What a food columnist eats when he cooks for himself

As a cooking writer and recipe developer, my workday meals aren’t as glamorous as you’d think. Here’s what I really want for dinner.

By Ben MimsCooking Columnist

Jan. 5, 2023 5:55 AM PT

As someone who develops recipes for a living, I get asked all the time about what I actually eat on a day-to-day basis, a question that’s often followed up with the well-intentioned but awkward “And how do you stay so skinny?”

There’s this common misconception that people like me — chefs and others who are surrounded by food all day long at work — live like royalty, picking and choosing what to eat at our banquets every day. But the reality is the opposite of that, I’m sorry to report.

Often when developing a recipe, I’m cooking it not for pleasure but to work out an issue or kink, and I’m judging it in a way to solve a problem, not necessarily to feed myself. I’m constantly cooking and tasting random things throughout the day: a bite of a cake or cookie and then some tomato sauce and then maybe a vinaigrette before a piece of chicken. Doesn’t sound like the most well-balanced banquet, does it?

When I’m done with work, the food I make for my dinner — the meal I want to sit down to and not have to dissect component by component — is usually pretty simple and, well, maybe even boring compared with what I’ve been working on all day. But it’s easy, comforting and delicious, and that’s the goal with these meals. A piece of fish or chicken, some roasted or sautéed vegetables and a scoop of warm white rice works for me. I usually have one thing cooking in the oven while another is in a skillet on the stove and the rice is kept warm in a pot.

But other industry friends I know have very different ways of, er, coping with being surrounded by food all day. Some eat snack platters of crunchy cucumbers and crackers; some eat soup pretty much exclusively. That’s to say: Everyone’s diet is different and what one person does to maintain their “health” throughout the year, no matter what they do for work, won’t always look like another’s.

Over the years, I’ve tried to eat fully plant-based but found that my digestive system gets angry with all that roughage — how everyone eats so many kale salads, I’ll never know. And after transitioning back to meat, I’ve settled with a loose strategy of mostly seafood and wild game, which I grew up on. I try to keep chicken, pork and beef to a minimum but don’t beat myself up over it either. And I’m a 6-foot-tall man, and my dietary needs reflect that. I often laugh thinking about how a former colleague was full after eating one egg for breakfast, while I eat four every morning.

So, taking all that into consideration, here are some of the recipes I rely on most often for dinner. I switch up the proteins and vegetables when I want, or leave out the carbs if I’m on that particular journey for a time. This is what I eat, tailored to my likes and what feels good for my body, but it might be different for you, so tinker with the amounts and adjust them to what feels right.

Steak and asparagus on a plate with a spoon holding a dollop of Dijon-soy dressing

My Flatiron Steak and Asparagus “Sauté-Fry” with Dijon-Soy Dressing layers slices of tender steak with crisp-tender sautéed asparagus, allowed to lightly char in the skillet, all of it drizzled with a punchy mustard and vinegar sauce that adds flavor without a lot of extra calories. Don’t like steak? Swap in a pork chop, chicken breast or some blocks of tofu. Don’t have asparagus? Green beans or broccolini make a great swap.

Seared Tuna with Marinated Vinegar Cucumbers and Sesame is my favorite go-to lunch. I quickly sear a tuna steak — which, oddly, is less expensive at my grocery store than salmon — then quickly marinate some cucumbers in vinegar and chili crisp while the tuna rests. If I’m feeling spicy, I’ll throw in half a serrano chile, thinly sliced into rings. All this over a scoop of warm rice is heaven, with the marinating juices soaking into the rice as it sits on the plate.

A plate of meatballs with red onions and zucchini on a red tablecloth

And for a quick hack to add flavor with hardly any effort to ground turkey, I add the zest of one lemon to my Roast Turkey Meatballs and Onions with Lemony Sautéed Zucchini. The zest adds brightness to the meatballs, which I then roast with red onions and some olive oil until both are cooked through and lightly blistered on the outside. While they cook, I sauté some sliced zucchini with garlic and finish with a squeeze of lemon juice. It’s all very simple — almost too simple — but that’s the point. At the end of a long day of working with food, I want to relax and not have to think about dinner, just like everyone else.