Celebrity Chef Rocco DiSpirito’s Plant-Based Embrace

10/16/17 • 106 min

When it comes to food, we've been led to believe that healthy and delicious are mutually exclusive.

When it comes to eating plant-based, forget about it. Most people can't imagine their palate can possibly be sated without animal products.

I've worked hard to bust this myth.

But I'm no chef.

Good thing today's guest is.

But Rocco DiSpirito is no ordinary chef. A James Beard award-winning culinary wizard, this guy is a straight up food genius.

Named Food & Wine magazineʼs Best New Chef, People magazineʼs Sexiest Chef and the first chef to appear on Gourmet magazineʼs cover as Americaʼs Most Exciting Young Chef, Rocco is the author of 13 books (5 of which were NY Times bestsellers) who lorded over 3-Star restaurant Union Pacific, a New York City culinary landmark for many years (The New York Times deemed his dishes “pure genius”). Rocco skyrocketed to mainstream fame starring in a countless array of food and celebrity chef television shows, including NBC's The Restaurant, ABC’s Extreme Weight Loss, Bravo's Top Chef and Rocco’s Dinner Party, Restaurant Divided on Food Network — and even Dancing With The Stars.

But it hasn't been all roses. Along the way, Rocco faced much adversity. He's battled detractors. And eventually his fast-paced, rich food-laden life caught up with him. By 38, Rocco had become seriously ill, boasting the metabolic rate of a 64-year old with an extra 40 pounds around the mid-section. His doctor told him he had no choice but to go on a battery of medications. But Rocco declined, setting his focus on healing himself with healthier food and physical exercise. It's a path that forever altered his career and indeed his life — a re-imagination of great tasting food in service to well-being; to physical exercise and the world of triathlon; and more recently to exploring the healing benefits of a plant-based diet and the challenge of creating tantalizing recipes without meat and dairy.

Ultimately, Rocco walked away from the cloistered sub-culture of New York City haute cuisine. It's a move that puzzled the restaurant world, but Rocco was committed to leveraging his prodigious kitchen talents to help others achieve the vital wellness he now enjoys. Instead of opening up another bistro, he started coaching people. He launched an all-natural food product line. He founded a meal delivery service called The Pound A Day Diet. And he spends his free-time as an Ambassador for HealthCorps, visiting schools across the country performing cooking demonstrations and encouraging thousands of youth to build healthier habits.

Indeed, it's a laudable mission to prove that healthy and delicious can indeed coexist.

Rocco's more recent embrace of plant-based cuisine is what piqued my interest in sitting down with him. It's also the thrust of his brand new cookbook, Rocco's Healthy & Delicious: More than 200 (Mostly) Plant-Based Recipes for Everyday Life* hitting bookstores everywhere October 17.

I love a good character arc. Charismatic and engaging, Rocco delivers in this super fun conversation with one of the world's greatest chefs.

Enjoy!

Rich

When it comes to food, we've been led to believe that healthy and delicious are mutually exclusive.

When it comes to eating plant-based, forget about it. Most people can't imagine their palate can possibly be sated without animal products.

I've worked hard to bust this myth.

But I'm no chef.

Good thing today's guest is.

But Rocco DiSpirito is no ordinary chef. A James Beard award-winning culinary wizard, this guy is a straight up food genius.

Indeed, it's a laudable mission to prove that healthy and delicious can indeed coexist.

I love a good character arc. Charismatic and engaging, Rocco delivers in this super fun conversation with one of the world's greatest chefs.

Enjoy!

Rich

Previous Episode

Healing Mushrooms: Tero Isokauppila On The Magical, Mysterious, Health Promoting Properties Of Fungi

We tend to think of mushrooms as a pizza topping. Something we toss in a salad. Or a psychedelic to alter consciousness. But that's pretty much where the inquiry ends.

However, mushrooms are so much more. In fact, they comprise an entire kingdom. Invisibly surrounding us, they underpin the very foundation of our ecology, impacting us in ways far beyond our appreciation.

It may surprise you to learn that mushrooms account for an astonishing 25% of the Earth's total biomass. 92% of all plants are dependent upon mushrooms for their survival. 40% of all pharmaceuticals contain some form of mushroom. And, quite incredibly, 85% of human RNA and 50% of human DNA is shared with fungi.

Mushrooms are also woefully under-appreciated when it comes to promoting health, fighting illness, buttressing longevity, enhancing memory and even boosting libido. Indeed, when properly understood and utilized, mushrooms hold the capacity to change your life in an immediate, powerful, and exponentially beneficial manner.

To walk us through the magical and mysterious world of mushrooms, I sat down with my long-time friend Tero Isokauppila, the original fun-guy himself.

(behind the scenes of my podcast with Tero)

A life-long student of nutrition and expert on natural health hailing from Finland, Tero is the co-founder, president and marketing director of Four Sigmatic, the company behind a wide variety of very popular (and globally available) medicinal mushroom coffees, hot cacaos and elixir products that has successfully begun to introduce the health-promoting benefits of mushrooms to the mainstream.

I’m not talking about mind-bending psychedelics. And I’m not talking about garden variety portobellos or even gourmet truffles. I’m talking about adaptogenic, superfood varieties most people have never previously heard of or know little to nothing about. I'm talking about less-understood immunity, longevity, and energy boosting fungi like reishi, chaga, lion’s mane, and my all-time favorite, cordyceps.

Tero has been a featured speaker at events like Summit Series and Wanderlust, was chosen as one of the world's Top 50 Food Activists by the Academy of Culinary Nutrition and both he and the work of Four Sigmatic have been profiled everywhere, including Vogue, Time, Forbes, W Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, BuzzFeed, Bon Appétit, Goop, Well+Good, and MindBodyGreen.

In addition, Tero is also the author of Healing Mushrooms: A Practical and Culinary Guide to Using Adaptogenic Mushrooms For Whole Body Health*, which hits bookstores everywhere Oct. 10. If today's conversation sparks deeper interest, I highly suggest picking it up. Not only is it highly instructive, it include 50+ recipes sure to expand your culinary horizon.

This is a phenomenal conversation that tracks Tero's unique path from a kid foraging mushrooms in a 13th generation Finnish farming family to the entrepreneurial success he is today.

It’s also fascinating deep dive into this mysterious mushroom kingdom and how these fungi can support human health. More specifically, we get granular on the individual adaptogenic properties of the most prominent superfood varieties and how incorporating them into your daily routine can take your health, longevity and performance to the next level.

Enjoy!

Rich

Next Episode

Ask Me Anything: Rich Roll On Training, Racing & Service

Welcome to another Ask Me Anything in-between-isode edition of the podcast with yours truly.

Recorded live during our Plantpower Ireland retreat this past July, this is a dynamic discussion that covers a wide-range of topics. Subjects covered include:

how my approach to training, racing and nutrition has evolved over the years;

my approach to racing Ötillö (this was recorded prior to that event);

good pain v. bad pain – i.e., distinguishing laziness from the need to rest;

my role models & influences; and

thoughts on meditation, spirituality & service.

In addition, I was asked how Julie and I work together as a team — balancing our similarities and differences. Plus Julie sheds some light on her interesting backstory.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the listen.

Peace + Plants,

Rich