Daniel Green was never lean and lithe till he discovered healthy cooking. Now the model-turned-celebrity-chef is teaching millions of people around the world his low-fat food philosophy. EU HOOI KHAW writes.

The Kaffir Lime Chicken

DANIEL Green looks too good to be a chef. He is smartly dressed in a long-sleeved blue striped shirt and jeans, with a gold-buckled YSL belt. Rivulets of sweat run down his tanned face in the heat of the garden of Gulai House, Carcosa Seri Negara in Kuala Lumpur, but Green is totally focused on showing us what he can cook, with the most basic of cookware.

Still with a small pan on a portable gas stove, and a pair of tongs, he showed what the Healthy Cuisine TV chef of Europe and the US could turn out: flavourful Asian Seafood Salad with Wasabi, Kaffir Lime Chicken, Miso Salmon, East-West Crabcakes and Caramel Thai Bananas.

It was also food that Green was presenting at two dinners at Carcosa.

Healthy eating is what Green, who is the host and on-air chef for Shopnbc in the US, which reaches out to more than 68 million homes, is best known for.

He has written three books on that too: Green’s Cuisine — Low Fat Food With A Taste Of Thailand, Green’s Green — Mostly Vegetables with an Oriental Twist and Healthy Eating for Lower Cholesterol. He also has a food consultancy to advise people on healthy diets.

Who would have thought that Green used to be a pudgy teenager. At 18, he decided he had enough of being fat and set about reading books and magazines on food and how it worked. He experimented with recipes and a healthier way of cooking.

He slimmed down, losing 26kg in three years. The tall, handsome Green crystallised. He was spotted by a top model agency in London and did work for Gucci, Martini, British Airways, Barclaycard, Vodaphone and Hilton Hotels, among others. He appeared on two TV commercials, one of them alongside Claudia Schiffer.

His modelling days are behind him, but Green credits it with his confidence in appearing in front of a camera. “I love doing what I do now — creating and travelling,” he said. Adapting food is his forte, but not as a diet, but making it accessible. “I don’t want to re-invent the wheel about food as long as I put my signature to it.”

He maintains his shape by controlling his food. He doesn’t believe in dieting. “I hate exercise. I did buy an exercise bike, but I have only used it twice.

“I eat quite a lot!” And when he allows himself a treat, “I can eat a whole bar of chocolate. But I’m not a big fan of it.”

He does have a weakness for French cheeses, pizzas and deep-fried foods which he indulges in occasionally.

His healthy food philosophy is all about going back to basics, where people appreciate how long it takes to cook. Should it be organic? “In an ideal world it should be. But you should not prioritise organic. It’s more important to change from fast food to regular.”

At the moment the chef is into Japanese. “I was in Japan recently and I was intrigued by their food. You think of sushi and sashimi, but the hot foods such as their stews are wonderful.”

He is also inspired by Thai flavours, and finds Mien Kam, a spicy, leafy appetiser particularly interesting. His book Green’s Cuisine — Low Fat Food With A Taste Of Thailand pays homage to this cuisine.

While he finds an amazing range of spices and herbs in Malaysian food, he thinks it’s heavy on oil and coconut milk. “If you have tomyam here, there is still a lot of oil in it. You won’t compromise on the flavour if you take out the oil. For instance, I love satay but I won’t eat it with the peanut sauce,” said the chef, who never uses butter in his cooking, and if cream is called for, he would use only light coconut milk.

“I love chilli. When you add spices and flavour, that’s where you are replacing the fat,” said the chef, who in his cooking demo for us, used soya sauce, lemon juice, sesame oil, and fresh herbs to flavour his food. There is no salt on the table. “You don’t need it,” he said. “I find food so heavily salted sometimes and I hate it.”

“As for cheeses, I would use mozzarella and feta, but very rarely.” For him the real battle is not just losing the weight, but keeping it off. Changing the way he eats has helped him maintain his shape.

“In Southeast Asia, fruits and vegetables are so accessible, and you can still afford to eat shrimps. Not so in the US and England where people can’t afford seafood and you need a lot of money to eat well there. Only potatoes and onions are cheap and lots of people live on canned or frozen food.”

Green’s best cooking tools are non-stick pans with a heavy base and a pair of tongs. “I use them all the time. The tongs are like my hands.”

The chef, 38, still likes to dress up. “Apart from jeans, I like to be smart. I don’t walk around in a French suit and baseball cap. I feel good about myself when I dress up. I love my Cartier watch!”

But modelling is definitely over where he is concerned. “In modelling you are only as good as your last job. From it I learnt confidence in front of a camera and about rejection.

“I love cooking and being a presenter/host. I love travelling a lot too.”

He described himself in three words: humorous, happy and hardworking.

Green, who’s from London but now lives in Minneapolis (where NBC is based) with his wife and young daughter, lists one of his achievements as designing an airline menu for KLM. Cooking at home he says, is about doing three meals — one for himself (“I love calamari”), another for his wife who eats steaks and chicken salad, and one for his daughter, who “eats spicy seafood like me”.

He is now working on his fourth book — on how you can have restaurant food at home.

Sweet Caramel Thai Bananas

Serves 4/Prep time 10 minutes

4 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced

1/3 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup castor (powdered) sugar

2 Tbsp water

1/2 cup low fat coconut milk

Gently heat pan, add the sugar and the water and stir over heat until sugar dissolves. Do not boil at this stage. Stir in coconut milk, bring to boil and add bananas. Top with some extra caramel sauce

Caramel sauce

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup firmly-packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place sugar and brown sugar in a heavy saucepan. Pour water in to the pan. Do not stir. Make an “X” through the pan for the water to penetrate.

Turn heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Without stirring, boil for 8 minutes.

Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Lime leaf chicken

“I just love this mix of east and west,” said Green. “This is fusion without confusion. I suggest when you make the soy reduction that you double it and keep for sticky rice.”

Serves 4
Prep time 40 minutes

Finaly chopped chives
4 skinless chicken breasts
1 large cauliflower
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp sesame seeds

The marinade
1 tbsp honey
4 tbsp brown sugar
125ml light soy sauce
125ml vegetable stock
Juice of one lime
Fresh or dried kaffir limes leaves

Start by breaking the cauliflower into florets and set aside.
Now in a pan place all the marinade ingredients and bring to the boil. Reduce by half and remove and discard the limes leaves.
In another pan bring some water to the boil and cook the cauliflower for 12 minutes.
Take the chicken breasts and place in a hot pan with some olive oil. Cook the chicken through and just before you take out the pan add three-quarters of the marinade and coat all the chicken breast.
Remove and then drain and add the cauliflower to the pan with a quarter of the marinade and coat completely.
Now place the cauliflower on a plate followed by the chicken. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the dish and then the chopped chives around the plate.
Miso Salmon

2 fillets salmon, 120-200g each

Marinate in:
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic crushed
2-3 tbsp honey
1 tbsp miso paste
Juice 1 large lemon

Place under the grill for 5 minutes, saving the marinade. After 5 minutes add more marinade and cook for another 3-5 minutes.