Monday, April 4, 2011
Cooking the Books Sheryl Crow, Chef Chuck White Sign Their Cookbook
Posted by Nicki Wood on Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 5:31 AM
Crow had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. She was determined to take the best possible care of her health. She and White met while he was cooking for John Mayer's tour. They discovered they were both from Nashville, and that was that.
For several years, the two collaborated on the care and feeding of Crow and then her two sons, Wyatt and Levi. White's recipes are healthy but fun and innovative, like his Fruit Caviar appetizer, a sort of peanut butter and jelly for adults, or his Chocolate Avocado Mousse.
When White allowed a city publication to run his recipe for grilled peaches, Crow said they needed to collect their recipes in a cookbook. If It Makes You Healthy was recently published by St. Martin's Press.
The book is broken into seasons as they coincide with a musician's schedule, touring or at home in the studio.
White calls the book a balance of types and styles of food, but all of it healthy. Some are simple, like the Chocolate Avocado Mousse, but others are multipart stunners like Basil and Apple Marinated Chicken, which includes sub-recipes for polenta and apple slaw. Meatless and vegan dishes figure, and so do Southern (Grilled Pimento Cheese with Tomato Soup Shooters, Fried Green Tomato BLT), Italian and Latin foods.
Crow and White will be signing copies of the book tomorrow, Tuesday, April 5, at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in Cool Springs.
