The sneaky tricks professional cooks use

[Gifted Gourmet]

article from Shape Magazine

seemingly healthful dishes which become caloric minefields.

Here are seven common restaurant practices that can sabotage your diet and what you can do about them.

Shocker #1: Even steamed veggies are high in fat.

Shocker #2: Egg-white omelets aren't necessarily better for you.

Shocker #3: Those "plain" toasted buns are covered in butter (or worse).

Shocker #4: There's nothing light about marinara sauce.

Shocker #5: Your "healthy" salad is drowning in oil.

Shocker #6: Meat, chicken and fish get a fat rubdown before cooking.

Shocker #7: Sushi isn't as lean as it looks.

The article is an excellent one and I have read and printed it out as a reference for when I eat out ... the explanations are worthy of anyone's consideration, dieting or simply being aware ...

[Susan G]

Oh, Lord! Another reminder to people to worry about their food!

Sometimes I think the editors of Shape believe people should exist on triple-filtered water, protein shakes, and little else.

I *despise* these kinds of articles...................

[Gifted Gourmet]

I think being "aware" may be half of the continuing battle for all of us ...

[Susan G]

I agree that awareness about food is a useful tool, but this article is giving more than just information, it seems to me.

The tone in the snippet you posted sounds half like finger-wagging, and half like doomesday prophets: Beware! Beware!

What did that writer conclude was a reasonable healthy choice in menus? It seems the usual options got completely riddled with objections.

Guilt about eating, discomfort about menu choices, and a healthy dose of paranoia of professional chefs are laddled up as "awareness"

OK, paranoia about chefs may be warranted.............

[Busboy]

This is all good and common-sense infromation for dieters, but the whole tone of the article -- as though chefs are somehow cheating by making their food taste better -- is beyond annoying.

""I was required to sauté all my vegetables and to roast my potatoes in duck fat," confesses David C. Fouts, a chef and restaurant consultant based in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif..."

Those bastards! Requiring him to roast potatoes in duck fat! How cruel -- and then diners forced to eat those very potatoes! What is wrong with America?

[Pause rant while I call home to check how much duck fat I have stashed in the back of the freezer -- could be a change of menu tonight.]

And, while diners may not expect it, it strikes me that most people can tell when their vegetables have been finished with butter or olive oil, that the clear liquid ladled into the omlette pan is some type of fat, and that salad dressing contains oil. Right?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Those bastards!  Requiring him to roast potatoes in duck fat!  How cruel -- and then diners forced to eat those very potatoes!  What is wrong with America?

[Pause rant while I call home to check how much duck fat I have stashed in the back of the freezer -- could be a change of menu tonight.]

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thanks for a great belly laugh, Busboy! You are right about what has become of America .. duck fat is now the prime item in the "Axis of Evil" .. at least for the diner!

[Curlz]

      thanks for a great belly laugh, Busboy! You are right about what has become of America .. duck fat is now the prime item in the "Axis of Evil" .. at least for the diner!

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7 minutes later... I was about to write almost the same thing! I'm sitting her laughing out loud at that poste, Busboy!!

Edited October 19, 2004 by Curlz (log)

[NulloModo]

Gee. According to the article we should be eating our meats dry grilled/broiled, our vegetables with nothing on them but a squeeze of citrus, and our bread untopped. If you are going to eat like that, why even go out?

[bleudauvergne]

      thanks for a great belly laugh, Busboy! You are right about what has become of America .. duck fat is now the prime item in the "Axis of Evil" .. at least for the diner!

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Hey, duck fat is one of the good fats!

[Palladion]

Shocker #2: Egg-white omelets aren't necessarily better for you.

As a reformed egg-white "omelette" eater, I can say without reservation that there's really just no point without the yolks.

Every time I bite into an omelette, I have a flashback to my mom telling me that each egg yolk has something like your entire daily recommended allowance of cholesterol. And it makes that bite all the creamier and more luscious.

-------

Alex Parker

[Suzanne F]

I'm shocked, SHOCKED!!!

Gifted Gourmet, don't you have better uses for your time than reading that trash?

