The Next Iron Chef star and chef/owner of Tertulia talks about his illness and shares the foods that ease his rheumatoid arthritis symptoms
by Sara Bonisteel

seamus mullen

F rom his acclaimed New York restaurant Boqueria to his finalist turn on The Next Iron Chef, Vermont-raised chef Seamus Mullen has spent his career exploring the flavors of international cuisines, in particular the cuisine of Spain, his first culinary love and the engine powering his newest restaurant, Tertulia. But when Mullen was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in his 30s, he began to look at food from a different angle led light, considering how the food he ate might help combat the excruciatingly painful symptoms of his disease.
Seamus Mullen's Hero Food

♥Parsley, Kale, and Berry Smoothie
♥Autumn Squash Salad
♥Stone Fruit Gazpacho with Scallops
♥White Bean and Tuna Salad with Radicchio
♥Parsley Vinaigrette
♥Flageolets with Autumn Greens and Fresh Bacon

View Menu Detail

In his new—and first—cookbook, Hero Food: How Cooking with Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $35), the chef spotlights 18 ingredients he calls "hero foods." "I know there's no silver bullet, but I have discovered that some foods can make dramatic differences," he writes. These ingredients, from parsley and stone fruits to carrots and good eggs, have helped him cope with the pain hong kong apartments.

Epicurious spoke to Chef Mullen about his disease, his favorite recipes, and the challenge of writing a cookbook with a healthy point of view.

Epicurious: Could you tell us how your rheumatoid arthritis was discovered?

Seamus Mullen: Sure. I had periodic flare-ups throughout my 20s, but I had no idea what they were. Every so often I would get a searing pain in my right shoulder that was so severe I couldn't even move my fingers. It was like having a hot knife jabbed deep into the socket of the joint. The pain would come out of nowhere without any warning and last for two or three days and then completely disappear.

I would go to the doctor (in some cases it would be so bad I'd go to the ER), and they would ask me what the trauma was. I'd tell them "no trauma," they'd order X-rays, see nothing, and send me home with pain meds. This happened about 10 or 12 times in my 20s.

By my early 30s it started happening more and more frequently. By the winter of 2007, I was in the ER five times! At one point, after an MRI showed that there was some joint damage PCoIP Protocol, I was nearly convinced to have (unnecessary) shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.

As the attacks became more chronic, one morning I woke up at 6 a.m. with horrendous pain in my left hip. When I tried to get out of bed and stand up, I couldn't tolerate any weight on my leg, and I collapsed. I couldn't manage to get back into bed so I dragged myself across the floor to the couch—the only problem was I realized when I got there that I had left my phone by the bed. I spent the next eight hours stuck on my couch, in too much pain to be able to move. Eventually I heard the sound of my neighbor—a good friend—coming up the stairs and I started to scream for help. Fortunately he had keys to my apartment and came in and found me and called 911.

I spent the next 10 days in the hospital—it was a bit of a medical oddity because I had extreme pain, but no trauma whatsoever. Eventually the doctors ordered an MRI, which showed that my hip was full of fluid, which was the cause of my pain. My white blood cell count was through the roof, but there was no sign of any bacterial infection. The doctors were stumped and sent a message to all departments within the hospital to see if anyone had ideas.

The chair of Rheumatology replied back that he felt he should see me and run some tests. After a few more days of horrific pain and more needles and blood tests, Dr. Harry Fischer diagnosed me with RA. I had actually never even heard of the disease before and, like most people who first hear about RA, I assumed it was some form of osteoarthritis. I had no idea that it was actually an autoimmune disease until Dr. Fischer turned to speak with one of his colleagues and I furiously Googled away on my BlackBerry (big mistake). What I found freaked the hell out of me and I suddenly realized that I might never cook again.

Epicurious: You were able to return to the kitchen after spending lots of time refining recipes for yourself and decided to turn them into a cookbook. Was it challenging turning these recipes into a cookbook?

SM: One of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to present the book primarily as a collection of recipes that are fundamentally delicious while being surreptitiously nutritious. I am a chef and my job is to make crave-able, tasty food, so I had to work to go in the opposite direction of so many of the so-called health-food cookbooks.

