Stella, George 1959-

PERSONAL:

Born 1959; married; wife's name Rachel (a commercial baker); children: Anthony, Christian.

ADDRESSES:

Office—P.O. Box 31, Norwalk, CT 06852. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Window on the Green (restaurant), Ft. Lauderdale, FL, executive chef, early 1980s; co-owner and operator, Café Max, Pompano Beach, FL; chef, Grand Floridian Hotel, Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL; also worked in other restaurants, including Victoria and Albert's and Citricos. Founder, Stella Foods. Host, Low Carb and Lovin' It, Food Network.

WRITINGS:

George Stella's Livin' Low Carb: Family Recipes Stella-Style (cookbook), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2005.

(With son, Christian Stella) Eating Stella-Style: Low-Carb Recipes for Healthy Living (cookbook), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

In his work, chef George Stella advocates the advantages of eating a diet low in carbohydrates. The cookbooks George Stella's Livin' Low Carb: Family Recipes Stella-Style and Eating Stella-Style: Low-Carb Recipes for Healthy Living outline some of the basic steps people can take to eat healthier meals and control their weight problems. Besides his professional concern for good food and healthy eating, Stella has a personal interest in weight loss: he is, reported Library Journal contributor Susan Hurst, "also a successful dieter, having lost 260 pounds and kept it off." His family also lost significant amounts of weight—totaling more than 550 pounds—while following Stella's regimen. Stella's success story has been prominently featured on television, ranging from his own Food Network-hosted program "Low Carb and Lovin' It" to the news-and-conversation program "The View."

American readers are not strangers to dieting merchandise, including cookbooks, and Stella's two contributions to the genre are, according to a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, not significantly different from other works. "What Stella brings to the equation," the critic pointed out, "is a folksy optimism and a Dad-like sense of humor." The liberality of Stella's dietary cuisine is also a factor. "Variety is the basis for Stella's cooking," Library Journal contributor Deborah Shippy explained. "He believes that you can eat almost anything you want"—providing, she added, that it is low-carb.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2006, Mark Knoblauch, review of Eating Stella-Style: Low-Carb Recipes for Healthy Living, p. 42.

Library Journal, February 1, 2005, Deborah Shippy, review of George Stella's Livin' Low Carb: Family Recipes Stella-Style, p. 112; January 1, 2006, Susan Hurst, review of Eating Stella-Style, p.148.

Publishers Weekly, November 14, 2005, review of Eating Stella-Style, p. 63.