Ask Chef Dennis: A Conversation with Culinary Instructor, Dennis Littley

Welcome to the Living to 100 Club Podcast.

Here's our host, Dr. Joseph Casciani. Greetings to everyone joining us today for today's podcast. You're listening to the Living to 100 Club, and I'm your host, Joe Casciani. You can find this conversation and all past conversations on our website livingto100.club. Before we begin, I'd like to remind our listeners that I also present to community organizations and senior living communities on topics related to aging well and managing setbacks. Now to our podcast where we discuss successful aging, staying positive, and making more informed decisions. Our guest for today is Dennis Littley, a chef culinary instructor, and world traveler for a conversation about anything food related. Dennis is the founder and CEO of Ask Chef Dennis Productions, where he runs one of the most successful food blogs in the world with over 10 million page views annually of his website and recipes. Dennis has a loyal following, over 1 million people who look to his recipes and cooking tips for restaurant-style cooking in their home kitchens. A little background first. Dennis is a classically trained chef and has worked in white tablecloth restaurants, executive dining, and finally, at the end of his career, at an all-girls Catholic high school, where he took school food to an entirely new level. After 3 years at the school, he created a culinary program that brought acclaim to the school and was used as a model for other schools from around the country. He started cooking at a very early age and has always enjoyed making people happy with the food he cooks. His early inspiration was Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet. Dennis also works with travel companies and cruise lines showcasing their travel opportunities as he shares travel adventures and the deliciousness he's enjoying as he travels the world. Dennis, welcome to our program today.

Thank you, Joe. Thanks for having me. Bueno, it sounds like I have a really good life when you say it like that.

You've got a full, rich life there. Yeah, nice, nice, uh, comfortable journey for you.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, you're speaking of Graham Kerr, you know, we have one of the original scooper scrapers. We that he had whenever he sold, and it still works great. It's just a perfect kitchen utensil. Okay, I digress. So I always like to begin by asking our guests to tell us a little bit about the journey. I covered a lot of it, but how did you get to where you are today?

Well, you know, a lot of hard work, a lot of time in front of the computer, a lot of time in my kitchen, and, uh, making contacts. You know, it's, it's, uh, it is a really a journey People look at my life and they go, wow, he's living a great life. Well, I am, but you know, there was a lot of work behind it. And honestly, about 10 years ago, I did not foresee this. I had hopes and dreams and aspirations, and but to reach the level that I'm at now just seemed like a fantasy, seemed like a dream. And, and things just kind of fell into place. I mean, there was a lot of work behind it, but You know, I never thought of it as work because I always enjoyed doing it. It was, you know, after I got out of the kitchen, I went into a little bit of depression when I couldn't work anymore because my body was just breaking down. And I kind of reinvented myself and found myself via the internet. Google+ was a big thing for me back then. It was their grand experiment, but so many of us thought of it as a really great social media. And I thrived on Google+ and did a lot of stuff there. That kind of got me out public speaking and got me at conferences and really started to open doors for me. And then things just started to fall into place and business started to pick up. Brands started to pay attention to me. People started really looking at my recipes. And then when the pandemic hit, you know, business just blew through the ceiling. It was— everybody was home cooking.

Sure. Home cooking.

Yeah. And one of my big tenets is to demystify food. And it's not rocket science. I used to always tell my girls in class, this isn't rocket science. We're talking about food here. If the recipe says to put broccoli in it and you don't like broccoli, well, leave the broccoli out. It's not going to kill it. I try to give a lot of those tips in my recipes because food is very personal. Food is something that we look at that sometimes we overlook as a way to bond with other people. In a way to make ourselves feel better and other people feel better. It's just we have to look at it in a different way sometimes. You know, a lot of people say, well, it's just nutrition. You just have to put it in your body. It's fuel for your body. And there were days and there still are days that I look at it that way and it doesn't matter what I eat. I just need to get something in me. But other times, you know, if I can relax and I can take time and I can enjoy it and I feed someone else, it's always when I feed someone else. If it's just me, I'm not going to go to a lot of trouble. But when I have an opportunity to make something for somebody else and make them happy, make them smile, you know, that, that's like, that is my, uh, drug of choice, making other people happy.

Yeah. Yeah. So when the pressure's off, no expectations, you're really comfortable and you can settle in and just continue to do the cooking, but it's enjoyable and it's refreshing for you. It's energizing.

Yeah, you know, it's, it's therapy to a degree. It's just, it's something that I do intuitively, and I feel good about. And, you know, and it's funny, I watch— my wife loves to try and help sometimes. She does it, but I watch her struggle, and it's almost painful to see what she's doing. I have to stop myself from, from jumping and grabbing the knife or doing something because she's trying, she's trying to do stuff. But you know, that's not, that's not what she likes to do. And it's not her, what she is. She's a teacher. She's a great teacher. And you know, that was what she did.

Yeah. So tell our listeners a little bit about your, your typical working day. You're not a restaurant chef anymore. You're, you're not at the culinary school anymore. How do you spend your, your time now?

