Weinstein, Jay 1965-

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Weinstein, Jay 1965-

PERSONAL:

Born June 6, 1965; son of Seymour and Pearl Weinstein. Education: Nassau Community College, A.A., 1985; Culinary Institute of America, A.O. S., 1988; New York University, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1997.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—Jacques de Spoelberch, J de S Associates, 9 Shagbark Rd., Wilson Pt., South Norwalk, CT 06854. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Chef and freelance writer. Chef at numerous restaurants in New York, NY, and Boston, MA, 1985-99; freelance writer, 1996—, freelance editor, 1999-2003. Arthur F. Burns journalism fellow, 1999.

MEMBER:

Kappa Tau Alpha.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Founders Award, New York University, 1997.

WRITINGS:

A Cup of Comfort Cookbook: Favorite Comfort Foods to Warm Your Heart and Lift Your Spirit, edited by Colleen Sell, Adams Media (Avon, MA), 2002.

The Everything Vegetarian Cookbook: 300 Healthy Recipes Everyone Will Enjoy, Adams Media (Avon, MA), 2002.

The Ethical Gourmet: How to Enjoy Great Food That Is Humanely Raised, Sustainable, Nonendangered, and That Replenishes the Earth, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including New York Times, Newsday, National Geographic Traveler, Time Out New York, ICON, Hemispheres, Travel & Leisure, and Die Welt. Executive editor of Kitchen & Cook magazine, 2003-07.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jay Weinstein is an American writer and chef. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Weinstein worked as a chef at a number of top-end restaurants in New York and Boston. Weinstein stopped working as a full-time chef in 1999 to pursue a career as a freelance writer, editor, and author. That same year he was an Arthur F. Burns journalism fellow. From 2003 to 2007 he served as executive editor for Kitchen & Cook magazine. Weinstein also contributes regularly to a number of periodicals.

Weinstein published his first book, A Cup of Comfort Cookbook: Favorite Comfort Foods to Warm Your Heart and Lift Your Spirit, in 2002. That same year he also published The Everything Vegetarian Cookbook: 300 Healthy Recipes Everyone Will Enjoy. In 2006 he published The Ethical Gourmet: How to Enjoy Great Food That Is Humanely Raised, Sustainable, Nonendangered, and That Replenishes the Earth. The book takes a look at the good and bad things in our foods, why they are there, and what we can do to improve our eating habits and help the environment at the same time based on our food choices and eating habits.

A contributor to Food Reference stated: "Filled with one hundred healthy, tantalizing recipes, The Ethical Gourmet is part handbook and part cookbook: it helps us find environmentally conscious food and then shows how to cook it up in irresistible fashion." The same reviewer added that the book is environmentally "relevant." A contributor to the Sustainable Style Foundation Web site noticed Weinstein's mastery of a "very important idea," simply, by "knowing more about your food," it "makes it taste better." The same contributor commented that The Ethical Gourmet "excels as both a handbook and cookbook, and the extensive resource guide will keep ethical consumers busy learning more about sustainable foods for days." A reviewer writing on the BuzzFlash Web site commented that "we are empowered each day to take small actions that help change the world for the better. Eating is a good place to begin—and you'll find the food tastes better when you have a clear conscience. The Ethical Gourmet will help give you one."

A staff writer on the Green Guide Web site called the chapter on fish "especially thorough," but called some of the negative arguments against traditional agriculture "cumbersome." The same reviewer noted that the recipes in the book were "ambitious," adding that "the true value of Weinstein's book lies in the latter half, in which he breaks down recipes by food group, outlining the environmental problems with the conventional counterparts of each and offering a chef's expertise on where to find ‘ethical alternatives’ and how to prepare them." The Green Guide Web site reviewer concluded that The Ethical Gourmet "will encourage you to take an interest in the source of your food, and teach you not to take it for granted." Brigeen Radoicich, writing in School Library Journal, found the book's message to be a sharp contrast to most teenagers' eating habits, saying that "this book may be an eye-opener and mouth-closer for many teens accustomed to fast food." New York Times Magazine contributor Holly Brubach commented that the "message is not new, but it furthers a cause" to take better care of our bodies and the world around us by paying attention to our foods. A contributor to Publishers Weekly remarked that "Weinstein is passionately serious about culinary ethics, but he is equally serious about the pleasures of eating."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New York Times Magazine, May 7, 2006, Holly Brubach, review of The Ethical Gourmet: How to Enjoy Great Food That Is Humanely Raised, Sustainable, Nonendangered, and That Replenishes the Earth, p. 42.

Publishers Weekly, April 24, 2006, review of The Ethical Gourmet, p. 53.

School Library Journal, September, 2006, Brigeen Radoicich, review of The Ethical Gourmet, p. 251.

Town & Country, April, 2007, review of The Ethical Gourmet, p. 182.