Reviews, Interviews and More
July 7, 2009 by New Green · Comments Off on Reviews, Interviews and More
Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen—the New Green Basics Way
Fox News, April 21, 2009
Video of Kate’s interview
on Fox News in Austin Texas
Buy Cooking Green
Kate on The Splendid Table
Listen to Kate Heyhoe’s Interview with Lynne Rossetto Kasper on NPR’s The Spendid Table, August 1, 2009.
The Spendid Table: Complete August 1 radio show listing
Recent Reviews
“…when it comes to the green kitchen Kate Heyhoe is really the Green Goddess. A dynamic combination of Michael Pollan, Alton Brown, and Wonder Woman all rolled into one. After finishing this book you will definitely be convinced that you can help save the planet while preparing dinner every night.” —Heather Jones, ProjectFoodie.Com, July 9, 2009.
Read the full review.
“Best of all, it’s so well-written and informative that I can say confidently that it’s one of the few environmental book I’ve ever read that’s actually fun to read.
“Cooking Green’s key gift to readers, however, is its surplus of creative and counterintuitive thinking—and its absolute lack of junk science.
“Cooking Green is the kind of book you’ll want sitting on your shelf as a reliable resource for decades of intelligent kitchen decision-making, and it’s selling at a very reasonable $9.99 at Amazon. Use it to shrink your own carbon cookprint! —Daniel Koontz, Casual Kitchen, July 22, 2009.
Read the full review.
“Ever thought about the ‘cookprint’ of your kitchen’s pots and pans? What about the oven and microwave? A new book gives you the answers.”
Read Kate Heyhoe’s Interview with Leah Koenig on Mother Nature Network, July 15, 2009.
Washington Post, A Mighty Appetite, April 22, 2009
Earth Day Food for Thought: Shrinking Your ‘Cookprint’
by Kim O’Donnel
Excerpt:
Cookbook author Kate Heyhoe would like you to put down that organic avocado and chew on this morsel for a moment:
When it comes to being green, what you eat is not enough; how you cook it and what you cook with are equally essential to the green equation.
On the first page of her new book, “Cooking Green,” Heyhoe tells us right up that “appliances account for 30 percent of our household energy use, and the biggest guzzlers are in the kitchen.” (She refers to the oven as the “Humvee of the kitchen.”)
As we talk about reducing our carbon footprint on this Earth Day—and going forward—Heyhoe, who’s based in Austin, Tex., would like us to consider shrinking our “cookprint” as well – the energy it takes to prepare food every day. In the interview notes below, she explain what the heck that newfangled word means and how the electric kettle can be your new best friend.
Read the full interview at Shrinking Your ‘Cookprint’.
Consumer Reports 05/15/09
Buzzword: Cookprint
by Daniel DiClerico
What it means.
Cookprint takes the carbon footprint—the amount of greenhouse gas each of us generates through our daily activities—and plants it firmly in the kitchen.
Food writer Kate Heyhoe cooked up cookprint, defined as the energy needed to prepare the food you eat. That energy use encompasses the appliances and techniques used to prepare and store food, though the management of leftovers and food waste also factors in—you lower your cookprint by composting rather than tossing scraps into the trash. Low-cookprint meals should also be heavy on plant-based and locally grown, sustainable foods.
Why the buzz? A few new cookbooks—including Heyhoe’s Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen—the New Green Basics Way; Big Green Cookbook: Hundreds of Planet-Pleasing Recipes and Tips for a Luscious, Low-Carbon Lifestyle, by Jackie Newgent; and Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating, by Mark Bittman—have stirred up interest in eco-conscious cooking.
Besides food enthusiasts, appliance manufacturers are in on the cookprint movement, though it’s worth noting that cooking appliances as a category account for just 3 percent of a home’s energy consumption, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Whirlpool says that for its induction appliances, “90% of the energy [is] expended into useful heat to reduce utility costs. (With gas ranges up to 60% of the heat is normally wasted through indirect gas combustion.)”
