By Adam Mazerall
On a Friday morning just a few weeks ago, I was drinking my second cup of stale coffee and picking away at a dense and equally stale blueberry muffin bought the afternoon before – during the market’s daily 2-for-1 last-minute cash grab to minimize end-of-day waste. It was about 11 a.m., and I was expected to call the reputable Rose Reisman – reputable because of her numerous and best-selling cookbooks; because of her catering companies that focus on healthful meals and wellness promotion; because of her many awards and accolades; because of…
Rose Reisman is an unstoppable entity in the world of healthful eating and wellness. Over the past two decades, she has accomplished what few can claim over the course of an entire lifetime. Her celebrity is well-earned: Rose has written several cookbooks that have helped readers learn how to properly eat and maintain a balanced, healthy lifestyle. She has also acted as national spokesperson from companies such as Kitchenaid to charities such as Breakfast for Learning. Her philosophy is mantra to many: The Art of Living Well is a practiced dogma amongst her fans. She has created several healthy menus for the Pickle Barrel Restaurant franchise, broadening the chain’s appeal to a wider market. Her restaurant Glow has a menu that embodies her philosophy and features Rose’s original recipes.
“The health of my family was really the starting point,” says Rose of her philosophical outlook towards eating. Being of Eastern European decent, healthy foods weren’t always Rose’s go-to. She initially wrote high-fat cookbooks, but she ran and therefore considered herself healthy. It wasn’t until a doctor’s visit in her early 30s that Rose’s outlook began to shift.
“I went to the doctor, and it turned out my cholesterol was through the roof,” says Rose of the igniting factor that led to her perspective change. Citing her father’s death in his mid-50s due to a massive coronary, Rose decided that a shift in philosophy would ultimately lead her to reversing her poor cholesterol and setting her on the path to wellness.
Rose was successful in altering her health and wanted to help others who may be lost on the path to wellness. This need to affect change inspired Rose to start Personal Gourmet, a catering service that delivers daily health-conscious meals to busy and overworked customers. She now has launched Ready To Freeze under Personal Gourmet – a line of vacuum-sealed entrees in oven-ready containers delivered fresh and, of course, ready-to-freeze. The beauty? Customers can pick which meals to eat right away and conveniently freeze the rest for use at a later date.
“My heart pitter patters,” says Rose with a prideful sigh when I ask about Glow, her restaurant endeavour with Pickle Barrel owner Peter Higley. Glow Restaurant is located in Toronto at the Shops at Don Mills. Rose helms the project, creating menus that adhere to her recipes and follow her philosophy. Glow has no deep fryer – a rarity for a restaurant of its size. It is also a locovore menue, with all ingredients coming from a 90-mile radius (when possible). It’s a soft-spot for Rose; a success that helps cement why she does what she does.
It’s Rose’s ingenuity that has led to her successes. Her latest endeavour, Swap It, speaks to Rose’s “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em halfway” approach to shifting people’s lifestyles. In a recent blog on her website, artoflivingwell.ca, Rose describes Swap It as “a way that our media can be more socially responsible and to help educate the public in selecting better foods in fast food restaurants.” An example Rose uses when describing a Swap It switch is McDonald’s Angus Burger. “When you break it down it’s like eating 22 bacon strips. I tell people to Swap It for the Big Mac, which is the better choice. It’s about compromise. Making one quick change in a fast food restaurant.”
When you talk with Rose you hear a woman immensely satisfied and proud of her life. She has accomplished so much in a relatively short period of time, and has given back through teaching her food philosophies, helping thousands get on the track to wellness, and has also given back through her philanthropic work: To date, Rose has helped raise over $1 million for research, education, and treatment of breast cancer. She is a woman not content to flow with the status quo, and will continue to challenge herself and others with healthy eating and living. To that end, Rose is a founding member of a new advisory committee at York University in collaboration with Harvey Skinner, PhD. This endeavour will link academic, clinical, community, and public health partners in the GTA with the goal of promoting public health and preventative care. As Rose says, “In my little world I do as much as I can.”
Note: After his interview with Rose, Adam tossed the day-old muffin and grabbed an apple.