Well, you know, I start the morning. I generally get up between 6 and 7 o'clock, you know, sometimes a little earlier, rarely later. But I get up, I make some coffee, I drink some water first. I always start that, uh, make some coffee. I go up to my office and I start sorting through any emails that I might have, anything that needs immediate attention. And then I look at my traffic to see if how I did for the day and I didn't have any drop-offs, you know, it's always, you always, people look too late sometimes and they said, oh, I didn't go to look for a week and all of a sudden I didn't have any traffic. Well, something was wrong. Well, if you check, you know, I'm kind of anal about that. I'll check it throughout the day. To make sure something isn't broken. You know, I have people that take care of it, but just on the chance that they missed it, you know, make sure everything went well, answer comments. If people had questions and they missed something or I didn't— I left something out of a recipe, it happens, you know, and I thank them for the heads up and going and fix it. And just try to do that. That's the beginning of my day. I get that work out of the way and then I try and plan I don't plan ahead too much, but I try to plan on what I'm going to make for the day, or if I have time to create a post, to take the pictures, to do all the work involved, set up the ingredients and go through the recipe and make sure it works. So, you know, people think, you know, I do it a lot quicker than a lot of people, but for me, it's still a couple hours of work to get everything ready to make it, to take the pictures and then clean up. I never, you know, I don't have, I don't have anybody coming in after me to clean up. So, you know, like, I like in a restaurant. Um, so then I have to clean up, put everything away, and then it's going through the pictures and editing the pictures and then writing the blog post. So, you know, all in all, each blog post will take me upwards of 8 to 10 hours to create. Yeah.

So typically a recipe a day, is that—

no, you know, I'll hit, I'll hit weeks where I'll run through, I'll get maybe 3 posts a week or 4 posts a week. That's a very good week.

Sure.

And, and a lot of it has to do with how I feel. You know, I, I was in a good deal of pain for a long time. I just had back surgery and that alleviated the pain immediately. And I got, um, more, you know, I almost overdid it for a while there. I was feeling so good and then I was, I was tiring myself out. So you have to pace it. But yeah, at these, these days, a recipe a day would be too much because I don't post that much.

Okay.

I try to post like 3 recipes a week because if you give people too much, you know, it's— you're overloading them. I don't want to give my readers more than like 3 recipes to think about. And, uh, it's honestly, it's a lot of work. So, you know, but, um, yeah, that and just a lot of social time on social media.

Okay.

That's, that's the, the beast that you have to constantly feed to stay current. It's, it's your free advertising, you know, and if you don't take advantage of it, you're, you're missing— you know, a big part of what will help drive you to be successful.

Sure, sure. Yeah. So it's, um, kind of where you're doing the art and the science of, um, of this cooking. I mean, you— I talk more about your recipes and preparation, all that, but you make sure the technical side is working because you have such an active website. Yeah. And then, um, you get into more of the art. Artistic side of cooking, planning, preparation, and writing about it. Yeah, so that's, that's a full, that's a full schedule.

Yeah, usually it's the afternoons or the, the time that I make food. And again, I need good light, so if it's raining out, I'm not going to make anything, you know, that kind, that kind of— if I was planning on it and all of a sudden there's thunderstorms and the light's really bad, well, I'm not going to get good pictures, so I have to wait. And, uh, you know, Mother Nature tends to make things, you know, make things happen.

Yeah. Don't mess with Mother Nature. Yeah. How did you get interested in cooking?

Well, my mother didn't cook. Okay. And I have always loved to eat. You know, that was, uh, I think I came out of the womb that way, just wanting to eat right away. And, um, my grandmother used to feed me whenever I would visit her. I had a Mexican grandmother and, uh, She didn't speak a lot of English, but she knew what I wanted to eat, and she would cook as long as I wanted to eat. And I kind of right away knew that I enjoyed food. The whole process of eating was good. My first memory of cooking was putting frozen waffles— getting a little ladder out. I must have been like 3, maybe 4, but getting a little ladder out, putting frozen waffles in a toaster but not understanding the concept of plugging the toaster in. So I ate frozen waffles.

They were good.

I knew the process. I just didn't know the whole way.

These aren't bad. No, improve on them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I ate them anyway. But it just, it was like food and me were always happy together. It was a marriage that I enjoyed. And my mom was a nurse and she worked nights. So And when I was being good and would let her sleep, I would go to the store, I would get my bottles together, get my deposits for the bottles when you used to be able to get that. And I'd buy something and I'd go home and make something to eat. And that was usually always pasta-based because, you know, that was filling. That was a lot of food. It was inexpensive. And we always had some kind of cheese or stewed tomatoes. I remember, you know, they were easy to throw things together. And again, it was— I knew, I understood the concept. If I can make food, I can feed myself, and I don't have to worry about someone else feeding me. So I think that was my first real interest in it. And then when I saw Graham Kerr on the TV and I watched the people, you know, he was like flashy and, oh, it's so debonair and just, oh, having a great time. But when the people would come down, I didn't understand a lot of what he was making or the things he was doing, but when the people would come down from the audience at the end of the show and he would let them eat the food and you'd watch their faces and you'd hear some of them moan. That connected back in my mind somewhere as to, wow, what a way to make a living. You know, it was me first saying that there's a way I can really make people happy. And I think, I don't know, I think basically a lot of us just want to make each other happy. You know, it's the way to— sure. I mean, when you're happy, you feel better. You know, it's in— I sometimes think I strive for that too much, that it's part of my life. If, you know, like my wife, if I don't make her happy all the time, and— or, you know, there's other people, I feel like I've let myself down or I've let them down. So, so sometimes that's, that's a rabbit hole you can go down. It is, of course.

Yeah.

But, but yeah, that, that was always the key to me. And, you know, I knew I could do it, and later on in life I just fell into it.

Yeah. So he was, um whatever he was doing really resonated with you. And oh yeah, you saw how he enjoyed preparing for his guests. That also, you know, was kind of the role model that you saw yourself doing that.

Yeah, yeah. I don't think I realized it then because I think I was like 12 or 13, but you know, it just, it was in there. And then I tried the route, the jack of all trades, master of none— carpenter, musician, you know. I went through every phase of different lives and I I just kind of found myself coming back to food. Yeah.

Do you remember what your first job was as a cook? My chef?

My— well, my first job in a kitchen, if you want to call it a kitchen, was flipping burgers.

Okay.

