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Stealth Health

Chefs learn how to sneak nutrition onto the menu.

Remember when it was all the rage to place little hearts, stars and other icons next to healthy menu items? That admirable intention to get customers to order lower-fat dishes backfired—most shunned the designated items thinking they couldn't possibly taste good.

Diners have long said that they want healthier restaurant food, but what they say and what they do can be very different. In the meantime, Americans' waistlines and diet-related health problems are expanding. "Customers want to have healthy menu options, but they don't want to know about them," believes Victor Gielisse, associate vice president for CIA Consulting at the Culinary Institute of America. "It's the restaurant's responsibility to slip nutrition in so the guest doesn't notice. Bringing healthy food to customers should be as basic an expectation as a clean restroom."

To teach seasoned chefs how to be sneaky, Gielisse and his CIA colleagues led a three-day program for participants from restaurants, hotels and non-commercial venues. After sharing classroom instruction and hands-on team cooking exercises, the chefs went back to their kitchens with a new mindfulness about healthy cooking.

Here are some of the lessons the participants learned:

• Saute fresh mushrooms in a touch of oil or fat to add moisture and umami or “savoriness” to stuffings and other preps.
• Use acids like citrus juice, vinegar and tomatoes to excite the taste buds instead of salt.
• Serve a trio of pureed soups in demitasse cups or shot glasses as an appetizer. Thicken with vegetable purees instead of cream.
• Prepare vinaigrettes with vegetables and fruits,  such as chives, fennel, cherries, cranberries  and  tangerines. Drizzle on cooked poultry in place of heavy sauces.
• Cook fish “en papillote” topped with sliced oranges to infuse with flavor.
• Fan out medallions of chicken on the plate to trick the eye into thinking the portion is larger.
• Garnish desserts with one or two chocolate curls—they look indulgent but have very few calories.

Excerpted from Restaurant Business, June 2009