Read more at ConsumerReports.org
2009 Green Book Festival Names Winners
LOS ANGELES (April 20, 2009) _ The 2009 Green Book Festival has named “Cooking Green” by Kate Heyhoe the top winner in the Cookbooks category.
Denver Post, April 22, 2009
Green day: Five ways to shrink your “cookprint”
By Tucker Shaw, Food Editor
Excerpt:
We’ve all heard about the toxic emissions spewing from our gas-guzzling automobiles. But according to Kate Heyhoe, author of the new book “Cooking Green”, the average single-family home accounts for twice as much greenhouse gas per year as the average sedan. And the kitchen is a hot zone.
There are hosts of products out there to help you turn your kitchen into an eco-friendly entity: Super-insulated refrigerators, induction cooktops, in-home composters, organic cleaning products.
These are all good ideas — if you have the money to spend on them.
But it doesn’t have to cost you much time or effort — or any money at all — to reduce your cooking footprint (or as Heyhoe calls it, your “cookprint”) and your utility bill.
All it really takes is a little common sense and a touch of elbow grease.
Here are five cheap, easy ways to make your kitchen greener and save cash…
Read Five ways to shrink your “cookprint”
The Providence Journal, April 22, 2009
Eco-smart tips and recipes help reduce your ‘cookprint’
By Gail Ciampa, Food Editor
Excerpt:
Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen the New Green Basics Way (Lifelong Books, $17.95) by Kate Heyhoe is almost two books in one. The first half is devoted to explaining why you need to make a green commitment
Author Interview
Kate Heyhoe answers questions about her new book…
Cooking Green
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen
the New Green Basics Way
What do you mean by “shrink your cookprint”?
Your “cookprint” measures the entire environmental impact you make on the planet when you cook or eat—whether you cook the meal or someone else prepares it for you. In other words, your “cookprint” is the entire chain of resources used to prepare meals, and the waste produced in the process. So essentially, Cooking Green is a lifestyle manual for shrinking your “cookprint.”
The cookprint starts with food, in your garden or at the farm; it travels to your kitchen (or a restaurant kitchen) and takes residence in the fridge, freezer or pantry. The cookprint also includes the food’s packaging, transportation and refrigeration demands along the way. Then, the cookprint grows larger every time heat or fuel is added, from a cooktop, oven, or small appliance. Discarded resources, whether they’re organic produce trimmings, plastic packaging, or water down the drain, further color the cookprint. As do the implements you cook with and the way you store leftovers. Understanding your cookprint helps put the cook squarely in charge of just how big, or how green, that cookprint will be—in ways that include yet extend beyond buying organic or local, or eating meat or not.
Is this book just for cooks?
Cooking Green is for any one who eats. President Obama has committed to a green economy, and on every level, being “green” has established itself as a national priority. Adopting greener lifestyles doesn’t have to be tough, and this book focuses on ways to be green without feeling deprived. Chapters highlight which types of foods are lower-impact, and tips address water heaters, garbage disposals, barbecuing, shopping, restaurants and each link in the food chain, so it’s of value to every one who eats, even if you don’t cook.
And if you do cook, you’ll discover that the kitchen is ripe with opportunities for going greener. It’s the place where people can make real choices, and take direct control of their impact—without letting the family feel deprived, hungry, or stressed. In fact, everyone will feel better just knowing they’re helping the planet. With the book’s step-by-step model recipes, they can do it one bite at a time.
What inspired you to write this book?
Buying organic is a great green practice, and as a cook, I knew we could do more to combat climate change. Lots more. The result: A treasury of eating, cooking and shopping habits that are as simple as changing light bulbs, and integrate just as easily into daily life. Collectively, they’re a whole new approach to cooking the basics. They include fuel and water conservation, and the strategies go from farm, to food, to fuel, to fork. They push the concept of “green cooking” into how we cook, including cooking methods and cookware, appliances, and water usage.