There was a local hamburger stand called Wimpy Burgers where I lived, and, um, the guy— I mean, he knew me because I was there all the time buying burgers. And I was in 8th grade, and I remember going up and thinking, I need a job. You know, I'm 12, I need a job. And I went up to him and asked him for a job. And he, you know, he was like looking at me, sizing me up. And I was a big kid and he was a big guy too. And he had probably saw a lot of himself in me, the size and the way. And he said, all right. And I remember he paid me a minimum wage, was $1 an hour then. He paid me under the table, so he paid me 75 cents.

Right.

Yeah.

Because you were under 16, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh yeah. I didn't— there was no working papers. There was no nothing.

Yeah.

And I think I remember, you know, I picked things up pretty quick and flipping burgers is, again, not rocket science. It's pretty menial. But I remember him sending me down to clean the stockroom. It was at a basement. He goes, you know, he was just like, just find something to do. I'm standing around, go clean the stockroom. I came up about 25 minutes later and he goes, I told you to clean the stockroom. I says, it's done. And not only had I cleaned it, I had organized it. And he went down there and looked at it and looked at me, and by the beginning of the next year, I was the manager of that place.

Sure. Yeah. So it was a natural, natural move for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's talk a little bit about your favorite dishes. I know I, I've been to your website. You have a great, great collection, all different types of cuisine. What are your favorite types of dishes and why? You mentioned pasta, but what are your favorites?

Well, Italian food is just— always had a special place for me. I was trained in an Italian kitchen, which I think really gave me more opportunity to try different things, try more Italian food and sample. And again, it was an Italian-American kitchen. Big difference with a real Italian kitchen, but Italian-American kitchen. And I've always loved that. I mean, I I love Mexican food. I was, you know, that was my first taste, and Tex-Mex, not just any Mexican food. And traveling, I have gotten to try so many different cuisines and the flavors, you know, of Ireland was such a surprise for me. Culinary, you talk about a culinary paradise. They had asked me, says, Dennis, we want you to come over and dispel the myth that the Irish don't know how to eat. And I'm looking at them going, oh, God help me. Okay, I can do that. And, and from the first meal I had, I was blown away with how good the food was. And, uh, it was like what we call farm to table, they called dinner. Yeah, yeah, it was just so good. And food in Spain, and, and I could live in Madrid except it was hotter than Florida. Uh, you know, just Paris was the first international city I visited, and we OD'd on French food the first visit. My wife will not eat French food to this day, but I love it. You know, just you embrace the culture when you visit a different country.

Of course, of course.

Yeah, you know.

Yeah, so you talk about a lot of the European countries. So how about Asia?

Have never been to Asia. I, I had my first real Chinese food when I was in Paris the first time. And we were tired, she wanted something different, and we looked at it and go, oh my goodness, what is this? You know, because it's not American Chinese food, they don't eat that stuff. And they've made real Chinese food. Um, I, I have not— again, being a child of the '60s, and I was of age during the Vietnam era, it was always something that didn't, you know, it had that negative connotation to me, a little rub to it. And now I would, I would love to go, but my wife doesn't have any interest in seeing that part of the world.

Sure.

So we don't. Um, South America I have not been to. We pretty much, we fell in love in Paris and we pretty much really enjoy Europe. Um, and again, with the time we have left, we could be adventurers and try and hit all the countries we've never been to, or we could relax and enjoy life.

Of course. Sure. So a lot of the listeners on this podcast are in the 50 and over group. And I know when you and I talked, you have this concept of cooking smart and being able to prepare meals for a week and in one batch and one setup. So tell us, tell us your thinking on that, large batches and freezing.

Yeah. You know, and again, coming from a restaurant, it took me a long time to trim my batches down of what I made and it was good and bad. We'd have a lot of leftovers to give the neighbors. And then I started thinking, you know, I've always been— if I'm making 2 of something and I have all the ingredients, it's not that much more difficult to make 6 or 8 of them. You know, like when I— whenever I do chicken, breaded chicken or breaded eggplant for Parm, so do the cutlets. I hate breading. It's not one of my least favorite things to do. So I do a lot of it. You know, I cook it, I freeze them in on a sheet pan, and then I put them in Ziploc bags. And all those days that I don't feel like I can pull something out of the freezer. So during the week, you know, or maybe I won't do it all in one week, but during the course of a month with me cooking, like if I made salmon cakes, I'll make 10 or 12 of them or whatever, and I'll freeze them. If I make the cutlets, I do the same thing. When I make spaghetti sauce, I make a big batch and I freeze enough for about 8 dinners. And that way, usually you can save money by buying larger containers of things.

Mm-hmm. Sure.

So and you, you spend your time making that batch of things and freeze them. You know, the whole secret is freezing properly and, you know, making sure you're putting them in something, wrapping them. The freezer sucks moisture out of the thing, so that's the worst thing. That's why you get freezer burn. But if you package them good, you know, and nothing is better than thinking, oh, I want to— like, have I made crab cakes? I want crab cakes tonight. Well, I have some in the freezer. You know, I make my, make my starch, make my potato or my rice and see what green vegetable I might have in there and cook that up. And boy, I've got a great dinner in no time at all. So, so that kind of batch cooking, you know, like if you like a stew, well, you're making, you're going to cook that stew for a few hours to let the meat get tender. Well, you might as well make enough for like 4 or 3 or 4 batches of it, you know, and, and that way you have it ready to go. Or, you know, or if a neighbor is sick and you need to give them something, well, here's something you can give them.

Sure.

But it's, it's not— you have to look at it that way. Think when you go to the store, and like I said, a lot of times the multiple or the family size packages that you see in the store are considerably cheaper than buying the smaller packages. With even with chicken breasts, say you just want to buy them, you know, you can clean them. Usually they're way too big, so you slice them in half down the middle, you know, make two out of one and then again wrap them and freeze them. So if you want to do something with them later, if you want to grill them, and cook them. I mean, you can marinate them ahead of time and then freeze them. There's all kinds of things you can do if you just stop and kind of think about it a little bit. One of my tricks with a— I saw a great trick with a cake. One of my friends makes cake for two.

