The scale has never been my enemy and food has always been my friend. This week, that’s different. The scale will be my enemy and I am not sure if I am still really friendly with my food. I have some of the best food days coming up, and instead of thinking obsessively about the menu and how it will taste (what I normally do), I am thinking about how much I can/should eat of it.
To make my conundrum clearer, here are the basics: I have Joachim Wissler, a 3 Michelin star and 19 Gault Milliau point chef cooking a tasting lunch menu on Monday for some VIP’s. One look at the menu and I know it is going to be unbelievable:
Tatar and Aspic of small Champignons
Non-sweet Hazelnut Milk Syrup and Foie Gras
Wirsching Silvaner Dry 2006 (Franken)*
* in Bocksbeutel
*****
Gillardeau Oysters with Asparagus Foam and Horseradish
Wurtz Riesling Potate 2006 (Rheinhessen)
*****
Tafelspitz (broiled Tri-trip) Jus Spaghetti á la Carbonara
D’Aquitaine Caviar
Rebholz Weissburgunder Im Sonnenschein 2004 (Pfalz)
*****
Marbled Mascarpone Ravioli with Small Black Morels
Gravy of Spanish Jabugo Bellota Ham
Franz Künstler Pinot Noir 2005 (Rheingau)
*****
Glazed Veal Sweetbreads with Coffee Brittle and Black Salsifies
Robert Weil Riesling Kabinett Halbtrocken 2006 (Rheingau)
*****
Supreme Sauce from a Suckling Pig with Lovage
Bean Cassoulet and Almond Puree
Gunderloch Riesling Auslese Nackenheimer Rothenberg “Three Star” 2006 (Rheinhessen)
*****
Tamarillo marinated in Cardamom-Cinnamon Syrup
Caramel Soufflé and Mascarpone Ice
Schäfer-Fröhlich Riesling Auslese Bockenauer Felsneck 375ml 2005 (Nahe)
Of course I’ll have to eat every bite and drink every drop of it. Really, how do you explain to a chef that you are not eating his food? Especially when other people have to wait for weeks to eat at his restaurant.
That night, Executive Chef Wissler wants to go and have dinner at MASA. This is MASA at the AOL Time Warner towers, of over $400 per person dinner pricetag fame. This is how MASA describes their dining experience: “Chef Masa takes the guests on a tour with a multi-course prix fixe menu according to seasonal availability at $400-$600 per person. Diners enjoy five carefully composed appetizers, followed by a sushi entree featuring 15 to 20 types of exotic seafood directly flown in from Japan, and a dessert course to complete the meal. Each ingredient is given its own spotlight to reveal its original essence.”
So clearly, when everything is ordered and done, I’ll experience more than 20 courses. Plus a significant amount of sake. Would you spit out anything from a meal that expensive? Be honest – scouts’ honor! Not even thinking about the fact I am going to sit next to that chef…and again, what person who truly loves and respect food would understand if I didn’t eat THIS?
But that’s not the end of my ‘food’ drama. On Tuesday ‘my’ chef is cooking again, this time a gala dinner at the Mandarin Oriental. Thank goodness it’s only four courses – which I might as well share, while I’m at it:
Tatar and Aspic of small Champignons
Non-sweet Hazelnut Milk Syrup and Foie Gras (I’ll happily have a second serving of that)
Weingut Joseph Leitz ‘Eins, Zwei Dry ‘3′ Riesling, Rheingau/Rheinhessen, 2007,
*****
Turbot and Gillardeau Oysters with marinated Asparagus Iberian Jabugo-Bellota-Ham Gravy (yes more of it!)
Weingut Gunderloch ‘Jean-Baptiste’ Riesling Kabinett, Rheinhessen, 2006
*****
Glazed Veal Sweetbreads with Morel Brittle and Huegelsheimer Asparagus
German Rye Bread – Morel Gateu – Sugar Pea Coulis (mmmm)
Künstler Pinot Noir, Rheingau, 2007
*****
Iced Mocca Foam d’Oro with Pineapple Sorbet
Some people have a devil and an angel fighting for their conscience, I have the diet fight the foodie. Needless to say, the foodie wins. Just for the record, I ended up eating everything, drinking every wine, and enjoying it all. Both chefs are magicians, and the food was simply heavenly. And of course food like this is also the undeniable reason for the pot belly I am pushing around. For years, I kept saying every single pound on my body was rather expensive, so there was no way I was going to spend even more money (on a gym membership, for example) to get rid of it. That changed on Sharon’s scale, when I realized almost half of my body was fat. Fat is by no means equal to white truffles, and so it had to go, Now it has to disappear almost completely and just leave a hint of taste, like a perfect meal.
Then there’s the sad ending of all of this: With my mom on my case nonstop last week, I was down to 187 pounds. But when I got on my newly prized possession, the body mass scale, on Wednesday, it showed an ugly 194 pounds. A 7 lb gain in heavenly delight simultaneously equaling pure pressure to make up for. Because on Monday, I am back on Sharon’s scale.
So now I bite the bullet (instead of some oysters) and I am cutting calories everywhere. I think a few days on 1400 calories are what the nutritionist might order. And I get on that treadmill, work hard on my workouts, simply do as much as I can do make up for my missteps.
Sunday night it is done. I’ve trimmed off most of the pounds I gained, and am nearly back to where I was. So a good girl can have it all, the occasional misstep and the makeup workout. And the best part of it: Food is still my friend, while my scale and I are living in a peaceful coexistence.
Feel Great Weight Stats
Original weight: 210
Weight at week’s end: 189
Weight gain this week: 2 lbs
Total weight loss: 21 lbs
By Vanessa Trost
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