Q: What prompted you to become a chef?

A: I’ve been cooking for as long as I remember, helping my mother as a 7 year-old in her Brooklyn kitchen! I love to cook and make people happy; it’s my life and passion. So I went to the CIA [Culinary Institute of America] for some formal training.

Q: As a young chef, did you have any culinary heroes you looked up to?

A: I grew up in the 80s and 90s when a handful of chefs were making their name as American icons – Larry Forgione, Charlie Palmer, David Burke, Jonathan Waxman, Alfred Portale... I was observing this diverse core group, admiring their innovations and viewing them as major leaders at the time.

Initially, though, I ended up taking a southwestern route and was into the works of Stephan Pyles, Robert Del Grande, David Walzog and Bobby Flay.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your career track and how you ended up at The Little Beet?

A: I first worked with Charlie Palmer, David Walzog and Bobby Flay before changing direction. Then my first real chef position was at Local, which got great reviews followed by stints as Executive Chef at Capitale, Brasserie and Trinity at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. Then, later I became the Executive Chef of Abe & Arthur's before being promoted to Corporate Chef for the EMM Group, which was bridging the gap between nightlife and fine dining.

Q: How is The Little Beet different from other so-called “healthy grab and gos”? What makes The Little Beet unique?

A: Health comes naturally; we don’t consciously think about it, but rather focus on food that tastes great – that also happens to be healthy. We don’t follow trends, we set them; for example, The Little Beet is 100% gluten free, a key differentiator versus our competitors.

Q: Do you think The Little Beet is tailor-made for a New York sensibility, or does it have broader, more national appeal?

A: Not national, but global! In 10 years, we’d like to be at 100 units and become a household name. It’s ambitious, but our objective is to tackle food-related illnesses by changing the way America eats. Soon, we will be opening three locations: Park and 51st, the Financial District and Roosevelt Fields on Long Island. And in October we’ll be premiering a sit-down version of The Little Beet on Park and 24th.

Q: “Wholesome food” is clearly a guiding ethos at The Little Beet. Could you describe exactly what that means to you?

A: Good ingredients prepared simply and well, showcasing their natural benefits and great taste. The word healthy is overused and didn’t quite capture what wholesome communicates, namely great tasting food that is good for you.

Q: What is your “go to” healthy ingredient?

A: I have several -- can’t just name one! Avocados (what a great texture!) and nuts (amazingly versatile and so good for you). And in the fast casual world, citrus (for the flavor “bombs”) and fresh herbs are sorely underutilized; we want to change that.

Q: SPE Certified’s goal is to bring healthy AND delicious food to as many people as possible. Has nutrition always been important to you as a chef?

A: Honestly, it was never a priority until I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes at age 27. So initially my interest in vegetables, fruits, grains and healthy fats was for selfish reasons, but that has morphed into a profound appreciation of how great food, simply prepared, can be a life-changer.

If you are reading this blog, then chances are you’re a fan of good health practices. Whether you want to eat better or cook healthier, it is likely you consider physical wellbeing part of a wholesome human experience.

 A lot can be said for healthy choices, healthy cooking techniques and the hours of bench-­‐work and analyses underlying those techniques and choices. On one hand, the SPE Certified blog represents a compendium of valuable insight and information to that end – bursting at the seams with recipes and expert recommendations for success. But as much as this blog rapid-­‐fires nuggets of gastronomic and nutritional wisdom, it’s also worth considering how we might think of the food we cook and eat. Really, what goes into a plate of food? 

If I think about it and reflect on my own experience in the kitchen, a whole lot goes into food. Three weeks of plating seasonal miniature tartelettes has shown me that hours and hours of preparation – from the mixing of sablée doughs to the painstaking cleaning of individual clementine segments – go into one plate of food days, even weeks before service time. Ingredients must be sourced, selected, bought, inspected, prepared, and appropriated. And of course, there is the plating. 

But the next time you go out – or stay in – to eat, whether you are faced with a tiramisu or torchon, think of the humble tartelette. Think of the nimble, callused hands that prepared something so small, so delicate, and so flavorful – all for five seconds of consumption. And be thankful for those hands that continue to do so!

Read part 1 of Tim's blog post here.

