLE LEAF FARMS

www.shopmapleleaffarms.com

IG @mapleleaffarms

Read the June Issue #54 of Athleisure Mag and see Athleisure List | Maple Leaf Farms in mag.

IN OUR BAG | FOR A HOLIDAY WEEKEND

Read the June Issue #54 of Athleisure Mag and see In Our Bag | For a Holiday Weekend in mag.

THAT CALIFORNIA GIRL LIFE WITH GABY DALKIN

Food has always been a great way to bring people together, explore cultures and even to give insight into who you are and your creativity. This month, we talk with cookbook author, founder of What’s Gaby Cooking culinary creator, and who has created a line of seasonings, sauces and cocktail mixers that you can purchase at Williams Sonoma for a number of years – Gaby Dalkin. She shares how she created her culinary universe, her focus of California Girl Living, being inspired through travel and lifestyle as she approaches creating her dishes. We also talk about her popular site and how she grew it as well as her newest cookbook that’s out now, What's Gaby Cooking, Eat What You Want. She even tells us how we can enhance our movie nights in with her dishes as we all do our part to flatten the curve!

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you fall in love with food and realize that you wanted to work in the industry?

GABY DALKIN: So I fell in love with food really when I was in high school. I used to come home from school everyday and watch the Food Network and I just loved watching them cook. It was mesmerizing to me. I would watch it everyday for a couple of hours when I would do my homework. Then when I got to college, I started cooking for my tennis team. I played tennis in college and I met my husband, he was my boyfriend at the time. He was on the men’s team and I would cook for everyone – we have both not picked up our rackets in years. I would cook for the men’s and women’s teams right before matches. I loved getting people around the table. It brought me so much joy for me to be able to feed them and just watch the conversation happen when you bring people to a table and include food.

After college, I got a job in the fashion and marketing/PR industry for a couple of months. The whole company folded and then instead of getting another job, I decided to go to culinary school – just for fun. I had no intention of going into the culinary world fulltime. I ended up loving it and falling in love with food. I got a job as a private chef and I started my blog and it just snowballed and that was a little over 10 years ago.

AM: That’s a great story and one of the things that we enjoyed reading about you is that you’re all about the California Girl Life. We’re based in NY and we wanted to know how you define the California Girl Life?

GD: To me, the California Girl Life is not about being in California. It’s more the state of mind as opposed to an actual place. I think it’s all about living your life in balance, being your own sunshine and making sure you’re happy and all of that. I think that that is what my definition of California is. I can have a beautiful salad with all of these incredible vegetables and I can also indulge in pizza, pasta and cookies – that’s the balance part of it. I mean, we’re very fortunate in California to have incredible weather most of the year. Whether or not, you can experience that or not, I think that we can all bring a bit of sunshine into our kitchens via food.

AM: Would you define that as your style of cooking or since you went to culinary school, do you have a specific way that you like to cook?

GD: I would say that I am very California focused, but I would say that I was trained in French cuisine, but I wouldn’t say or even qualify myself to say that I am a French trained chef. I like to say that the way I cook is very carefree, I like to do simple ingredients – I would say that I am a Mediterranean style cook and that really resonates with California. I also grew up in Tucson, Arizona so there is definitely some South West and Mexican influence in my food.

AM: We can definitely see that. You are a recipe developer. What does that mean and what does it involve?

GD: A recipe developer is someone who has an idea and takes it from an idea to a finished recipe. Normally, it takes anywhere from 3-6 tries to get a recipe perfect before it gets up on my website or one of my cookbooks. For me, it’s important for me to stay continuously inspired. Pre COVID-19, it came from traveling and being able to eat at restaurants and all of that kind of stuff. Now, I’m finding inspiration from my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Boxes and things that I’m doing because before, I had access to Farmer’s Markets and now I get these things delivered once a week and I’m like, “what do I do with this and this?” It’s creating so many ideas because I’m being forced to cook with things that I normally would not get on my home. It’s been cool to recipe develop during this period of time when things have been more limited.

AM: Can you tell us more about the website, What’s Gaby Cooking?

GD: What’s Gaby Cooking is my website that I started back in 2009. It was originally a blog that I was able to put up things that I was cooking in culinary school and beyond on it. It has now been turned into more of a hub that houses all the What’s Gaby Cooking things. So we have recipes on there, meal plans on there, we feature companies, we do travel guides, menu planning for Memorial Day or Mother’s Day, our podcast is on there now and we just recently launched a culinary school on there as well.

AM: Which is awesome.

GD: I’m basically reliving my culinary days and turning it into videos so that people can get the same education I got A. for free and B. done in quick snippet videos. While everyone is cooking more at home right now, you have access to some cool how to videos.

AM: When we looked at it, we loved seeing how you had all the different ways that you could make eggs because there are some that you know how to do, but then there are others that are a bit more challenging and it was cool to see the one on poached eggs. It’s great how easily bite sized that it is where you can just start from there, do it and then you just roll into other videos. Couldn’t agree more that especially during this time, you may not have cooked a lot but you find yourself doing it a lot more now and you’re looking for fun places that you can kind of make it fun for yourself to do it. Especially since we’re all at home!

GD: I think it’s important to make things accessible. Yes cooking can be complicated, but at its core, it’s not. I’m enjoying being able to dispel some people’s fears around cooking while doing culinary school.

AM: Your husband works with you as well, how is that in your coupleship? As our co-founders are a couple, it’s interesting to see all the roles and those that spill over work between them as well as finding that balance with them.

GD: Thomas came on fulltime about a year ago. The first couple of weeks were rocky because we were so used to – I mean I have a team that helps me but I wasn’t used to having someone in my space every day. It was really interesting getting Thomas and I into a groove. Now a month in, we’ve been smooth sailing. He runs the whole production, tech and design side – he does all the video editing, the website design – all that and creating all the graphics and things. I do all of the recipes and camera facing work. He’s also been apart of What’s Gaby Cooking from the beginning. He wasn’t getting paid as he had an other job, but he knows my business inside and out. It’s hard to find someone who cares about the company as much as I do. So, it’s really cool to have him involved full time now and to have someone who is as equally invested in it every waking moment of every day.

AM: You have so many aspects to your business. What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to include a cookbook within your ecosystem? We were fans of Absolutely Avocados – we’re a fan of the fruit. What was the process like when you decided that you were going to do your first cookbook and how long do you spend doing your cookbooks?

GD: When you write a cookbook, it normally takes you 2-2.5 years start to finish. But when I did my first cookbook which was 8 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing and I walked into it very blind and it was an incredible learning experience for me. I LOVED Absolutely Avocados. It was my first child if you will. I’m very proud of it, but it also came with so many lessons about what kind of person I wanted as my agent, my editor, how I was going to be pushed and did I need someone to be my best friend who would hold my hand the entire time or did I need someone that would push me to make it an incredible book and to make it even better.

From my first book to my second and third book, I actually switched both agents and publishers. What I learned was, I can have both. My editor now, is someone who is going to push me to be a better writer, a better thinker and all of these things. She has now turned into a friend, but at first I was just looking for a friend. I wasn’t looking for anyone to push me because I thought that I was doing it so well to begin with. But we all need to be pushed and I think it’s important to have someone that keeps me accountable. I’m lucky that I have thatwith this team. But the first book, was a really great learning lesson for me.

AM: You just released your third book, What’s Gaby Cooking, Eat What You Want. It has such a great conversational tone as well as pictures. What inspired you to creating this particular book?

GD: Thank you! I get asked all the time, “Yeah you post all of these pizzas, pastas, cookies and salads. But what do you really eat Gaby?” I was like, “this is what I really eat.” I just wanted to really drive the home that you could do it all, you could do it in balance and you really have a great life. I think in today’s world, there is a lot of noise in food. You’re not supposed to have bananas in your smoothie and all of these things that aren’t necessarily true and it’s because of the diet industry that is rebranding as part wellness industry basically. I wanted people to get rid of the noise. Food makes you happy. It’s supposed to nourish your body, make you happy and bring people around your table. I wanted to create a book that was going to celebrate all of that.

AM: To have the section on the sauces, the splurge foods, you have the foods that are definitely the healthy ones – having the balance and destigmatizing it as opposed to saying what should and shouldn’t be really rang true to when we created Athleisure Mag. We wanted to present the options and allow people to decide if they wanted to do something in the manner that works for them. To have it in a succinct and awesomely packaged way, it made us want to make a number of the recipes because there are so many fun things that are in there. The flow and the way that it is broken out is conversational which makes it super approachable which is exactly on point with your brand.

GD: Thank you! That’s exactly what I wanted people to feel when they are reading it. I wanted them to feel like they were in my kitchen with me and they were just hanging out with their friends. I hope that everyone else feels that way as well.

AM: With all of us staying in. We have been doing movie nights 3-4 times a week. We have our projector that goes up, we have our snacks and things together. What are 3 dishes in your book that we should be making when we do our movie nights?

GD: Definitely the Parmesan Pizza Popcorn. It is made for movie night. I would say the brownies in the back – The Caramel Marshmallow, Chocolate Chunk Brownies – it’s a very nice decadent treat to watch a movie to. And then, while it’s not exactly good food to eat on your couch as they’re a little messy. The Chipotle Wings in the appetizer section are such a gamechanger. They’re so good and they’re not – punch you in the face spicy, they’re smokey and they leave you with a nice heat. I think that that is really fun also.

AM: That sounds amazing. Are you already making plans for your next cookbook and what it is going to be?

GD: Oh my gosh, yes! I just talked to my team the other day and they said, “so what’s book number 4?” I was like, “I don’t know.” Give me a few months to think about it. I would love to continue to do cookbooks. It’s so much fun to see people use them in their kitchens, tagging me in their recipes, hearing how food is effecting their lives and making them better. Right now with the quarantine and people being home with their children and homeschooling them, so many moms have been messaging me and saying that they are using my book as a textbook to teach their kids fractions, how to read and colors. I think that that is just the coolest thing and I never would have thought of that and I think it’s just really cool.

AM: That’s huge! You’re really synced into your social media! You were just talking about how people let you know how they are using your books and recipes. It’s awesome to hear that as busy as you are with so many things going on that you’re able to stay engaged with them.

GD: It’s my favorite part of my job! One of my favorite things to do it to talk to my whole audience they’re my family and friends. I have had the opportunity to meet some of these people on book tours and hosted events. I’m with them every day in my kitchens so it’s so much fun to be able to communicate with them via Instagram, Twitter or the blog. I can answer their questions, hear their stories – hands down one of the favorite parts of my job.

AM: With your new podcast, What’s Gaby Cooking… In Quarantine, it focuses on the quarantine and different dishes that you can make, how do you decide what dishes are going to go on the podcast?

GD: So the podcast is all user generated content. So I have a hotline. Remember back in the day when there was, 1-800-Jenny-Craig from back in the day?

AM: YES!

GD: I have one of those numbers now and so people call in and ask questions based on quarantine. How do I cook x y z in my pantry, how do I clean this and how do I this? It’s been so cool to listen to everyone’s voicemails and then to listen for things that are fairly common themes across everyone’s questions and to answer those on the podcast. It’s helping people to get even more comfortable in the kitchen. We just started having guests! My mom was my first guest and we talked about food noise, food shaming, raising children in today’s world and how we shouldn’t pay attention to the crazy food noise as well as how she did that she she was raising me and my sister. It’s going to be cool to see everyone’s response to that.

