James Beard, considered by many as the Father of American Style cooking, would frown on the calorie counting. “A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.”

This could largely stem from his own eating habits. “In a time when serious cooking meant French Cooking, Beard was quintessentially American, a westerner whose mother ran a boardinghouse, a man who grew up with hotcakes and salmon and meatloaf in his blood,” says one food writer.

It didn’t hurt him. He died at the ripe old age of 81 after a full life, and with a full tummy.