Can fine dining and healthful living coexist?
Society is at a crossroads on the whole matter, says Barbara Fairchild, executive editor for Bon Appetit magazine, based in Los Angeles. Most Americans know they should be eating less fat and protein and cutting back on fried foods while increasing their consumption of fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes and other carbohydrates, Fairchild says.
Getting them to act, and stick with it, are the real challenges.
”It`s entirely possible to have delicious, colorful and appealing food within healthful guidelines and definitions,” Fairchild says. ”It`s just getting people to believe it, accept it and do it.
”It`s an enormous thing that we`re facing,” she says. ”It involves … not just (the) re-education of the American people-which I believe strongly is happening-but the implementation.”
Some of the country`s foremost food experts tackled that topic and provided strategies to help make what`s good and what`s good for you a happy marriage.
1. Take a philosophical approach to dining and meal planning.
Peter Kump, president of the James Beard Foundation, director of the Peter Kump Cooking School in New York City and a Tribune columnist, suggests that we recognize that ”fine food” and ”healthful food” are harmonious concepts.
”I don`t see any contradiction at all in the phrase `gourmet health-food.` I`ve always been a closet health foodie-have been for 23 or 24 years,” he says. A avowed gourmet who includes basic nutrition in his teaching program, Kump describes himself as ”an Adelle Davis groupie” who is a firm believer in organic foods and sound, old-fashioned breakfasts.
”I don`t see there being any compromise between eating intelligently and eating well.”
2. Readers who follow nutrition coverage in the mass media should not be confused by mixed messages.
A single report rarely explodes years of sound research and repeated medical findings. Similarly, say members of the food media, a periodical might include a lavish spread of rich desserts in the same issue as a feature on low-fat entrees. One doesn`t negate the importance of the other.
True, avoiding confusion from such apparently contradictory messages isn`t easy, says Nancy Byal, foods and equipment editor for Better Homes and Gardens magazine in Des Moines.
”And one of the reasons it`s not is that the message-not particularly new or sexy-is to eat a wide variety of foods in moderation,” she says. That`s why most publications continue to print more traditional types of dishes built around rich ingredients as well as lean, lower-fat recipes.
What is a fairly new message, Byal says, is the ”reduce fat” refrain. That`s one goal almost anyone can aim for.
”Recipe makeover” stories can be a big help. By reading them closely, you not only will find tasty new ideas but also learn to trim fat, calories, sugar and salt from your own dishes.
3. Better eating might take more work, at least at first.
After all, any new skill requires education and practice. If you`re committed to making changes, expect a few miles of rocky road.
”That`s the problem: patience,” says Susan Feniger, chef/co-owner of City restaurant in Los Angeles and Border Grill in Santa Monica, Calif. ”To eat in that way takes . . . getting yourself familiar with some of the products, and taking a little more time to make, say, quinoa taste
interesting.”
4. Pay attention to foreign cuisines (and attitudes).
Certain cultures have masterfully conquered the health-cuisine equation. They emphasize grains, build ravishing flavors around vegetable-based dishes, showcase the simple beauty of fruit and accentuate the bounty of the season.
”The Italians have been doing it for centuries,” Bon Appetit`s Fairchild says. ”The Chinese have been doing it for even more centuries.”
Attitude is equally crucial. Jenifer Lang-author and editor of several books, including ”Tastings” and the revised ”Larousse Gastronomique”-says the French clearly have a lesson to teach.
”I don`t want to sound like a Francophile,” Lang says, ”but those of us who care about food are absorbing more from the French than ever before. Julia Child goes around the country saying the French view of food and wine is the healthy one-not going around eating junk food, but (enjoying) the best food, and doing so in moderation.”
5. Revise your approach to everyday meals.
Overall, good day-in and day-out eating habits are the backbone of a healthful diet, says Joel Gurin, medical editor for Consumer Reports magazine and longtime editor of American Health magazine.
”There are a lot of practical things-cooking with less oil, substitutions to reduce overall fat content without really having a tremendous effect on taste-you can do every day,” Gurin says. Reducing fat, more than reducing salt or sugar, should be the first goal for average people unless their doctors make other recommendations.