AM: Looking at Williams-Sonoma, how did that partnership come about and what is it like to create all of these amazing seasonings with them and what’s it like working with them?

GD: Williams-Sonoma came about a few years ago back in 2016. I had decided that the next iteration of What’s Gaby Cooking would be for people to have something tangible that they could use in their kitchens that felt like I was there with them. I knew that they were cooking the recipes and they were watching us on YouTube and all of that kind of stuff. I wanted them to have something that they could literally put in their recipes. I cold called a number of companies and told them my idea. Everyone that you can imagine that sells food products, and a couple of them wrote me and asked me to fly to their headquarters to take a meeting. Williams-Sonoma did not call me back right away, but I knew people there and I knew that everything that they’re about made sense for my brand. I went ahead and went to the meetings for the brands that reached out – they said, let’s get this rolling. I felt that it just wasn’t right yet. 24 hours later, the head food buyer of Williams- Sonoma emailed me and asked me to come up to San Francisco and to cook for the whole team and tell them my story. So, I dropped everything that I was doing and I hopped on a plane, flew up there a couple of days later, cooked for everyone, told them my story and we talked about my social, my website and culinary school.

I didn’t know this at the time, but salsa was not their best SKU. So they said, “let’s try a line of salsas.” I was like, “ok cool.” I’m from Arizona, I love salsa – let’s do it. We crushed it. We developed 3 salsas that came out that were also able to be used as multiuse sauces as well. It did so well and outperformed all their salsas. I think that that was their way of testing me. From there, we expanded into seasonings, oil, perishable products and cocktail mixes. It’s been such an incredible partnerships for the last few years and I feel incredible lucky to work with people that have become like family and friends to me. To be part of a company that has such strong messaging and goals – I feel fortunate to be apart of the WS Fam!

AM: So each season, do you have a particular focus on foods that you want to attack and then create those items that would go under that particular assortment?

GD: They do that for the catalog. A couple of years ago, they did a Mexico vibe and that’s when the salsas went into it. Now, they do have priorities like brunch was a focus for them this spring and we introduced our cocktail mixed with that as well as the All Things Eggs Seasonings. That plays into it. But at this point, they know that I know what will resonate with my audience. So we have collaborative brainstorm seasons where I say, “I think that we need to do this or we need to do that.” Then, we can make that happen.

AM: What in the culinary world have you yet to do, but want to embrace that and bring it into your empire – or even outside of it as you are a lifestyle brand?

GD: Interesting question. I haven’t done any travel to Asia and I’m dying to explore the different cultures and food – everything. I want to cook with people for a month or two when we’re able to travel again and to learn all about that. I would love to learn from someone that is an expert or multiple experts and then bring that back to share that knowledge. We have dabbled in it at What’s Gaby Cooking but I really would love to immerse myself in something like that. That is high on my priority list in terms of growing the brand. But it changes so much. What’s Gaby Cooking Culinary School came about because so many people were messaging me on how to prep vegetables. It wasn’t something that we thought about doing until we were like, we should start this. Being a small company and being nimble is so important because you’re able to pivot and adapt to make changes really quickly. Who knows? Whatever we do when we’re over with COVID – it will be interesting to see how we change our business to accommodate that.

AM: What are 3 items that you always have in your fridge?

GD: I always have mozzarella in the fridge, I have fresh tortillas and salsa. I think those are things that I can’t live without.

AM: With someone that is so busy and now with having a number of the issues that we have all dealt with regarding COVID and staying at home. How are you taking time for yourself as well as your husband to taking down the noise and still being able to do the self-care that you need to be a calm and normal person?

GD: It’s really interesting. I do struggle with this and I am attached to my phone for most of the day. When we wind down at night, I leave my phone in the kitchen plugged in and I don’t take it with me to bed because I don’t want to be responding to DM’s until 11pm which I could easily be doing. I try not to. So that’s been helpful. We have been going out for walks every night after dinner - again without my phone to decompress from the day. That’s also been helpful. We also have been using FaceTime and Zoom dates with all of our friends. Honestly, we have talked to and seen them more now then we did before COVID. Because, they all live in different parts of the country. Some of our best friends in Portland, we FaceTime with them and their little daughter, multiple times a week which we didn’t do before all of this and it’s been so fun to be able to hang with them because we wouldn’t have been able to see them in person anyways because they live in a different state. It’s been nice to do that and to pay attention to the conversation rather than what’s going on around us.

IG @WhatsGabyCookin

PHOTO CREDIT | Matt Armendariz

Read the May Issue of Athleisure Mag and see That California Girl Life with Gaby Dalkin in mag.

SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW | GETTING STRONG WITH EMILY SKYE

One of our favorite Celebrity Fitness Experts, Emily Skye is always showcasing how she focuses on being strong through her fitness journey. She has graced a number of covers, provided countless advice and juggles it all while being a mom. She is currently pregnant with her second child and took some time to share some advice that she has as we continue to add new favorites into our routines. We also talk about her role as an ambassador with Women's Best and why this brand is synergistic with her platform.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Tell the readers of Athleisure Mag how you found your interest in fitness?

EMILY SKYE: I spent most of my life up until I was almost 25 years old being unhappy & unhealthy. I suffered from depression, anxiety, and self-worth issues. I couldn’t imagine living my life like that forever, so I decided I had to do something about it and make changes. I used to think someone was going to come along and save me, but I had to save myself.

I heard that healthy eating and exercising had an impact on mental health, so I started eating healthy food and exercising and also changed my attitude to be more positive. Fitness changed my life, it made me feel incredible and I loved the way the exercising influenced other areas of my life. Working out and healthy eating, made me feel more confident like I could do anything, kind of like a superhero! I felt on top of the world and I’d never felt like that before in my life and I wanted everyone around me to feel the same way. So, I’d tell my friends and family to come and train with me, but it wasn’t enough. I just wanted to get out there and share with the world how good it is makes you feel! I still do this over 10 years later!

AM: As many people find their modality of choice, there seems to be a new awareness, especially for women, that there is an interest that in addition to being toned, that they want to be strong. How important is that for you?

ES: Strength is more important to me than being “toned’. People often don’t realize that in order to get “toned” you need to do resistance training and have a good diet. Feeling strong is the best feeling in the world to me and I’d pick that over being lean any day. I have been educating women (and men for that matter) on the benefits of lifting weight for women. I have seen a huge shift over the years and women are more open to lifting weights, but there are still a lot of women afraid of getting “bulky”.

AM: What is your modality of choice and what does a week of working out look like for you?

ES: As previously spoken about, I love strength training and being strong so I usually base my workouts around lifting as heavy as I can with good technique. I do mix it up sometimes though and will do some sprints, or circuit training. That’s the key to staying motivated I believe, change it up and make it exciting and different if you’re getting bored.

AM: Are there any challenges or fitness programs that you are currently sharing with your followers?

ES: I have a 30-day free trial on my FIT Program which has home workouts so it’s perfect for all the people currently stuck at home. It also has gym workouts and a Booty Challenge as well as a customizable meal plan that members get access to.

AM: Tell us about being a Women's Best brand ambassador. Why do this partnership between you and the brand make sense and what do you love about them?

ES: It’s such an honour, all the Women's Best team and other ambassadors are the loveliest people - they truly are like a family. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to meet up with some of these amazing women in New York City for the Women’s Best launch in the U.S. through a partnership with The Vitamin Shoppe and had the most amazing time connecting with them! They’re passionate, supportive and genuine and that’s what I’m all about and I love being surrounded by likeminded people. We all want the best for others and want to see them happy, healthy and fit. Women’s Best has an amazing line of supplements, now exclusively available in the U.S. at The Vitamin Shoppe, to suit everyone and the flavours are all delicious and help keep me on track with my training. My personal favourites are all of the BCAA AMINO flavours - they honestly are all SO GOOD - I have them before and while I exercise. I love their Vegan Protein, it’s the only protein I have ever had that doesn’t upset my tummy and make me bloated and crampy. The Cookies and Cream is amazing and a current favourite of mine, but I also love the vanilla and chocolate flavours. I like to have one after my workout, if I’m craving a late-night snack and love to make pancakes, muffins and smoothies using the protein. My two year old daughter also likes sipping on my smoothies! The Women’s Best Wear is the most flattering and comfortable sportswear I have ever worn - even while pregnant!! I’m really grateful to be in partnership with such an amazing brand.

AM: What are 3 go-to foods that you enjoy eating to assist your workouts?

ES: When I’m not pregnant I love eating high fat and lower carbs and feel my best eating that way - it also keeps my sensitive tummy happy. I usually have chicken or fish with veggies or salad and for dessert, I love an açai bowl with my partner Declan’s special homemade caveman crunch on top! It’s delicious!

AM: With the summer coming up, what are 3 workouts that we should incorporate into our routine for our arms, legs and butt?

ES: LEGS & BUTT - Lift as heavy as you can while maintaining good technique. Rest for 2 mins in between sets.

Front or Back Squat 4 x 10-12 reps - tight tummy with core engaged, back straight, shoulders back & down, chest out push through the glutes. Make sure your knees push “out” and don’t come “in.” Maintain a straight back and tight core throughout.

Deadlifts 4 x 10-12 reps - pick a weight you can comfortably life, if you’re not an experienced lifter ask someone to help you with technique - especially before upping the weight. Start by bracing your core and a straight back, pull up on bar without moving it off the ground to set yourself up into a strong starting position and hold that while lifting the weight off the ground but driving through your legs and glutes. Think about pushing the floor away from you in a fluid motion to stand up straight. Squeeze glutes at the top and keep your tummy tight and back straight. Don’t hyper extend by arching your back and pulling your shoulders back past where your hips are. You want to finish with your body as straight as possible before lowering the weight to the ground to complete the rep. Remember to BREATHE!

Walking Lunges 4 x 10-12 reps - lunge forward as if you’re on train tracks so you’re stepping out in front and not crossing over your body. Try not to let your knee go past your toes, push through your glutes, keep tummy tight and back straight with shoulder back and chest out.

Hip Thrust 4 x 10-20 reps or until failure (make sure you have a decent weight for these) - Keep back straight, core tight and push through gutes, don’t let your back arch too much, the movement is all about the glutes doing the work.

BACK & BICEPS - Lift as heavy as you can while maintaining good technique. Rest for 2 mins in between sets.

Lat pulldown 4 x 10-12 reps - keep core switched on, back slightly arched & don’t use momentum for the movement. Slow and controlled reps.

Single arm bent over row 4 x 10-12 reps - Core “on”, back straight, chest out, head neutral and in line with spine. Slow controlled reps.

Seated Row 4 x 10-12 reps - Back straight, tummy tight and no rocking. Slow controlled movements.

Bicep curls 4 x 10-12 reps - standing or seated - no swinging, keep elbows close to body & stable - slow, controlled reps.

SHOULDERS & TRICEPS - Lift as heavy as you can while maintaining good technique. Rest for 2 mins in between sets.

Seated shoulder press 4 x 10-12 reps - core tight, back straight - slow and controlled reps.

Shoulder fly 4 x 10-12 reps - standing with a tight tummy, straight back, slightly bend knees, shoulders back and down, head neutral raise dumbbells to just lower that shoulder height - slow and controlled.

Dumbbell kickback - 4 x 12 reps - tight tummy, back straight, keep elbow in tight to the body and try not to move it. Squeeze through the tricep.