Cake for two.

Okay, that works. And I'm, and I'm thinking, well, oh, that's a big— how are you doing that? And I saw she makes one layer cuts it in 4 and then makes a 4-layer cake for 2 people with frosting and then slices it and it's done. I'm like, wow, that was pure genius. But with me, like, making some of these desserts I make, I said, well, you know, like, I made the peanut butter pie. I love those things. And I said, told him, says, you know, it's a lot to eat because it's so rich. So you cut it in slices, you freeze it, or you freeze it, you cut it in slices, and then you wrap the slices individually. So when you want a nice dessert, you can take a slice out.

It's right there. Yeah.

And you put the slices in a Ziploc bag so they stay nice. And honestly, I used to do that in the restaurant with some really exotic cakes or, you know, frozen cakes. I would make mousse cakes and stuff, and I would pull them out by the slice because they wouldn't sell a lot. So they would sell, but I'd have them ready to go.

Yeah, sure. So what about the, you know, the senior population? And adjustments in our meals and diet. What, what kind of adjustments should we be thinking about?

Well, you know, again, we have to think about our health. You know, it's, it's terrible that we don't think about our health as much when we're younger because it would really benefit us in the long run. But, you know, I'm just as guilty. You know, fat was my friend when I was young. Now not so much. But you have to think about what you're putting into your body. Um, I, I started, I guess, about 15 years ago buying more organic products. I don't buy everything organic. It's either too expensive, and sometimes honestly vegetables just don't look that good. I always tell people to buy what's freshest and local whenever possible. If it's organic, that's great. If it's not, you know, it's still fresh and it's local. But looking to what you're buying, sometimes some of the meats we, we I think as a population in the United States, we're trained that more is good. So, you know, we eat way too much protein, you know, because we can, because we were a rich nation.

Sure.

You know, like, I used to serve a 24-ounce porterhouse steak. That's more meat than anyone should humanly consume. Yeah, but because I could, you know. And now I'm saying, you know, 4 to 6 ounces of protein of chicken, of meat, you know, of fish. Fish, sometimes I go a little heavier because it's light, but that's enough. And you want to, you want to get more vegetables, you want to get color on the plate. And then when you're eating a grain, you need to start thinking, you know, we're so like, for years all I ate was white rice, and that's like probably the worst thing you can eat. And my wife got a heart condition And she said you had to eat brown rice. So, and I always liked brown rice, but it takes longer to cook. I was lazy. So I got the brown rice, and I made it. And the first thing I did was, oh my goodness, this is why my Mexican rice is never right. This is the rice my grandmother used. I could just tell from the texture of it. So, oh, so much better. And then farro, if I don't know if you've ever had farro.

Yes, sure.

Oh, I love farro. This, you know, I make risotto out of it. You can, it's nutty, it's flavorful. But again, trying some things that are a little different, that are so much better for you. Eating like beets. Beets are a pain to make sometimes, but if you roast beets, they're delicious. And then they're great on salads and they're so good for you.

Fresh beets. Sure. Yeah.

Yeah. Rather than the ones that we used to get when I was a kid, those pickled beets in the jars, which turned me off to beets forever, I thought.

Yeah. They were sweet and good, but not like fresh beets. Yeah.

Oh yeah.

So differences, say, for 50+ versus 30+? I mean, different age groups. What do you recommend?

You know, honestly, there shouldn't be any difference.

No difference. Okay.

You know, that's the truth that we neglect to see until we're older and we start to go, hmm, I better start taking care of myself.

Sure.

You know, you really need to start watching it and cutting back and training your body. Because if you train your body to eat, you know, again, you know, when you're under 25, I think you need more protein than most people just because of your body's metabolism. But as your body's metabolism starts to slow, all that extra protein is, is turning into fat. You know, it's not, it's not helping your body recuperate. It's not, you know, they say you need protein for your cells to replenish. Well, after a certain point, you know, your cells are going, oh, let's hold it back on the protein. That's enough for now. You know? So you have to start eating smarter. And again, that's, that's where we were, you know, we, we need a doctor to tell us, you know, you better change your dietary habits or you're gonna get sick. You know, and people that are proponents of organic or, or, uh, pasture-raised food, it's more expensive. It's, well, all right, you can pay it now or you can pay it later in all your doctor bills. What do you decide?

What do you choose?

And sometimes the method of teaching us these things isn't as well received when we're younger. You know, we're invincible. You know, it's our bodies.

Sure.

I'll do anything we tell them to. So yeah, 30s, 40s, 50s, you know, I think just cutting back amounts as you start to get older is the key to not putting on the extra weight because your body just can't deal with all the extra, you know, it doesn't need that much food, as much food anymore.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. The quantities go down. So, um, I mean, we don't, we don't start with the better diets in our 70s and 80s, right? We start with the better diets in our, in middle adulthood, right? 30s, 40s. And, um, you mentioned the protein and red meat. I know you're not a nutritionist, but what other substitutes do you recommend instead of the red meat, beef, and—

or, well, you know, seafood. And again, seafood, but again, sourcing it, you know. And again, seafood's more expensive. That's, that's where the problem lies. I have nothing against red meat. I was never— the only red meat I ever really liked were cheeseburgers. You know, I was never a steak eater. Every now and then you give me a porterhouse or a nice ribeye, but other than that, I really didn't care for it. Pork, again, same thing. When I was in martial arts for a while, and when I went martial arts, they told me to stop eating red meat. So I did, and I really didn't miss it. I ate turkey burgers, chicken burgers, um, love chicken. So, you know, it's, it's not a— but again, I started eating, uh, well, it was free-range, and now free-range means that there might be a door in the barn, you know. So you want pasture-raised.

