It’s official: we love Dan Churchill… + not only because he’s super dooper cute but because of everything he stands for when it comes to food + lifestyle.
His newest book The Healthy Cook has hit the shelves (RUN, don’t walk to get a copy!). It’s a great resource to kick start anyone’s health journey, plus it’s funny + has zillions of drool worthy recipes + photos. We chatted to Dan at THR1VE about his book, his passions + what’s next for the healthy cook of the world!
Dan isn’t just about food + fitness though (he knows his stuff). He’s a firm believer that to be healthy, happiness has got to come first.
Dan said “the biggest part of your health, is your happiness. You actually get a lot of positive hormones from things like chocolate, but when you look at chocolate as a restriction, this stresses you out, your cortisol levels rise + you find it harder to lose weight.”
Dan focusses on the positives + explains that “if you have a positive mental state, you will not only lose weight more efficiently but you’ll feel better about yourself and no matter what, it’s just a better wellbeing in general.”
We told you he was special. The Healthy Cook is full of essential great tasting recipes for a healthy lifestyle.
“I have so many people telling me they don’t know how to cook healthy food, so that’s why I put this together… all you need is a little push and some helpful direction.”
Dan preaches the everything in moderation message (remember the cortisol!), he follows the paleo principles but he can’t go past his favourite meal of traditional spag bowl… he even makes his own pasta! Tick!
“The Healthy Cook is a book for the home cook to be inspired to showcase how healthy cooking is not about meat + two veg.”The second you flick through the book this will all make sense. Just some of the recipes we’ve already put on the ‘to make’ list are seafood marinara with sweet potato gnocchi, lamb cutlets with macadamia crust, dan’s breakfast frittata (this is seriously drool worthy) + every single one of his ‘cheating’ or as we like to call them: sweet treats.
The Healthy Cook isn’t your regular cook book though. It has heaps of ‘ahead of its time’ features like Layar. A free mobile app where you can hover over the pages + get a virtual insight into cooking techniques… is this not like crazy cool futuristic stuff?! Each recipe also has a breakdown of the amount of carbs, fats + protein in each meal you eat, making it easy to keep track of your health.
Dan first began to cook when he was 12. He would sit down with his family, watch Jamie Oliver + get inspired.
“Dad made this roster system, where each person would shotgun a night to cook… in the early days I remember watching family members pretend to enjoy the meals I had tried to put together… but as my skills grew I began to challenge myself.”
Food will always revolve around family + friends for Dan, “no matter what you talk about, if it’s food or life… the main thing is that you’re sitting down together to just chat.”
Dan still sees Jamie Oliver as one of his greatest mentors (we love Jamie too!). In fact, when we asked Dan who he’d invite to dinner he said “Jamie Oliver, Tom Brady- he came from nothing and is now one of the most successful football players… and because he’d probably bring his hot wife* and Barney Stinson, because he’s absolutely hilarious.”
*We googled ‘Tom Brady and wife’, his wife is Gisele Bundchen… so yes, very very good looking.
We’ve already invited ourselves to this dinner + have worked out the menu items (we can bring the sweet treats!), so Dan just let us know the date/time/etc!
With another 16 books planned to be published, Dan is seriously kicking some goals, “my dream is to be the healthy cook of the world. I want to be the person who inspires people to cook healthy. I’m visiting 4 different countries to film and spread the healthy cook word, I have 4 books coming out next year and another very cool project that’s a complete secret!”
He’s a busy guy huh?! We asked the big question on everyone’s lips + the answer is YES! Dan Churchill, The Healthy Cook is single. Dan likes long walks on the beach… kidding! But seriously, in his spare time Dan loves to keep active, go paddle boarding + chill out with mates “I’m really just a typical guy, one of my favourite things to do is to go down to the beach with my portable BBQ, cook up some food and just hang out.”
The Healthy Cook book is sitting proudly on our bookshelf + we know it would be an amazing addition to yours.
Thanks to Dan for spending time chatting to us, we can’t wait to hear all about your adventures!
Always merrymaking,
e & c