I met Suzanne on a ferry boat in Thailand while leaving Koh Phi Phi and onto Koh Lanta. We instantly hit it off and bonded after an awful- and brief stay at Pimalai Resort…great if you want to experience golf carts and an Americanized experience of Thailand.
Suzanne has worked in the restaurant industry since she was a kid and completed the Grand Diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu. She also completed the graduate theatre program at Harvard and is an award - winning voiceover artist. Suzanne now lives in London and has recently published an amazing cookbook called The Pleasure Is All Mine - a hilarious memoir/cookbook with a hundred recipes - all for one serving and using practically no equipment. Aside from being an amazing chef, a published author, and an artist, she is in tremendous shape - truly an inspiration!
Last time I was in London, she taught me how to cook this incredible and super easy New Season Grilled Lamb with Lemongrass dish and a Chocolate Fondant for one - although we doubled the recipes, which turned out perfectly.
Cooking for one is a joy and her book is brilliant. When you can enjoy incredible food and still look like her…that’s amazing!
To stay fit, Suzanne loves to do a great mix of different activities. Here she tells us about her way of staying fit and healthy:
I've been an athlete my whole life. Mostly running - competitively when I was younger, but now just to clear my head. Nothing longer than four or five miles because my knees tend to give out - so it's just slow and steady with lots of steep hills (even if I crawl up them). I've also enjoyed dancing over the years but would hardly call myself a dancer. I'd take jazz classes and pretend to be a Bob Fosse dancer. As one ages, it's difficult to find non-competitive dance classes - so you just become the old lady in the back of the class trying to keep up. Not a good look.
I must admit, I get bored very easily and crave sports that make me sweat profusely. I started boxing and jump roping about ten years ago, which I love - it’s a great stress-reliever. I recently hired a personal trainer here in London who's known as Cathy "The Bitch" Brown. She's the third feather - weight boxing champion in the world and is seriously hard-core. She kicks my ass with a combination of power sprints and intervals for 20 minutes, then followed by another 40 minutes of boxing, kickboxing, weights, and tons and tons of squats and lunges all throughout. It's brutal but you feel like a champion when it’s over. And it certainly alleviates the occasional hangover from a previous evening of decadent food and wine (which I will never deprive myself of). I also try and incorporate a session of pilates each week with another excellent trainer/physio-therapist named Maggie Perez-Claiden. It's just the opposite of boxing but equally as powerful. The exercises are very controlled and intense - the focus being on body alignment and posture. If I can get in a combination of three to four workouts a week - it keeps me very sane.
She also loves Casall! - here’s her favorite outfit from SS 09 collection (still in stores until August).
So, go out and get this book, cook decadently for yourself, and go work out afterwards!
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