I had a great dinner last night freshly prepared by a famous chef. I was with 8 other physicians at a special dinner, cook live in front of us by a famous chef.

The event is wonderful. The course of the meals is phenomenal.

The meal course is as follow:
1. Shrimp scampi puff _ appetizer _ one small piece each
2. Salad with balsamic vinegar dressing _ small green, goat cheese, dried raspberries, nuts.
3. Roasted beef with lobster stuffing _total of half of your palm size
4. Potato side dish _ two finger long size
5. Sauteed asparagus as side _ 5-6 slender asparagus
6. Banana in the brown sauce with small scoop of ice cream, a thin slice of pound cake - regular portion (not big)
7. A half glass of wine for who choose to drink.

Wonderful meal course. Portion is right! Not excessive. Usually I would not be thinking this is an unhealthy meal if I did not see what ingredients are in it.

The cooking happens right in front of us. The art and skills of the chef is amazing.

But what is going on in my mind was "nine of us share the 7 sticks of butter, 4 large blocks of Philadelphia cream cheese and a bowl of clarified butter over two and half hour meal time".

"I cannot believe that I ate my share of nearly a stick of butter and half of the large cream cheese block in one meal".

While I do appreciate the time, the dinner, the chef but I will not be repeating the similarly prepared meal again.

The thought of the arteries and cholesterol plaques in the lining of the arteries images are bouncing in my eyes and almost teasing me.

I discover the followings from this wonderful dinner and I thought I would share it with my readers.*

• The chefs are excellent in preparing food but they may not have nutritional knowledge.

•  The chefs' main focus is "how to make the food taste better" and "not necessarily healthier".

•  The expensive upscale restaurant, compare to fast food, does not necessarily mean the food is healthier.

•  While we are avoiding all the fast food chain and trying to eat healthy can also end up like me as above.

• Cook at your home healthily. Do not use the butter stick or similar for cooking a meal. Or you can choose non butter spread. (I really do not believe that putting that much butter and cream cheese was necessary for this wonderful meal. As I thought of it, I recreated the meal without using the butter and cream cheese. I substitute them by using olive oil and boiled low fat milk in much less amount. It has the comparable taste and much health benefit to it)

•  If you are already in restaurant, ask your gravy, sauce, spread to put separately, so that you do not have to eat them all.
  
• Avoid the restaurants which cook with the butter and cream cheese . If you are not sure, ask the waiter.
  
• After all, we are responsible for our health