Walnut Creek Food Purveyors Learn Why Transfats Need to Go – And What to Use Instead

“This is the year of the transfat-free kitchen,” announced Sysco executive chef Mike Sabella to a group of about 70 of Walnut Creek’s leading restaurateurs, chefs, school and hospital food service staff, grocery store executives, civic leaders and parents gathered at Walnut Creek’s Dean Lesher Center. Transfats was the topic and Sabella was the keynote speaker at the first seminar held by Walnut Creek’s new Healthy Restaurant Association. Monthly seminars are planned for the group’s growing roster of members.

“This is a fundamental change in our industry,” Mike Sabella, told the assembled food professionals and community members. “This is not a fad or a trend.”

Sabella, a former instructor at the California Culinary Academy, explained the chemical structure of transfats to illustrate why they wreak health havoc. Transfats, research shows, cause more harm than even saturated fats, i.e. butter and lard, because they not only clog arteries but deplete the body’s protective supply of “good” HDL cholesterol. 

“We can’t cook without fats,” he said. “The key is to substitute good fats for bad fats.” That means eliminating fats artificially altered by chemical processing and substitute natural products.

One option, seminar attendees learned about, is rice bran oil, a versatile light oil that is stable even when used in deep-frying.

“Rice oil offers fewer oil changes,  easier clean up, and healthier and better tasting food. This is a premium oil that can be used from salad bars to deep fryers,” said Ellen Davenport, owner of the Novato-based California Rice Oil Company.

Another healthy option for sautéing  is olive oil. Kathyrn Lyddan, executive director of the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust, was on hand with an Alhambra Valley olive oil producer to offer tastings of his product and locally grown produce.

Disposing of fats in an environmentally-friendly way was covered by Jenny Oorbeck from Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority and Jeremy Taliroco of the Central Sanitation District.  Learning expert Paul Melmed opened the seminar with a brief overview of the latest research on the effect of nutrition on children’s learning ability.

The next seminar focuses on replacing transfats in baking. It is scheduled for October 10, 3 pm at the Lesher Center. HRA members who attend receive a sticker for their window.

“We’ve rolled this out for the first time and it was a terrific start. Now we’re going to continue to build this,” said Cindy Gershen, HRA founder and proprietor of the Sunrise Bistro and Catering. “Getting rid of transfats won’t happen overnight.”