In the Kitchen with Tim Love

Often has been the case in the last three years that I have been caught off guard by the opportunities presented to me. Some more than others, but I’m almost always pleasantly surprised. Being a blogger in New York City is so much fun.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to go to SoHo to tape a video cooking segment with Hellmann’s and Chef Tim Love-a celebrity that I have admired since watching him on Top Chef.

Before heading into hair and makeup, I had a moment to sit down with Love and chat with him about cooking, family and the various charities that he is involved in. He is as personable in real life as he is on television-passionate and not afraid to say how he feels-qualities that I always appreciate, especially when it comes to celebrities. We talked about everything from parenting, to the charities he is involved in, to expanding the palates of children & broadening their culinary comfort zones.

What is a dish that you children like the most?: My children are a little unusual in that they will probably eat anything. As far as cooking, they enjoy making fresh pasta because it’s very involved. We’ve made all of their food, so they were introduced to lots of flavors early on. What’s great about pasta, is you can introduce new ingredients to something they are already familiar with. You can mix new ingredients like kale with their pasta and sausage-you jedi mind trick them!

Tell me a little about the charities that you are involved in:
My daughters were premature, so I started my own charity called Burgers 4 Babies. We build a new room at Cook Children’s Hospital NICU every year-there are now three rooms called Burgers for Babies which is really cool. With the private rooms, it helps in such a miserable situation. The more individualized you can be, the better.

Spoons across America-The source for children’s culinary education, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating children, teachers, and families about the benefits of healthy eating. Basically, I teach children how to throw dinner parties! Once a year I go to a 5th grade class somewhere, bring them into a restaurant and during the 6 week program I teach them all about food and manners. Then at the end they throw the dinner party-cook all the food, set the table, do the decorations and wait on their parents. They get into it-it’s pretty fun. There are usually only like 2 boys and they end up telling their friends “dude we got to use knives and cut stuff up!”.

Did you enjoy being on Top Chef and Top Chef Masters? It was fun-Tom, Padma and the director were great to work with. Just look at me now-I get to hang out with Hellman’s all day!

We had a lot of fun chatting and making the Hellmann’s Parmesan Crusted Chicken-a recipe that I have tried a couple of times at home. It’s actually a great & easy recipe that is super quick to prepare and get on the table on school nights.

Hellmann’s Juicy Secrets Parmesan Crusted Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1-1/4 lbs.)
4 tsp. Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 425°.

2.Combine Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise with cheese in medium bowl. Arrange chicken on baking sheet. Evenly top with Mayonnaise mixture, then sprinkle with bread crumbs.

3.Bake 20 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

For this recipe and more, go to Hellmanns.com

I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.