I've never heard of Sam Talbot before but it turns out we have the same views on food and sustainable eating. This beautiful cookbook is filled with down to earth, seasonal recipes that will have you slowing down to enjoy every page. I think they'll even inspire you to go forth and try new veggies and give them the Talbot treatment.
I'll be buying this one for my diabetic friends and family for sure, because these recipes make eating real food simple, interesting and attractive.

Interesting read so far( i haven't quite finished it) be interesting to see how much i can take on from what he says. Well put together book!

"I suppose it's because I'm both a chef and a type 1 diabetic that I'm forever being asked questions about what I eat. People want to know which diet I follow: Paleo? Vegetarian? Vegan? What foods are you allowed to eat? they ask me. What foods are absolutely forbidden? Are you gluten-free? Dairy-free? Sugar-free? Fun-free? Taste-Free? The simple answer to all these questions is: None of the above. What I eat, simply put, is 100% Real Food"

As soon as I read that opening paragraph, I knew this was going to be one special book...there was going to be no guilt about what you eat, no pressure to eat a type of food and it was going to be 100% real and I was not disappointed. I like Sam Talbot's philosophy of not forbidding food, for example he states that a piece of fruit failed to be outlawed in the bible and it won't work now either, eating shouldn't be over complicated or stressful...I so agree with this. The stress that we place on ourselves causes us to think about food far more often than we need to.

The book is very informative with information of what it means to keep it real, with suggestions of fridge essentials, equipment suggestions and substitution suggestions you get a great sense of what it is like to have healthy but regular eating habits. The book is suggesting you go out there and eat sugar, or fast food, but you get the feeling that no food is off limits as long as there is moderation.

I must admit that some of the recipes would require me to change my pantry stock but I am still eager to try the Easy Cauliflower Rice with Roasted Vegetables and Chicken, and I am inspired by many of the other recipes and ideas. The book has plenty of pictures which is a huge tick for me as I like to have a visual of what I am cooking. Another plus is the metric equivalents in the rear of the book, while Google is a great source of information I much prefer flicking to the back of the book for my conversions if needed.

Overall I think this book is going to be loved by people that like to try something new, that aren't restricted by diet and want to eat 100% real food.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley. This is a very nice cookbook. There are a lot of color pictures of the recipes. I tried a few recipes, which were delicious. There are a number of recipes with nuts, and I am unfortunately allergic, so there are a lot of recipes that I was unable to try.

As books like this go, 100% Real: Insanely Good Recipes for Clean Food Made Fresh is one of the better books I have read. Author Sam Talbot, who was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a child, has learned to prepare healthy meals. I suspect living with diabetes influenced his style of cooking and eating.

I liked his thinking about what real food is versus fabricated food. His comments were practical and down-to-earth. In particular I liked his tip to eat at home at least three times a week when it comes to keeping it real without going crazy.

The author says his cookbook contains a wide variety of recipes and recipe styles. He has thoughtfully tagged recipes with icons that clearly state the recipe style. You will find tags called Vegetarian (V); Vegan (VE): Gluten-Free (GF) and Dairy-Free (DF) making it easy to find the type of recipe you want.

The one downside I found is the use of nuts in his recipes. You'll find lots of recipes using nuts, so if you are allergic to nuts you might want to take a pass on this cookbook.

Some of the recipes you'll find in his cookbook include:

World's Fluffiest Waffles (contains pecans and suggests using almond or hemp milk)
Souffle Omelet with Swiss Chard and Mixed Herbs
Roasted Tomato-and-Red Pepper Romesco
Warm Bacon, Avocado, and Comte on Toasted Rustic Bread
White Fish Curry (uses coconut milk)
Savory Corn Cake Fritters (uses coconut milk or any nut milk)
Scallop-and-Chicken Shumai
Chile-Rubbed Skirt Steak with Rustic Chimichurri
Bok Choy with Oyster Mushrooms
Grilled Squash with Pine Nuts and Basil
Apples Foster with Coconut-and-Whisky Caramel (uses coconut sugar)
Rice Pudding with Acorn Squash and Cinnamon (uses almond milk and macadamia nuts)

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from Net Galley.

This is a real winner of a cookbook! I'm really enjoying recipes with healthy but still tasty recipes, using ingredients that aren't processed, packed full of unnatural sugar or using lots of the bad kind of fats (healthy fats I'm all over!) and this ticks all the boxes.

