The places that train the people who will someday be feeding the rest of us are cutting back or eliminating artificial fats from their classrooms, saying they have a responsibility to teach students how to cook healthy foods.
NYC banned trans fat from all restaurants last year, while other cities are debating similar measures
PROVIDENCE: The movement to ban trans fats from food has a new venue: cooking schools.
The places that train the people who will someday be feeding the rest of us are cutting back or eliminating artificial fats from their classrooms, saying they have a responsibility to teach students how to cook healthy foods.
“It’s a very welcome change,” said John O’Connell, 19, a sophomore culinary arts student at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, one of the nation’s largest cooking schools. The school has started phasing out trans fats in its restaurants, hotels and dining services on four campuses around the country, and plans to be trans fat-free by the fall semester. “We have made sure that we do the right thing,” said Karl J. Guggenmos, dean of culinary education.
Other cooking schools, such as Le Cordon Bleu Schools North America, with 13 locations, are looking at eliminating trans fats, said Kirk Bachmann of Le Cordon Bleu. The prestigious Culinary Institute of America in New York banned trans fats from all its classes and restaurants in 2005.
Artificial trans fats are often found in oils used to deep-fry foods such as french fries and in baked goods. Bakers like to use shortenings with trans fats because cakes stay fresher longer, frosting is easier to use, and they cost less than butter.
Trans fats are created when hydrogen is added to liquid cooking oils to harden them. Along with saturated fats, they raise levels of so-called bad cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease.
New York City banned cooking oils with trans fat from all restaurants last year, and several states and cities have debated similar measures. A number of fast-food restaurants chains are making the switch to trans fat-free cooking oils.
At the Culinary Institute of America, trans fat is one of the “hot button” topics, said school spokesman Stephan Hengst. “Once they get out in the industry, they’ve got to understand it,” he said of students. The school has about 3,000 students at its main campus and three branches, and boasts such famous alumni as restaurateur Charlie Palmer and best-selling author and chef Anthony Bourdain.
Trans fats are banned at the school, Hengst said, except in advanced cake decorating classes where students work with trans fat-based shortening. But no one eats the cakes once they’re decorated; they’re thrown away.
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