What makes this book different from the rest?
Many green living books require such a major commitment to lifestyle change, I think they push mainstreamers away. They provide great advice on green construction and buying composting worms, but often they don’t address common day-to-day tasks, like cooking and eating.
My book connects the gap between buying greener foods and greener ways to cook them. What really sets this book apart from other culinary or green living books is that my message includes, but goes far beyond, organics, composting, and recycling—because it also scrutinizes the physical ways we cook. My book asks (and answers) such questions as:
- Can the way I cook my favorite meatloaf truly make a green difference?
- How can I be more fuel-efficient when it comes to baking, broiling, or doing dishes?
- Why is grilling with hardwood less polluting than using charcoal briquettes?
- Is it really so easy to be greener when I shop, cook, and clean? (Yes, it really is.)
So my book is about every aspect of energy-efficiency—shopping, cooking, eating and cleaning up. In ways not instantly thought of as “green.”
- …Like certain benefits of small appliances (including rice cookers and electic tea kettles, not just toaster ovens or slow cookers)
- …It’s about foregoing the bigger-is-better mentality (do you really need a double-wall oven in your next house? A toaster oven is a better second choice)
- …And making better use of the tools you already now (did you know convection ovens produce 30% less greenhouse gases than conventional ovens? Maybe it’s time to figure out how that convection setting works.)
- …It’s carrying an ice chest with freezer packs in the car so you can do a full day of errands at once, without the food going bad, thus saving on mileage, gasoline, and time.
- …Or neat tricks to keep lettuce and other perishables fresh an extra three days, so you can eat better and shop less frequently.
And it’s realistic: Baking and roasting in winter naturally make more sense, but sometimes a cook just needs to use her oven, no matter what time of year. So this book tackles summer baking with green options that avoid ratcheting up the AC. Eating lower on the food chain is also important, and the book recommends consuming less meat, but it also suggests greener meaty options, like stretching out portions of grass-fed beef, for die-hard committed carnivores.
What’s an “ecovore”?
Our planet’s food resources can shift in abundance amazingly quickly. A fish species that thrived last winter may be in short supply this year, or a plentiful crop (like corn) can inadvertently increase global hunger when it becomes a biofuel. Ongoing drought can limit what’s available and increase the prices we pay. I believe it’s important to be mindful of our food supply even as it changes. Food is impacted by climate, and also by our own actions, which can have both good and unintended consequences. An ecovore watches, reads, and pays attention to global food conditions, and makes choices based on what’s happening now. It’s conscious eating with a “to-the-moment” awareness.
You say this book speaks to short attention spans. What do you mean?
The opening chapters detail the concept of “New Green Basics” and preview the strategies. But overall, chapter-by-chapter reading of this book is optional—it’s meant to be absorbed in snippets, sidebars, and quick hits, ideal for new-media-minds. Flip through it whenever you have time, and you’ll find something handy to absorb. For instance, there are sidebars and tactics presented in lists, tips for water conservation, and a “Green Meter” introduces each recipe with bullet points on the basic green strategies being used, when the dish is most seasonal to make the most of local ingredients, estimated prep and cooking times, and special conveniences for the cook.
What exactly are the “New Green Basics”?
They’re the basic rules of everyday cooking, but updated with the planet in mind. How you cook is as important as what you cook. Without abandoning your favorite recipes, you can bake, roast, broil, grill, and fry in vastly greener ways, saving fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse gases, and shrinking your carbon footprint. Cooking Green (the book) shows you how, and you’ll find more recipes and strategies here at NewGreenBasics.com.
For other interviews with Kate Heyhoe about Cooking Green, check out Celebrity Chef Chat at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online and, in print, It’s Easy Being Green in the April issue of Austin Monthly (Austin, TX).
