Chefs Compete for Healthier Fried Foods
It’s a typical Saturday night. You go to a restaurant and order your favorite item on the menu. You know you should be watching what you eat, but you can’t resist the temptation of the delicious crab cake. Or maybe it’s the beignets. Or maybe it’s the breaded pork tenderloin.
Whatever you pick, the problem is it’s deep-fried. And you know—whether it’s from the news or your doctor—that fried foods are not good for you.
Think these foods could ever be healthier for you? They can. And no, you’re not dreaming.
“Vistive® low linolenic soybeans produce a soybean oil for healthier foods,” Joe Bothe, Monsanto soybean quality trait lead, said. “Vistive® oil also can benefit soybean growers by providing increased profit opportunities, and it also supports the soybean industry by replacing the demand lost from hydrogenated soybean oil, which produces trans fats.”
The oil from Vistive® low linolenic soybeans does not have to be hydrogenated because of their low levels of linolenic acid. By not hydrogenating the oil, trans fats are reduced or eliminated in the foods cooked in it.
And that means your favorite item—be it crab cakes, beignets, breaded pork tenderloins or another fried something—can now be healthier for you than before.
Why crab cakes, beignets and breaded pork tenderloins? Three chefs who created recipes for these using Vistive® low linolenic soybean oil were the finalists of the Vistive® Chef Challenge, a cooking contest sponsored by Monsanto and the Soyfoods Council.
The contest kicked off at the Farm Progress Show in August 2008, when Ephraim Malag, executive chef at the Tournament Club of Iowa, provided a cooking demonstration for attendees. According to Bothe, between 40-50 professional chefs submitted recipes using Vistive® low linolenic soybean oil to the contest. Monsanto and the Soyfoods Council then narrowed the competition to the top 13. The Soyfoods Council prepared the 13 recipes and had a panel of professional chefs narrow it down to the top three. Monsanto posted those three recipes on the challenge's Web site, where hundreds of farmers voted on their favorite recipe.
The winner was announced at the 2009 Commodity Classic in Grapevine, Texas on Friday, Feb. 27. At the event, the three finalists demonstrated their recipes for the crowd. The finalists were: Malag; Justin Ward, instructor at the Art Institute of Atlanta; and Leslie Jett, resident instructor at the University of Missouri-Columbia’s restaurant management program.
Jett took home the first place prize of $10,000 for his crab cakes with roasted pepper Creole remoulade. Malag took the second place $5000 prize for his katsu pork, and Ward won the third place prize of $2500 for his artichoke crab beignets with honey soya. Click here for copies of the chefs’ recipes.
“They had to submit recipes that used Vistive® oil, but they also used many other soybean products, so it was really fascinating to watch them work,” Bothe said.
“The goal of this contest was to elevate awareness of Vistive® oil with our farmers and help them understand the importance of Vistive® oil in the restaurant channel,” Cynthia Tipton, Monsanto communications manager for the Vistive® brand, said. “Our second goal was to elevate awareness of Vistive® oil within the restaurant channel because they will then drive the demand for Vistive® low linolenic soybeans.”
And if you talk to the chefs and members of the Soyfoods Council, Monsanto did just that.
“Every day in the newspaper we hear about obesity and kids being more obese than they’ve ever been,” Linda Funk, executive director of the Soyfoods Council, said. “It’s a big deal. The food industry is a big industry, and we want to make sure we’re providing those healthy solutions for the industry, and Vistive® is absolutely perfect for that.”
“We use Vistive® oil in our restaurant,” Malag said. “The longevity of the oil goes three times longer than the previous soy oil we were using. It makes all the food we have lighter and tastier, and it doesn’t feel like you’re bogged down with grease.
“I’m a firm believer in this product,” he continued. “I harass my fellow chefs around to use this product.”
“It’s a clear cooking oil, too,” Ward said. “It has less absorption, so the food isn’t as greasy. It also leaves a clean taste. Even if you cook multiple things in it, you don’t have carryover flavors, so you get the true taste of the food itself, and that’s a big advantage.”
“You get a lot of good, even color,” Jett said. “You get a good, crispy outer surface on the product, and obviously it’s healthier than using your normal blended oils.
“When you think of fried and healthy, they’re really not supposed to go together, so if you can attach the words, people are going to be intrigued by it,” he continued. “They’re at least going to want to bite into it.”
And the good news is Vistive® low linolenic soybeans are the first in a pipeline of soybean products that can help produce better oils for food companies and restaurants to use in making healthier food for consumers.
“We’re committed to soybean quality traits long-term,” Bothe said.
ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Vistive® is a registered trademark of Monsanto Technology LLC. ©2009 Monsanto Company.