It's just like a little opening in the wall. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They got around that. Yeah, well, they can go out if they want to. They choose not to.

Yeah, the cage gets in the way.

Yeah, I started eating chicken, a free-range, because it didn't taste like chicken anymore. And I'm going, I'm buying it, I'm eating it, goes, it just doesn't have any flavor. So I bought that. And then the next thing was milk. And I bought grass-fed— well, at first I started with just organic milk. I went to grass-fed after that. But it was like, it was like drinking cream. You know, full-fat milk, you know, now I do 2% because it's still better than most regular milk. But it was just the quality of some of these ingredients were— was much better than the mass-marketed things that were pushed out against us. Like pork, I saw a movie about how pigs are treated and I will never eat regular pork again. It's sinful. Um, there was a, a book about— I read and it was about how people progressed and evolved and moved and grew into the society that we are because of pigs. Because we had a contract with pigs. They would travel with us when we were nomads. We would have them and they would be pigs. And then of course we would eat them, but before we eat them, they were allowed to be pigs and to be alive and be the animal that you know, nature intended them to be. And somewhere along the line, we broke that contract and said, no, we're going to put you into cages and the pens. You're never going to move, and we're just going to eat you. And it was— and they're as smart as dogs. So it's like, uh, you know, that really— things. And I wish I had known that earlier in my life. You know, I try not to serve things like— I stopped selling veal. Uh, you know, veal was king back in the '80s, but, you know, once I started to realize what they were doing to these animals, I wouldn't serve veal anymore.

Sure.

You know, now they're raised healthier, they're raised better, they're not treated the way they are—

were.

So, you know, you can— lamb is a good substitute for red meat.

Yes.

And again, but any kind of meat protein, I just don't think we need it as often as we used to eat it. I would probably eat that kind of red meat or lamb or pork or anything along the lines no more than once a week. Just for me, you know. I always say don't deny yourself something. If you really feel like a steak, have a steak. But, you know, don't have a steak for another, you know, 10 days.

That's all.

Yeah, let the beef come out of your body.

I'm a big fan of Blue Zones, and, you know, the world's oldest old, and where the centenarians live. And, you know, their diets are the fruits and vegetables, right? The grains. Yeah. Squash and nuts and very little red meat. And they talk about 3 or 4 ounce portions, maybe once a week and maybe a few times a month, not a lot more than that. So yeah, it does say a lot about, you know, lifestyle practices of the centenarians around the world. Yeah, and certainly no refined sugars and no processed foods. Processed foods are deadly, and we've known that for a long time now, but They're as prevalent as they've always been.

There, there's such resistance, you know, and it's always the excuse of it's going to be more money, it's going to be more expensive, which is probably the biggest lie they tell us. When the DARK Act was passed, you know, Pepsi was in, uh, Quaker— I think they're the same company now— we're way behind pushing. They didn't want to have to list the ingredients. You know, and we weren't saying, well, we're not going to buy your product anymore. We were just saying, we just want to know what's in it. And, and they passed the DARK Act where we were not. But in Europe, and they say, no, it's going to cost more to put it on the package. Well, you do it in Europe where you have to. What is it going to cost, a quarter of a cent more? No, really, you know, who are you lying to? Who are you kidding? Just just do it. And again, it's not that, you know, people are going to rush out and say, oh, you know, stop using that because it's got, you know, genetically modified oats in it. You know, it's gonna— we just want to know, we want to make the decision.

Sure.

You know, and the funniest thing, in Europe, you know, we eat like fools when we're in Europe and we don't gain weight and we feel better, you know, because they don't have all the processed foods.

Sure. And a lot more physical activity. Yeah, in most cases. Yeah. So yeah, thanks for that. Um, how about just basic staples? What do you always have in your pantry, in your kitchen? What kind of staples?

Well, if you went down there, you would see an extra bottle of extra virgin olive oil. You know, I like either Spanish, Italian, um, olive oils, one of the two. I used to buy California a lot, and then they started mixing them with other things. So I try to buy a pure oil. You will find canned tomatoes and there will be San Marzanos, always San Marzanos. My wife has like an acid reflux problem when she would eat tomato sauce and I would start using San Marzanos and she doesn't have a problem anymore. So the acidity in them is different. And a thing about San Marzanos, if you ever see crushed tomatoes and they say San Marzanos, they're not because they can only be sold whole.

They have to be whole. Good to know.

Yeah. You will find risotto rice, which is Arborio.

Arborio.

And there's another couple of varieties that I just started buying. I can't remember the names of them. You will find brown rice. You will find artichokes, canned artichokes, because my wife loves artichokes, and sometimes I'll put them in dishes that I'm making. You will find roasted red peppers, jarred or canned. Because they go in for me. You will find— I'm trying to think— oh, pasta, of course, some wheat pasta and regular pasta. And I always buy— for regular pasta, I buy del Cecco, the Cecco, because I just really enjoy that, the bite of it. I use Barilla for wheat because it's really good and they make a good product. I use, um, what else will you find down there? I don't buy a lot of canned stuff. It's, it's going to be mostly fresh or frozen if I can't find fresh. But you will find those— oh, capers, olives. You'll find a jar of kalamata, a jar of some greens. I love those in dishes. Capers occasionally, tuna, but albacore, and always line-caught. Mine caught, mine caught, you know. And again, you know, it's funny, just— I just read something about albacore. You can't eat albacore as often as you could eat skipjack because there's more stuff in the albacore than there is in the other tuna. I thought, wow, I'm buying better tuna and I can't eat as much. Um, but we don't eat very much, you know, once a week is probably the most. Um, so you'll find certain things, and it depends when I go through the grocery store. Oh, I found these canned cherry tomatoes that were— yeah, they were amazing. Um, I, I just happened to see them in the grocery store, so I used them. I made my first ever tuna casserole because I'd always thought, oh, hot tuna is not a good thing. And I made it, but I put sun-dried tomatoes in it, I put the cherry tomatoes in it, I had some olives in it, I had mushrooms in it, and then I made a white sauce with it, and it was really Good. But yeah, and when you buy pasta, buy some different shapes just to break the monotony. Cavatappi is one of my new favorites. I love that. But just some different shapes. And then in the refrigerator, I always have a good assortment of cheese, even though I won't stand and eat a lot of it. But I like to have it. I like grated Romano cheese for pasta or for other dishes, you know, because it adds a little bite to it. One thing I tell people to get that's like a godsend when you're making things is to buy soup bases. Now, in the restaurant, I would buy Miners because that was the standard, but you can order them on Amazon. I don't know. But if not, there's a product that comes really close to it. It's called Better Than Bouillon.

