The Paleo Chef

I am a newbie when it comes to the Paleo eating movement. I have picked up enough hearsay to believe that it is all about eating as our prehistoric ancestors would have eaten in the days when life was centered on the survival of hunting and gathering. I knew that the eating part of the Paleo lifestyle centered on meats and vegetables while grains and dairy were off the table. And that most recipes I had seen that touted themselves as Paleo also decried processed ingredients (including sugar). With a family member who suffers from an auto-immune disorder of the digestive tract, I was quite thrilled to have the chance to get my hands on a cookbook dedicated to the Paleo diet as it offers a note of promise for improved health/symptom management. (My thanks to Blogging for Books for the review copy!)

The great thing about Chef Pete Evans' new cookbook, The Paleo Chef is that it is beautifully photographed, well laid out, and an easy read.

The chapters are laid out in an intuitive order, beginning with breakfast and working your way through side dishes/vegetables, various types of meats (a chapter for each), and rounding out the offerings with dessert and drinks. There is also a very helpful index of "Basics" at the back of the book that offers followers recipes for the essential ingredients (stocks, how to activate nuts, etc.) that are integral to so many of the recipes throughout the book. As a beginner, I was very thankful to see this!

I also appreciated Evans' introduction on the ideology behind the Paleo diet. While I understand that not everyone who picks up a copy of the book will be as new to the movement as I am, and that space is limited in a cookbook for details on the science and philosophy of a particular diet, I was hungry for this type of information and found The Paleo Chef left me wanting a bit more. I was disappointed that Evans did not annotate any of his introductory remarks, nor did he offer other resources for readers to turn to should they want to learn more.

When all is said and done, I will be trying several of the recipes Evans offers readers in The Paleo Chef. I am very interested to discover if making the changes to diet proposed by the Paleo movement can improve the health of my family. I am also interested to find out if this diet is truly workable in the part of the country where I live, given the resources available. Time will tell.

If you have been curious to explore the Paleo diet and try some recipes, I would encourage you to get a copy of Pete Evans' book. If you are just uncovering the Paleo option and in need of more of the science behind the diet, you will want to find some extra resources to supplement what Evans offers in The Paleo Chef.

From the Publisher . . .

Acclaimed international chef and television personality Pete Evans takes a whole new approach to making gluten-free, grain-free, and dairy-free, completely Paleo recipes that are worthy of a restaurant but effortless to prepare.

More and more people are discovering the health benefits of the Paleo lifestyle by cutting out processed, sugary foods and instead eating quality proteins and fats, fresh vegetables and fruits, and nuts and seeds. However, following this way of eating doesn’t mean sacrificing flavor or spending a long time in the kitchen. In The Paleo Chef, Evans provides more than 100 recipes for gorgeous food that is satisfying, distinctive, and good for you, including Kale Hummus, Vietnamese Chicken Wings, and Key Lime Tart.

Each and every one of Evans’s innovative recipes pops with flavor and is brought to life with stunning, full-color photography. Living—and eating—the Paleo lifestyle has never been so effortless and so delicious.