Healthy Recipes from the Fittest Food and Wine World Stars

The night before a long bike ride, Laurent Gras carbo-loads by eating pasta tossed with a variety of vegetables for dinner; here, he combines green tomatoes, zucchini, asparagus and vitamin A-rich spinach. “You can eat a lot of it and still feel good about yourself. It doesn’t make you tired like other, heavier pasta dishes can.”

This salad is a well-rounded meal in itself, supplying a wealth of nutrients, including vitamins A and C. “I grew up in the French countryside,” Laurent Gras says, “so vegetable-heavy dishes make me feel like I’m back home.”

“I admit that nothing can stand in for good fried chicken,” says John Currence. “But this is a hell of an impostor.” He adds sweet tea to his marinade; the tannins help tenderize the poultry while the sugar gives it a light cure. The accompanying gravy gets a ton of flavor from strips of caramelized onion.

“I like the idea of making a healthy kind of potato chip that's not one of those packaged, dehydrated vegetable chips,” Seamus Mullen says. He roasts kale with extra-virgin olive oil and garlic until it’s crunchy.

Joe Bastianich likes the way protein- and omega 3-rich salmon gives him lots of energy without weighing him down. Here, it’s grilled until the skin is crisp. Green olives add more heart-healthy fat and a hit of cell-protecting vitamin E.

“I’m more addicted to chocolate than I am to sugar,” says chocolatier Jacques Torres. A small piece of this super-chunky dark-chocolate bark staves off his intense cravings.

Baking the doughnuts and tossing them with a little butter, cinnamon and sugar makes them healthier than fried doughnuts. The sweet potato in the dough adds a lovely, earthy flavor. Instead of slowly baking the potato in the oven, microwave it for just 10 minutes.

“At the end of the day in the restaurant, I usually want something comforting, like pizza,” says chef Jeremy Sewall. Instead, he now cooks a big batch of vegetables and pumps up their flavor by dousing them with hot sauce.

The arborio rice in Joe Bastianich’s lightly sweet pudding provides complex carbohydrates for energy. Since the pudding keeps well in the refrigerator, Bastianich makes it in big batches, then reheats portions for quick breakfasts.

Eating vegan for a month led Richard Blais to examine his pantry more closely. He discovered that ground porcini mushrooms add a meaty flavor to dishes like his veggie burger.

“In this industry, you often don’t eat when you need to,” says Ronnie Killen. “What helped me lose weight was eating at the right times.” He started having real meals with lean proteins, like this turkey chili.

Rocco DiSpirito started cutting way back on saturated fat and sugar, experimenting with healthy ingredients and exercising after his doctor told him that he may need medication for his high blood pressure and cholesterol. He likes to heat shirataki noodles (a low-calorie noodle made from tofu or a kind of sweet potato) in store-bought chicken broth seasoned with lime juice.

Kent Rathbun’s weight loss prompted him to create healthy dishes for his Dallas restaurants. He makes his crunchy jalapeño-spiced coleslaw with crab, shrimp and lobster, but this shrimp-only version is also delicious.

Thick and creamy Greek-style yogurt contains bacteria cultures that may aid in digestion and strengthen the immune system. As an homage to her Greek heritage, Marisa Churchill uses it as the base for her tangy, low-fat panna cottas.

Mussels are lean, but the huge hunks of bread and french fries they’re usually served with are very caloric. Chef Michael Psilakis cleverly serves his mussels with fiber-rich beans instead to sop up the delicious juices.

Elizabeth Falkner loves eating these energy-boosting, cardamom-spiced date bites made with almonds, walnuts and pistachios. “Eat two of these as a snack or with some juice for breakfast, and you're satisfied,” she says.

Mushrooms are packed with minerals like selenium that have been shown to guard against some cancers. Here they’re drizzled with lemon juice in a salad Joe Bastianich calls “soulful but still filling.” He adds, “Raw mushrooms are a great conduit for good olive oil.”

Brian Talley, who says he “cooks as much fish as everyone in the family will tolerate,” pairs sweet flounder (a great source of lean protein) with a slightly smoky, healthy relish of homegrown chile peppers, corn and avocado.

“Rabbit might be the perfect meat,” says chef Jenn Louis of Lincoln in Portland, Oregon. “The animals are very easy to raise and the meat is lean but flavorful.” Louis, who has lost and kept off 34 pounds, cooks a lot of rabbit at her restaurant and eats it often at home.

“At the restaurant, I used to take slices of bacon off trays, stuff them in a roll and eat that as a snack,” says chef Jeremy Sewall, who has lost about 40 pounds. He now stashes healthy snacks, like this roasted nut mix, everywhere to help him resist other temptations.

“If I don’t have good food at hand, I always eat the wrong thing,” Quinn Hatfield says. That’s why he keeps grilled meats in his fridge for sandwiches.”

Chef Nate Appleman lost lots of weight by running. After a morning workout, he often makes this smoothie, which gets a dose of protein from almond butter.

Chef Tim Cushman’s bright, briny salsa, full of vitamin E-rich olives, is more like a crunchy tapenade. It’s delicious over white fish like hake.

Inspired by an Italian Caprese salad, this tomato salsa is full of calcium-rich cheese. It’s so chunky it could be eaten on its own with a fork, but it’s also wonderful with shredded chicken.

Chef Art Smith says that eating breakfast speeds up his metabolism and also fuels his intense workouts. He swears by steel-cut oatmeal, which has an appealing chewy texture.

Hearty-healthy tuna is a high-protein source of omega-3 fatty acids. Andrew Murray pairs it with a vibrant salad made with crisp snow peas, a good source of B vitamins and vitamin C.