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No trans fat here

Early edition: A Clearwater restaurant is among the few locally to ban artery-clogging artificial trans fat. It’s a growing trend nationwide.

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published December 14, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Thomas Whisenand] Johnny's Italian Restaurant cook Juan Popoca douses the flames with cream at the Clearwater eatery, which stopped using trans fat oils months ago.

CLEARWATER — John and Rosemary Nadeau perked up last week when New York City ordered its restaurants to ban trans fats from their kitchens.

“Hey,” Rosemary said to Johnny, of Johnny’s Italian Restaurant on State Road 590. “You’re already on this.”

The Nadeaus had switched to trans fat-free cooking oil a few weeks before New York’s Board of Health passed the first such regulation in the country.

That makes Johnny’s part of a burgeoning trend of Tampa Bay area restaurants that have voluntarily banned artery-clogging artificial trans fats from their cooking.

“Nobody likes to be told what to do,” Johnny Nadeau, 47, said of the New York ban. “But on that one I agree. Many people go out to eat now. Some things have to be mandated.”

It’s hard to say how many other local restaurants have taken the same step, but awareness is clearly growing.
On St. Pete Beach, the Don CeSar Beach Resort and Spa will stop using trans fats by June.

The Columbia, which has restaurants in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater Beach, had already been testing trans-fat free oils and hopes to start using them in January.

Other restaurants that don’t use any trans fats or use them only in butter include Nature’s Food Patch in Clearwater, Cafe Grand in New Port Richey, Lunch on Limoges in Dade City and the Hurricane on St. Pete Beach.

“My dad had a heart problem years ago,” said Bruno Falkenstein, owner of the Hurricane. “My brother and I, we eat at our restaurant and we (cook) the same for everybody else.”

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The New York ban might have brought wide publicity to the issue, but some restaurants began moving away from using trans fats as long as six years ago.

“It’s not widespread at this point,” said Roger Berkowitz, who sits on the Harvard School of Public Health Leadership Council and himself eliminated trans fats from 30 of his restaurants.

“It has to start somewhere,” he added. “Hopefully, the consuming public will appreciate what (some restaurants) are doing.”

Trans fat-free cooking oils are more expensive. At Johnny’s, the cost of a 35-gallon container of shortening has gone from $16 to $34, but advocates say it lasts longer and is worth it.

“My feeling is it’s probably going to become a trend because there’s growing evidence that trans fats are culprits in (several) illnesses,” said John Rivard, Nature Food Patch’s food service department manager.

Some New York restaurants resisted the ban because they don’t cook completely from scratch and use more pre-packaged foods, which more often contain trans fats, said Chris Giarraputo, corporate cook for B.R. Guest Restaurants Inc. which has restaurants in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas.

It’s easier for independent restaurants that do all their cooking from scratch, like Johnny’s in Clearwater.

Even so, Giarraputo said, the signs indicate that within a couple years even chain restaurants will use trans fat-free cooking oils.

He points to Wendy’s as a company that has mostly eliminated trans fats.

And along with Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell, Clearwater-based Hooters restaurants is testing replacements for trans fats that it intends to start using next year.

And manufacturers competing to meet the demand from the New York market will likely explore ways to expand their business to restaurants nationwide, he said.

“It’s absolutely gaining momentum,” Giarraputo said.

At Johnny’s, where customers are greeted by a sign touting the lack of trans fats in the food, a bit of modification to some recipes had to be made to avoid losing taste, Johnny Nadeau said.

Nadeau, who opened Johnny’s Restaurant on Drew Street in 1980, attended St. Petersburg College where he learned about the harmful effects of trans fats in chemistry class.

The Nadeaus are not health nuts, but they have long tried to avoid using trans fats.

“A lot of our customers are repeat customers,” Nadeau said. “So I kind of care about what they eat.”

Nadeau’s customers seem to like the change.

“I’m all for it. I buy zero trans fats,” said Sue Gang, 65, at the restaurant recently with a group of other women waiting to order lunch. “I’ve been doing that for seven, eight years.”

For Johnny Nadeau, the trend cannot take off fast enough.

“Remember the way we used to smoke in restaurants?” he asked. “Hopefully, we’re going to look back and say, 'Remember when we used to have trans fat oils?’”

Jose Cardenas can be reached at jcardenas@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4224.

[Last modified December 14, 2006, 20:32:25]