Cookng Yourself Skinny with Candice Kumai

On July 27th and 28th Chef Candice Kumai taught two cooking classes at the Sur La Table Kitchen in Newport Beach, California. If you don’t know who Chef Candice is you might want to think back to the first season of Top Chef, or you can find her on Lifetime’s hit “Cook Your Self Skinny” as one of the three chefs who teach you how to make your favorite fat and carb loaded foods to healthier options with fewer calories and fat. Though she didn’t win the Top Chef prize, she did win big points in her nutritionally delicious recipes, that looked allot more like real food then the typically tasteless nutritional food you associate with hospital food.

Chef Candice’s first cooking class “Skinny Summer Grilling,” included Sweet Grilled Peach and Spinach Salad, Grilled Flatbread Mediterranean Pizza, Grilled Spicy Tex Mex Shrimp Skewers, Honey BBQ Salmon with a Mango, Papaya, and Roasted Red Pepper Salsa, and finally a Skinny Summer Grilled White Peaches and Cream. Taking advantage of the fresh fruits that were in season, the clear winner for Monday night’s menu was the grilled white peaches and cream. The peaches were cut in half and grilled to softness then topped with a non-fat Greek yogurt mixed with honey and brown sugar and candied walnuts that used egg whites to help cut the fat. It tasted just as good as the real fat and sugar packed Peaches and Cream my grandmother use to make.

On the first night Chef Candice also showed us how to make pizza without adding a pound of calorie packed cheese. Simply sauté your ingredients in a pan with a dab of olive oil till they are cooked. Then top your ingredients on a pre-made low fat pizza dough that you grilled. Lightly sprinkle with parmesan cheese, or a cheese with fewer calories and more flavor then your typical mozzarella. And poof, you have a flavor packed pizza.

For the second night the theme was “Classics Made Skinny,” including Secret Skinny Caesar Salad, Classic Lean Sliders with Golden Roasted Sweet Potato Fries, Caramelized Pear and Gorgonzola Flatbread, Fresh Fuji Apple Crab Cakes served on top of a Mango, Papaya, and Roasted Red Pepper Salsa, and finally Homemade Skinny Dreamy Chocolate Mint ‘Ice Cream Sandwiches’. Chef Candice didn’t stop pulling out the surprises. Her Sliders called for 96% fat free Lean Ground Beef, and an array of herbs to be mixed together then grilled to a delicious perfection. Not to be out done her Fresh Fuji Apple Crab Cakes packed a huge flavor punch, lightly cooking them in a sauté pan first then off to the oven to finish cooking. When served the crab cakes sit in a bed of Mango, Papaya, and Red Pepper Salsa. To add a tang of taste to the dish.

The third surprise of the night was the ‘Ice Cream Sandwiches’ not really made of ice cream, but cool whip, mint extract, and chocolate chips on low fat graham crackers. Then frozen till hard, was a light dessert that could satisfy any sweet tooth without adding a donut around your waist.

Chef Candice was a breath of fresh air, not only is she drop dead gorgeous, but she is inspiring to a world full of tasteless healthy food. The senses couldn’t tell that you were eating half the fat and calories that you would normally find in standard recipes. Now we all just want to know, when her yummy cookbook is coming out?