Tricep pulldown 4 x 12-15 reps _ straight back, tight tummy, slight bend in knees, pull the ropes down by straightening your arms and keeping your elbows in close to the body and try not to move them.

AM: How do you balance your life as a wife, mother?

ES: It’s hard to be honest. I have had to let go of the idea of getting EVERYTHING done and done perfectly. There is no such thing. I’m not as hard on myself now that I’m a mother and my priority is always my family. I try to allocate hours where I work and most of my work is either on the computer or phone so I try to do it away from my daughter Mia so she doesn’t see me ignoring her. I break up my work by taking time out to play with her and go outdoors if I can. Things are about to get harder with a new baby, but I have a wonderful supportive partner who is a fantastic father. I’m very blessed. The worse thing a parent can do I think is beat themselves up for not doing everything. We just do the best we can and love our kids. :)

AM: Can you share with us any upcoming projects that you have coming up?

ES: I’m so excited that my new app is launching in a couple of months.

IG @EmilySkyeFit

Read the May Issue of Athleisure Mag and see Something You Should Know | Getting Strong with Emily Skye in mag.

ATHLEISURE LIST | PURPLE CARROT

When it comes to a well balanced and optimal culinary lifestyle, regardless of your diet, having a plant-based diet for a portion of your meals is encouraged whether you have a meat based diet, are a pescatarian, vegan or vegetarian. As we are at home creating an array of dishes, implementing elements from a subscription box is a great way to create a meal that give you the necessary ingredients and directions.

Purple Carrot is a plant-based subscription meal delivery box that allows you to become introduced to this style of eating as well as playing with your veggies in a positive way! When you incorporate this into your diet, you decrease the chance of high blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease and lower the risk of diabetes.

It's worth noting that there are over 20,000 edible plants on the planet! When you receive your box, you're not only reducing the carbon footprint versus going to the grocery store, but you receive sample surprises, chef tips and tricks, and contests.

As you build your boxes, you add in breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks. You can select those meals that are familiar to you as well as those that you're excited to try that you have yet to have. You'll find that you won't be bored as every week has a new assortment of menus that your tastebuds can navigate.

As you select your desired meals, you can select between 2 and 4 servings, opt between an array of dietary needs (high-protein, gluten-free, quick & easy, Chef's Choice or customize your meal), add flexibility with additional meal options and should you need to pause, you can do this as well.

PURPLE CARROT

www.purplecarrot.com

IG @purplecarrotxo

Read the May Issue of Athleisure Mag and see Athleisure List | Purple Carrot in mag.

HOW TO EAT HEALTHY WHEN YOU'RE STUCK AT HOME

The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the world in ways we couldn't have imagined. While many are stuck at home, taking precautions to reduce the potential spread of the virus, it's getting harder to maintain healthy eating habits.

Most restaurants and eateries have been closed indefinitely, and many people can't eat in their favorite food chains. Many grocery stores are now running out of essential ingredients, making it difficult to get fresh vegetables and other food supplies.

Though there's no concrete evidence regarding specific dietary factors that can reduce the risk of acute infections, eating a healthy diet is critical to keeping your immune system strong. Here are tips for eating healthy while you're stuck at home.

Use Meal Delivery Services

One of the best ways to get a healthy diet when many groceries out there are running out of stock due to the pandemic is by using meal delivery services. These professionals will deliver food right to your doorstep.

These services are amazing time-savers. You don't have to deal with going to the grocery store nearly as often since they will deliver everything you need.

They are exceptionally convenient for people with tight schedules, especially when you're trying to balance your work-from-home schedule and family life. You only need to place your orders online for whichever meal you'd like, and it'll be delivered to you.

Letting a meal delivery service, such as Factor75, prepare and deliver your food ensures that the meal is healthy with proper nutrition proportions. All you need to know before you order Factor 75 meal delivery is that their meals are freshly prepared on the day of delivery, ready to eat.

Stock Your Fridge with Fruits and Vegetables Instead of Junk Foods

Try your best to keep junk food out of your fridge—those foods that trigger a binge in you! Vegetables should be the most abundant food item on your plates.

Instead of hunting the stores for starchy food supplies, load up your cart with vegetables, including seasonal spring veggies such as asparagus, bell pepper, greens, strawberries, and sweet onions.

Some fruits, such as apples, can last for several months if refrigerated in the produce drawer. Buy more perishable fruits like berries, bananas, pineapple, and cantaloupe freeze well. Chop into small-sized pieces and place them in freezer bags.

Plan Your Mealtimes and Stick to Them

Just as you plan out the rest of your day, establish when you're going to eat. If you like to eat lunch around noon, stick to that and avoid eating outside of those times. If you often indulge in snacks in the late afternoon, plan for that as well.

When there's plenty of food available, and the fridge is all yours, you might get tempted to grab an extra snack every hour, throughout the day. This habit can break off your weight loss goals and halt your productivity.

Emotional eating from stress and boredom can also lead to consuming extra calories. Pause, take deep breaths, and ask yourself whether eating an extra snack alleviates your anxieties or boredom.

Get Your Vitamin C from Foods, Not Supplements

Vitamin C plays a vital role in your body, such as boosting your immune system. Before you grab a vitamin supplement, note that mega doses of Vitamin C, greater than 500 milligrams per day, haven't been shown to reduce your risk contracting the common cold or other illnesses.

Instead, experts recommend getting the daily Vitamin C dose from foods such as broccoli, red bell peppers, strawberries, and tomatoes. These foods also contain other nutrients and antioxidants that benefit your body.

Focus on other nutritious foods, too, like protein, healthy fats, fruits, fiber, and vegetables. Planning what to prepare for lunch or dinner ahead of time will also make it easier for you to avoid grabbing on whatever looks quickest to cook at the moment.

Be Careful of Too Much Caffeine

Having easy access to endless cups of coffee might seem a great idea, but you need to be careful. Too much caffeine can cause headaches, anxiety, digestive issues, and even fatigue. Aim for no more than two cups a day to avoid the jittery feeling. Avoid flavored creamers and other high-calorie beverages as well.

Plan Family Meals

Gathering around and eating together as a family has all kinds of benefits. They allow parents to be role models and create a supportive environment that promotes healthy eating.

Moreover, children of families who often eat together are more likely to have higher intakes of vegetables and fruits. These kids also have a healthy weight and are less likely to have health or behavior problems.

Balancing Act

As many people stay home because of social distancing, chances are they may shift to unhealthy eating habits due to boredom, anxiety, or food availability. To stay healthy and boost your immunity during these difficult times, try your best to keep a balanced diet routine.

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

THE ART OF THE SNACK

This month's The Art of the Snack takes us to the west coast to a restaurant group that we enjoy seeing their meals on Instagram. Like many restaurants during this time as we stay at home, they continue to offer pickup and delivery to feed their communities, first responders, health care workers and more. We chatted with Tabu Shabu's Michelle Tangie, Director of Brand and Training to find out how his restaurants continue to bring savory meals as well as a great selection of sakes to get us through this time as we stay focused on flattening the curve.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Tell us about your culinary background and how you came up with the idea of Tabu Shabu?

MICHELLE TANGIE: Our founder and CEO Jeff, who was already a restaurant operator, felt that his East Costa Mesa neighbourhood was lacking something that he had grown up eating: Japanese style hot pot, with fresh vegetables, and top-quality cuts of beef and fresh seafood. This was something that he had enjoyed throughout his childhood and yet nothing like this existed in the mainstream dining segment. He decided to take over a small space with childhood friends Christian Fernandez, a Long Beach Firefighter, and Sol An, a Los Angeles based commercial developer, to create Tabu Shabu.

AM: What can guests expect when they come to dine at Tabu Shabu?

MT: Our key company mission statement has always been focused on the highest level of guest satisfaction. Since day one this has always been our top priority and our guests and community can feel that based on the authentic and interactive environment they’ll receive while dining. We genuinely care and because of this, they’ll most often care right back.

AM: When creating this menu, can you tell us about where the inspiration for your dishes came from?

MT: The focus from day one of Jeff and his partners was procuring homemade sauces with fresh ingredients and carefully selected meats and seafood as well as locally sourced produce. From these high-quality ingredients and sauces/ broths consistently made with love consumers can taste the distinct difference in quality and it is a big reason for how and why Tabu Shabu became a booming success.

AM: What are 3 signature dishes that you suggest?

MT: One of the best parts about Tabu Shabu is that every time you cook it and eat it something can always be different depending on how you flavour your broth and sauces or how you tailor your veggie plate. With that being said, our top sellers are definitely our buttery WAGYU Shortrib Kobe Beef Entree with Miso Broth, our famous housemade Porridge, andvour super addictive Garlic Edamame as an appetizer.

AM: What are 3 cocktails that you suggest?

MT: We don’t have a full bar but we do have an excellent sake selection and our staff top recommendations are definitely our Unfiltered Sayuri Nigori, Filtered Hakatsuru Gingo & Filtered Sho Chiku Bai Ginjo.

AM: Right now, we’re in a situation where the community is coming together as we navigate staying indoors and although we are unable to come into your restaurant to dine, you offer takeout/delivery – can you tell us about how people can still get their meals with you and what times they can do so?

MT: We have tried to make our Tabu ToGo options as simple and streamlined as possible for easy cravings satisfaction. We are currently providing our Take Out menu every day from 4pm - 8pm. Customers can either order through the *order online* link on our website: www.tabushabu.com, order online through ChowNow or call us themselves. Through ChowNow they can opt for curbside pickup or delivery.

AM: From your Tabu2Go Menu, tell us about the Take Out Meal Kits as we think it’s a great way for people to enjoy Tabu Shabu while also being able to cook together!

MT: While we do offer pre-cooked soups on our ToGo menu and porridge-our Take Out Meal Kits are two or four person-sized Tabu entrees that are deconstructed for families to cook together whether that be with an electric hot pot or stovetop. We include all the fixings with cooking instructions for any first timers Tabu-ers. Our team has always strongly believed in the memories and sense of togetherness that comes from enjoying a meal with your loved ones. As of now, there are many options to choose from for ToGo but with ours, you can make your family meal or date night an extra special experience through cooking it together or trying something new and interactive with the added bonus of how healthy it is!

IG @TabuShabu

PHOTOS COURTESY | Tabu Shabu + David Chiem (@DavidTheFoodie)

Read the April Issue of Athleisure Mag and see The Art of the Snack in mag.

#TRIBEGOALS

Read the April Issue of Athleisure Mag and see #TRIBEGOALS in mag.

MCDONALD'S FRANCHISEES SUPPORTING FRONTLINE HEROS DURING COVID-19

We’ve been hearing stories across the world of how people are coming together to support one another as we all navigate COVID-19. .Throughout this time, businesses have also stepped in to do so whether it’s staying open for pick up and delivery, shipping items to those in need and more. We chatted with McDonald’s Franchisee who owns and operates a number of these restaurants, Tanya Lawrence, to see about their initiative that they are doing during this time. From now through May 5th, participating franchisees are providing Thank You Meals to frontline workers which include first responders, health care workers, etc. Here’s what you need to know.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Why is McDonald’s offering Thank You Meals from now through May 5th to first responders, health care workers and those on the frontlines?