Uh-huh. I've seen it.

And they make— yeah, they make little 8-ounce jars of it. And if you go on their website, they have like 25 varieties of it. You can get low sodium ones, you can get organic ones.. And an 8-ounce jar, you know, refrigerated. Once you open it, you always refrigerate it. Uh, you know, you can make soups with it. You can, if I'm making, I even like to use chicken when I make some seafood soups, chicken base stock, because it adds a little bite to it. You're adding, we used to call it yellow salt, you know, it was kind of, you know, but it's adding the flavor and it's adding a little salt and it, it gives it more of the bite than a seafood stock would make it like a soft on the palate kind of flavor.

Okay.

So when I make clam chowder, I use the clam juice from the clams. I use, uh, you know, but I put the chicken, chicken base in to give it a little perk.

Yeah. So you've, uh, you've traveled a lot, and I know you've been on cruises. And I mean, not just been on cruises, but you've been invited to help develop the menus for cruise lines. And what was that like? What's your What was your favorite?

Well, my first cruise was a big ship cruise. And my wife and I both got off of it and went, I don't think we're cruise people. Because, you know, the whole basis of cruising is see how much you can eat and drink, you know, and sit by the pool. Well, we were living in Florida, we can— that's, that's a normal day for us. You know, if you're from Wisconsin, oh, it's a wonderful thing. But, uh, you know, for us it was like, ah, we want to— and we started traveling together. Both of us left the country for the first time together when we went to Paris, and we started traveling together and really loving to explore. We, we would watch Rick Steves on TV and see where he went with the locals. It was always, let's go with the locals.

Yeah.

Um, so when we were on the ship and they took us one place and they were proud. We went to the Bahamas and I was like, ah, this is, this is a pretty island, but there's nothing here. And they took us to the casino and I went, well, I grew up in Atlantic City, I've seen casinos before, you know. Um, so we went off shaking our heads and then I got an opportunity to work with Viking. And again, she was like, oh, I don't know, I don't know. And we went and, uh, well, they treated us like royalty first of all, and, uh But just being able to dock right in Vienna and get off the boat, walk into Vienna or Budapest and walk right into it and just eat dinner wherever you want, not on the ship if you don't want to, but just walk on your own in the center of a European town and sometimes small European towns. So Viking was really pretty cool. We did one that was just bizarre, but so restful in the fact that it was— the ship moved so slow. We did a barge cruise. With European Waterways. And there were 12 of us on the ship, and you would walk faster than the barge would move. Yeah, first time they told me, says, oh yeah, go ahead, get off the boat, walk into town, and you'll catch up to us. Yeah, I'm like, how's that work? And I saw, uh, but just the calm, the serenity, the, the— I mean, you were just loving life and just so relaxed. And, uh, and then I did one with UnCruise that was an expedition-type ship. That was almost my favorite. The ship was not super comfortable, but every person that worked on that ship could have worked for National Geographic. There were, you know, there were— they had their doctorates, some of them. They were masters in oceanography and animal stuff. I mean, they were just brilliant. And I look at them going, how are they working on these ships? Oh my goodness. But they loved what they were doing. You know, they got to interact with people, they got to talk about wildlife and different things, and, and take us out on little Zodiacs out in the water and show us sights and, you know, experiences. And then of course the food is always fabulous on these ships. It's just, you know, they just blow you away with it.

But so were you involved in preparing some of the menus for Viking, or— no.

I did, I did spend time with the, with the chefs and with the regional chefs, and we would talk about work and business. As for actually helping them prepare the menus, I did not. I did do some work with European Waterways with some food. But again, you know, they, they have such competent people. You know, I would always, I would say something like, you know, have you tried it this way? And it wasn't so much you were working with the whole corporation is maybe just talking with the chef. But I was fortunate on one trip to spend some time with the regional chef, and we would sit up on top of the deck after dinner and have a cocktail and, and commiserate about, you know, the problems. Problems are— kitchen problems are universal. It doesn't matter what language you're speaking.

Yeah, she was.

And we would talk about it in Switzerland. It was the same thing. They went to this massive resort and the sous-chef, the second in line, spent the day with me and we were just talking about everything. And, uh, it's getting a feeling and you don't know, like when I talk to people, I would get ideas from them about what I should do. And you talk to them, they get ideas from you. So it's just like a give or take with no expectations.

Yeah, no, good mix, a good mix. I remember the Swiss meals that some of the restaurants, they would reserve like a third of the portion and not put that in front of you. They put like two-thirds, and then when you're finished that, they would bring you the rest of it. It was like, uh, just enjoying that same plate twice. Yeah.

Oh, well, we went to this one place in the Birkenstock in Lucerne, and the chef, after spending all day with me and I, I'm going, oh, I can't— but my wife is going, who do they think you are? I'm like, I don't know. But, you know, he was just I guess if you're nice to people, they don't always expect it, and they're nice back to you, and then they enjoy— actually enjoy being with you.

