Item: One particular T-shirt I own says: “Never trust a skinny chef.” I’d be wearing it now as I write this, but it’s in the hamper … with some dried barbecue sauce on it.

Item: Two weeks ago Tom Colicchio was so upset he nearly barked at Aussie contestant Mark on a Top Chef episode for having the temerity to cut down the fat on the duck entree Tom was eating.

Item: Dan Barber cooks Braised Pork Belly for FCI founder Dorothy Hamilton on Chef’s Story and they’re both in heaven.

Come on! Pork belly, fat back, duck, foie gras …. Serioiusly, I am fully expecting some time in the very near future, some where, some celebrity chef is going to stick five pounds of seared whale blubber atop toasted brioche, slap a $200 price tag on it, and foodies will be so clamoring for the sandwich that the whole thing will land smack on the cover of Time magazine as the “new black” du jour. (Sigh)

Don’t you know, you tastebud hedonists, you’re killing yourselves? Trust me, I’ve got a 20-pound spare tire on me that really needs to go, and a sweet tooth with roots so deep I feel them every time I comb my hair …. but, geez, even I know that much of the stuff you chef guys make and eat is actually going to kill you a lot faster than even the Average Joe and Jane at home who might be over indulging themselves on fast food and processed foods. And that’s saying something!

So where is all this going then? Why … to the “Fat Pack”. And to the wonderful article a couple weeks ago by Kim Serverson in the NY Times.

If 1960s Las Vegas had its Rat Pack and 1980s cinema its Brat Pack, early 21st century food has its Fat Pack. [....] The journalists, bloggers, chefs and others who make up the Fat Pack combine an epicure’s appreciation for skillful cooking with a glutton’s bottomless-pit approach. Cramming more than three meals into a day, once the last resort of a food critic on deadline, has become a way of life. If the meals center on meat, so much the better.

While forswearing any kind of normal diet, as that would get in the road of the food they all love so much, they

find themselves trying to forge a new kind of diet, one that rejects the conventional strategy of denial and avoidance and embraces the pleasure of really, really good food. In other words, Fat Pack Lite.

Here comes the two big “wows” … First, even Mario Batali thinks maybe its time to make a slight change. The second is talking about a chef or a restauratuer and using “marathon” in the same breathe.

No one has to tell that to Joseph Bastianich, who owns several restaurants with the chef Mario Batali. People who haven’t seen him for a while barely recognize his newly lean body, a mere 215 pounds on his 6-foot-2-inch frame. He’s in training for the New York City marathon, and he offers two simple tricks: run a lot and try not to eat after 6 p.m.

It’s rubbing off on Mr. Batali, the High Priest of the Fat Pack. “I exercise, I eat and I am a fully existing person in society,” he said. “But would I like to be 40 pounds less? Am I am sorry I’m not in better shape? Yes.”

So he is going to follow in his partner’s shoes. “Believe me, by the end of this year I hope to lose 40 pounds the same way he has, by portion control and exercising two or three hours a day,” Mr. Batali said. “You can’t eat a large portion of a pig and lose weight.”

Mario losing weight? Joe doing the NY Marathon? Wait, there’s more … From a recent Access Hollywood interview with Gordon Ramsay:

I went up across Malibu, up to Ventura yesterday, 30 miles on my bike. I was a fat chef once, 10 years ago. I don’t think it’s a good advert for any restaurant, a fat chef, and secondly, who wants to eat a dessert when the chef’s a fat pig. More importantly, I’ve got my first Iron Man (Hawaii based triathlon) coming up this year … I’ve got the Paris Marathon … and the London Marathon.

Chefs scaling down! Restaurateurs running races! Now I’m wondering … if my T-shirt still fits me, should I actually wear it?

{04 Apr 2008}