Flavor or Fat: Where Is the Line for Celebrity Chef Recipes?

March 13, 2009 — -- For a chef tasked with creating the tastiest food possible, the line between flavor and fat content can blur in the throes of culinary creativity -- or get disregarded all together.

A group of dietitians called The Fat Panel took issue with that disregard in a recent report from the United Kingdom, part of a public health campaign to increase awareness of the dangers of consuming foods high in fat, particularly saturated fat.

"It's a very good idea to watch your saturated fats," said John Burton Race, a Michelin-starred British chef whose recipes were evaluated by The Fat Panel. "But I would rather eat one spoon of full-fat cream ice cream than sit there with a gallon of unsweetened yogurt. I would rather eat these foods which are naughty but nice in moderation than try to look around for substitutes. It's just a pointless exercise."

The report, called "The Guilty Secret of Celebrity Chefs," published this week by The Fat Panel, singled out 16 famous chefs, including Race, Nigella Lawson and Rick Stein, and evaluated one or two of their dishes for total-fat and saturated-fat content and suggested ways to substitute low-fat ingredients or spreads to improve their nutritional value.

Sian Porter, a dietitian and member of the Fat Panel, which receives funding from the Margarine and Spreads Association in the U.K., said they evaluated a variety of main courses, soups, desserts and a few classic British favorites including cottage pie, which is made of meat, potatoes and baked apples.

"We chose straightforward recipes you could cook on a Sunday evening," Porter said.

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The report found that many of the dishes contained more than 20 grams of saturated fat, which is the daily recommended value in both the U.K. and the United States. For example, a single serving of Nigella Lawson's Egg and Bacon Pie contained 41 grams of fat and 16.8 grams of saturated fat. Gordon Ramsay's Sticky Toffee and Chocolate Pudding contained 40 grams of fat per serving and 23 grams of saturated fat.