TANYA LAWRENCE: McDonald’s has been inspired by the diligent work that our first responders and health care workers have been doing to keep our community safe and healthy during this time. So this is our way of showing gratitude to them for everything that they are doing.

AM: What was the decision behind deciding to offer this for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

TL: We saw a lot of owner/operators doing a lot of things in our different communities and we wanted to get together collectively as a country as a national brand and to be able to offer something to all of our first responders and health care workers.

AM: What McDonald’s locations are offering Thank You Meals and how many times can qualifying frontline guests obtain them?

TL: It’s all McDonald’s restaurants across the nation. Meals are available through our drive throughs or our front counters for pick up orders. It’s one meal per day - breakfast, lunch or dinner whatever time of day is convenient.

AM: What does a frontline guest need to present in order to obtain Thank You Meals?

TL: They just simply need to come in uniform or they can show and ID or badge. They will then get the meal free of charge.

AM: Prior to the Thank You Meal program and after the conclusion of it – how have the franchisees supported COVID efforts with first responders, health care workers and even those that are just living in their community.

TL: We have a lot of great franchisees and a great company where we have been delivering meals to hospitals, fire houses and police stations. We have been working with school districts to provide meals for kids that are underserved. We have been doing it from the beginning and we will continue to do it as long as needed.

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

FUELING THE CULINARY ARTS WITH RICHARD GRAUSMAN

A few weeks ago, we headed to Chelsea Piers to the Careers Through Culinary Arts Program's 30th Anniversary Benefit to enjoy a staggering amount of top chefs that included David Bouley, Marcus Samuelsson, Jonathan Waxman, Eric Ripert, Maria Loi and Sarabeth Levine. They were joined by students from C-CAP who showcased their skills to guests who enjoyed some of the top restaurants in NYC.

We wanted to know more about C-CAP and the founder, Richard Grausman who took classes with James Beard. He trained and graduated with the Grand Diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu, Ecole de Cuisine. He was also the first exclusive representative of the school who trained people across the US and Canada in order to make them proficient.

We headed to the offices of C-CAP to find out about how his career, how this organization was created, the programs that were launched and how he works with chefs and other partners.

ATHLEISURE MAG: We have had the pleasure in talking with various voices in the culinary community from Chef Marcus Samuelsson to Will Blunt of StarChefs who have shared their work and support of C-CAP. We were so pleased to see how you have ensured that the culinary community continues to thrive by attending your 30th annual event a few weeks ago and it’s so fitting that we finally get to chat with you to find out more.

RICHARD GRAUSMAN: It was a wonderful event and we have had 21 events and that was an unusual one. 2 years ago, Jose Andres was our honoree and that was unique in its style because the room was filled with appreciation for what he has done philanthropically around the world. At our benefit this year, I felt the love and warmth for the program and the guests that were coming up with appreciation when my daughter’s video (PRESSURE COOKER Directed by Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker, an Emmy nominated documentary about one of the C-CAP teachers Wilma Stephenson) ran and with the alumni expressing themselves. And after that video, there were alumni that were in the room that I have known for years. I know what the program has done for them, but they had never expressed it to me and they came up to me empowered by what they had seen and they just opened up to me. It was just so heartwarming.

AM: You have had a phenomenal background and prior to launching C-CAP, can you tell us what you were doing prior to launching this organization?

RG: I had been the representative of Le Cordon Bleu Paris for 15 years. I had originally gone to Paris to study cooking and become a chef – hopefully in a small mountain restaurant as I love to ski. I’ve always enjoyed skiing and cooking in my life. But I found while I was in Paris that I was too slow to become a chef and I was single-minded. I wasn’t a multitasker. In the process, I taught myself skills that I saw that chefs needed and I realized that I could teach others. I told that to the school that instead of being a chef of a restaurant, I wanted to teach.

Timing is everything and when I came back from a ski trip, I was almost finished with the program and Madame Elizabeth Brassart (owner of Le Cordon Bleu) asked me if I wanted to go to Cleveland to teach a course for her. This was because the Vice President of the Higbee department store had asked for them to send a chef; however, they couldn’t send one since the chef didn’t speak English and she knew I was interested in teaching and the chef thought that I was very good. It started 15 years of teaching French cooking around the country and Canada. I never thought that I wanted to do anything else. It was so gratifying to teach and to have students – men and women, come up to me saying that their spouse loved them more because of their tartar tine or their kids ate carrots for the first time. But then I left the school and wrote a cookbook and I was traveling around the country promoting the book and a vision of what America ate, really hit me. It was fried chicken, hamburgers and pizza. I thought that I could perhaps expand that palette and thinking about the best way to do it, I felt that I had to get in with the schools and get children while they were young and to broaden their palettes, broaden their minds. Because if they leave school, I found that the average adult that if they didn’t like something, they wouldn’t try it.

I wanted to start in elementary school, and I wanted to teach sensory evaluation, and nothing is better to do that with than food, because you use all of your senses. Once you start doing that, you can teach nutrition, then in middle school I thought that you could use foods from around the world to teach geography, history and social studies and in high school, if you had a student with a palette and a passion, it would be easy to train them for the industry. I had a book that I thought was readable at the high school level and I knew that Home Economics was in terrible shape and I thought that by teaching the teachers some of the recipes in my book, to expose their students before they left high school that that would be my goal before I went into my first classroom.

I went to the Board of Education, they liked my idea and they said, “we don’t have any money.” I asked if I could go into one of their classes and they said certainly. I went into one of the classes and that day I saw that half the class was making bread and the other half were Haitian students learning English. I went around the classroom opening drawers and cabinets and they were empty. So I knew it was what the school system had said, they didn’t have any money. I talked to the teacher and said that I had been teaching French cooking for the last 15 years and asked if there was something that I could do for them, what it would be? He laughed and said, “I spent my own money just to buy the flour today for the bread.” So I knew that they needed a lot of help. That day, I went home and I called up many of the manufacturers that I had been dealing with for 15 years. I let them know that I wanted to help the schools and asked if they could help me and they said yes. They donated products, pots and pans, spices – all sorts of things.

I brought the teachers together and I taught them in the morning and then I watched them cook in the afternoon. It showed me the level of proficiency of the teachers. A few were quite competent, but the majority were not. I went to the French Culinary Institute which is now the International Culinary Center and I asked them if they would provide a training program for the teachers, which they did. I went into the classroom and started to demonstrate for the students and when I saw looking at the students – some of them were sleeping, zoning out and there were a couple of people who were bright eyed, attentive and watching me. I watched them cook and a few were very excited and would come up with their tart asking me how I liked it. I let them know it was good, asked how their parents liked it (they did) and then I would ask them what they wanted to do after they graduated and that’s when I found out that the students who were in these classes were the students that the system had failed. Most of them had D’s and F’s at best. They had no preparation for college or a career. I asked them if they had ever thought about cooking and they said, “no – can I?”. I went to a dinner at a small French restaurant on Lexington Ave and I asked the owner about jobs for high school graduates and what the opportunity would be. He laughed at me and told me to look at his kitchen. He was importing labor from South America and Asia and he’d much prefer to have a NY kid that spoke English. I asked what he needed. He said that he needed people that showed up on time and that he would teach them. I asked about knife skills. He said that if he had knife skills, he wouldn’t have to start him on the dishwasher. So that was the beginning of C-CAP.

Within the next 3 years, during the summer time, I would send a student out and a chef would say, “yes the student shows up on time, but when he gets through what I have asked to do, he goes out for a smoke and sits down. I need him to come up to me and say, ‘what’s next chef?’” They needed them to be eager to work. So I built that into the program. Then I would hear, “yes, they show up on time, they are very eager and asks what’s next, but they’re not thinking. He’s got to be inquisitive and to ask why I am using one thing versus another – he has to want to learn.” So I built that into the program. Third year, we were in Chicago. I always went to the competitions that we would have. We would have chefs as the judges and I would take them out to dinner. One night, I took out one chef that was a judge with a director from the high school program and Martha said to Richard, “why don’t you take our kids as you used to take them in the summer?” and he said, “well you’re teaching them the wrong things.” He explained that he had a boy the previous summer that there was a mess and he asked him to get a mop to clean it up. The student said that he didn’t do floors and Martha said, that he shouldn’t have to. That’s when I saw the disconnect between the school and the industry.

The next day, I was handing out scholarships and I was saying that one of the biggest complaints in the industry was that people were coming out of Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University and they didn’t want to peel carrots or chop onions – they just wanted to be a chef. I let the students know that I knew that they wanted to be Executive Chefs and own their own restaurants and even chains. I told them that if you have your own restaurant and the dishwasher doesn’t show up, then you will be doing the dishes. If your janitor doesn’t show up, you will be cleaning toilets. I let them know that if they didn’t know how to wash dishes or clean toilets, that they needed to go home that night and have their parents show them how. I wanted them to be able to be prepared for anything that would come up. Well, I was shocked that a school board member, a minister, a parent and a teacher all came to me after the scholarship breakfast and thanking me for telling the kids what I did. I asked them what they were talking about and they said, “you are telling them what life is about.” I asked why they didn’t do that. They said they were afraid to. I didn’t know what they were afraid of and I investigated it. Because of the drop out rate in Chicago and DC at that time was so high, parents and administrators were telling their kids that if they stayed in high school, they wouldn’t have to do what they did. The administration would agree with this line of thinking and tell them that they would be paid more. So students were coming out – and this is still true today as I heard about this in Chicago, they’re telling and expecting students that come from their culinary programs to have managerial jobs and not entry-level jobs. Students come out saying that they’re not going to take minimum wage, don’t want to wash dishes or chop vegetables. They want to manage. If you’re not prepared to enter the industry, you’re not going to go anywhere. So that’s the essence of what we do. We work with the teachers to train them in the few skills necessary to get started. Where the school system wants them to teach A-Z, lobster, steak, fish, eggs, salad – everything. They only need to know how to chop, dice, slice, keep things clean and neat, be safe at the workplace, show up on time, want to work, want to learn and have basic knowledge of ingredients and equipment. We try to get the teachers focused on that. They have the students from 1 – 3 years so they can work on that. They can reinforce wearing your apron, watching your hands and other things that take time for them to learn.

We see them when they come to our competitions or for our job training for summer jobs, job shadows to expose them to the industry. We have a student that is already eager, interested and inquisitive. When they leave us and go into the industry, the industry is saying wow – send us more. When Marcus came in and I encouraged him to take on the Co-Chairmanship of the program of the organization. His view was to expand upon what I started and he wanted to reach and train more students as the industry is in need of this. That’s where we are now. We’re trying to figure out how to expand on what we already do and we do well.

AM: How many people are currently in this program?

RG: It depends on how you look at it. I look at it as we have 200 teachers, each teacher has 50 students. That’s 10,000 students. I think the organization uses the number of 17,000 which may be when we’re thinking of the upper level including the 4 years. Those are 10,000 students that the teachers have and the teachers range from poor to excellent so the effect that they have on their student varies. But they all have an effect on their students. Out of that, we see the students that have expressed an interest in knowing more beyond the classroom – shadows, summer training, internships, college advice or our competitions. You go from 10,000 down to a couple of thousand to a couple hundred that get scholarships. There are many hundreds that go into the industry for summer jobs. It’s on the level of interest, focus – but we have worked with over 300,000 students in the 30 years and probably have given $60 million dollars in scholarships and then an untold number of jobs! Then we follow those students if they stay in touch with us, if they have a problem and want to change jobs or they haven’t had a raise in 3 years – what do I do? They tell us if they want to go to Spain and learn something. All of those things, we have the ability to help them with.