When I was first diagnosed, I read a lot about the impact of diet on RA. I started buying cookbooks and diet books that dealt with the relationship between food and health, and not a single one of them seemed the least bit inspirational. Frankly I couldn't imagine anyone flipping through one of these books and thinking, Wow! That sounds amazing, I can't wait to chef-up a tempeh and almond, dairy-free, wheat-free burrito!

Maybe some people do feel that way, but I felt as though there is a whole community of people that really, really love food and care about cooking and yet are concerned about the impact food has on their wellness. In this sense, I didn't ever want the book to be about exclusion, rather I wanted it to be about inclusion. You love kale? Perfect! Here's a whole gaggle of recipes for you that show you how to prepare it in all sorts of different ways.

Epicurious: Would you call Hero Food a diet book?

SM: Hero Food is not a diet book. It's not a guideline for dealing with inflammation. It's not a proposal for an alternative to medical treatment. It's simply a book about my experience with food and wellness, and the tangible impact that certain foods have had for me.

The important thing to know is that everyone is different and everyone reacts to the foods differently. What is very clear is that, regardless of who you are, a balanced diet that eschews highly processed foods and embraces seasonal, naturally raised food is good for all of us.

Epicurious: Did you consult with any doctors on the book?

SM: Yes, rheumatoid arthritis specialists as well as nutritionists.

Epicurious: What are some of your favorite hero foods?

SM: Anchovies! Little fish, big flavor! I also love eggs. There is such a difference between a good egg and a crappy one.

Epicurious: As a chef who is constantly cooking, how do you handle the pain of flare-ups? Are there tasks you avoid?

SM: I try to remember to stretch as much as I can and not stay in the same position (i.e., standing and expediting a long [kitchen] service) for too long without changing positions. I avoid doing too many repetitive tasks like peeling a case of potatoes. I avoid lifting really heavy things. I listen to my body; as soon as I start feeling like crap, I slow down.

Epicurious: Are there foods you avoid because of RA?

SM: I don't drink much alcohol, I don't eat much gluten, and I totally avoid processed foods and refined sugar.

Epicurious: You talk a lot about sourcing the foods you cook. How important is that for the everyday cook?

SM: I think it's really important to know where your food comes from. Particularly given that there are no regulations yet requiring labeling for genetically modified foods.

Epicurious: You call yourself an "unabashed meat man," yet you call for eating meat in smaller portions. Why?

SM: I love meat. There is nothing like the taste of pork. Rather than eat tons of it all the time, I'm much more in favor of incorporating it into other dishes as an ingredient. I'm more of an equal-opportunity meat man. I think in general it's best to eat smaller quantities of higher-quality meat and really savor it and appreciate it when we do choose to eat it.

Epicurious: What are some of your favorite dishes from the cookbook?

SM: That's a hard one! I love all the recipes! I'm particularly fond of the egg recipes. There are some really great things to do with eggs, and poor eggs have been really beaten up (no pun intended) over the years for their cholesterol. But the reality is that there are a lot of nutritional benefits to eating the right eggs…that is to say, free-range eggs from chickens that are not fed antibiotics or growth hormones and have a healthy, natural diet.

Epicurious: Has Spanish cuisine influenced your approach to healthy eating? Are there many Spanish-influenced recipes in the book?

SM: Without a doubt. In the two years that I cooked in Spain I hardly ever saw any butter in the kitchen. The obvious health benefits of the Spanish diet are things like olive oil and almonds, but after the Japanese, the Spanish consume more seafood than any other culture and their meats are amongst the best in the world. Galician beef is on par with Kobe beef and Ibérico pork is the undisputed king of all things porcine.

There is still a strong reverence for traditional foods in Spain and 99 percent of the time traditional foods are prepared with natural ingredients. There are big supermarkets in Spain, but most Spaniards buy their groceries in open-air markets where the majority of the produce comes from nearby farms.

I think one of the great things about Spain is that everyone actually sits down to at least one meal a day as a family. In the States it seems like we're always eating while we do something else, but in Spain you'll rarely see someone walking down the street with their lunch to go.

