The Art of Nutritional Cuisine

"Preface The intent of this book is to assist you in mastering nutritional cuisine! Chefs can serve great-tasting and nutritious foods. Ultimately, though, it is the consumer who will decide what to consume! This textbook is current with the new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ChooseMyPlate.gov and dietary guidelines! It is important to know that meals eaten away from home and prepared by chefs, or meals produced in the home by personal chefs, can each support a healthy lifestyle. Perhaps what a person makes for dinner is reservations! Love it! Please turn to the introduction for a detailed explanation of the organization of this book and how it serves both the lecture and laboratory portions of a typical nutrition class for culinary programs. As authors, we are both parents who each have a family to feed (although, in the case of Dr. Vaclavik, two children have now begun their own households and there are two grandchildren!). We are both college teachers working with nutrition in culinary arts, and we each have academic as well as "hands-on" training in foods and nutrition. Thanks are extended to CRC Press, our friendly and knowledgeable editor Randy Brehm (with whom Dr. Vaclavik has published in the past), and our current friendly and dedicated editor Stephen Zollo, who provided the opportunity to be a part of this culinary publication adventure! Appreciation goes to those individuals who have enthusiastically reviewed the text proposal and/or chapter material, including Chef Brenden Mesch, EdD, CEC, CCE, associate dean of academic affairs, the Art Institute of Dallas; Andres Ardisson Korat, MS (food science), MA (gastronomy), food scientist, Frito Lay R&D; and nutrition professor Carolyn Rogan, MS, RD, CSSD, LD"--

Vickie A. Vaclavik is a registered dietitian who has taught for more than 25 years at the college level in Dallas, including at the Dallas County Community College District; the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Nutrition Department; and The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Dallas. Dr. Vaclavik is a graduate of Cornell University where she studied Human Nutrition and Food. She also studied at Purdue University, majoring in Restaurant, Hotel, Institution Management, and at Texas Woman’s University, studying Institution Management and Food Science. She is the lead author of Dimensions of Food since its third edition. She also wrote Essentials of Food Science, now in its third edition with two foreign translations.

Amy Haynes is a registered dietitian who specializes in the application of nutrition in the kitchen. She earned her degree from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and has acquired various experiences within the food service industry over the last 20 years. She has been an instructor at The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Dallas since 2000, and continues to inspire aspiring chefs to incorporate healthy foods and practices into their cuisine. She has made it her own personal goal to promote healthy living with experiences ranging from teaching fitness classes to being featured as a “guest chef” at the renowned Hilton Head Health Institute in South Carolina.

Read an interview with Amy Haynes at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center website (2009).