Dietetic Intern Tim Chin gives us a glimpse of what life is like in the pastry kitchen at Michelin-starred Rouge Tomate.

For the past two months or so, I have been spending two days a week cooking as an intern in the pastry kitchen at Rouge Tomate. The cozy space serves as a backdrop for dozens of daily tasks both menial and messy, accomplished by hands caked with flour and tacky with syrup, weary from whisking. Each day begins and ends with production – the preparation of products to be implemented in finished plated desserts. Typical duties include mixing tart dough, cooking curds, setting fluid gels or breaking down several pounds of fruits and vegetables to be cooked, poached, juiced or infused. In between, there are two rounds of service: lunch and dinner. Line cooks prepare plated desserts á la minute, deftly juggling up to five orders at a time and plating with both precision and speed.

I have since graduated from rolling hundreds of 11-­gram balls of apricot cookie dough and begun to work the line in spurts. I plate some portion of desserts during dinner service in between production tasks. Now, before going any further, I must admit that I am by no means a pastry “chef” – or even a pastry “cook” – despite seven months of training at a reputable pastry school. In my opinion, such titles require months to years of suffering, perseverance and spooning quenelles. But I do have a backbone. That the kitchen would place any faith in my ability to “work the line” is a testament either to my bull-­like toughness or – more likely – reckless determination.

But I’ve learned a couple things. I have been reminded of what it takes to make good food, and most importantly developed an appreciation for its conception and creation.

The Nuts and Bolts

Working the line is an exercise in ultra-­multitasking and sheer willpower. The lifeline of the station cook – the crutch upon which the entire service and even career rest – is mise en place : the preparation, arrangement and organization of ingredients required for service in plated courses. With proper mise en place a cook is a well-­‐functioning, well-­‐oiled machine. Without it, he or she is – as one of my mentors puts it – “in the weeds, destined for failure.”

After mise en place, it is all up to the cook to deliver the goods. The expediter (typically the sous chef or head chef when he is available) calls out orders, and the cook must have the good sense and skills to fulfill those orders. Plates fly in, food goes on the plates, plates go in the “window”, and plates fly out.

To get a better sense of service, let’s look at one plated dessert in particular:

Tartelette Madness

The seasonal miniature tartelette plate (at the time of writing, now phased out of production) consists of six elements: a lemon tartelette, a coconut tartelette, a chocolate-­hazelnut tartelette, a pistachio-­orange cream tartelette, a walnut mini-­‐pie and palpable frustration. Artfully arranged, these are five delicious morsels of confectionary goodness. Keep in mind that Rouge Tomate has made good on the promise of miniature: the treats are fit for the delicate hands of children – or better yet, Smurfs – but with all the fancy flavor sensibilities of an adult palate. The result is a blissfully sublime experience for the customer, and a conceivably difficult one for the line cook. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The dessert begins with cleaning the station of any visible extraneous debris. Then the cook procures a clean wooden board. He or she arranges a semolina tart shell, a coconut-­lime shell (both of which are triangular and identical in color), one round pistachio shell, and one round chocolate shell on a cutting board. Hopefully, these shells have been mixed and blind baked prior to service. Then the cook selects one pre­‐baked walnut pie on a separate plate to be heated in the oven. Next comes the piping: lemon curd for the semolina shell; coconut pudding for the coconut­‐lime shell, orange cream filling for the pistachio shell and hazelnut pudding for the chocolate shell. After piping, the cook squares off the sides of all triangular tarts so that the fillings are even and clean. Often the corners of these tarts break from the pressure of squaring, forcing the cook to start over.

Then come the garnishes. The lemon tart is garnished with grapefruit pulp and a sprig of micro basil – not too large, not too small, and never too “stemmy”. The coconut tart gets a sprightly helping of passion fruit seeds and a sprig of micro-­‐cilantro in the corner. The orange­‐pistachio tart receives one mini-­segment of clementine, one pomegranate aril, one half of a Sicilian pistachio, and one thin segment of confit orange peel. The chocolate-hazelnut tart needs a sprinkle of Maldon salt on top, and is finished with a brûléed banana slice.