Yeah.

Well, after the other day, you know, he took me to their restaurant, was all Asian cuisine, 5 different types of Asian cuisine.

Wow.

He says, you want to order, or do you want me to make it for you? I said, I just— give me whatever you want. Well, they sent out about 7 plates. Yeah. And we're just in heaven. And as the service clearing goes, well, that was a good start. I looked at my wife and I looked at him, I said, start? He goes, oh yeah, those were just the appetizers. So, you know, yeah, people, you know, again, if you're kind to people, if you talk to them like people, they go out of their way to be nice to you.

Yeah, and that's the joy of going to other cultures and enjoying, uh, different, different worlds and different cuisines. Sure. So let me ask you about your website. You have a very popular website. You have Tons and tons of followers. What are your— what are they looking for when they— are they looking for traditional recipes? They're looking for what are you bringing out today, Dennis, or Chef Dennis?

I think they're looking for more traditional. You know, I always tried to push that they were restaurant style. And for when I'm talking about restaurant style, a lot of times the difference in what I make and what you're going to make isn't the ability of me as opposed to you, is how you source the products. You know, I'm going to get a different type, uh, quality of fish, or I'm going to look for it. So you need to start learning how to source things and how to get the right products to use and to start thinking about quality or what you're putting into it. And then the tips and tricks that, you know, you might not have ever thought of. Like, one of my favorites for thickening sauce What I was taught was you take some butter, softened butter, and you put it in flour and you squish the flour into it. And if I've got liquid in a pan, I put that into the pan and that I stir it and that thickens it. That's called a beurre meunier. But that little buttered flour acts kind of like making a roux almost sort of thing, but it thickens the sauce. So little tips like that, you know, seasoning or how to, how to, like when I put fish in the oven, always put a little water on the pan. So it, you know, it'll pull the water into it as it cooks instead of pulling the water just out of the fish and drying it out.

Yeah.

Yeah. So give it, give it, you know, I say it was from the sea, so give it some water, you know, to help it cook so it doesn't dry. But so they look for the, I think they come and expect it. And then a couple years ago I started with a, with a philosophy, you know, I, I was always, you know, when I was a restaurant chef, it was, this is how I make it. You know, if you don't like it, no soup for you, you know, kind of. And my wife said I became the gentler Chef Dennis, the kinder, gentler Chef Dennis when I went to the girls' school and I had to kind of change my way of looking at things. And I carried it on to my blog where I— if you don't like this, you don't have to make it using that ingredient. If you don't want it spicy, leave out the crushed red pepper or leave out the Tabasco. If you want to— like, I had somebody write, I want— your seafood soup was great, but I want to make it spicier. I said, well, just add a little crushed red pepper, or let everybody put their heat of choice into it at the table.

Yeah.

You know, kind of a thing. So adapt. It's not written in stone. You know, look at— I ask people sometimes to try and make it the way it was written or close to it just to get an idea. But to find joy in the kitchen. You need to enjoy eating what you've cooked. And if you cook something that you do not like, you're never going to really enjoy it. And so that means you're going to look at your time in the kitchen as like, I don't like to cook. But if you make something, you know, like say I had a recipe for shrimp and broccoli. You like shrimp, but you're not necessarily fond of— or, you know, if I have mushrooms in it, you don't like the mushrooms. Well, leave the mushrooms out. It's okay. You know, if you like something else or you don't like the broccoli, if you like spinach or asparagus, put that in instead.

Yeah, sure.

If you don't like garlic but you like onion, well, maybe you want to use a shallot or maybe you want to use onion instead. Build the flavor profile to what you like. Use the restaurant as a— I mean, use the recipe as a basis, as a good guideline. And then make it something that you like more. Add something to it. Make it your own. Make it something that you're going to eat it and go, wow, that was really good. You know, I get a lot of messages like that.

I did.

I used your recipe, but I used this instead and I used this instead. And we— everybody loved it. I'm like, great, great. The old Chef Dennis would have been, ah, you know, I would have beside myself, but now says, thank you, you made it yourself. I'm so proud of you for making it.

Be flexible. Yeah. Yeah. Now, when you talk about sourcing ingredients, can the average consumer source? I mean, are we talking about commercial buyers?

No, no. Because just not commercial is not always the best product. You know, it's, uh, these days, one, one thing the pandemic did for me was it taught me that I could buy a lot of things online and I found some really, really good companies. I don't work for them. I don't make money from them. But there's a company I use. I'm actually— I've got an order coming tomorrow from Crowd Cow and they deliver around the United States. It's free delivery if you spend, I think, that's $100, $129, which if you buy enough meat for weeks. You know, their portions are reasonable. Uh, it's all small farm raised. Uh, with beef you get grass-fed, or you can get, uh, organic, and they give you a couple different choices. Pork, you know, you can buy. They even sell seafood by like single pieces. So if you wanted some Cooper River salmon, you could buy 2 pieces. Some sockeye salmon, you can buy 2 pieces. You want some halibut, you can buy 2 pieces. So you can accommodate your, you know, you can change your recipes without spending a lot of money. And again, it's going to be more expensive, but, you know, use the portions smaller, more, you know, use, you know, potatoes or rice or again, some starch. It's not going to be as expensive. And a fresh vegetable, especially in the summer, you know, everything comes down with produce. But that's a good source. And there's other, there's tons of other companies that just happened to have been my favorite because they sell They sell— yeah, they sell everything, you know.

Good recommendation. Any other— that was Crowd Cow. Crowd Cow. Yeah. Any other— any others come to mind?

Um, trying to think of the other one that I was using. Uh, that's the best one for meat.

Okay.