100% Real is great for healthy eating inspiration. There are instructions for what you should be trying to eat and what you should try and avoid, though if you know a lot of it already you can just skip straight to the good stuff - the recipes!

There are flavour combinations that I'd never usually have thought of, and some really interesting ideas that I'm looking forward to trying out. There are some recipes that don't really appeal to me, but then I find that with most recipe books to be honest - and there's plenty here to keep me inspired! There are also some great recipes for making your own sauces and dressings (the chilli oil, vietnamese sauce and 'dijonnaise' look particularly great!) as well as snacks and different sections on various types of recipes. So there's 'Morning essentials', 'Banging bowls', 'Sandwiches, salads, and spreads', 'Proteins on the ground and out of the surf', 'The vegetable fix'... the list goes on. So whatever you fancy, this book has it covered - and all with real food (and yes, Sam Talbot does explain what he means by 'real food', too!)

I am really impressed at the variety of dishes in this book. The photos are beautiful, and there's an image for pretty much every recipe too, which is always a bonus! I have earmarked a load of recipes to try out, and have tried a few already which have proved both fairly easy to create, healthy, and - most importantly of all - tasty.

Highly recommended. Though I am reviewing the e-book version, I'll be purchasing a physical printed copy of this book to keep in my kitchen - I have a feeling I'll be turning to it a lot!

I couldn't get past the introduction, where the author talks about the evils of citric acid. So is orange juice bad? Are limes? Strawberries, lemons, raspberries? I find it really disappointing that a book with so little research is offering health tips on appropriate diets. It even uses the terrible advice that if you can't pronounce it you shouldn't eat it. No, get smarter! Understanding your diet is important, and making wide generalisations based on a lack of knowledge is unforgivable.

It’s time to get back to real food and Chef Sam Talbot has created an essential guidebook to help both professional and home cooks get 100% real. I was drawn to this book by the title first and then by Chef Sam’s story. He’s a Type 1 Diabetic and a fan-favorite from Bravo’s Top Chef. He knows food and knows what it means to pay close attention to what he puts on the plate. His philosophy is simple: strike a balance between what’s healthy for you and what you enjoy eating.



His five steps to keeping it real reaffirmed to me I’m 100% real. Check it out:

Eat plants and greens for real
Cook at home at least three times a week
Don’t eat fabricated or super processed food
Focus on FFP (Fat, Fiber and Protein Super Trio)
Find the fun in food; don’t be a judgemental jerk



Chef Sam then gives you some helpful tips on revamping your pantry, fridge and freezer. I related to this part because it wasn’t until I married a Chef (who’s now retired) that I understood how crucial it was to have a fully stocked pantry, including nuts, herbs and grains. This allows creativity in your food prep and you’re not having to go to the store every day. Herbs can turn an ordinary dish into the sublime.



The rest of his book is chockful of delicious, healthy recipes for every meal. I’ve tried a few and here are my favorites:



Ripe banana and dark chocolate pancakes with maple syrup and coconut cream
White bean and cilantro hummus
Mini falafel pocket sandwiches
Savory corn cake fritters
Sweet and spicy pork on coconut rice
Apples foster with coconut and whisky caramel



I highly recommend this cookbook, even if you don’t have diabetes in your family. It’s time to get real about food and support our local farmers. It’s a win-win all around!



Disclaimer: I received an ARC from Oxmoor House (Time Inc. Books) via Netgalley in the hopes I’d review it.



My Rating: 5 +stars

A unique and colorful cookbook packed with real ingredients. The one downside is that a lot of recipes seem to have ingredients that you may not have in your pantry and wouldn't use for more than one dish. With better research you might be able to see if they do end up in more than one recipe and match those to cook around the same time.

I really, really wanted to like this book. First of all, I love cookbooks. And I hate to withhold stars.

It all started out well. A great title. The cover illustration drew me in right away. And it ended well. With advocacy for diabetes diagnosis and treatment.

But what was in between, the meat of the book, as it were, was a disappointment. Near the end, I finally found a recipe I wanted to make. Vegan Chocolate-flecked Coconut Ice Cream. A nearby recipe left me scratching my head. Vegan Chocolate Chip and Salted Chili cookies called for 2 c. "organic flour." What? I hope it was an editing error.

The recipes are varied, creative and are gluten free. I just did not want to eat them much less spend the time gathering the ingredients and cooking them.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the book was the photography, which on my handheld device looked underexposed. I even increased the brightness setting. The images were dark, felt staged to me, often were arranged in a repetitios way. We eat with our eyes, right? After the desert section, a photo of the author (at least I think it was since his torso not his head was included) properly exposed, slicing a myriad of carrots into julienned shapes. After the desert section. Preceding the "Basics." Not a carrot recipe mentioned in that section.

