Cutting Out the Fat

I admit it, I love cream, butter, coconut milk, bacon, duck fat, olive oil, and almost any other tasty fatty thing. I was trained in Paris restaurants, where tubs of Norman butter and crème fraîche were set out for the cooks to whisk into the sauces. I loved the cooking in those places, and I’ve resisted every teaspoon I’ve since had to cut out.

But I’ve had to face the music. Sometime during the early 1980s my students started looking at each other incredulously—with horror and, yes, a certain delight—every time I’d casually throw in a hefty amount of cream or butter. So I’ve cut back and gradually become satisfied with much less fat.