Would you like some beefcake with your cheesesteak? Some fans follow baseball for the love of the game. Others just love the players. And who doesn’t love opening day? (It’s Friday at Coors Field.)
In “Diamond Dishes,” author Julie Loria (wife of Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria) combines her interest in cooking with access to some of the hunkiest stars for an inside look at how baseball players eat. The book comes out Friday, just in time for the 2011 season opener.
Loria spent two years hanging out in players’ kitchens, interviewing them about their diets, childhood memories and favorite recipes. The resulting book features more than 60 recipes, profiles and photos of 20 players (but no Colorado Rockies).
Not known as a terribly sophisticated lot, many players cite steak, lasagna and chicken Parmesan as their favorite dishes, but the book contains a few surprises: New York Yankees bad boy Alex Rodriguez posing with kale, St. Louis Cardinal Lance Berkman chewing on a stalk of asparagus.
It’s hard to say which is better-looking, the food photography or the players posing in their kitchens.
Some of the recipes come from players’ wives, mothers or favorite restaurants, but a few players actually know their way around the fridge-sink-stove bases. “Adrian Gonzalez, Evan Longoria and Johan Santana have knife skills that nearly rival their baseball skills,” Loria writes.
The closest Colorado connection is Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay, who played baseball for Arvada West High School in the 1990s. Back then, his favorites were lasagna and chocolate birthday cake.
The notoriously close-lipped Halladay opened up to Loria about his workout routine and eating habits.
“During baseball, you’re making sure you get breakfast and making sure you’re eating something at least five or six times a day, if you can,” Halladay says in the book. In the off-season, spent with his wife and two sons at home in Florida, he indulges in ice cream and chocolate lava cakes, and says his specialty is Thanksgiving turkey on the rotisserie grill.
Kristen Browning-Blas: 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com