6. Use ingenuity.
You have to change your illusions, says Jerry Ann DiVecchio, food editor of Sunset magazine.
”The finest food to eat does not have to meet the level of richness foisted upon us by the French, with their excess emphasis on butter and cream,” she says. ”Intelligent use of rich ingredients and (cooking)
techniques bring out the most important essences of any ingredients, and are, by far, the best way to create wonderful food without lazy dependency on fats.”
DiVecchio emphasizes that last point, and many other experts echo it. Fats are a cheap way to give lots of taste to dishes.
”It might be scandalous to say, but many French chefs are lazy,” she says. ”Someone with real skill, who develops technique and masters lower-calorie ingredients, doesn`t have to rely on fat.”
Imaginative cooks experiment with herbs and spices, learn to use tasty but fat-free ingredients (vinegars, extracts, tomato products), and replace frying with poaching or braising and master stir-frying and grilling.
7. Know where to invest your ”rich calories.”
Michel Richard, French-born chef/owner of Citrus restaurant in Los Angeles, says people often assume flavorful food is rich or laden with fat. Not so, he argues.
Richard`s grand-luxe restaurant uses about 25 pounds of butter per day, which he says is low. But more than half of that butter ends up in butter dishes on tables.
”There is very little that`s more rich than butter on bread,” he says.
”People complain about fat, yet they love their butter on bread. But great bread needs nothing.”
Choose your indulgences, he recommends.
”It`s tough to stay away from butter in desserts,” Richard concedes.
”You can serve sorbets, or make fruit tarts. However, pastry-a good puff pastry-needs butter. For a nice crust, you must have fat in order for it to be flaky.”
8. Quit gilding the lily.
Nancy Schwartz, director of the American Dietetic Association`s National Center for Nutrition and Dietetics, says it`s time to develop an appreciation for minimally adorned foods.
”Really pay attention to the natural flavor of foods,” Schwartz says.
”The best example I can think of is vegetables, most of which are very tasty and have lovely texture without sauces and high-fat sauces added to them.
”We are not used, as a society, to appreciating the wonderful flavor of asparagus-but we`re used to hollandaise.”
Charlie Trotter, chef/owner of Charlie Trotter`s in Chicago, has a few rules for merging healthful fare with epicurean tenets:
Eat foods only when they are naturally in season. Play up fresh fruits in desserts. Choose organic foods wherever possible.
”Eat many, many vegetables. We emphasize vegetables here, but I`m far from (being) a vegetarian,” Trotter says. Prepare them well, and they become a feast, he says.
9. Don`t worry if you`re not a great cook.
”There`s no reason you have to do something extraordinary to eat well,” Sunset magazine`s DiVecchio says. ”For those who don`t like to cook, I say,
`Don`t cook, eat it.` Today you just have to know how to buy, grow, or at least wash something properly.”
Leave well enough alone, DiVecchio adds.
”If you have lobster, boil it and eat it,” she says. ”Is it better because you`ve put something on it? Probably not. Is it better because you`ve sliced it up and put it into a ravioli? Definitely not.”
10. Lighten up while you still can.
As much as you can take an active role in determining the course of your health through diet, by all means enjoy your life. In this, health
practitioners and gastronomes finally are finding common ground.
”You must take pleasure in your meals,” the ADA`s Schwartz says.
”Certainly you must pay attention to grams of fat and the amount of salt you`re using, but every so often, it`s fair to throw caution to the wind. Assuming you`re keeping overall tabs on your diet.”
Chef Trotter would prefer a lighter attitude about eating.
”I think it`s unsafe to be too uptight about food and your diet,”
Trotter says. ”(Many people) can`t just relax and enjoy some very sensual pleasures. It`s not that you have to watch everything you eat-but if you cut back on cream and butter, you`ve done a lot already.”
To which Julia Child can only add:
”If you don`t binge but enjoy small portions, exercise and do your weight watching, do you want my advice? Have a glorious time and a good, gutsy time. If you worry about it all the time, we won`t digest properly and that will probably make you die earlier and your teeth fall out!” –
