About Chef Dugan

Author Interview by PageOneLit.com

PageOneLit.com: Why did you write "Help I Gotta Cook!"?

Ed Dugan: My wife and I had a bookstore in a huge flea market in Florida. Every weekend I watched a constant flow of humanity go by and an overwhelming majority were not just overweight, they were very overweight. I had already started a family cookbook at the request of my daughter Pamela but it soon morphed into what I would call an after-diet cookbook. In my opinion, the reason people fall off the never-ending stream of diets they engage in, and most of them do fall off, is that they get very tired of eating the awful food the diets recommend. You can't eat low-fat or no-fat tasteless food for very long before you want real food. Or their discipline folds. That's when the falling off begins.

In my book I give people a formula for determining the caloric requirement for their ideal weight. Getting to that weight is their responsibility and they can use any diet they want. Once they have achieved their weight goal, they can throw the diet book away. If they follow my rules, they can eat normal, old-fashioned meals whenever they want as long as they count caloric intake. It's perfectly okay if you want meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy and hot biscuits for one meal as long as you make up the caloric overload over the next several meals. My wife and I weigh in at our high school weights, me at 165 and her at 107 and we have stayed that way for over 30 years by using my method. Once you begin to visualize the calories you are taking in, adjusting them becomes second nature. If you are driving too fast you sense it and slow down. If you are taking in too many calories you sense it and reduce your "eating speed."

Another reason I wrote the book is because the art of cooking meals from scratch is almost lost. Mothers or fathers who can't cook are not likely to pass on great recipes to their children. My book teaches you the fundamentals of shopping, preparing and cooking great meals and assumes you can't even boil water, which I tell you how to do.

Finally, I wrote the book as an outlet for my sense of humor. The comments and explanations I use throughout the book, in the words of one reader, are entertaining enough just on their own and the recipes are a bonus.

PageOneLit.com: When and where did you become interested in cooking?

Ed Dugan: I was raised by my grandmother, a world-class cook from Austria. I literally spent my childhood at her side in the kitchen. As I say in the book, I never got any recipes from her but she taught me that meat is meat, poultry is poultry and fish is fish. Just how it ends up on your plate depends on the treatment you give it. I loved my grandmother very much and our family life revolved around her cooking. It must have rubbed off.

PageOneLit.com: In "Help I Gotta Cook!" you discuss the importance in 'Prep Work' which will make preparing a meal easier and better - Explain.

Ed Dugan: Every meal you cook is going to be examined, or looked at, and then tasted. Whether you intend it or not, that's a test, of your cooking skills, and to some extent a test of your aesthetic sense when you present it. It just makes sense to prepare for the test by getting ready for it. Of course, I was famous for never doing that in college but in the kitchen I always do. You chop, dice, mix like ingredients, open cans, everything you are going to have to do anyway before you start cooking. As I say in my Training Wheels Meals Chapter, you don't want to be in the middle of a sauté and then discover you need to get a can of something from the cupboard and open it, meanwhile letting the sauté burn. If a Chinese restaurant didn't do all of the prep work first, it would close down within a week.

PageOneLit.com: In "Help I Gotta Cook!" you list and describe the basic methods of cooking: Sautéing, Roasting, Braising, Frying, Boiling and Baking. Which of these do enjoy the most when preparing a meal? Why did you leave out Grilling?

Ed Dugan: They all have their place in a cooking repertoire but I guess I like sautéing best because it gives me the widest variety to choose from and it's fast. Roasting and braising take time and often I don't have it to spare so I save those dishes for weekends.

I don't mention grilling because, even if a person can't cook at all, they almost always know how to grill. We all grew up grilling hamburgers and hot dogs. I felt if my readers wanted to take grilling farther, there were a large number of grilling books they could buy to perfect their skills.

PageOneLit.com: "Help I Gotta Cook!" is loaded with mouth watering recipes -- What are a couple of your favorite dishes from the book and why?

Ed Dugan: One of my favorites is Braised Short Ribs of Beef. I don't know of any other cut of beef where you can get a "beefier" flavor. It's a down-home comfort meal complete with carrots, celery and onions. The only other requirement, in my book, is mashed potatoes.

Another is Greek Chicken and Potatoes, a one-dish meal that is easy and has superb flavor, especially if you like lemons. It's also a very healthy meal.

And finally, I can't go too long without making Shrimp Louie on Artichoke Bottoms. It doesn't matter if you use shrimp, lobster or crab, the Louie Dressing is a classic that has survived many years and will never lose its appeal. I think it's the best tasting dressing ever, and can be used on many other dishes or as a topping for salads and sandwiches. It is not, however, a low calorie dish.

PageOneLit.com: What did you eat today? What will you prepare for Thanksgiving dinner?

Ed Dugan: It might seem strange to some people, but I never know what I'm going to have for lunch or dinner until I make up my mind after I read the morning paper. That means I shop just about every day and I like that. Following my own rule about balancing calories, since I had a Chicken Tetrazzini with salad and French rolls last evening, today I'm going light on the starch and we're having Ratatouille with some pita bread and hummus. I don't bother with exact caloric counts. I have enough meals in my repertoire, as does my book that I just mentally look at the "calorie scale" from yesterday and, if it was a little heavy, lighten it up today. The only thing you can take to the bank with my meal planning is there will never be any low-fat or no-fat ingredients involved. I have an aversion to chemicals in my food.

If I prepared anything but roast turkey or chicken, my stuffing, gravy, green beans and cranberry sauce my wife would think I was crazy. It's her favorite meal and she gives me no leeway.

PageOneLit.com: One dish from "Help I Gotta Cook!" stood out as one I've never heard of ' Oxtail Ragout' - Explain this dish and why it's not one found any many restaurants?

Ed Dugan: Oxtails are not real tail from an ox, as you might imagine. They are really beef tails. The tails are usually cut up into 2" lengths and require long cooking, either braised or in a soup. I always braise them with broth and vegetables and thus make Oxtail Ragout. One sign of a good oxtail ragout is when the broth, although not particularly thick, has, as James Beard put it, "a wonderful lip-sealing" quality.

You don't find this dish on restaurant menus because the oxtails really need to be eaten with your fingers since cutting the meat and gelatin off the bones can be very challenging, and that "lip-sealing" quality that is a hallmark of the dish can make your fingers very sticky. A small towel and a cup of water won't get the job done and restaurants are reluctant to bring basins full of water and large towels to the table.

PageOneLit.com: Tell us about your Pancake Sandwich and where this dish originated?

Ed Dugan: I have never liked mixing sweet items with savory items. That, by the way, seems to be an American habit since the British think it's absolutely awful to put jam or marmalade on your toast while eating breakfast. Of, course, they also much prefer cold toast to warm toast, which has nothing to do with your question but I thought I'd mention it.

So, whenever I had pancakes, I lathered them with butter, salt and pepper. It really goes well with eggs and bacon. In my mind it wasn't much of a jump to simply add the egg and bacon to the salted and peppered pancake and come up with an open-faced sandwich, which I did. Sometimes I top the egg with a slice of cheese and add a second pancake on top. However, I always keep at least one pancake in reserve to eat the traditional way with syrup, like a "dessert".

PageOneLit.com: What's next?

Ed Dugan: What I have always visualized is using Help-I Gotta Cook as one part of a gift triangle, with the two other items being a good cookware set and a good knife set. It would make a perfect bridal or graduation gift, for instance, where the only other things one would need would be food and a kitchen. My challenge is putting together the right combination and marketing it.
 

Ed Dugan