Epicurious: Do your hero foods work for folks who have regular arthritis, or other health issues?

SM: Hero foods are good for everyone! Hero Food is by no means a book that is intended just for people with RA or other autoimmune diseases; it's a book for anyone who is interested in good food and concerned about the impact food has on our wellness. After all, you are what you eat.

Suvir Saran and Azalina Eusope at the San Francisco Street Food Festival, 2012
Eat Drink SF is a showcase for local chefs of San Francisco with events throughout the weekend of August 1-3, 2014. One chef giving a demo this Sunday is Suvir Saran, who is moving downtown and opening a restaurant in all likelihood before the end of the year. Experiencing Saran’s passion and enthusiasm for food curly wigs, cooking, and life in San Francisco is reason enough to attend.

What will you be serving at the event?
I will be doing a demo, corn and shrimp curry, not a tasting but a sneak preview of what will be on the menu. It’s so easy, clean, delicious and seasonal; it’s everything good food should be. Come ready to be teased! Life is food and food is life. I’ll talk about my journey.

I’ve seen you at the CIA Worlds of Flavor and the San Francisco Street Food Festival. Do you attend or participate in a lot of events?
I’m a little selective, I used to go a lot to the bigger events, but it’s chefs doing everything they shouldn’t do. It’s my mission to get people to enjoy food and open their palates to the food of the world. When an opportunity to teach presents itself, I’m happy to do it. That’s what’s dear to my heart. It’s about honest interactions. I want to really connect with people.

How is the restaurant coming along? How did you choose San Francisco?
It’s coming along. It will probably open early Winter. It’s a very ambitious project. I’m hoping it’s my new anchor in life. It’s a bold move. I wanted to do something connected to a farm, but I’ve realized NY is not the place that gives you 12 months of magic. SF was a logical choice Natural stone. I love the produce, it’s honest.

My grandparents lived in the Marina and we went to the farmer’s market back in the 80’s. I loved the peaches, and they had a Meyer lemon tree. I felt comfortable in SF and never had to hide who I was. I gave NYC 20 years and in San Francisco I hope to spend the next 20 years.

What are your plans for the restaurant?
We take possession of the apartment on August 1st and I will have many months to experiment. I’ll have to create new partnerships, work with farmers, new relationships. We may have farms growing things just for us.

I don’t follow trends and I don’t have chef friends. They all talk together and there is too little variation. I talk differently and dress differently and I cook differently. We will have a wood fired oven but no traditional pizza with mozzarella. I come with the baggage of India where we are greedy for flavor.

What foods are you enjoying this Summer?
The other day I was pickling, making Hindu pickles. 90% of my friends are Jewish and I love pickles.

In India we make onion and tomato masala and add spices coriander, cumin, turmeric and garlic and then cook until jammy. The peas are cooked in that. You eat them whole like edamame. That takes me back to my childhood. There’s an art form to making it and eating it.

Before that dal, served with green beans, rice and potatoes panamanian foundation. Cooking for dummies is what I do best. We eat a lot of pasta, depending on what vegetables are coming out of the garden we add those to a marinara sauce with lots of herbs, it’s a recipe from my most recent book, Masala Farm.

If, to use a color to describe it, I would not hesitate to answer, blue. Perhaps, in most people's eyes, the youth should be red and bright green discounted gucci handbags, because, red and green symbolizes the vitality and passion, this is the so-called youth color.

But, on the contrary, it is low-key, it doesn't look much more coming in every one of them; it is also known, which makes every defenseless people become prisoners, set foot on the permanent of no return; youth is heartless , it has no sympathy for those who are trying to retain it, as if only a person of the completion of the task, once completed, will and leave; youth is full of passion, it urged the bold and curious people to explore, practice chances others not tried.

This kind of youth have, blue, also has.

Blue, quiet nature, give a person a kind of faint but refreshing feeling, although like memories as light but also give realistic impressive; blue, this is a kind of befog the minds of the people of color, seemingly, pure and holy inherent, but hidden mystery, clearly the heart of fear, but like the magic deep into blue trap inside, more want to break free, more kind of nostalgia, the more reluctant sank deeper, beam pump is more compact; dark, mysterious and romantic color, make you quietly in love with it in the imperceptibly, but ultimately it is inconsolable.

