THE PORTABLE CHEF^TM
"Have Pans, Will Travel!"

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Chef Chip Desormeaux - 678.480.4973

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AMUSE BOUCHE                 by Chef Chip Desormeaux

/ah-mooz boosh/ def: A small complimentary appetizer offered at fine restaurants. From French, literally, "it entertains the mouth."

Food & Entertaining Tips from The Portable Chef

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W elcome to 2007! Happy New Year!

Don't diet books just drive you crazy? There are so many weightloss gurus out there, it's enough to drive you to eat!

In this issue you get to hear what I have to say about dieting. Right along with fitness centers, January is a big time for Personal Chefs. People are anxious to lose those holiday pounds!

Enjoy!

Diet Schmiet!!

It seems like every few years there's some new guru who writes a book about proper diet.

I think that in every new diet there's at least one ray of truth that shines through and somehow makes it work. There's some facet of the diet that sounds right and so people buy it. And then, next thing you know, our entire Nation is following The Next Big Diet.

I do think that following some kind of regimen is key to having any success at all with dieting. Many times I run into a person who says, "I want to do low carb and low fat," but, when I probe a little further I find there's no real plan behind that. This person is just repeating something he or she heard from a friend who had some success following a diet, rather than having a real plan themselves.

I recommend finding a plan that works for you and sticking by it. There are a lot of diets out there that work. Pick up a book and read it for yourself. Or go to your nutritionist and get some professional advice. At least that way, if something goes wrong, you can trace it back to something specific.

When you take a look at it, what got us into having to do something about our health in the first place was not feeding ourselves proper nutrition from the beginning. And so a "diet" is necessary to remedy that situation.

The foods we eat can be divided into three main categories: proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Now I'm not a nutritionist but I know that if you cut one of those three things out, you'll cause problems for your body. The body actually needs all three of those types of nutrients to be able to run right. Even fat!

I also know that a calorie is a unit of energy-producing potential in food. And if the food you consume provides you with more calories than your body can use in its processes, it's going to get stored away as fat. So it stands to reason that paying attention to the amount of calories you consume is a good method of weight control.

But weight control isn't all there is to the game. There are things that your body needs from proteins, carbohydrates and even fats. While depriving yourself of one or more of those things can produce some temporary results that look good in the mirror, it won't lead to optimal health in the long run.

The upshot of all this is: find a good diet that you can follow that allows you to have all three of these necessary things in the correct proportions.

We're all going to fall off the wagon from time to time—I'm off the wagon more often than I'm on it! But having a good plan in place gives you a stable datum to follow. And without a good plan, how will you ever know you're lost until it's too late?

Bon Appetit!

Chef Chip Desormeaux

But, Wait! There's More!
(Recipes, Nifty Gadgets, & Stuff Like That)

Recipes. Here are three recipes that I prepare for my clients. They're infinitely simple with only a handful of ingredients. Along with a nice fresh salad, a steamed veggie or two and maybe some brown rice, they provide satisfying nourishment without packing a lot of fat and calories.

Broiled Salmon with Rosemary
Pork Loin Chops with Dijon Cream Sauce
Pistachio-Crusted Chicken Breast

Click here  to view the recipes.

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Nutritional Information. I have something that I'm really excited about that I'm adding to my services.

I recently invested in some software that helps me calculate nutritional values of all my recipes. All I have to do is plug in the ingredients of a recipe and, Presto! It calculates everything for me!

I'm using this to help my dieters make better decisions on the dishes they order. You can see what I'm talking about here.

After every entrée description, you'll find a code that looks like this:

C=328, F=12, Cb=2

The C stands for Calories, the F for Fat, and Cb for Carbohydrates. You'll find a detailed description of how to use this information here.

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