Buy Cooking Green
Cooking Green:
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen
the New Green Basics Way
-
Recipes
Book Praise from Green Leaders
March 22, 2009 by New Green · Comments Off on Book Praise from Green Leaders
“I love Cooking Green! Kate Heyhoe’s thoughts are right on target and offer many ways for all of us to pay attention to conservation and be conscientious with food, cooking, and waste management.”
—Jesse Ziff Cool, founder of CoolEatz restaurants and catering, author of Simply Organic, www.cooleatz.com
“Brimming with fresh ideas and down-to-earth recipes, Kate’s new book covers everything from eco-food shopping to haybox cooking. You’ll never look at boiled water the same way again.”
—David Joachim, coauthor of The Science of Good Food and Mastering the Grill, www.davejoachim.com
“Cooking Green is the next logical step for chefs and cooks who think local, organic, and sustainable. Take the ‘cookprint’ test and become an ‘ecovore’—the future of cooking may just depend on it.”
—Ann Cooper, Director of Nutrition Services, Berkeley Unified School District, author of Lunch Lessons, www.lunchlessons.org
“I founded a children’s cooking school 20 years ago and am thrilled to incorporate the new term ‘cookprint’ into all of our classes thanks to Kate’s vision and knowledge. With this clever and resourceful cookbook we can teach thousands of kids (and their parents) new ways to keep their bodies, minds, and their world a safe and healthy place to learn and live!”
—Barbara Beery, children’s cooking expert and best-selling cookbook author, www.batterupkids.com
“Cooking Green breaks new ground, deserving a place in every environmentalist’s library. In simple language full of do’s and don’ts for mindful cooking and eating, author Kate Heyhoe gives you all the information you need to shrink your cookprint, along with more than 50 recipes to get started. Not only does it thoroughly and thoughtfully present the new green basics of cooking, it provides the reasoning behind the recommendations, so as the climate changes, you can too, and so can your personal habits.”
—Linda Mason Hunter, author and pioneer in America’s green movement, www.hunterink.com
“Let’s save the planet one bite at a time! With Cooking Green, Kate Heyhoe gives us eaters the tools we need to preserve our natural resources while improving our dinner.”
—Sherri Brooks Vinton, author of The Real Food Revival, www.therealfoodrevival.com
“Best of all, it’s so well-written and informative that I can say confidently that it’s one of the few environmental book I’ve ever read that’s actually fun to read. Cooking Green’s key gift to readers, however, is its surplus of creative and counterintuitive thinking—and its absolute lack of junk science. Cooking Green is the kind of book you’ll want sitting on your shelf as a reliable resource for decades of intelligent kitchen decision-making, and it’s selling at a very reasonable $9.99 at Amazon. Use it to shrink your own carbon cookprint! —Daniel Koontz, Casual Kitchen, July 22, 2009.
“…when it comes to the green kitchen Kate Heyhoe is really the Green Goddess. A dynamic combination of Michael Pollan, Alton Brown, and Wonder Woman all rolled into one. After finishing this book you will definitely be convinced that you can help save the planet while preparing dinner every night.” —Heather Jones, ProjectFoodie.Com, July 9, 2009.
Buy Cooking Green
Cooking Green:
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen
the New Green Basics Way
-
Recipes
The Future of Food
November 12, 2008 by New Green · Comments Off on The Future of Food
How Science Will Solve the Next Global Crises
Stephen Doyle and Zack Zavislak have created a visual article (they call it an “atlas”) for Wired Magazine (Issue 16.11) that illustrates possible “green” solutions to the world’s future food shortages. Charts describe topics like Global Crop Yield, Corn, Beef Steer, Future Farming, and Catfish.
“Demand for food is rising, and the world’s farmers are struggling to keep up. It’s time for a new green revolution.
“Forty years ago, we defused the the Population Bomb with the Green Revolution. Modern fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides boosted crop yield and fed an expanding population. But now the chemical age of agriculture is running out of juice. Yields—production per acre—have gone flat while demand is rising faster than ever…”
The full article appears on the Wired website at The Future of Food.