However, most people still feel blue to pure, because, the boundless sky is blue, so, home of the angels -- heaven is blue, blue is, not holy?

Oh, it's youth, we cannot play, who is also unable to control it, who can not love it, but not to hate it, it always has to worry about personal gains and losses in trouble Sculptra, I think, of strange this is the youth!

The youth the boy under the tree, with great care to do anything, just to win beauty "lips a smile", however, more boys are more close to the girl, and the girl or chatting, or quarrel, in short, everything just to be in the girl's heart, there is a piece of their own.

Youth tree girls, delicate, sensitive, anxious boy to fluctuations in their hearts, yet timid to alert the heart close to who, to hurt the friends around, however, more girls began to care about other people in his own image, when there is a complicated relationship with the other boy, girl's heart. This is a mixed blessing, loudly for himself, while watching reflect each other boys.

Our youth under the tree, a more mature, less a bit naive, more of a touch, a bit less silly -- youth, only can be, and can only be sensed.

When one day, you find yourself suddenly like a blue, do not care, because, your youth is coming!

Come summer, then pay no heed to, come so freely, that is not ready to meet the summer for me, be taken by surprise.

Weather is constantly changing, sometimes hot and sometimes cold Code 9 Neogen, the physique weak person is sick. This season, like spring.

Such a complex and contradictory feelings mixed with youth, like.

Friends.  Not just a rollicking tv series tube amp, but also an integral ingredient in one’s life. 

There are those who’ve seen you through the tumultuous years of high school and college.  These people have seen you through bad hairdos, small(er) waistlines  and back-seat tequila shots in the university parking lot.  Hang on to these ones – you’ll want someone who knows you were once a bottle swilling free-wheeler when you are shoulder deep in bills and work reports, debating the purchase of a new vacuum cleaner.

There are the new ones who you’ve connected with in recent times, bonding immediately over common passions and beliefs.  People who may have come from far afield of you Domestic Helpe, whose paths you may not have had the pleasure of crossing but for a shrewd twist of fate and a shared love for gustatory indulgence, getting lost amidst books, Finnish forest creatures, or cheesy movie lines.  Hang on to these ones – they will keep your passions fresh and your horizons ever-expanding.

Then there are friends who are actually relatives.  They are connected to you in ways that nobody else is.  They knew you back when the outside world was still unaware of your awesomeness…and they loved you anyway (well, most of them at least!).  They are where you came from.  And there is a special bond that shared experiences like chicken pox can forge that no man can truly tear asunder.  Hang on to these ones – they’re lifers Probiotic powder.

Then, if you are lucky, you have a soul mate friend.  The quintessential ‘best friend’.  The person with whom you share your deepest secrets.  The one with whom you share your deepest joys.  They will stick by you come hell or high water, and fight like a tiger in your defense.  You finish each others’ sentences.  You make each other grow.  I don’t have to tell you to hang on to this one – with tooth and nail if necessary Burgundy wine.

And then there’s chocolate.  Both a friend and a very integral ingredient in my life.

Double Chocolate Cookies
(very slightly amended from Donna Hay’s Simple Essentials: Chocolate, page 22)

    100 grams unsalted butter, softened
    130 grams brown sugar
    1 egg
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    150 grams all purpose flour, sifted
    30 grams cocoa powder, sifted
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    125 grams (4 oz) dark chocolate, melted (I use a makeshift double boiler)
    280 grams dark chocolate chips
    1 cup walnuts, chopped


- Beat butter and sugar in a mixer until light and creamy, about 8-10 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated lafite rothschild.
- Stir the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and melted chocolate into the egg/butter/sugar mixture.  Add to this the chocolate chips and walnuts, stirring by hand until just combined.
- Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls, place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, allowing room for the cookies to spread, and flatten slightly.


Fresh out of the oven these cookies are warm nuggets of deep, dark chocolate goodness, with pockets of melted chocolate chips all throughout.  The walnuts are not in the original recipe but I wanted something to both contrast, and complement, all that chocolate.  My cookies did not turn out anywhere near as pretty, nor as flat, as Donna’s.  I am still trying to figure out what caused that lack of spread so comments and suggestions as welcome wine tasting!

