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Executive Producer/Host, Lorianne Crook's Celebrity Kitchen
on the GAC TV
Network
Co-host, co-writer of the weekly Crook & Chase Countdown,
Crook & Chase Holiday
Specials, and Daily News Updates, currently
syndicated nationally in more than 200 cities
Education:
Student, B.S. Holistic Nutrition, Clayton College of Natural
Health, Birmingham, AL
B.A., Magna cum laude graduate, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Lorianne Crook will be cooking steak quesadillas. This is country singer Janie Fricke's recipe from when she was on Lorianne's program Lorianne Crook's Celebrity Kitchen on December 8, 2003. This along with other recipes from the program are available on www.crookandchase.com.
Lorianne Crook has been in media for more than 20 years. Her current TV show, Lorianne Crook's Celebrity Kitchen, is a daily, hour-long show with celebrity cooks and renowned chefs preparing mainly healthy, and sometimes decadent, recipes. The show was launched September 2003 on the Great American Country (GAC) Television Network.
Enjoying life is an important theme she wants to convey in her show. She believes that people are so busy, too busy, and that food is a gift from God and should be enjoyed. Lorianne tries not to eat too much junk food. She makes an effort to eat healthily every day – to actually sit down and enjoy a meal every day, despite her busy schedule. She doesn't consider herself a gourmet cook; she just likes to cook and have fun. She really wants guests as well as the audience to enjoy themselves. She also believes eating is emotional, and that there are a lot of memories associated with food.
Celebrities like to bring recipes from their mothers, and sometimes these recipes are not always as healthy as Lorianne would like, or the recipes are for more elaborate dishes than Lorianne would like. In either case, the show makes allowances. When Troy Gentry from the country duo Montgomery Gentry was a guest on the show, he cooked Cornish game hens, a complicated recipe that was the antithesis of the usual dishes Lorianne cooks. He even brought his own game!
NUTRITIOUS FOOD NURTURES
Lorianne believes organic food is healthier, which is why she has Wild Oats
Markets, organic markets in the U.S. and Canada, sponsoring her show. Though
organic foods seem to cost more, they are fresher and healthier, and the monetary
cost, she believes, will come out the same as eating for convenience. In the
long run it is a better investment for one's health and well-being.
Supplements can't replace natural foods in getting the health benefits God intended -- God put the essential vitamins and minerals in natural foods. The body responds immediately to what you do to it -- good or bad -- so there is hope if people take little steps toward improving their health step by step. Lorianne believes people don't pay attention to themselves and have to ask themselves if they are getting what's right for their bodies. Lorianne says, "If you are unhealthy, you can't do what God has called you to do." However, she doesn't want people to have the attitude, "Lorianne is making me afraid to eat." She believes good eating habits should be learned step by step.
Lorianne became interested in cooking when the late Princess Diana's chef was on her previous syndicated talk program, the Crook & Chase Show. She saw how easy and tasty it was to cook. Later, nutrition truly became a way of life for Lorianne out of necessity. She had fibroid tumors and needed several surgeries to remove them. She looked at her lifestyle and really concentrated on her diet and how she worked. Lorianne started reading about diet and nutrition and really got interested in holistic health remedies, especially through food. She is now pursuing her Bachelor of Science degree in Holistic Nutrition and hopes to possibly get a Ph.D.
CROOK AND CHASE
Over the past twenty years, Lorianne has served in the capacities of TV writer, producer, and host, and has won awards in each area. In 1983 she first teamed up with co-host Charlie Chase to host This Week in Country Music. They had such a unique chemistry that they soon began hosting their own daily program, the Crook & Chase Show, on which they interviewed top country music stars and had some live music segments. Crook and Chase continue to have their weekly radio countdown show and several special programs.
GOD IS ALWAYS THERE
Lorianne always had an awareness of God in her life. Her maternal grandfather was an alcoholic, but he was also in seminary. He never finished because he succumbed to his alcoholism. As a young child, she saw his struggle and learned about the conflicts of belief and faith, which tore her family apart. She could see a difference when he was sober and following God and the alcoholism. When her grandfather followed God, he was kind and exhibited wonderful qualities that encouraged her own belief in God. Seeing her grandfather's struggle enabled Lorianne to make her own choices about following God and what happends when one doesn't.
Her true commitment to the Lord came in her mid '30s, during her illness with fibroid tumors. She began searching for God in a new way. Lorianne began to learn how to find strength in God every day and found out what walking out faith truly meant. She discovered that she didn't have to strive to find God, but He was always there, and she learned to study the Bible every day to find strength and wisdom. There was true change in her life, with true joy and peace, and she was better at handling life situations, like major disappointments. She learned that if something didn't go her way, something better was going to happen. She also learned to cherish things. Lorianne used to think she had to strive for happiness, and now she knows she doesn't have to. She also knows that one doesn't have to search for closeness to God. The ability to have intimacy with God is inside of us – it is there; it is done. God is there if you ask.
SELF-SUFFICIENCY
Lorianne confesses to a struggle with self-sufficiency. She used to believe that if she asked the Lord for His help, she was being whiny. She believed that with all the suffering in the world, her problems weren't significant, so she tried to figure them out for herself. Since then, she has learned that God's children are supposed to ask God for help. Now she is learning to lean on the Lord.
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