AM: How do you assess which high schools you go into?

RG: Initially, I had 3 areas that I was interested in. NY, Chicago and San Francisco. I started in NY and then people heard about what we were doing. I was on NBC for the first time about our program and the next night, I got a call from Washington, DC from the head of Home Economics and they wanted the program. I asked them how many schools that they had and I was looking to go to a community with at least 14-15 schools. For the manufacturers to be able to give the equipment, one school wouldn’t be enough. I went to DC next and then I heard from a teacher in Arizona and another in Norfolk, VA who had been at a teacher’s conference and had heard about it. They wanted it. As long as the school number was sufficient, I went and taught the teachers, I brought the chefs in local areas in and we started the program. It was very easy within 5 years. I had 7 programs, but it was very hard to maintain and grow the program because when I put it all together it worked. To keep it going, I needed volunteers and eventually to keep it going, the volunteers needed to be paid and then we needed a staff and then needed an office. So, the numbers that we effect year after year didn’t change much, the scholarships grew – the degree that we worked with the students improved. The level of services that we gave them grew. Initially, I thought that if I gave a scholarship to a student to CIA would change their lives. In some cases it didn’t change it for the better. I took a student out of their community and threw them into a new community, they had no way to adjust, understand, they didn’t know how to get help with their schoolwork – they’re grades dropped and they lost their scholarship. I had to find ways to mitigate that. I had students going to community college before going to the CIA because their reading and math was at a level that they couldn’t do the work easily.

I’ve had people on campus where they were the only black student that walked onto the campus. So once I had a number of students that were on campus, I got them to form a club to greet the others to work with the campus. So C-CAP students got a name and they were proud to be C-CAP students. Finding what the problem is and finding a solution for it is how my mind worked. The program has grown organically because of that. I saw a problem, I would address it and try to solve it and by solving it, I was able to move people.

AM: So who are groups or services that you work or partner with frequently?

RG: There are a number of organizations that do similar work. We’re not actively working with them. I did work with the American Culinary Federation for a number of years in the beginning because their chefs and association needed credits for them to continue in that group. One of the ways that they were able to get that credit was to provide their time in their schools and I took advantage of that and their members loved it as they were able to be judges. The organization itself, I tried to work with and I became their School to Work Chairman – I wasn’t able to get them to move in the direction that I saw necessary. So I haven’t been active with the organization for 15 years. The National Restaurant Association also wanted to work with us years ago, but they wanted us to work for them. The partnership wasn’t in the way that they saw things. They saw it their way and wanted us to work with them. They did a lot of good, their programs both the ACF and the NRA affect schools and students, but I don’t see them working with the populations that we work with. Many of them saw how effective competitions were so they did it too. When you offer nationwide competitions and you have affluent schools and affluent students in those areas, they’re competing against our students from poor schools and poor backgrounds, our students don’t make it to the top. In our competitions, our students make it to the top and beyond. We can focus on a certain population to what I think is doing important work and I don’t concern myself with the whole country, where they do.

AM: It’s an interesting point about how C-CAP focuses on the skills needed and that you serve a specific community in order to have them excel in the culinary industry. When we were at your 30th Anniversary Benefit, it was a pleasure to see C-CAP students working side by side with some of the most esteemed chefs who own their restaurants as well as being food TV personalities. Seeing the pride and how inspired they were was amazing. It had to be a boost to their confidence to see people enjoying their food and being in that environment. That’s a resume builder.

RG: Yes, I learned very early when I was teaching. The importance of teaching is to empower others. I found ways to empower housewives so that they could talk to their butcher and all of a sudden relationships were being built! They would come to me and say, “oh Mr. Grausman, what you told me about that leg of lamb – I went to my butcher and told him and he looks at me like I am a professional!” I told them just a few words and it made all the difference! That’s the same thing that I did at C-CAP. By teaching the students certain techniques, that when a professional chef saw them accomplish those things, they were impressed at their capability.

One example at a competition was that I had the Executive Chef of the Four Seasons Hotel in NY as a judge and she came to me and said, “Richard, that young man is really great! Do you think that I can have him work for me?” I told her to give me her card and we gave him a scholarship to go to the French Culinary and she hired him. He would call me everyday and say, “Mr. Grausman, I have to make a salad today and I don’t know how to do it.” I told him that in my book, there are 3 great salads and to make one of those. This went on for months and then the chef called me up and said that she had to let him go. Since they had a union, other people were complaining that he wasn’t doing what everyone else was and that was because when I knew Damien in highs school, he was taking care of 2 younger siblings and one parent had died and one was ill. He was working at Kentucky Fried Chicken closing it at 2am and mopping the floors and his teacher had taught him the skills that were involved in our competitions and he was spectacular at it. That’s why the chef wanted him and I empowered our students to impress these chefs to get into the kitchens with the exception of him because of the unions.

Every kitchen that our kids went into even though they weren’t up to the standards that the chefs thought they were after seeing them. They were capable of learning and being trained. I got them into the kitchen. Those were the little secrets that I used to focus on because you want teachers to be able to effectively teach their students these skills. You can’t ask them to do more than what is realistically achievable and that is what is the problem with our education today.

They set goals and standards that aren’t achievable because what happened before they got into the 9th, 10th and 11th grade wasn’t achieved. So, if you are reading at a 3rd grade level in the 9th grade and you’re supposed to be reading at a 10th grade by the time you’re out – kids drop out because they can’t do it.

AM: It becomes frustrating!

RG: Exactly, unless you go back down, and solve those problems at the time, you’re not going to reach them. The first year that I was doing this, I was asked to be on a council as an advisor for the Board of Ed and I ran into a situation where a student in their junior year was given a scholarship to the Natural Gourmet School here in NY. I followed up in the summer and asked how he was doing. I was told, “Richard it was very strange. In the first class, he was fantastic. I had him come up because his knife skills were so good that I had him demonstrate for the rest of the class. But then he didn’t show up the next day.” I asked what she said to the rest of the class when she let them go. She explained that she had asked them to read chapters 1-5 and that they would work on it the next day. I called his high school teacher and asked why she thought that the student didn’t show and relayed what happen at the NGS and she said, “oh that’s it. He doesn’t read.” A junior in high school doesn’t read. I wanted to know how he was able to be a junior unable to read. His teacher explained that he was able to maneuver around reading by opting out. So as I sat on this council, I asked how they could allow a student to get that far and not read. They explained that I didn’t understand how they have kids attending the schools who have various language problems and they have to move them on. I believe that after 3rd grade, if they don’t read, then before they move on you have to make sure that they do. Those on the council said that that is tough because you have to keep them with their age group and they felt that because they have to teach them math and history, it was better to continue with them moving on from grade to grade. But the answer is if they can’t read you need to keep them reading, reading, reading because they can’t learn anything regardless of the subject. I don’t know what the situation is like today – if they’re still dropping out because they can’t read. But this was back in 1990 and to me, that’s the major problem and you solve it. How do you solve it? You find all different ways that you can teach them – there’s Sesame Street – education is something that I am very interested and passionate about. I am frustrated because I don’t often see the imagination and creativity in solving problems. They identify problems and identify solutions but when those solutions don’t work, they will find another solution – find out the root of the problem and why those solutions don’t work.

Hopefully, one of the reasons why I established competitions was that teachers weren’t teaching the skills necessary to get the jobs. The curriculum was so vast, they couldn’t repeat something. You can’t learn knife skills without repeating. You can’t learn how to make a sauce properly without repeating it. There are certain things that you need in cooking competitions. Teachers that go through our competitions will tell me, “Richard, thank you so much. I never thought that I could get one of my kids a scholarship to Johnson and Wales and you gave me the other opportunity – but it was hard. I had to work with them after school." I asked why they didn’t work with them during class, and why don’t you work with all of your students and not just 1 or 2 of them? They explained that they couldn’t give knives to some of the students or that they weren’t interested. So they take the ones that are and train them. For years, I have worked on ways to get teachers to be able to focus on hard skills and soft skills. The only way that I could get them to do it is through the competitions. I have now been working on something that I called, C-CAP Approved. It’s an assessment, skills that I first gave to the teachers that they should work on. I have found that the teachers would like to do that, but the administration won’t let them. So we’re working on NY now and we’ve evaluated their benchmarks and in doing that, we cut down the things that students need to learn. Now they want us to do an assessment test and if that goes through, we’ll have the piece that I’ve been visualizing for 15 years which will be mandated to the teachers as what has to be taught. These few skills that will be meaningful to the industry. If I can pull that in NY, I can roll that out. When I look at the students that are in those classrooms now, if the teachers said we’re all chopping and who will be the fastest and to develop a bit of the sport of it by getting them excited to perfect their knife skills. Americans in today’s youth, if they don’t get it right away, they drop it. If you come to a competition, we do a dish that has turned potatoes. Chefs would ask me why I would teach it because they don’t do that anymore and if they do, they get them from Mexico. I said it was there because the average teenager will try to do something and then quit. But if they stick with it long enough to turn a potato, there is nothing that you can give them that will take more time and patience so I’m not afraid of them quitting on you. They will work. It’s a vehicle to achieve a certain result. It’s to teach repetition and willingness to do something. I have been using the same recipes for competition for a while. We changed from salmon and beurre blanc to poached chicken to a sautéed chicken that we use now. The dessert was always crepes pastry cream and chocolate sauce – it still is. The teachers will say, “Oh Richard, can’t we change the competition recipes. We’re so sick of it.” I tell them that you can’t get sick of it because the students can’t get sick of it. If they’re a chef in a restaurant and they’re making this chicken dish on their menu, It has to be made good or better each time that they make it. They can’t get tired of making it and they have to find something in it that drives them on.

When all of your students are making the chicken perfectly or the crepes perfectly, I will consider changing it. Some years the teachers focus on the crepes and they come out thin and beautiful and I’ll begin to think about changing it and then the next year, they’re coming out thick. The chefs that come to judge they see the techniques that the students have to do to create these dishes and they appreciate it. They say, “you’re old-time but it’s good because they are learning their basics.” In time, I won’t be here and somebody else will come and the skills may change because the industry is changing all the time. There may be skills that we should be teaching for those that are going into Fast Casual to other ends of the business. I want to know what those are and if they are teachable at the high school level then we should do that. Basically, what we’re doing is teaching discipline, attention, focus, sanitation safety and you can’t teach this overnight.

AM: It has to be a habit and routine.

RG: Exactly! Knock on wood, we've been lucky and our kids who have those basics and put them in the hands of a good chef who is interested in mentoring, they go from dishwasher to sous chef very quickly. Some chefs just told me that they have some of our kids and one of them is the youngest female sous chef and their corporation. They learn quickly and they’re not interested in looking at their watch. Even when they’re leaving, they’re asking if there is anything that they can do as they’re eager. That attitude and interest is golden.

AM: Clearly, you have been a mentor to a number of chefs, who are 3 people that you feel were your mentors that have shaped you?

RG: Well, I think of 2 or 3 people that come to mind and there are a lot of chefs that I respect in this industry. But Jacques Pépin when I was a teacher, he was a teacher also who taught all over the country. We would teach in the same cities, but never met each other until 10 years later. When I got to see him work and saw his books, he is one of the finest teachers that I have ever met. His ability to make things look easy is something that I use and learn to pass onto my students.