I was starving for something to like about this book. The best I can say is that it represented a great deal of effort to create it and I appreciate that.

While I can appreciate the idea of eating gluten, fat and all the other stuff free this book isn't for a normal household. I mean when waffles takes four different flours I'm out. This is a great cookbook for someone who doesn't have picky eaters, has a lot of money and time. That being said I did find some things that I never considered before and to me if you are learning it is worth the time you took

100% Real by Sam Talbot

I was first drawn to this book by the title and then very quickly was super excited to see that it was written by one of my favorite Top Chef's - Sam Talbot.

The introduction from Chef Talbot starts out by stating that because he is a chef and also a type 1 diabetic, he is often asked questions about what he eats. The short answer is 100% real food (which is explained in more detail later in the book). The intro, as well as the rest of the book, is written in a way that makes me feel as if I was having a conversation directly with the Chef. In between the recipes and colorful pictures are suggestions and additional information that make eating healthier (unprocessed) foods a bit easier. I especially appreciate the section on overhauling your pantry, which includes must-haves for your pantry and fridge, healthier substitutions for traditional pantry items (such as white flour) and equipment essentials. I think that having this type of information readily available makes it so much easier to incorporate new habits into the kitchen.

Getting to the recipes themselves, we start with 'Morning Essentials for the Grind' breakfast recipes and end with 'Sweet Thang, Maybe I Shouldn't...Yeah of Course You Should' desserts. In between are sections that include sandwiches, salads, spreads, bowls, quick recipes, proteins and veggies.
Some of my favorites include:
'World's Fluffiest Waffles' - made without white flour and include delicious flavors such as orange zest and vanilla, these are fluffy and take 15 minutes from start to finish. (I made mine with almond milk - recipe calls for hemp or almond milk). Flours used are white rice, chickpea, tapioca and coconut. A little bit of extra ingredients are worth the finished product in my opinion.
'Spring Pea and Mint Spread' - super quick and beautiful spread that I used as a filling in a wrap. English peas and mint plus a few other ingredients and you have a fresh, colorful spread for crackers, etc.
'Zucchini "Pasta" with Green Goddess Vinaigrette' - I really needed an excuse to use my spiralizer so was excited to come across this recipe. Once you have your 'zoodles' you really just need to make the beautiful dressing that includes avocados, chili vinegar, honey, lime juice and coconut oil. Add some fresh toppings and you are set. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Last but not least I'd like to mention that at the end of the book, there is a list of resources. In my opinion, most of the ingredients can be found at your local grocery store (Publix and Trader Joe's for me) but there is a list of some online retailers if needed.

Overall, I found this a pleasant cookbook with some fresh recipes - it is very easy to read and follow and again, you feel like you are having a conversation with the Chef as you read through the contents. It simplifies eating real food.

*note: Will add link to Amazon review once we are able to publish

This book is great! There are TONS of recipes most with ingredients that you probably have in your fridge. With this book I feel like I can eat healthy without giving up taste. I especially love Sam's Game Changing Substitutions list. It takes all your favorites and gives you healthier options. I've definitely learned some new tips from this book. It's a great addition to my library.

Well designed and researched, this book seeks to educate the reader beyond simply recipes. Recommended for more experienced home chefs, 100% Real is full of uncommon flavor and ingredient combinations, which will either entice readers or cause them to lose interest. The photography is delicious. It's impossible to read this without feeling inspired to make something; however, not every recipe will find a wide audience.

I really enjoyed this cookbook. I liked the introduction and explanation on eating real food. I also like that there was a comment on how if you want "Blank" then eat it just try to eat better next time. We all get in the mindset that we can never have "Blank" again but then we may overdo it when we finally cave in so why not have it and then move on. It's not about denying yourself it is about being mindful of what you are eating and where your food is coming from. The recipes for the most part seemed very simple and the only thing that may be difficult for me to make is when using the different flours for baking but otherwise everything seemed very straightforward and delicious.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately, since it is not in kindle format, I am unable to do so.

The Author, Sam Talbot and I think along the same way. I love to eat real food and have such a hard time finding ways to make real whole foods taste good and pair well with other foods, so I am always looking for good recipe books with pictures that will give me some good ideas and recipes that are made with real whole foods. And I found so many in this book. I highly recommend this book.