Four Healthy Kitchen-Staple Swaps From New York City’s Bone-Broth King

Marco Canora swears like a sailor, but drop the word healthy and he’ll tell you to mind your language. The chef, whose buttery gnocchi were once described by a New York Times reviewer as “eye-rolling pleasure bombs,” would rather be associated with the term real food.

“When you say ‘healthy’, it doesn’t trigger the deliciousness and indulgence that is a huge part of eating out,” says Canora, owner of the restaurant Hearth in Manhattan’s East Village. Over the past several years, spurred by a less-than-virtuous lifestyle and a waistline that was nearing 38 inches, he’s been undergoing a dietary reformation. “I was a super-maniac stressed-out chef in New York City,” he says. “Eighty percent of what I ate was bread. I drank too much.” His body staged a revolt: “I didn’t sleep well and I was super-inflamed and fat and bloated and miserable.” When he was nearing forty, he hired a nutritionist and committed to taking better care of himself—and, by extension, his customers.

Late last year he opened Brodo, a takeaway shop whose coffee cups of bone broth were the wellness sensation of 2015 (the Brodo broth cookbook just came out). Now he’s planning to briefly close Hearth for an update. “I wanted the menu to reflect who I am and what I believe in now,” he says.

So he’s doing away with the industrial versions of staples like canola oil, sugar, and flour that restaurants typically rely on. Expect minimally processed ingredients such as organic oils, grass-fed butters, wild fish, more vegetables, and small-batch flours—made from non-GMO grains, naturally. “It’s not a drastic transformation,” he says. “I’m not going to do steamed brown rice with boiled broccoli and a crappy chicken breast.”

Canora plans to reopen Hearth in January. In the meantime, here are some of his obsessions to inspire a home-kitchen tune-up . . . or a few New Year’s resolutions.

Out with: Standard butter
In with: Grass-fed butter

Grass-fed butter is higher in Omega-3 fatty acids than corn-fed butters. “It’s a healthier fat, and I think it tastes better than the kind from cows who eat corn,” Canora says.

Out with: Canola oil
In with: Refined coconut oil

About 90 percent of canola oil in the U.S. is GMO, and cooking with canola and vegetable oils releases more toxic chemicals—called aldehydes—than olive oil, coconut oil, or butter. “If could afford to, I would be putting refined coconut oil in my fryer,” says Canora. “Instead I’m switching to organic canola oil. But I would never use highly processed vegetable oils at home—ghee, olive oil, and coconut oil are all better choices.”

Out with: Polenta mix
In with: Corn ground in a countertop flour mill

Canora is an advocate of sourcing grains in small batches or, better yet, making flour at home. “Freshly milled flour is so much more nutritionally dense than store-bought. It takes time, but when you mill corn to make polenta it’s mind-blowing; the freshness in the fat of the kernel is insane.” If that seems like too much work, you can buy small-batch flours at health-food stores and online at kenyonsgristmill.com or mcgearyorganics.com.

Out with: Organic supermarket vegetables
In with: Fresh-picked vegetables

Canora prefers organic to conventional ingredients, but “I’d choose fresh over organic any day,” he says. “The fresh stuff that just came out of the ground is filled with more vital nutrients than something grown at an organic farm in the central plains of California and sent to New York.” So shop at your local farmers’ market, where food has been driven in that morning, instead of just going to the organic aisle of your grocery store.

The post Four Healthy Kitchen-Staple Swaps From New York City’s Bone-Broth King appeared first on Vogue.