Daniel Boulud is a chef that is very dedicated to French cooking but he has adapted techniques to American tastes but has kept a level of excellence that in my mind is very important. He is a wonderful mentor. What he has done with Ment’or a non profit organization of chefs to help younger chefs – I commend him immensely on that. We have worked with him and Ment’or on a number of their projects and many of our students have gotten scholarships.

Marcus – when I first met Marcus, I saw a potential as a role model for many of our students mainly because he is African Swedish, but he has the ability to be a mentor to a number of people. He has a personality and way to inspire young people. I am hopeful that as he gets more time to focus on this that that will translate immensely.

I am on Facebook until 2 o’clock at night and my wife gets upset and will ask if I’m still on it. I let her know that I am talking to a student that I haven’t spoken to in 20 years. I have a relationship where they talk to me as an equal. I sort of try to advise them on a level that is meaningful to them and they open up to me. I am white and they may be black or Hispanic and I know what they have gone through because I read their essays and I hear about the difficult childhood that they have had and the way that they have been mistreated in their lives. I understand what they have gone through but I can’t understand exactly what they have gone through. I can picture it, I can see it many many times in many ways. I don’t know if I could have gone through what they went through. For them it was life, they survived life and when I have been able to open the door, make an introduction or point them in the right direction – it has been life-changing to them and easy for me. They have gone through the hard things and I am using things that are easy for me to do for them and it changes lives. That’s a great combination. When I thought that there was nothing else that I could do in life but to teach and get enjoyment there, what I have been doing for the last 30 years has been life-changing and is really powerful. I wish more people who get wealthy and retire would not retire from life but would use their expertise to find a way to give back. At all levels – banking, stocks, football – mentorship can change lives and if you have gone through it yourself, you have a lot to give and it’s not hard for you to do. You’re an expert at it. It’s hard to get people to that point sometimes.

I was fortunate to win the President’s Service Award and I met a lot of people and I saw a lot of people who aren’t doing much with their expertise and their money besides playing golf and that’s a shame. The gratification that one gets is better to help then to take. It’s a simple truth. But unless you do it, you won’t know.

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS

IG @RGrausman

@CCAPinc

Read the March Issue of Athleisure Mag and read Fueling the Culinary Arts with Richard Grausman in mag.

THE ART OF THE SNACK | VIA VAI

WHEN IT'S TIME FOR COMFORT

This month's The Art of the Snack takes us to Astoria Queens to VIA VAI which is known for their Italian cuisine. We had to find out about a number of their signature dishes, cocktails and more. We sat down with chef and owner, Antonio Morichini to give us the inside scoop.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Tell us about your culinary background and how you came up with the idea of opening Via Vai in Astoria?

ANTONIO MORICHINI: After cooking at home my entire life and realizing my passion was in creating wonderful meals that satisfied family and friends alike, I decided to change my career and attend culinary school in Italy, in the Piedmont region in the north, the home of truffles and Barolo wine. From there I began my culinary journey back to Rome, after working at a seaside town in Liguria where fisherman would row up to the restaurant with their freshest catch of the day, then on to Venice and Brescia where I attended several advanced training courses at the prestigious professional-level culinary institute, delving deeper into a variety of Italian culinary techniques. Upon returning to Rome, I started working with Chef Angelo Troiani at the Michelin-starred Il Convivio Troiani, near the Piazza Navona, Chef Cristina Bowerman, where I helped her open and run the Michelin-starred Glass Hostaria for several years, and with Chef Giulio Terrinoni at the Michelin starred, all fish restaurant, Acquolina. When my wife and I decided to move to the New York, I began working as Executive Chef for several restaurants in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Westchester, but the desire to open my own place, to express my culinary soul in its fullest, led me to open VIA VAI in Astoria in 2014.

AM: What can guests expect when they come to dine at VIA VAI?

AM: Our goal is to make our guests feel as though they were transported to Italy and are savoring the ambiance and flavors of my homeland. Guests can expect to be welcomed and enjoy their meals in a casual manner, with a balanced variety of dishes that remain one step ahead of tradition and a step behind innovation. We only serve Italian wines as they come from the same earth as many of our ingredients and marry with the dishes that are inspired by the tradition of the place where the vines grow.

AM: When creating this menu, can you tell us about where the inspiration for your dishes came from?

AM: I am inspired by my instincts and senses when handling ingredients. I envision in my mind and on my palate the flavors that I would like to taste in my mouth and express on the plate at the end of the cooking process. It is a sort of coming home for the ingredient -- I never bury the main ingredient but rather work around it, to exalt its features and its flavors. This is very central to true Italian cuisine and to my philosophy.

AM: What are 3 signature dishes that you suggest?

AM: That's a hard question, yet simple as well. Each of our pastas are stand outs, from the more light bodied -- such as our shrimp ravioli with orange zest and thyme, our tagliolini al branzino with olives, capers, cherry tomatoes and basil, or our black ink tagliolini with shrimp, fresh mint, asparagus and pecorino cheese – to our more full bodied options, such as bucatini all’amatriciana or spaghetti carbonara. I would highlight the Roman pastas in particular as those are the ones that I grew up eating and that formed me as a chef, but of course I have refined them with the development of my skills. What I would call my other "signature" dish, is a simple freshly caught branzino, baked in our pasta dough that steams that fish and imbues it with the herbs and lemon that it is baked with; it is finished with exceptional EVOO from the Sabina region of northern Lazio. My third signature dish, that is by far our top seller, are our all-beef meatballs; they are served with our tomato sauce that enhances, rather than buries, the flavor of the meatballs.

AM: What are 3 wines that you suggest?

AM: The wines usually depend of the dishes being eaten. My favorite wines from our wine list, are: Sagrantino, from the Umbria region, a wine that is not very well known in the US but a very well-known mid-level cost wine in Italy. It reminds me of our travels in that region, one of my favorite in all of Italy. The wine is full bodied and pairs well red meats and more robust pasta.

Soave, from the Veneto region. It is crisp, and is wonderful with fish, including our branzino baked in pizza dough.

Gewürztraminer, a medium-full bodied aromatic white wine from Alto-Adige, a mountainous region in northeast Italy.

AM: Right now, we’re in a situation where the community is coming together as we navigate staying indoors and although we are unable to come into restaurant to dine, you still offer delivery and curbside pickup – can you tell us more about this?

AM: Thanks for this question. We are all suffering and have had to limit our staffing because of the situation, but are offering our staff the ability to pick up food from us to get them through this difficult period. We are doing what we can to bring the pleasure of good food to our home-bound guests. We are open every day from 1-8pm, and offer curb side pickup and delivery. Curbside pick up has no minimum. Both direct orders and curbside pick up the order will receive a free dessert (pannacotta). We are available by phone at (347) 612-4334 and our limited menu can be found on their website here: https://www.viavai-ny.com

PHOTO COURTESY | Anna Frumenti

IG @VIAVAINYC

Read the March Issue of Athleisure Mag and see The Art of the Snack | Via Vai in mag.

SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW | CLEAN EDIBLES

We have been fans of Fruit Slabs for quite some time. Whether we had been out and about on the town, enjoying nature, hanging with friends, or staying at home - for us it is like opening a little bag of sunshine. It was fun catching up with Roxanne Dennant, co-founder and CEO of Fruit Slabs, to hear about how the brand started, developed and grew to become a leading clean edible brand and role-model for female entrepreneurship, wellness and community spirit.

ATHLEISURE MAG: How did Fruit Slabs come to be?

ROXANNE DENNANT: 5 years ago the landscape was very different - there was not an array of products to choose from, things were not beautifully packaged and there was no mandatory testing so you did not know what you were really getting yourself into! There were no regulations in how to grow your crop and things like that.

So for me, I have been a vegetarian for 13 years and extremely conscious about what I put in my body. I don't like really heavy sugar products and things like that. At the time i was eating vegan because i was having a really hard time digesting dairy products in general. I felt a calling to build a brand for people like myself would enjoy eating and seeing on the shelf. And also trying to create that would be different and sophisticate the space in a way - so like the soccer moms and the women that were out there that were too scared to go into the shop or get into cannabis would feel a little more comfortable to taking a package of Fruit Slabs off of the shelf. Not only is it more beautifully packaged and feels more comfortable than a cellophane wrapped "rice crispie bar" thing in their hand, but we make our product with all organic ingredients - it's all real fruit, there is no added sugar, it is vegan, it is gluten free and super low calorie. We are one of the only edibles that has only 5 ingredients. So we were just trying to make a clean product, and advance the industry with a great carrier for cannabis. That's part of what inspired us to make Fruit Slabs. and on top of that, they happen to be very delicious, so we found a recipe, wanted to be involved and went for it!

AM: What were your first flavors?

RD: We launched with two flavors, the OG Mango and it actually comes out looking like shatter, like a slab of shatter, but literally it is a slab of fruit. It is OG mango - it's literally just mango and THC. Our Mango Maui Wowie is the mango with added fresh coconut into it and fresh coconut flakes on top of it. So it kind of takes you to the beach and smells like that epic, freshest bottle of sunscreen, like coconut like - almost feeling like you are travelling. And then we launched our Tropical Haze flavor, which is a mango base with tropical notes mixed into it like papaya, acerola cherry, and kiwi and topped with hemp seed which is really fun texture to it, but also one of the most complete proteins we can add into our diet. So we felt it was a very good way to add to the diet, and that happens to be my personal flavor because I love the crunchiness of the seeds. Then we launched our Grape Ape, which is a banana grape blend, which is great for sleaping because both banana and grapes both boast high levels of Melatonin, and bananas are high in L-tryptophan, the same chemical found in turkey that makes you exhausted after Thanksgiving dinner. And so we promote that one under the marking campaign - 'Get The Grapist Sleep Of Your Life.'

And our last flavor, which we launched last year with drag queen know as Laganja Estranga, is our Pride Passion flavor, it is a single serve 10mg dose, and it's a mango base with passion fruit mixed into it. It was really special for us, because Laganja has always been a really big supporter of our product even though she hates edibles for the most part. She just found a natural love for our product and we became very close friends on a life level, and now she is one of best and biggest brand amabssadors. She was on RuPaul’s Drag Race and been on Heidi Klum's German drag show, so it is really cool we have her as a part of our team!

Yeah it was really cool because it was really organic. It was like women supporting each other - we always feel compelled to support the underdogs in life, because that's kinda how we feel coming up as underdogs in the space. We didn't want to put out a product during the month of Pride to capitalize on that nature and on that community. We feel LBGQT+ was a community that needed some extra special love. So it's a year long product, its beautifully packaged on the shelves - it's rainbow and has Laganja's signature on it. So we felt really proud to put out a product around Pride that would last in the market. That comes in a single 10mg dose. The other flavors come in 10 square, 100mg total packages.

AM: How long does it generally take to feel effects for people?

RD: It depends, that's the thing about edibles, they are not a one size fits all In model - it's very much up to your body chemistry, what you've eaten that day, what other vitamins you've taken, all things like that. But in general we usually see effects in about 30-45 minutes, the latest its likely going to hit you is probably an hour into things. And Fruit Slabs are really interesting because we are using all natural real fruit which has natural compounds and terpines and compounds. I always say, "I didn't invent the wheel - i just took two of Mother Nature's superpowers and combined them!"

