A muffin is a muffin, right? Not when it’s a Thoroughly Modern Muffin, one of this season’s best new offerings at the Delray GreenMarket. These big, tasty beauties are the invention of owner Allan Seiler, who came up with the idea about 10 years ago.

Muffin man Allan Seiler shares a smile.

“In a regular muffin, the special ingredients—blueberries, chocolate chips, or whatever—are mixed throughout the batter,” Seiler says. “My idea was to concentrate the special ingredients in the middle of the muffin.”

He started experimenting, and eventually created a batter light enough to be palatable, but dense enough to hold filling mixtures on the inside.

Slice through the Lox, Stock and Barrel muffin and you’ll find a scrumptious filling of smoked salmon, cream cheese and scallions. Another favorite, The Italian Connection, has chicken, mushrooms, artichokes and pesto sauce in the middle. If you prefer sweet, try the Georgia’s Namesake (peaches, blueberries and a crunchy crisp inside) or A Fall Favorite, stuffed with diced pear, dried cranberries and pecans. Seiler’s menu includes 10 savory and six sweet varieties.

A London Debut
After working in high-end New York City restaurants and running his own catering company in Hong Kong, Seiler debuted his unique muffins in London in the early 2000s. He sold them to restaurants and specialty shops including Harrods until the economy collapsed and he decided to move back to the States.

Seiler settled in South Florida in 2011 and recently introduced his muffins at green markets in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Delray Beach. He’s developing a loyal following, and demand for his product spiked after a review in the Palm Beach Post. He hopes to open a retail location, possibly in Delray, toward the end of this year.

Meal in a Muffin
Seiler says he thought of the name Thoroughly Modern Muffins—a take on the popular 1967 musical film Thoroughly Modern Millie—after friends helped him brainstorm. An earlier name idea, Meal in a Muffin, just didn’t sound creative enough, he says, although it describes the product to a T.

Thoroughly Modern Muffins doesn’t have a website or Facebook page, but you can place a special order with Seiler by calling him at (305) 903-5576.

Joe BEFORE: 364 pounds

Joe AFTER: a buffed 247

If you’re a follower of The Biggest Loser TV show, you probably know about this season’s contestant named Joe. Joe survived episode after episode, losing nearly 150 pounds from his starting weight of 364—but lost out in the end to contestant Danni, a crowd favorite.

Here’s what many people don’t know about Joe. His last name is Ostaszewski (ah-sta-ZOO-skee), he’s a former Boynton Beach police officer, and he has an identical twin brother named Henry.

Henry Ostaszewski was not selected for The Biggest Losershow, but at 367 pounds he was every bit as big as his twin, and desperately wanted to lose the weight. So, week after week, as Joe trained and sweated and dieted on TV, Henry did the same at his home in Georgia.

Here's Henry burning calories on a kayaking trip, a welcome break from his 10-to-12-hour workdays in IT.

Only here’s the difference: Henry has a full-time job. He’s an IT supply chain manager for a major corporation, working 10-to-12-hour days. He also has joint custody of his two kids, which means cooking, cleaning, shopping, laundry, and chauffeuring. And the biggest real-life challenge of them all: squeezing in gym workouts before work (5:30 a.m.) or after (7 p.m.).

Despite his busy life, Henry managed to make those gym workouts, and to eat smaller, smarter meals: egg white omelets for breakfast, yogurt as a mid-morning snack, a piece of fish and some broccoli for dinner. “I used to eat a whole pizza in one sitting,” he told me during an interview for my column in The Coastal Star.

After shedding almost 150 pounds, Henry can fully participate in the outdoor sports he loves -- and inspire kids to stay in shape through the WearYourSoul Foundation.

Today, both Henry and Joe have transformed themselves into healthy, normal-weight people. Now that the TV show is over, the twins plan to “pay it forward” through a nonprofit foundation they created called Wear Your Soul. Their mission is to help reduce childhood obesity by introducing overweight kids to outdoor sports like kayaking, mountain biking, and hiking.

And for that, I name Joe and Henry the Biggest Winners.