Cooking the Whole Foods Way: Your Complete, Everyday Guide to Healthy Eating at Chef2Chef

Pirello says, "Macrobiotics is an understanding that that food is energy, that everything we eat becomes part of us and helps create who we become." With this philosophy in mind, she advises how to plan menus, shop for quality ingredients, and combine foods for optimum energy. She then jumps right into her collection of more than 500 recipes, among them Fresh Corn Chowder, Béchamel Sauce, and Chocolate Hazelnut Torte. They should appeal to entire families; beans, tofu, and sea vegetables do figure prominently in many dishes, but rarely have these much-maligned ingredients sounded so tantalizing. Pirello's sassiness, adventuring spirit, and lust for life are readily apparent in these recipes, and her book should certainly help make the transition to a whole-foods lifestyle a smooth one. --Erica Jorgensen

From Library Journal
Fifteen years ago, Pirello was diagnosed with terminal leukemia and given fewer than six months to live; with no other real options, she reluctantly listened to a friend who introduced her to macrobiotic cooking. She eventually adopted that diet and within months was in total remission?so it's understandable that she has become a champion of macrobiotics. She and her husband run a cooking school in Philadelphia, and this cookbook is a companion to her new PBS series. Pirello's recipes demonstrate that there's more to a macrobiotic diet than brown rice, and her exuberance and sense of fun show that macrobiotics doesn't have to be dreary. It's too bad that the headnotes often refer to various healing and other properties of certain foods without explaining the basis of such beliefs. Nevertheless, subject and other large cookbook collections will want Pirello's natural foods guide.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reader Reviews
This cookbook is the solution for those "health-seekers" who want to eat by the rules (more fiber, more whole grains, less refined sugar, more vegetables). Many of the recipes are delicious, and it's nice to make something that tastes good but that won't give you pangs of food-guilt later. A few caveats: 1. This is not a pure vegetarian cookbook. She has a whole section on fish. The author does not eat fish herself, but wanted to more fully represent the macrobiotic philosophy. 2. This doesn't give a good look at the full spectrum of macrobiotics. I'm not an expert by any stretch, but from what I've read of some of the other macrobiotics founders, this seemed very incomplete. She seems to concentrate primarily on the yin-yang principle (in her next book she talks about the elements), but doesn't give a comprehensive overview of how those can affect certain conditions. Also, as another reviewer pointed out, she includes a lot of ingredients most macrobiotics shun (chocolate, garlic, etc.) She seems to bend the rules a lot when it comes to desserts. 3. Having said that, when the author thinks a rule is important, she runs with it. Don't even think of eating raw vegetables or fruits, any white flour, or certain vegetables, like tomatoes. All in all, I thought this cookbook was a valuable addition to my collection, but I didn't think it was a very good lifestyle guideline.