Not out of the weeds yet. Somewhere amidst this dance, the cook must not neglect the walnut pie. It must be heated so as to be hot but not burned, sometime between the placement of orange peel and the torching of sliced banana. Once out of the oven, the cook pipes a delicate line of 0% Greek yogurt, places a dried date ball in the middle, and sprinkles with Maldon salt.

The tarts are set carefully on the wooden serving board. The board is wiped, placed in the window, and the dessert is ready for eating. The cook wipes down the station of debris and continues about his or her business.

I count roughly seventeen steps in the assembly of a dessert that typically goes out in the span of five to six minutes. Why subject oneself to such microscopic and potentially infuriating handiwork? For the cooks and career-­‐minded among us, the short answer is that we are masochists, eager for challenge and the inevitable exigencies of the culinary industry. The more acceptable answer may be that we don’t view the microcosmic plating of tartelettes as microcosmic or exasperating at all, but rather part of a greater, holistic approach to cooking in which every movement flows seamlessly under intense mindfulness and concentration. Plating a dessert then does not appear as a jumble of disparate elements and procedures because in short, we love and enjoy the process of making food.

But in stepping back, I garner a greater appreciation for what goes into my food.

I’ll be following up on this post next week with a piece on what my experience in the kitchen has taught me about mindful eating, considering all of the complexities and hard work that goes into its preparation.

Read part 2 of Tim's blog post here.

Last week our Executive Chef Anthony Moraes, Senior Culinary Nutritionist Andrea Canada and I embarked on a 10-day cruise aboard Celebrity Cruises’ Reflection to witness the launch of SPE Certified’s healthy and delicious offerings in both the Opus Restaurant (the ship’s main dining room or MDR) and Aqua Spa Cafe (ASC). Since none of us has been on a cruise before, we didn’t know what to expect in terms of the overall luxury cruise experience. To our surprise, we found a plethora of impressive, upscale cuisine with an extensive wine list and luscious cocktails to match!

Above: John Suley, Celebrity Cruises’ Director of Culinary Operations, adds a pinch of salt to one of his dishes.

We were awestruck by the elegance of the MDR -- a beautiful, Adam Tihany-designed setting that could be mistaken for a fine-dining restaurant in NYC. As of April 6^th, Celebrity Cruises, the MDR offers SPE-certified menu choices at every meal for every course – from Salmon Tartare (pictured above) to Chocolate Lava Cake – each and every one healthy and delicious!

We’re thrilled to report that we’ve been receiving some great feedback from the guests. Celebrity guest Maryann from Nova Scotia told me she has eaten mainly SPE dishes “…and was blown away. The flavors are just amazing!”

A favorite so far among Celebrity’s guests has been the Seared Branzino. Served over a creamy parsnip purée, this healthy dish contains 820mg of omega-3 fatty acids. These healthy fats are found in both the fish itself as well as the pumpkin seed oil used during cooking. The Seared Branzino also provides 70% of the recommended daily value of selenium and contains just 3g of saturated fat, making for a dish that is packed with nutrients rather than calories! Be sure to check out a full nutritional analysis of the dish here.

Many guests aboard Reflection told us when it comes to food, they were far more interested in quality over quantity and were grateful to be given the option of eating healthy food without sacrificing taste. Every day I’ve made my way to the gorgeous fitness center and found it packed – sometimes even finding it difficult to secure a treadmill! These cruisers were definitely a health- and fitness-conscious crowd.

What pleased us almost as much as the guests’ attitude towards the SPE-certified dishes was how the staff embraced our philosophy for great-tasting, nutritious cuisine. We’ve all had a great time on board Reflection so far, and are looking forward to rolling out SPE-certified cuisine to the rest of Celebrity Cruises’ fleet later this year!

There has been much buzz regarding this partnership, which premiered April 6^th onboard Celebrity’s newest ship, Reflection, where Caribbean-bound guests were the first to taste the exciting, mouth-watering dishes. Earlier today, Siafa met with Michael Bayley, Celebrity Cruises’ CEO, to hear how diners can indulge – without worrying about their health.

Michael spoke of Celebrity Cruises’ innovative approach to dining as being key to their philosophy of providing guests with an unmatchable luxury vacation experience. He stated that a natural next-step was for Celebrity Cruises’ culinary team to align itself with the chefs and culinary nutritionists at SPE to create nutritious and delicious offerings unique to the cruise line industry.