AM: Tell us about the different activities people do when enjoying Fruit Slabs.

RD: There is a conversation in the cannabis community, that eating a mango when smoking or engaging in cannabis use - that it heightens the THC and high due to a terpene present called nyrcene, that can help to kick the cannabinoid activity up. So people will say we took Fruit Slab to kick up the next notch of life. I am a very active person, I do a lot of hiking, was big in surfing and want to get back into it. I love being on the beach and playing the water. It's good for anybody with an active lifestyle using cannabis to heighten their workouts or post-workout to relax their muscles a bit, Fruits Slabs is going to fit that regimen, It is a perfect combination because no added or artificial sugar, no empty calories and its nutrients fit your body needs and can work with it very easily. The Grape Ape is the banana-blend that fits more on the nighttime sleep side as well?

AM: Sounds like this a great fit for active, creative and chill people..

RD: I received so many beautiful messages that 'this is the best edible;' 'this has changed my life;' 'I'm never buying another thing.' We are actually helping people have better lives and enjoy it a bit more freely. There are no better things than that.

AM: And listening and enjoying to music right?

RD: Epic - me and my business partner actually met at Lightning in a Bottle, we love that crew a lot. Our other business partner is also very involved with them, but we met at a different music event. We also share a common love for being in nature, being hippies at heart, but professional on forefront, enjoying music, dancing, camping, being out in nature and things like that!

AM: To us, it feels like opening up a bag and letting some sunshine comes out. I guess it's thanks to you and Mother Nature, huh?!

RD: There is a common thing in the cannabis community - 'Quality In, Quality Out.' We are not going to make a quality product with crabby cannabis going into it.

When we first started, this was with the backdrop of the black market very much raging; this is pre Prop 264. These are the old days where it was up to us and our moral compass to guide us in a way and a fashion that felt good. My business partner, Brian Cona, I call him my 'weed guy,' and we have different skill sets, and it was up to us to find partners where we can go their farms and trust what they were doing. In 2016, about a year after we launched, testing facilities started coming on-line. By year two, we had the tests to put out there and it was really important us to make sure we were finding pesticide-free cannabis. We actually have laboratory tests for all of the THC and CBD that goes into the product and after we make a fruit slab it goes to testing again, so not only do you know of the cleanliness, but the precision of the dosage is there.

AM: How many stores is it carried in?

RD: Were carried in over 100 stores in CA, and this year we'll see more numbers and be more available state-wide with our distribution partners. We are working on Washington and in the final stages and hopeful for end of summer. We are in conversations with a great company in Boston, Massachusetts as well. We are looking to expand the brand and being available in more legal states, and will have the CBD line available in every state.

AM: Do you have anything exciting in development you can tell us about?

RD: We are in the process in putting together our hemp-based CBD line, which is really exciting! Some CA laws are being re-adjusted and we don't cut corners in finding partners and it took us some time to find the right CBD partners and making sure we have all the information that they are growing the hemp as sustainably and clean as possible, there are COAs for it, etc.

IG @FruitSlabs

Read the March Issue of Athleisure Mag and see Something You Should Know | Clean Edibles in mag.

S1. E12. | ATHLEISURE KITCHEN WITH FOUNDER OF C-CAP, RICHARD GRAUSMAN

On today's episode of Athleisure Kitchen, we sit down with Richard Grausman, founder of C-CAP - Careers through Culinary Arts Program which trains students to have careers in the culinary industry. We talk about how he trained at the Le Cordon Bleu, how he trained others to become proficient in cooking which ultimately led to his focus on hands on education. We also talk about how the organization that he founded just celebrated their 30th Anniversary as well as how people such as Chef Marcus Samuelsson are committed to the growth of this institution. 

5 GADGETS TO HELP YOU COOK EASIER AND FASTER

Each one of us has wished for their favorite dish to be prepared in a jiffy when it comes to hunger pangs. All of us have had significant food cravings at unseemly hours of the day, and the only solution to it has been either completely give up on the hunger or get up and start cooking. Not everyone wants to cook in the middle of the night, but then again, how do you curb your cravings.

You cannot always have unhealthy snacks to keep your cravings in place. Sometimes the last resort can do more harm than good. The delivery services do deliver food at all times of the day, but in dire circumstances, it is better to cook a decent meal than have one of those take-outs. Since these platters are loaded with fats, it turns into a big question to continue with them without piling up on extra calories.

Hence, technology can come to your rescue to a large extent, with the smart tools being used in the kitchen. These inventive gadgets, as seen on the DFYdaily website: https://www.dfydaily.com, can put your cooking woes away and set a trail of happy faces at the dinner table. Let us have a closer look at these gadgets:

1)Microwave oven: All of us have tried our hands at the conventional ovens at some point in their lives. The ovens have indeed revolutionized the style of cooking for people of all ages. With the smart ovens, they can be monitored with an application on your smartphone or tablet. The temperature and cooking mode can be determined and adjusted through the app so that cooking is a cakewalk. Through the comfort of your homes, you can control how much time needs to be set aside for boiling, grilling, or roasting. You will be able to fix some of the recipes as your favorites and quickly apply them whenever needed.

2) Juicers and blenders: The smart juicers in the market today are a dream come true for every novice in the kitchen. These machines can help you get your favorite juice type from the comfort of your kitchen. The juices obtained can be dispensed in an instant and consumed comfortably. The whole process is managed in a hands-free mode and can be controlled through an application on your smartphone or the tablet from which you control the ways depending on the types of fruits used. The most significant advantage is that there is no spillage and no residue which needs to be cleaned up later to avoid unnecessary waste.

3) Auto recycling machines: There are recycling machines that can automatically convert the kitchen waste into much-needed soil-based fertilizers, which can enhance the nutritional feed for the plants. These fertilizers are upcycled kitchen waste, which is generated daily.

These machines are lifesavers for the people who are plant lovers and would love to maintain a kitchen garden. At the same time, they would like to keep their wastes to a bare minimum, and this problem is also handled with the gadgets which give a complete profile of the debris being fed in and the yield of fertilizer obtained.

4)Smart filters: Every house requires an intelligent water filter, which can make the water safe for drinking, especially in areas where hard water is more common than soft water. The water is also rendered free of impurities and any materials which can be harmful to the person drinking it. These filters are connected remotely through applications that are indeed as smart as expected since a real-time report of the safety and efficacy of the screen is maintained. You can quickly login to the application and monitor the filtering process even while you are not in the kitchen. The flow of the water and level can also be maintained efficiently.

5)Convection machines: There are various smart grills in the market which work on an active connection being established with the smartphone or the tablet being used to control the same. The grills are used by the tap of a button on the device connected to it. Further, one can easily decide the cooking time, the type of cooking, type of food, etc. being used at any given point of time. This particular gadget saves a lot of time and boosts the quality of cooking for beginners and experts alike. 

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

ATHLEISURE LIST | THE WONDERBON CHOCOLATE CO.

Although we have been enjoying warm temperatures, there is something about being able to enjoy hot chocolate during the winter. We found ourselves this month at The Wonderbon Chocolate Co. which opened on Feb 1st of this year as a pop up to mark the Hot Chocolate Festival that Hot Chocolate Maker Maury Rubin created and ran for 28 years each February at City Bakery.

This pop-up shop is meant to announce the creation of The Wonderbon Chocolate Co., a brand new chocolate company based primarily on hot chocolate. For the next 3 months, guests will be able to enjoy the treats offered here and there is a chance that it will continue as a location beyond this time period.

Two sizes are available as a 4oz. "Shot" for $4 and an 8oz. "Regular" for $5.50. We enjoyed their Hot Chocolate Happy Hour which takes place Monday - Friday from 5-7pm. They serve a rotational flight menu. We enjoyed Mezcal-Spiked Hot Chocolate with an Onyx Cocoa-Salted Rim, White Chocolate Hot Chocolate with Walnut Liquor, Bourbon Hot Chocolate with Chocolate Whipped Cream and a regular hot chocolate without alcohol. These all come in the shot sizes.

The one of a kind menu of hot chocolates by Maury Rubin has been a longtime evolving work. Some of his best-known concoctions throughout the years include Vanilla Bean Hot Chocolate, Ginger Hot Chocolate, Tropical Hot Chocolate, and Sunken Treasure Hot Chocolate. New flavors include White Miso Hot Chocolate, Brown Sugar Hot Chocolate and White Chocolate with Plum Jam, Coriander, and Cinnamon.

There are new flavors being created each day. The shop serves four to eight flavors daily, with a rotating menu. This is definitely a great way to pop in to see what new flavors are available as the pop-up continues.

The bigger plan for Wonderbon Chocolate is to create a line-up of ready to drink hot chocolates for the home, with a level of quality and creativity that customers will enjoy.

THE WONDERBON CHOCOLATE CO

257 Bleecker St NY, NY 10014

www.wonderbon.com

IG @wonderbonchocolate

Read the Feb Issue of Athleisure Mag and see Athleisure List | The Wonderbon Chocolate Co in mag.

5 WAYS COLLAGEN PROTEIN CAN BOOST YOUR OVERALL HEALTH

Collagen is essential to general health and wellness. Collagen, which is considered a structural protein, is found in the body’s connective tissues such as cartilage, bones, tendons, ligaments, and skin. Blood vessels and digestive tract organs also have an abundance of collagen.

Considering its uses all across the body, it’s no wonder many people use collagen supplements to help maintain their overall health. While the body naturally produces collagen on its own, production slows with age, starting when you hit your mid-twenties. Also, lifestyle habits such as smoking and having a high-sugar diet can lower collagen levels in the body.

Collagen Explained

To understand the importance of collagen, you can think of it like a glue that holds the body together. Scientists have identified 28 types of collagen that each have different molecular structures. However, the first three types are most important:

●      Type 1 – Makes up the majority of collagen in the body, primarily found in bones, tendons, cartilage, skin, and teeth.

●      Type 2 – Composed of loosely packed fibers and thus found in tissues like elastic cartilage.

●      Type 3 – Provides structure to arteries, organs, and muscles.

5 Health Benefits of Collagen Protein

Now that you know what collagen is and wherein the body it’s found, you may be wondering what the concrete health benefits of collagen protein are. If you’re thinking about adding more collagen to your diet or taking is as a supplement, consider the following possible benefits and talk to your doctor about proper usage.

1. Better Skin, Hair, and Nails – As you age, you’ll likely start to see wrinkles form and notice drier, sagging skin. This results from the body’s slowed production of collagen. Studies show that both short-term and long-term collagen use can help hydrate your skin and maintain its elasticity. Collagen also promotes hair and nail growth and strength.

2. Stronger Bones and Joints – If your bones and joints give you grief, increasing your collagen intake can offer relief. Because collagen intake can help accumulate cartilage, it has shown promise for the treatment of osteoarthritis and other joint disorders. Collagen also helps increase bone density, making collagen supplementation a great way to help treat osteoporosis.

3. Heart Health – Studies suggest that collagen helps to prevent the accumulation of plaque in your arteries. Type 1 and Type 2 collagen significantly contribute to the strength and elasticity of arterial walls.

4. Digestive Health – The villi that line your intestinal wall are largely made of collagen. Collagen provides the amino acids needed to repair and rebuild the intestinal wall. Also, glycine, the main amino acid in collagen, can help treat inflammatory diseases.