There's, there's some different— I tried— there's some new produce companies, like there was— I can't remember the name of the ugly produce company, uh, and they would send you stuff that wasn't perfect.

Imperfect Foods. Imperfect.

Yeah, I think it was something like that. And I was too far away from their distribution points, so it did not come to me in excellent shape.

Sure.

But, uh, oh, there's some Alaskan— I buy salmon, and I can't remember, I think it's Alaskan Seafood. But again, sometimes you got to buy 5 or 10 pounds, uh, but if, but if you're gonna And it's going to be a lot more. One thing to remember, line-caught, wild-caught Pacific salmon is so much better for you than Atlantic salmon, but it's going to be about twice as much money. So again, you buy 5 or 6-ounce pieces of it, you know, you don't need that much. Enjoy the flavor of it and just buy smaller portions. And, you know, get more, fill your body with more other things. Save room for dessert then.

You can't miss that. Yeah, so it sounds like for a lot of these, uh, buys, we really need a separate freezer. It's not going to fit in the— well, I mean, no, it could, but if you really want to take advantage of the—

it depends how much room you have, you know. Like, my neighbor marvels at how much— we have the same size refrigerator— she marvels at how much stuff I put in my freezer. And when I'm in— I just— when I'm in New Jersey, I did not have a separate freezer, and I would pack— I would have all kinds of stuff. I had 10 pounds of shrimp in there that I bought because, you know, I would go somewhere that sold them wholesale and buy frozen shrimp. Again, with shrimp, if you can, U.S. waters, Gulf of Mexico my priority, Pacific shrimp are great. Anything Asian, you know, anything out of the Asian waters, pretty much I'm like, I don't trust the cleanliness of the water. I don't trust the packing and them processing. Yeah. So I try to stay with the European Union, Canadian, Mexican, United States. North America is great for seafood. Australia, if you can get it, but it's sometimes very expensive. But yeah, it's, it's just a matter of trying to be a little bit, be a little bit more, um, have a little more criteria for what you're putting in your body. And again, if it seems like it's costing more, quality is going to cost more. That's the part of the problem with the country is that junk food is cheap.

Yeah.

So we eat so much of it. Where quality food, you know, organics are coming down actually like Costco. You can get some really good organic products. You know, I used to buy sockeye salmon there, and I would buy a bag. I think it had like 3 pounds in it, frozen, IQF frozen. It was great. Yeah. So, you know, there's always alternatives. People in the Midwest that say we don't— we can't get fish, well, you got a Costco or maybe a Sam's Club.

Costco is great.

But look at the labels. Turn them over and see where they come from. See where the fish originates from, you know.

So the Pacific, good, uh, Pacific salmon better than the Atlantic, and, um, a little less interest in the Asian types of seafood. Yeah, which is popular now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tiger's came a long way, but it's just a lot of the stuff's coming from Vietnam and coming from, uh, you know, different waters around there. And like, they try to sell crab meat, it's a different crab, it's, it's a blue swimming crab, but it's not a blue claw. Crab, you know. So if you're used to East Coast Gulf— not at all. And just like the people on the Pacific, they love their Dungeness, you know, and they don't like the blue claw, you know. It's where you grew up. But, you know, the Asian crab looks like our crab, but it doesn't really taste like our crab.

Sure. Yeah, I'm just seeing our time. I'd love to keep on talking and have a load more questions, but I think it's necessary to wrap up. What would you hope our listeners take away from this conversation? What do you want them to take away?

Well, I want them to understand that cooking doesn't have to be difficult, and it should be something you enjoy and something you spend time with. If you have a significant other or a family member that you can cook with and then just bond. I really wish I had spent more time I wish I had been old enough to spend time cooking with my grandmother. I really wish I would. So, you know, use— think of food as a bonding tool. If you're eating with another person, use that time, you know, enjoy the food. You're bonding with someone. You're, you know, sometimes it's nice just to eat with a stranger and learn about someone new. We do that in Europe all the time. But, but I would like to have them look at it. You know, it's not mystical, it's not magical. It's food for the soul and food for the body and food for the mind. And to think of it that way and to adapt recipes so you enjoy eating them. And if you enjoy eating them, you're going to find more joy in the kitchen.

Good advice. And your website is AskChefDennis? Yep.

AskChefDennis.com. And if you're on any social medias, I'm AskChefDennis. Pretty much on everything.

Yeah, yeah. Great website. I love it. I think you've got a great collection of recipes. And as I said to you when we talked, I said some of my favorite recipes are there. And I'm always a fan of those. So appreciate that time, Dennis. I am— looks like we're out of time though. But before we wrap up, I just want to remind our listeners about a co-sponsor for our program, A Mighty Good Time. Are you looking for ways to engage and stay active? Check out amightygoodtime.com. It's a one-stop shop for events and activities for those 50 and over. It's free to search and it's free to post. Amightygoodtime.com. And be sure to visit the Living to 100 Club website to sign up for our weekly podcast announcements and monthly newsletters. And while you're there, be sure to download a free copy of my 9 tips for living longer. So we've been talking today with Dennis Litley. Dennis, again, your website, askchefdennis.com. Can people contact you on your website?

Absolutely. My email's on there. They can, uh, they can leave comments on recipes and ask questions, or they can shoot me an email too.

Great, great. Well, thanks so much for being a guest. I love this conversation. Hope to have you back sometime, maybe.

My pleasure, Joe, and anytime. Time, I'll be happy to come back. Thank you.

Okay. And thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in.

Hi everyone. This is Meredith from the Senior Fitness with Meredith podcast, where I discuss all things for seniors, from fitness, your health and wellness journeys, how to be all over strong and beyond. I also have my mini podcast called Motivation with Meredith. It's a great quick motivational pick-me-up for your days. Join me, listen now, search for Senior Fitness with Meredith on your favorite podcast platform.