What to order at a restaurant if you are on a diet? Chef answers

The opinion that eating right is complicated, time-consuming and energy-consuming is still quite widespread. All those containers of buckwheat and steamed chicken, apples in our pockets and eternal home-cooked meals are the first thing that pops into our imagination at the mention of PP. But healthy food can be delicious and accessible outside of your own kitchen. Shah Akbari, the chef of Rosemary mountain restaurant at Rosa Khutor resort, tells us what to pay attention to when choosing a dish and shares exclusives from the author’s menu.

We promote a healthy lifestyle. The concept of author’s cuisine in the restaurant is presented in four elements. The water element is represented by the gifts of the sea. The earth element is reflected by vegetarian direction. Fire is Kuban meat and vegetables cooked on fire. Air element is poultry dishes and complex technologies: sous vide, molecular techniques that give a delicate, airy texture to the dish.

Is diet food in a restaurant a reality?

Absolutely. First of all, you need to understand that you can choose any product, the main thing is the method of cooking. For example, even when processing lamb or beef, you can remove all the fat and leave only the flesh, thereby getting maximum benefit and minimum harm.
Be sure to ask the waiters about the calorie content of the food or ask for a calorie card. Even dessert can be healthy if made with the right foods.

I have long wanted to understand what proper nutrition is, and realized that to do this, first of all, you need to give up fatty, salty and spicy foods. I steam cook without adding bad fats (I use olive oil, pumpkin oil instead of butter), add more salads, vegetables, fruits.

Due to work, I have to try a lot of things, but I try not to deviate from the course of healthy eating, so there are a lot of such dishes on the menu. In the top of favorite foods is avocado. I cook and eat it in absolutely different variations – on the grill, in the form of guacamole, pate, in a salad.

To start

The most popular dish at Rosemary’s is the homemade burata cheese with tomatoes and microgreens. Because we prepare it using authentic Italian techniques, but use low-fat cheeses, it is light and balanced.

The rind is prepared from mozzarella cheese analogs at 82 degrees and kept in whey for about eight hours. We serve with pink tomatoes, pesto sauce and homemade kumquat jam. We serve with micro greens and olive earth.

Weight: 220 g.
Protein: 16, 18 g.
Fats: 17,7 g.
Carbohydrates: 23, 11 g.
Caloric value: 239,37 kcal.
Price: 550 rubles

For the first course

Corn cream-soup with smoked snow and broccoli ragout is my personal favorite. I have changed the recipe of this dish four times. The soup itself stays the same, but we experiment with the fillings. Crab meat is ideal, but we would like the dish to be accessible to everyone, so now we are preparing a winter version with mussels. Unlike usual cream soups, we use cream with a minimum percentage of fat.

At the expense of carrots and corn appears a sweet flavor. For crunch, we add cucumber and broccoli. We get vegetable spicy soup with truffle oil notes.

Weight: 320 g.
Protein: 10, 34 g.
Fats: 12, 56 g.
Carbohydrates: 27, 11 g.
Caloric value: 269, 44 kcal.
Price: 450 rubles.

For the second

Risotto belongs to water element. You can choose between two kinds: with cuttlefish ink or mint cream. We serve both dishes with seafood and use Parmesano and micro greens.

Weight: 220 g.
Protein: 14, 32 g.
Fats: 22, 23 g.
Carbohydrates: 47, 88 g.
Caloric value: 336, 33 kcal.
Price: 600 rubles.

For dessert

These are three textures of berries. The first one is black currant sorbet, the second one is feijoa and cucumber gel, and the third one is mango, passion fruit and kumquat foam. Serve with berries and popcorn and buckwheat for crunch.

Weight: 160 g.
Protein: 4, 33 g.
Fats: 7, 9g.
Carbohydrates: 14, 7 g.
Caloric value: 101, 15 kcal.
Price: 380 rubles.