New focus on less meat: As meat prices and health concerns rise, more chefs decide less is more

When I was growing up in the 1970s, I spent a summer working in a strip mall in Westport, Conn. In the mall there were two businesses side by side: a gourmet shop and a health-food store.

The gourmet shop was beige and pristine, stocked with canned, boxed and frozen English, French and German delicacies bought by a prosperous, largely elderly and conservative clientele.

The health-food store, which catered to a younger, hipper group of affluent customers, was all unfinished dark wood and messy hanging plants, full of beat up-looking organic vegetables, bins of grains, and yogurt-covered fruit and nuts. In the back was a bar that sold gazpacho and hummus that burned your mouth with the taste of raw garlic.

The stores embodied for me what were then separate worlds: the gourmet world and the health-food world. This separation remained the state of affairs until the 1990s, when Whole Foods began its nationwide expansion. The success of Whole Foods lies in the company's recognition that the gourmet world and the health-food world have merged, and that their customer base doesn't exclusively eat one kind of food or the other but both. Often for the same meal.

Even as this shift took root in retail, high-end restaurants have been slow to follow suit. Until recently.

Some markers that things have changed: In 2008, New York Times? restaurant critic Frank Bruni? named the Napa vegetarian restaurant Ubuntu, which shares a space with a yoga studio, one of the best new restaurants in America. And in 2010, New York chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten? opened ABC Kitchen, a popular restaurant catering to the Whole Foods generation. The restaurant features vegetables, healthy shakes and smoothies, whole grain preparations, and a light touch with animal protein.

In Colorado, some of the newer models for success at the high end look a lot like ABC Kitchen — restaurants that, while not exclusively vegetarian or organic, de-emphasize animal protein, offer a strong health and nutrition component, and openly cater to a diversity of dietary choices.

Justin Cucci's Denver restaurants Root Down and Linger have adopted this approach, with great success. We pride ourselves on striving to solve the "Omnivore's Dilemma." We have created a dining spot where all dietary needs will be accommodated, the Root Down website proclaims.

Daniel Asher, with a strong background in vegan, vegetarian and raw food, is Cucci's "operations chef" and oversees the kitchens at Root Down and Linger. Before coming to Colorado, the Chicago-born Asher worked at both Karyn's and the Chicago Diner, the oldest continuously operating vegetarian restaurant in America.

In Boulder, The Kitchen Next Door features a mostly local menu with a heavy emphasis on greens, grains, beans and vegetables, and a relatively small selection of meat and fish choices. Next Door serves an average of 700 customers a day.

Hugo Matheson, the chef and owner of Next Door and a lifelong carnivore, confesses to a change in his cooking approach prompted by recent doubts about meat eating. Matheson, who for many years embraced the "nose-to-tail" ethic of many enlightened meat eaters, says, "I have come to the realization that more veg and less meat is my focus." His team, including executive chef Kyle Mendenhall, now innovate with vegetables more often.

Also fanning this drift: The rising price of meat. Restaurant consultant John Imbergamo predicts: "As proteins continue to increase in price — and beef price projections are dismal for 2012 — the only alternative is to shrink the protein size or change products. We will see more 'meat as a condiment' entrees as opposed to meat as 'center of the plate.' "

Perhaps the greatest obstacle to healthy eating on the high end is the customers themselves. For many, the desire to eat healthy often conflicts with the instinct that says dining out is a celebration and an opportunity to indulge. Asher says, "People have their routines and ceremonies they adhere to at home — when you go out to eat, that's your chance to explore."

But times are changing. In his recent book on gastronomy, "The Table Comes First," author Adam Gopnik? writes that for a generation raised on classic French food, the gastronomical distress that followed a punishingly rich meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant was a point of pride for gourmets.

No longer. As Daniel Asher says, "a lot of the sexiest food [today] is food that makes you feel like a rock star afterwards."

Tips for eating healthy in restaurants

Look for dishes that feature vegetables in the lead role.

Choose dishes with leaner meats like chicken breast, bison or fish.

Avoid words like gratin, crispy, pan-fried, creamed and buttered.

Look for whole grains like quinoa, barley and farro.

Say "no thanks" to the bread basket — especially if the bread is lackluster.

Say "yes please" to the take-home box — restaurant portions are often double what they should be, or more.

Booze has calories. Watch the mixed cocktails especially.

Quiz the server on how the dishes are prepared. Ask for sauces on the side.

Ask for vegetables or a salad instead of fries.

Never measure the quality or value of your meal based on how full you feel afterwards.