Siafa also spoke with Jeremy Bearman, Corporate Executive Chef  - SPE Certified and Rouge Tomate. As Chef Bearman explained the culinary and nutritional philosophy behind SPE Certified, he regaled LXTV’s audience with a cooking demonstration of one of the most popular dishes – the Seared Duck with “Fried” Wild Rice. After explaining the sustainability and nutritional advantages of using the duck’s own stock and natural fats during the cooking process, Chef plated the dish – weighing in at just 360 calories -- for tasting. To give Siafa the full SPE Certified experience, he was also served the nutrient-dense Roasted Carrot Cumin Salad and the delicious Bittersweet Chocolate Fondant.

Watch for Jeremy, Michael and Siafa on LXTV’s “1st Look” later this month!

Rouge Tomate Executive Chef Jeremy Bearman and Culinary Nutritionist Kristy Lambrou discuss how they apply the principles of SPE in a real-life kitchen setting.

Video courtesy of www.genconnect.com

To see more videos on SPE Certified, including video recipes, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

As various fruits and vegetables go in and out of season, restaurants’ menus evolve to incorporate ingredients that are hitting their seasonal peaks. At NYC's Rouge Tomate, there’s much more to think about than just new ingredients: adhering to the SPE guidelines, nutritional balance and synergies must also be observed.

In addition to the hard work and care that goes into the culinary side, the chef must also make sure the new dishes come out looking just as visually stunning as their predecessors. Therefore it’s no mean feat when your new dishes consistently taste as delicious and look as beautiful at Rouge Tomate’s.

The Chilled Melon Soup, gluten-free and locally sourced

The gluten-free and locally sourced Spanish Octopus Salad

The Verbena and Raspberry Frozen Terrine, locally sourced and just 130 calories

Evan Sung shoots a Local Tomato Gazpacho

Rouge Tomate's Executive Chef Jeremy Bearman gives direction over the plating of his dishes

It’s hard to believe that food can look and taste this good, while remaining nutritionally balanced and good for you. Fortunately for me, I was present at the most recent photoshoot and was treated to a tasting of these fabulous dishes, which means that I can confirm that they taste as amazing as they look! Our thanks go to Jeremy Bearman, the entire team at Rouge Tomate and NYC's favorite photographer Evan Sung for their courtesy during the shoot.

View a nutritional analysis of each of Rouge Tomate's dishes.

Fortunately for me, I’m privileged enough to meet many talented people during my daily quests for website, blog and social media content – be that in the form of sit-down interviews, visits to local farms or taste-testing SPE-certified recipes. However, I always find it even more fascinating when a number of these great minds gather in the same room at the same time.

Last week, genConnect joined us at Rouge Tomate in NYC to film a number of videos about SPE Certified and our mission to change the way America eats. After some one-on-one interviews with Dr. Pamela Peeke, whose upcoming book “The Hunger Fix” features recipes exclusively created by SPE, and our SPE Certified Culinary Nutritionist Andrea Canada, we headed into the kitchen to film some cooking demos.

The first demo was an SPE-certified Tomato and Watermelon Gazpacho. “Gazpachos are traditionally thought of as being healthy soups, but that’s not always the case. A lot of gazpachos in restaurants are surprisingly high in fat and sodium.” said Natalia. With the intention of showing that gazpachos can be flavorful without being unhealthy, she and Chef Moraes set about creating a 90-calorie soup with just 0.5g of saturated fat. You’ll have to wait to see the video itself, but you can see the Tomato and Watermelon Gazpacho recipe here.

After shooting cooking demos for two other SPE-certified recipes, the Roasted Garden Vegetable Marinara and the Stone Fruit Crumble, it was time to call it a day. Dr Peeke’s medical expertise combined with the culinary skills and nutritional knowledge of Natalia Hancock, Andrea Canada and Chef Moraes was absolutely captivating and we’re sure they’re going to make for a truly entertaining collection of videos.

The videos will be available soon via www.genconnect.com and the SPE Certified website. In the meantime, why not check out these recipes so that you can experience SPE-certified food in your own kitchen?