Chef Chuck Hayworth, a private chef and culinary expert from North Carolina. After being diagnosed with a rare stomach cancer 26 years ago, Chef Chuck had to completely relearn how to taste food and wine, which transformed his career and approach to healthy eating. He discusses the importance of understanding basic tastes and how it shaped his culinary philosophy.
Chef Chuck also delves into the two types of clients he serves: those needing dietary changes due to medical reasons and those seeking to enhance their health through better eating habits. With a focus on anti-inflammatory foods and mindful dining, he shares practical tips for incorporating wellness into our food choices, all while enjoying the perfect wine pairings. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of health, food, and wine.
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Welcome, welcome to the best five-minute wine podcast with Forrest Kelly.
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This guy has been in kitchens for 35 years, but it took a rare stomach cancer diagnosis
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to turn him into a true food and wine guy.
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From relearning the basics of taste to building a private chef practice around health, wellness
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and pairing, this guy's got a story worth sitting down and pouring a good glass of wine
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Hi there, it's Chef Chuck Hayworth, the thankfully local private chef and the resort chef right
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here in North Carolina on my front porch discussing some of my favorite wines today.
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Let's get a little bit of your background in, you know, you had a real life-changing
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So 26 years ago, I was diagnosed with a rare stomach cancer and it changed my life completely.
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It changed how I had to learn to taste food and of course taste wine and other beverages.
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It completely reinvented my sense of taste and the way that I taste food and pair wines
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So that happened 26 years ago.
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I've been a private chef that long.
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I was asked to be a private chef by some cancer patients and caregivers that were in a therapy
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group with me and I've been at it ever since.
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So I love what I do and I do what I love every day, pairing wines with foods for special
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events for my clients.
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How receptive are people?
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Myself, I've been healthy.
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Thank goodness my parents were health nuts way back in the day.
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And so I've been drinking, you know, smoothies for breakfast, protein smoothies that are
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I've been doing it my whole life.
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So when I figure out when I don't feel right or something, I adjust my diet.
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How receptive are people to you approaching them and saying, well, I just want to, you
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know, I don't want to take them to take a pill.
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Yes, most definitely.
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I mean, there's, there's really two types of clients.
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There's number one, the type of client that comes to me because they have been medically
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ordered to alter their diet and they really have no idea where to start.
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And then there's another type of client that is the longevity client that is the wellness
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client like you, that's been eating healthy their entire lives.
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That's interested in learning different types of cooking techniques and, and tactics that
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can keep their health and wellness plan going well into their, uh, their senior years.
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Before your diagnosis, you weren't a chef, correct?
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Oh, I actually was a chef.
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I've been working in kitchens now for the last 35 years, but, um, I actually changed
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dramatically my career, uh, when I was diagnosed with a rare stomach cancer 26 years ago.
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It really is where I can pinpoint the changes that came and especially my love for pairing
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food and wine together that really came with having to learn to taste food all over again.
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And in doing that taste food and beverage all over again.
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Now when you say taste food for me, I'm bland.
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I like a plain hamburger, meat, cheese, and bun.
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I don't like any condiments on anything to actually a TV dinner once in a while is right
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Um, so I, I don't have a refined palette.
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How, uh, when you say taste food, how do you, what do you mean to learn?
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Well, all the way down to the basic taste, sweet, salty, bitter, and umami.
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I had to learn what my body could tolerate.
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What could I taste and what couldn't I taste?
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What foods did I need to eliminate from a typical diet of a private chef or a chef at
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that time working in food service?
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And what types of foods did I not want to eliminate?
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In other words, what types of foods could I add to my diet that I wasn't already using?
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And one of the main things that I did was I learned about the anti-inflammatory aspects
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of drinking certain types of varietals of wine.
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And I also learned about the, um, the effects, the longterm effects of having a glass of
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wine and actually slowly eating your meals as opposed to, you know, scarfing down a meal
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and, and, you know, starting all over again with that, that type of quick service and
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fast food lifestyle.
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And one of the things that I teach my clients as a private chef is that we have to learn
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to sit down and dine and we have to learn that we don't need to overeat.
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We don't need to over consume our food.
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So one thing that I always have for my clients is healthier snacks laying around.
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So, um, you mentioned, um, pre-show about juicing and smoothies.
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We certainly have a lot of those.
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We have a lot of different almond bites and different, you know, date and almond bites
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and things that are sweetened naturally that don't necessarily cause the inflammatory response,
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but also give the brain that dopamine response that it needs when you're going and you're
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trying something like a snack or a chip or something that you grab for convenience purposes.
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So we, we really work from the ground up with our clients, with all of their meals and especially
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in their food and wine pairings as well.
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