Pulse Café serves sandwiches, salads and wraps, as well as fresh-fruit protein shakes.
Dana Cohen, New Jersey's own "scallop queen" on Fox's "Hell's Kitchen," is now proving herself on the gym floor. She's become a fitness instructor in Westwood.
She's also opened a cafe in the gym, serving fresh salads and sandwiches to gym members -- and anyone else -- who want a fresh, seasonal breakfast or lunch.
Remember Cohen's acclaimed Southern meatloaf recipe? The one she whipped up in a half-hour, with Moroccan spices and sweet potato puree, and which became a sophisticated and extraordinary favorite of the editors of Epicurious? You'll find a derivative here, in the sweet potato salad, with quinoa, Moroccan spices, cinnamon and maple syrup.
Pulse Cafe serves sandwiches, salads and wraps, as well as fresh-fruit protein shakes. The gym also rents space for events and Cohen will cater a customized menu.
Cohen, of River Vale, has always been active. Some folks thought it incongruous. A fit chef? "You must not eat whatever you're making."
But to Cohen, it's a perfect dovetail, caring about your body holistically. Being fit and eating well.
And, Cohen believes, eating well needn't be about deprivation. Good food is fresh food, properly seasoned. Quality over quantity. When the food is real, and the flavor intense -- that chicken kale Caesar wrap, for example -- you don't need to eat a lot to be satisfied. Maybe half of a wrap is enough. And it's enjoyable, too.
As a fitness instructor and chef, she addresses both sides of the equation. Working out and eating well.
Cohen, who attended the Culinary Institute of America, worked at the Four Seasons in Palm Beach, Fla., and once taught Eli Manning when she was a chef instructor at Viking Cooking School, will tell you that the experience on "Hell's Kitchen" was transformative.
She was honored to be chosen, she says — "Although a lot of times, it didn't feel that way."
The show, with Gordon Ramsay, is notoriously brutal, with myriad obstacles thrown into the mix, adding to the contestants' lack of sleep. For Cohen, this resulted in too much sauce on the spaghetti, the serving of raw lobster and an episode in which she cried.
"To have that experience is kind of rare," she says.
Cohen appeared on the show's 10th season in 2012, and was one of the final four contestants. "I think I did a pretty good job of standing up for myself," she says.
The ultimate takeaway: "You learn a lot about yourself."
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