[Palladion]

The more I think about it, the more I'm confused by the sushi "shocker." Sushi looks like fish on rice, with a bit of wasabi. And that's all it is. There's really no place at all for any kind of "hidden" ingredients, laying it wait to ambush the unwary.

Where's the surprise?

-------

Alex Parker

[Busboy]

Hey, duck fat is one of the good fats! 

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Actually, I was trying to make the point that I was so worked up by my culino-psycho-Freudian outrage at the duck fat that I was overwhelmed with desire to have it for dinner. And I just might, dammit.

PS -- I didn't know that there was anything but good fats.

[slkinsey]

The fact is that restaurant food simply isn't all that healthy in the context of a "first world" diet. And it's not their job to make it healthy anyway. It's their job to make it taste good. What tastes good? Fat and sugar and and calories and salt. People just need to accept the fact that eating in a restaurant is not a "healthy eating experience" and understand that there is a place to eat when you are counting calories and obsessing over fat grams. That place is called your own home.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

If you want the lowest possible fat and calories in food, don't trust a restaurant to make it for you. Period.

Most people go to restaurants because they want tasty food, not chicken jerky, steamed veggies and dry bread.

The only truly unhealthy sushi I can think of are tempura rolls, or rolls that are doused in mayo based sauces.

[andiesenji]

I would like to second the vote for duck fat! It is one of the best fats for both cooking and flavoring bland foods and the fat itself is good for the diet.

It is certainly better by a long shot than the ersatz "spreads" that are produced by some alchemy to pretend to be butter or whatever by combining chemicals that never existed in nature.

I use a lot of duck fat. I am downright obese, and I don't care who knows it, however duck fat did not get me this way. I love to bake and it has been the plethora of mostly savory baked goods that have been my downfall. That and not being able to exercise as much as I once did, because of arthritic knees.

As far as eggs go, I have always eaten them whole and enjoyed every one, in fact I wish I had one now. I am at the office and forgot to bring my lunch.

We had our first storm of the season beginning on Sunday and there was widespread flooding from the 1 inch to 1/2 inch that fell. Then yesterday more of the storm moved in and we had accidents all over the place the 14 was closed completely for a coupld of hours. It took me 3 hours to get home and I actually considered not coming in today because my back is acting up. However I finally decided to drive in very early before most of the idiots get on the road. Sat my lunch right by the back door and went out right past it, 2 hard-boiled eggs and some fruit.

Another storm is coming in today and I am leaving early.

I am going to go home and throw out the lunch that wasn't and fry a couple of eggs in duck fat as well as some shredded potato.

So there! Shape magazine. Take that!!!

Of course I could go over to the hospital across the parking lot for lunch. Today is meatloaf day and their meatloaf is loaded with fat. They also serve very large portions (and we get a huge discount for working for doctors on staff) which are way beyone what one would get in a restaurant.

Last week they had trout fillets and those had to be the biggest trout in creation. Two in a serving, swimming in a buttery-like liquid. Just the entree weighed 13 ounces.

We ought to suggest they send the author of that article to West Hills hospital and see what he thinks of their food.

Frankly, I distrust many of these writers ever since we had a patient some years ago who wrote articles using numerous pen names. He was a regular contributor to Redbook, Cosmo, all the "women's slicks" and often wrote about diet and maintaining a healthy and slim body. The thing was that he was rather corpulant, out of shape and had sprained his ankle and knee when he slipped on something in an ice cream shop. That was the last time I took one of those articles seriously. Every time I see one, a picture of Peter pops into my mind.

[jackal10]

Depends which diet religion you follow. Believing fat is bad is rather out of date.

Some think (with justification) that fat is good and prevents cancer. Some think that refined and hugh glycenic arbs are the killers.

Chloresterol and lipids are only indirectly linked to cardio-vascular illness. Ther is recent work that shows platelet aggregation to be an immune response to a common infection, and not linked to chloresterol at all. Taking 75mg asprin a day blocks the aggregation mechanism.

[wnissen]

It's their job to make it taste good.  What tastes good?  Fat and sugar and and calories and salt.  People just need to accept the fact that eating in a restaurant is not a "healthy eating experience" and understand that there is a place to eat when you are counting calories and obsessing over fat grams.  That place is called your own home.

