Jeannette Bogart of Boca Raton hosted a popular cable-TV cooking show
in New York and has written several cookbooks on preparing healthful fare.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Many years ago, Jeannette Bogart was a stay-at-home mom in New York’s Westchester County who had an interest in healthy cooking. When her children grew up and left home, Bogart’s interest took on a whole new dimension.
She began writing cookbooks and making cooking-demonstration videos, eventually landing her own show on a cable TV station near her home in Mamaroneck, N.Y.
Soon she was taking her show on the road. When her husband, Fred, a gold trader for a prominent New York City bank, went on business trips, she went along.
“Let’s say we were going to Spain,” said Bogart, who lives in coastal Boca Raton. “I would fax ahead to our hotel, let the chef know I was coming, and arrange a videographer. The first one I did like that was teaching the chef of the hotel how to make a bread.”
But wouldn’t a European chef already know how to “make a bread”?
“He knew how to make bread, but not my way,” says Bogart. “My way is using the grains — flax seed, wheat germ, oat bran, a lot of grains that you didn’t find so easily then.”
Bogart — known as Nana Nettie to her two grandsons — wrote a cookbook titled Nana Nettie’s Special Recipes for Healthier Living that caught the attention of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. She was asked to teach a couple of cooking classes at Hadassah College in Jerusalem.
Sensing the international appeal of these healthy recipes (no added salt, no added sugar, no white flour), Bogart had the book translated into five languages.
A subsequent book, Nana Nettie’s Natural Recipes for the Kid’s Kitchen, was written at the request of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Bogart donated 100 of the books to the Greater Palm Beach County Chapter, which made the books available to families and children.
“Jeannette really cares about kids,” says Esther Swann, JDRF senior development coordinator. “She wanted to create healthy recipes that kids with diabetes could enjoy making and eating.”
As proof that Bogart, 77, is in tune with today’s youngsters, directions for every recipe start with the words “Cell phones off.” Bogart does not sell her cookbooks. She prefers donating them to worthy organizations. Last year 1,000 copies of her books were donated to the School District of Palm Beach County for its employee wellness program and for use in the classroom.
With five cookbooks under her belt and three more in the works, Nana Nettie’s activities continue to be a labor of love, and a way of giving back, she says.
“My family came to the U.S. in 1940 from England, when England was being bombed by the Germans,” she says. “We arrived here on a ship. I was only 3. My parents were so joyful to be in America.
“Like my parents, I have always been thankful to this country. So I prefer to serve my country this way.”
— Paula Detwiller
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?
A. I went to public schools in New York City, high school in Asbury Park, N.J., and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland for about a year. I was a French major.
Q. What are some highlights of your life?
A. Having three wonderful daughters, traveling all over the world with my husband on business, and producing and hosting my own cable TV show for 10 years. It was a cooking show on LMC-TV (Larchmont/Mamaroneck) in Westchester County, N.Y., where we have a home. I’m known as the “bread lady” in our community of Mamaroneck. I used to make videos showing how to bake things, and I would pass them around to my friends. One of the videos got into the hands of LMC-TV, who gave me the opportunity to have my own show.
Q. How did you choose to make your home in Boca Raton?
A. We had family in South Florida, and we were attracted to Boca Raton. We rented a condo at first, and after meeting all the nice people in our condo, we decided to stay.
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Boca Raton?
A. The ocean!
Q. Do you have a favorite healthy recipe? What is it and why?
A. Yes, it’s my recipe called Newest Munchie Crunchy. It’s full of good grains. The recipe is included in a cookbook I’m now working on called Finest Foods for Friday Nights and Holidays.
Q. Do you have a favorite cookbook? Why?
A. My favorite cookbook is The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, edited by Dorothy Marsh. It’s very thick. You can look up any dish you want to make and they’ll have it, along with the nutritional information. I lifted it out of my mother’s closet, along with her sewing machine.
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. For inspiration, I listen to music from the ’60s. For relaxation, I like the music from La Boheme.
Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
A. “Don’t ever give up.”
Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. The women in my family — my grandmothers, my aunt and my mother — were wonderful bakers and homemakers. They made beautiful dinners.
People were always coming to our home for dinner parties. I guess these skills came to me by osmosis, and now my daughters are following in my footsteps.
Q. Who/what makes you laugh?
A. My grandson Freddy. He says some really funny things.
Newest Munchie Crunchy
A recipe from Jeannette Bogart, AKA Nana Nettie
¾ cup oats
¼ cup flaxseed flour
¼ cup wheat germ
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup Splenda
1 whole egg
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup nonfat milk
½ cup raisins
½ cup walnuts (optional)
¼ cup water
Line a cookie sheet (approximately 10- x 16-inch) with aluminum foil. Mix together oats, flaxseed flour, wheat germ and baking powder. In a smaller bowl, mix together egg, oil, milk, Splenda, and water. Stir the contents of the smaller bowl into the larger bowl. Add raisins. Spread mixture on the cookie sheet. Top with walnuts (if desired). Bake at 350 degrees for 42 minutes.
Nana Nettie’s nutritionist, Joyce Goldstein, RD, CDN, says: Oats help lower cholesterol in the blood. This recipe also offers the benefits of flaxseed (and walnuts) with Omega-3 fatty acids, known to lower total cholesterol and LDL, boost metabolism, provide optimal cognitive function and strengthen the immune system. You get all that plus important vitamins and minerals in this sweet treat.
Nana Nettie says: You can substitute sugar for the Splenda, but I wanted to lower the carbohydrate level in order to help diabetics.
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