Tao Organic Cafe has been holding court on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis, in the US state of Minnesota, for more than half a century, but it never gets old for Dan Buettner.
“You’re in for a real treat,” he said while ordering two Tao bowls, each rich with beans, rice, ginger-kissed vegetables, sesame seeds and a heaping side of enthusiasm. “This is the consummate Blue Zone bowl.”
Buettner, a Minnesota native, has made a career out of spreading the Blue Zone gospel, a term he coined for areas around the world where a high percentage of the population live exceptionally long lives.
The researcher, science writer and bestselling author just released his third cookbook, The Blue Zones Kitchen: One Pot Meals. It is part of his quest to put into action what he has learned from more than two decades studying Blue Zone communities.
“I fancy myself a science journalist, and I never set out to be a cookbook writer,” Buettner said. Yet of his nine Blue Zone books, the cookbooks sell the best.
First was The Blue Zones Kitchen, followed by The Blue Zones American Kitchen, which featured some of America’s top chefs who happened to cook the Blue Zone way.