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Special insight into feeding men and boys

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By Mark Fisher, Staff Writer 7:51 PM Thursday, October 29, 2009

Having grown up in a household with four brothers — then raising three sons — Lucinda Scala Quinn is certainly no stranger to the “Y” chromosome.

So when Quinn — co-host of PBS’s “Everyday Food,” vice president of all things food for Martha Stewart Omnimedia and author of cookbooks on Italian and Jamaican cuisine — began contemplating a theme for a fourth cookbook, she found inspiration in the opposite sex.

“I figured out that I had unwittingly stockpiled a lot of knowledge about men,” Quinn said. “I started to recognize some patterns in how they behave and in how they eat.”

And now, she’s sharing those insights in “Mad Hungry: Feeding Men & Boys,” (Artisan, $27.95), a new cookbook that just hit store shelves last week. The cookbook is chock-full of not just recipes, but strategies and what Quinn calls “survival techniques” to keep the male hounds at bay — as well as happy, healthy and well-fed.

Sure, there is some gender stereotyping going on here — but it’s good-natured, and comes across as based on solid firsthand experience. “It’s a known, proven, scientifically accurate fact that men simply do not naturally recognize a mess or full garbage can even when staring it directly in the face,” Quinn writes. “Boys and men seem to have a chromosome that enables them to think dry, crusted, dirty pots and pans will get clean in a dishwasher, even ones that a human being couldn’t clean by hand in one try.”

That’s not to say Quinn — who lives with her husband and three boys in New York City — dotes on the males in her life. The book is designed to encourage family meals, establish healthy eating habits, and eventually help nudge her young men and others like them to healthy and happy independence, she said in a telephone interview.

Advice ranges from “never be caught without bacon” to “Make boys eat breakfast. Brainwash them ... tell them they’ll be smarter, have fewer zits.”

Last week on the “Today” show, Quinn prepared Steak Pizzaiola — a one-skillet dish that combines chuck steak with tomatoes and herbs — and Italian Fries, in which sliced potatoes are topped with Romano cheese, herbs and fresh parsley, then oven-roasted.

Those are dishes that might make any teenager— male or female — hang at home for dinner rather than eating out. And that’s exactly what Quinn had in mind.

For more on the author, go to LucindaScalaQuinn.com

how to go 

WHAT: Lucinda Scala Quinn book-signing event

WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5

WHERE: Books & Co at The Greene, 4453 Walnut St., Beavercreek

More info: Contact Sharon Kelly Roth at Books & Co. at (937) 429-6302.

how to go 

WHAT: Lucinda Scala Quinn meet-and-greet event

WHEN: 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5

WHERE: Michael’s Restaurant, Kettering Tower Lobby, 40 N. Main St., Dayton

Sponsored by: The Dayton law firm of Freund, Freeze & Arnold, Classical WDPR-FM 88.1, and ThinkTV

COST: $40 per person, or $50 per couple