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Specifically, the restaurant is competing to supply the best-tasting food for a given price. Empty calories not only taste good, but are cheap! If Chili's can make their burger taste 5% better by adding 50% more margarine for a nickel, they will. That's why their blue cheese burger has 64 grams of fat; as much as an 11 oz steak from a well-marbled piece of beef. Give me the broiled steak any day!

The tone of the article was hilarious, though. Was it aimed at the 3% of consumers who are so dumb that they think restaurant food is good for them? The bit about the clear liquid (what could it be?) in the omlette was especially funny. Thanks to GG for posting it.

Walt

[Behemoth]

Shocker #4: There's nothing light about marinara sauce.

Italian marinara sauce is rich in antioxidants (thanks to the lycopene in tomatoes), but did you know it's also brimming with oil? Chefs love to go "glug glug glug" when preparing this hearty sauce. "A gratuitous amount of oil is often used to build this sauce, starting with the sautéing of the onions," Daelemans says. The oil could add as many as 28 grams of fat (4 grams saturated) and 250 calories to a 1/2-cup serving of sauce.

Do Shape readers cook? How the hell else would you make marinara?? Oh, never mind, it comes out of a jar, fat free with extra sugar.

[andiesenji]

I'm shocked, SHOCKED!!!

Gifted Gourmet, don't you have better uses for your time than reading that trash?

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Oh, come on, you know that you like all GG's posts from her delving into the estorica of the food world writings.

Without her digging up these things eG would be a lot less interesting, at least in my NSH opinion.

[FL Heat]

I used to enjoy "Shape" magazine. . .they had women & men demonstrating exercises that looked like real folks, showed how to make a dish with no holds barred, then how to reduce the <insert whatever was "bad" that year ingredient>. Great ideas for ramping up your workouts, cute & quick lunch ideas, articles on fashions to highlight the calf muscle you've been working on. . . .but lately, it's one big "finger wagging", to quote Susan G. Fat's bad, not working out every spare minute is bad, enjoying your food is bad. . .for the love of all that's good & holy, if I wanted to hear that crap, I'd call my mom.

Rather than the "DOOMSDAY APPROACHES" tone that was taken, the article could have been more helpful if they focused on how things are cooked (heck, give me the recipe for the potatoes in duck fat, please?), let the reader decide if that's good or bad, and then offered lower-calorie/lower-carb/lower-fat alternatives.

I'm all for a small bit of "I'm sorry, I ordered these vegetables steamed and wasn't aware they'd come with butter--could I have a small salad instead, please?" if your expectations aren't met when you order something for dinner. But that goes for anything. . .I order ice cream and get yogurt instead, I'll be just as grumpy.

Diana

[johnnyd]

The only truly unhealthy sushi I can think of are tempura rolls, or rolls that are doused in mayo based sauces.

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There must be some kind of japanese torture that the inventor of this travesty should be made to endure... suggestions?

[Carrot Top]

Oh, come on, you know that you like all GG's posts from her delving into the estorica of the food world writings. 

Without her digging up these things eG would be a lot less interesting, at least in my NSH opinion.

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I don't know what NSH means, andiesenji, but I double your sentiment.

[mojito]

I don't know what NSH means, andiesenji, but I double your sentiment.

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Not So Humble?

[TheFoodTutor]

Unfortunately, the reference to fat in sushi is probably about the avocado. The Center for Science in the Public Interest people are very fond of warning people about avocadoes and nuts.

What I'd really like to shove their face in is the final product of these doomsday warnings. This reminds me of the time that I was working in a bar and I decided to snack on a handful of the roasted nuts provided for patrons. The girl next to me clucked that she never ate nuts, not ever, because they're "too fatty." What's remarkable is that she was telling me this as she was eating her dinner for the evening, which was an extra large plateful of french fries. That's it. Nothing else. No protein. No vitamins. Just a big plate full of carb and fat-laden french fries for dinner. And she was picking on me for eating a few almonds.

The world has gone mad, folks. Lock your doors before they get to you, too.