5. Brain Benefits – While more studies need to be conducted, research has shown that collagen may help slow down the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by protecting the brain from amyloid-beta proteins. This kind of amino acid has been found to attack neurons in Alzheimer’s disease patients.

Incorporate Collagen Into Your Daily Routine

The benefits of increasing collagen in your body are numerous, and so are the many different ways you can add supplemental collagen intake to your everyday life. You can consume collagen as a powder that easily mixes with the food and drinks you already consume. Or, you can alter your diet to include more collagen-rich foods like bone broth, chicken, and egg whites. However you decide to add collagen use to your daily routine, you’ll likely start to see great improvements to your overall health.

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL RESTAURANTS WITH DELIVERY + PICK UP CURBSIDE

We have compiled a list of places that are offering pickup and/or delivery. We will keep this list updated and suggest that you should also call/check in socially to see if there are any updates to menus, times etc prior to ordering.

Aqua Boil is a Cajun-inspired restaurant located in Hell's Kitchen that offers their dinner menu for takeout and delivery. Customers can order through the website, 

Aqua Boil is also offering 15 percent off the first online order. Menu highlights include their seafood boils of shrimp, crab legs or combos of different seafood specialties, Mac and Cheese, Gumbo and more. 

IG @AquaBoilNYC

AQUA BOIL

750 9th Avenue

NY, NY 10019

212-464-7428

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Bottino, the art world Italian dining destination that has been serving the Chelsea community for two decades, is offering lunch and dinner delivery and takeout from their takeout store, which can be ordered through GrubHub or their website.

The menu features pasta favorites like Bavette Cacio e Pepe with grana, pecorino, olive oil and black pepper, and Cavatelli Norma with eggplant, tomato, mint and smoked ricotta. They will deliver within a one mile radius (Up to the following: 14th street downtown, 38th street uptown, eleventh avenue on the west and 6th Ave. on the East.) They also have gift cards available for purchase for future use. 

IG @BottinoNYC

BOTTINO NYC

246 10th Ave

NY, NY 10001

212-206-6766

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Hortus NYC, a Michelin-recognized contemporary Asian fusion restaurant in NoMad, is offering lunch and dinner for delivery and takeout, plus the lunch menu will be available at dinner as well. It is free delivery over $50 (from 6th ave to Lexington Ave from 25th to 35th street) and can be ordered on their website and UberEats.

Hortus NYC recently just added some spring specials to their dinner menu that is available for takeout/delivery. 

IG @HortusNYC

HORTUS NYC

271 5th Ave,

NY, NY 10016

646-858-3784

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HYUN, a Korean barbecue restaurant that spotlights Japanese A5 Wagyu just launched delivery with their Build Your Own Dosirak, which means bento in Korean. 

Step 1 - Gogi: Choose from Ganjang Bulgogi, soy sauce marinated thinly sliced A5 brisket point; Gochujang Bulgogi, gochujang marinated thinly sliced A5 brisket point; and Galbi, marinated short rib.

Step 2 - Banchan: Choose three items with selections such as Kimchi; Mechurial-Jangjorin, soy sauce braised quail eggs; Ojinguh Jinmichae, stir-fried dried shredded squid seasoned with gochujang; and Yeongeun-Jorim, soy sauce braised lotus roots.

Step 3 - Appetizers: Choose two items with selections such as Jeon, Korean style fritter; Gogi-Mandoo, dumpling filling wrapped in A5 top round; and Japchae, stir-fried glass noodles with assorted vegetables.

Step 4 - Rice: Choose between Bap, white rice; Bibimbap without fried egg or Bibimbap with  fried egg.

Step 5 - Soup: Choose between dashi soup or soup of the day.

The Build Your Own Dosirak starts at $53  is perfect for two people. It is available for delivery on GrubHub and UberEats from 11am - 10:30pm. 

IG @ _HYUNNYC

HYUN

10 E 33rd St,

NY, NY 10016

917-261-6217

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Masti Indian Grill and Chaat Bar is the recently opened Williamsburg restaurant whose concept hails from across the pond and channels The Famous Curry Bazaar, a local London, England restaurant making masterful Indian cuisine with a specifically British spin. The restaurant specializes in a variety of British curries as well as small, savory, elevated forms of Indian street food known as chaats. The star of the show is the Bhel Puri, beautifully presented in a cylindrical tower with puffed rice, onions, potatoes, chutneys, tamarin and savory crunchies on top for a surprisingly textured bite. The restaurant will deliver to a two-mile radius but not Manhattan and will be offering its full menu on GrubHub, Seamless, DoorDash, Caviar, Delivery.com, Postmates, etc. 

MASTI INDIAN GRILL AND CHAAT BAR

184 Havemeyer St

Brooklyn, NY 11211

718-599-1516

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MIFUNE New York, the Michelin-recognized Japanese restaurant that showcases Washoku cuisine in midtown, will be offering lunch and dinner delivery through Seamless and pick ups by phone at 212-986-2800. Executive Chef tag team Yuu Shimano (Guy Savoy’s eponymous three Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris) and  Tomohiro Urata (three Michelin-starred La Maison Troisgros in Roanne) serve up dishes such Braised Pork Belly with Kakuni sauce, Chicken Yu-An, grilled chicken with a savory soy sauce and Foie Gras Hatcho Miso Terrine with lemon ginger marmalade and brioche toast. They also offer a selection of sushi and sashimi as well as lunch sets and have gift certificates for future use are available.

IG @MifuneNewYork

MIFUNE New York

245 E 44th St,

NY, NY 10017

212-986-2800

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noreetuh, the Michelin-recognized modern Hawaiian restaurant in the East Village, have gift cards available for purchase for future use on their website. 

IG @noreetuh

noreetuh

128 1st Avenue

NY, NY 10009

646-892-3050

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THEP, a traditional and modern Thai Restaurant located in the Upper East Side, offers their full menu for lunch and dinner for takeout and delivery. Customers can order through their direct website.

Right now THEP is offering 15 percent off first online order and 10 percent off future online orders. Highlights include their Pineapple Fried Rice, Pork Belly, Volcano Chicken and more. 

IG @ThepNewYork

THEP Thai Restaurant

1439 2nd Ave

NY, NY 10021

212-899-9995

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VIA VAI, the Michelin-recognized, authentic meets contemporary, Italian pasta destination in Astoria offers delivery services and curbside pick up daily from 1-9 pm. They will be working with delivery service providers shortly, but for now, they will be delivering within a one-mile radius, for orders of $30 or more.  Curbside pick up has no minimum. Both direct orders and curbside pick up the order will receive a free dessert (pannacotta). The restaurant can be contacted by phone at (347) 612-4334 and their limited menu can be found on their website. The restaurant offers a variety of artisanal pasta dishes like Tagliolini al Nero Con Gamberi - House-made black ink tagliolini with shrimp, asparagus, fresh mint and pecorino romano.

IG @VIAVAINYC

VIA VAI

31-09 23rd Ave

Astoria, NY 11105

347-612-4334

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

THE ART OF THE SNACK | GNOCCO

FOR THE TASTE OF HOME

We headed to the East Village to Gnocco which was started 20 years ago by Gian Luca Giovanetti who has created a menu of sweet and savory dishes that come from his favorite foods and recipes of his home in Modena, Italy. We enjoyed hearing the stories that these meals came from as well as how he identifies with the East Village. We were introduced to a menu that had wine pairings associated with signature dishes, a restaurant that had an array of areas that allowed you to enjoy your meal in environments that fit your mood and of course we left full with an appreciation of his Italian cuisine.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Tell us about your culinary background and how you came up with the idea of opening Gnocco in the East Village?

GIAN LUCA GIOVANETTI: My culinary experience started in Modena, Italy in my own restaurant where I ran the kitchen solo for several years. I came up with the idea of opening Gnocco because I was sure that the formula I had was a winner and it would work well for a larger city and audience. I shot for the moon, fell in love with New York City, and knew it was the place for my restaurant. The East Village was the only neighborhood we could afford back then because it was up and coming but it turned into the perfect spot for Gnocco.

AM: What can guests expect when they come to dine at Gnocco?

GLG: Guests who visit can expect, authentic Emilia-Romagna food in a casual, neighborhood favorite and go-to spot. We serve the best of Italian comfort food and stick to our motto of moderate prices and offerings that appeal to everybody especially the local crowd. The recipes mirror the true tastes of Italy and the atmosphere makes our guests feel at home.

AM: We love that there are different areas that one can enjoy, can you share these 3 spaces with us?

GLG: The front room of the restaurant features a pizzeria that guests must enter through and our front dining room. The front room offers views of 10th Street, Tompkins Square Park and is decorated with the work of local photographers and East Village artists. The main room or veranda faces our outdoor garden and in the summertime, the double doors open merging the two rooms giving an outdoor dinner feel. Our garden is enclosed all year round and includes air conditioning and heat for the wintertime. The space is lush with plants, lights, and decorations giving the room an intimate and cozy feeling at night. On top of the enclosure is a cherry tree that will surprise guests in the spring with the occasional “plunk” of falling fruit. AM: When creating this menu, can you tell us about where the inspiration for your dishes came from? GLG: The inspiration for the plates at Gnocco comes from my childhood. My goal when opening the restaurant was to replicate the exact tastes of my home in Italy. In this way, we pay homage to the culinary tradition by perfectly recreating the flavors and experiences of true Italian cuisine. For example, our namesake dish, Gnocco, is an afterschool snack from Italy made from lightly fried bread and Italian cold cuts – it’s the perfect symbol of time-honored tradition and authentic Italian flavor.

AM: We enjoyed a number of the dishes with suggested wine pairings at Gnocco, what are 3 signature dishes that you suggest that we should enjoy on our next visit?

GLG: Gnocco (A unique specialty) – Homemade deep-fried dough with a selection of typical northern Italian cold cuts.

Tartufata Pizza – A mouthwatering pie made with fresh mozzarella, truffle sauce, mushrooms and Speck.

Maialino Al Latte - Oven roasted pork loin, slow cooked in a milk sauce with rosemary and garlic served with mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach.

AM: What are 3 cocktails that you suggest we should have when visiting?

GLG: Juicy Secrets – Gin, lemon juice, pineapple juice, honey ginger syrup, and turmeric.

Gian’s Dilemma – Mezcal, grapefruit juice, simple syrup and jalapeño with Himalayan salt and a cayenne pepper rim.

Royal Degenerale – Early grey infused vodka, lime juice, and honey ginger syrup.

AM: In addition to the restaurant, you have created a sense of community. We enjoyed hearing about how you are teaching children in the area to grow their own food, making pasta and more. Please share these programs and how you continue to make yourself a fixture in the community.

GLG: Gnocco enjoys hosting local school groups for activities like growing their own food and pizza/pasta making classes to help enrich their traditional education with culinary arts and traditions. We pride ourselves on being active in the community.

As a 20-year-old mainstay of the East Village, the community is very important to us. We always participate in events that allow us to contribute and lift up our neighbors. Some of these initiatives include Slice Out Hunger, a pizza-related charity that supports American hunger relief and prevention initiatives through pizza-related events and campaigns as well as the Art Loisaida Foundation, an artistic non-profit for the Lower East Side that seeks to expand the venues for local artists and provide more opportunities for artists in the community.

IG @GnoccoNY

Read the Feb Issue of Athleisure Mag and see The Art of the Snack | Gnocco in mag.