Hans Rueffert, chef for over 20 years at his family’s Woodbridge Inn in Jasper Georgia, is the inspirational survivor of stomach cancer and a healthful genius in the kitchen. GPB is airing the second of four installations of Eat Like There’s No Tomorrow this Saturday at 2:30pm. Each episode is filmed at Piedmont Hospital’s Cancer Center, where Hans was treated and now teaches cooking classes as part of the free wellness program at the center.

If you watched last week’s Eat Like There’s No Tomorrow, then you learned, like I did, what those lumpy bits in Thousand Island dressing are, they’re “islands.” Now I get it. Hans’ version is chock full of vegetables and protein and will last up to 2 weeks in your fridge… you know, if you don’t eat it all up within two days. I make my own salad dressing, too, and will happily substitute Greek-style yogurt for mayo as Hans suggests. Less fat, more protein, sold!

Episode 2 is “Eat the Rainbow,” a delightful image for a culture who likes to “eat with our eyes.”
On the menu:
Blue and Bleu Salad
Gazpacho
Catfish with Fresh Grenoble

Guiltily, I have cooked a meal or two with 2 starches and not nearly enough green, which seems silly when salad is so easy and so delicious, especially with Hans’ fresh, homemade salad topping and dressing options.

Hans is a life-long lover of public broadcasting, "I grew up watching all the cooking shows on GPB, so I'm honored to finally have a place in that lineup,” Rueffert says. “While other kids watched their cartoons, I was enthralled and inspired by the likes of Graham Kerr, Julia Childs, Martin Yan and Justin Wilson."

While it’s true that he grew up literally above a restaurant , watching popular chefs on GPB, and has a clear passion for cooking, Hans also makes the task fun and approachable and completely doable for the rest of us at home.