Intake watch

Once again, empty champagne bottles and still-tinselled Scotch pines are piled at the kerb. Scraps of holiday wrap, like resolutions, swirl in an eddy. And you have joined a gym. Will you go?

At the start of a new year, thoughts often turn to fitness and healthier eating habits. But for many, the pace and balance of
work and family result in little more than a few days of fewer fries. For the weak or for anyone desiring change, support and pluck can sometimes come from a restaurant and its calorie-conscious chef.

At health-conscious Rock Creek, in Bethesda, US, chef Frederic Przyborowski emphasises smaller portions and more vegetables. He uses no sugar or butter.

Flip through the menu and there is a handy nutritional guide to the offerings. That nori-crusted tuna carpaccio has only 164 calories and a single gram of saturated fat. A three-course dinner with appetiser, entrée and dessert can come in at under 750 calories.

Much of this kitchen's work has to do with substitutions, which Przyborowski suggests can work for home cooks:

• For a lighter vinaigrette, replace one third of the olive oil with vegetable or chicken broth thickened with a little cornstarch or arrowroot.
  
• For a smooth, light-whipped cream, substitute pasteurised egg whites for half of the cream. Whip both separately to form stiff peaks, then combine.
  
• When making cold sauces or baked pie fillings that call for heavy cream, replace half the cream with non-fat yoghurt that has been hung in cheesecloth and drained of liquid for four hours or with Greek-style yoghurt, which has already been strained.
  
• In the months ahead, to kick off Rock Creek's third year, Przyborowski plans to "expand my horizon of fat substitutes". To that end, he is experimenting with young and mild Neufchatel cheese as well as soft, unripened goat's milk quark in place of sour cream. In the grain world, he plans to use more wheat berries and barley.
  
• To start this year's cooking on a lighter note, Przyborowski suggests a celeriac puree whose only fat comes from Neufchatel and a sweet-potato gnocchi whose only sauce is a wine glaze. Either would make an appropriate side dish after a workout at the gym. That is if you manage to get up and go.