True friends and chocolate.  Gems worth more than anything a jeweler could ever measure!

I have the worst technology/computer luck. Ever. My computers have gone through more crashes that all the world's stock markets combined. And it's not just hardware...the simplest of programs have mysteriously refused to work under my incapable hands. I have committed that horrible act of spilling coffee (with milk and sugar) on my laptop (no, it doesn't only happen in movies). My technician is on the top of my Christmas list. I have endured too many computer meltdowns to count espresso cups set. To think I spend all of my working and a big chunk of my "playing" time on a computer! To think I'm a blogger from whose fingertips computer skills are expected to spew magically forth like fairy dust. Not so.

Just because I live and work on a computer online most of the time does not mean technology has taken kindly to me. It's a bit on a tainted love we have -- me and technology. Case in point, I am fresh (although that would be the last word I would use to describe how I feel) from my work computer's major crash (hello 500++ emails queued up in 2 days) and now stare helplessly at my laptop that has decided to join in the fun. Black screen with a little white cursor glowing menacingly at me. Fie on you.

These days, I am beyond the hair-pulling, head-spinning dramatics these breakdowns would once trigger. I've long learned that shaking fists and sobbing buckets do not sway cold-hearted hard drives. Instead I brew some tea and remind myself that as far as calamities go my little technological hiccups are just small fry in the grander scheme of things. I think of the many other areas at which I am much luckier, and hunker down with some of life's more tangible pleasures --- like food magazines :)

Ginger Chili Fish Fillets
(adapted from Yummy Magazine, July 2010 issue)
•300 grams white fish fillet, cut into 2-inch portions
•2 tablespoons cornstarch
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•2 tablespoons oil, divided
•1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
•1 green finger chili, sliced on the diagonal
•1 tablespoon finely chopped lemongrass
•2 tablespoons soy sauce, separated
•1 teaspoon fish sauce
•1 teaspoon sesame oil
•1 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar
•1 teaspoon brown sugar
•400 grams bokchoy, leaves separated
•1-2 tablespoons sliced spring onion/green onion, to garnish

- Mix cornstarch and salt in a medium bowl. Add fish and toss to coat. Shake of the excess.
- Mix 1 tablespoon soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, black vinegar, and brown sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Heat half the oil in a wok on high. When hot Bordeaux, stir-fry ginger and chili for 1-2 minutes. Remove from wok and set aside.
- In the same wok heat the rest of the oil. Fry fish for about 2 minutes on each side. Add ginger/chili mixture and the soy sauce mixture. Let this bubble for a few seconds then toss until the fish is coated on all sides. Remove from the wok and set aside.
- In the same wok add the bokchoy with the remaining tablespoon of soy sauce. Cover and let cook for about 30 seconds. Uncover, toss, cover and cook for another 30 seconds, then take off the heat. You want the bokchoy to be just cooked.
- Arrange the bokchoy on a serving plate. Lay the fish on top of the vegetables. Top with a sprinkling of green onion.
- Serves two.

Although I love trawling the net for food inspiration, especially among other food blogs, nothing can quite replace the satisfaction of pages in your hand, something you can hold and scribble notes on and take with you to bed on a rainy night. This recipe was taken from Yummy magazine -- one of my favorite local food magazines for its unfussy and upbeat appeal, simple yet flavorful recipes, and interesting features. I've amended the recipe to add more greens (as we do love our greens over here!) and a touch of sesame and black vinegar to the sauce as I feel these flavors complement the soy perfectly. A bowl of steaming white rice is not required but highly recommended.

It's amazing how computers, and the internet, and technology in general, have gone and, in what seems to be the blink of an eye, made themselves indispensable to our lives -- or at least that's what they like us to believe. Despite my bad luck though, I am still a fan high chair, after all here I am right? Plugging away in my little corner of this cyber-world :)

That being said, I think these little disasters are opportunities for us to also defrag and reboot and perhaps even reformat. To stop and take stock...even if it is only to take stock of a to-cook list from one of your favorite food magazines :)