Counting Calories In America's Best Restaurants Slideshow

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Thomas Keller's signature dish at the famed French Laundry, oysters with pearl tapioca and caviar, contains 349 calories per serving. That's a lot for a small dish, but seems small considering the amount of cream and butter. Here's how calories were portioned in the recipe for Oysters and Pearls published in The French Laundry Cookbook.

 

Calorie Breakdown

Pearl tapioca: 5 calories

Milk: 260 calories

Oysters: 50 calories

Cream: 1026 calories

Crème fraîche: 220 calories

Egg yolk: 219 calories

Shallots: 11 calories

Vinegar: 4 calories

Butter: 815 calories

Caviar: 75 calories

Chives: 1 calories

 

Total = 349 (divided by eight servings)

José Andrés’ Olive Oil Pancakes

José Andrés's menu at The Bazaar in Los Angeles contains a mixture of both simple and gourmet takes on Spanish tapas-inspired dishes. He has been acclaimed for his olive oil pancakes, which use olive oil instead of butter, and have a generous dose of dark chocolate. After examining the ingredients noted in Made in Spain: Spanish Dishes for the American Kitchen, by José Andrés with Richard Wolffe, calculations reveal that the dish contains approximately 569 calories per serving.

 

Calorie Breakdown

Flour: 796 calories

Sugar: 98 calories

Baking powder: 10 calories

Egg: 63 calories

Buttermilk: 147 calories

Olive oil: 495 calories

Chocolate: 407 calories

Honey: 258 calories

Total =  568.5

Mario Batali’s Mint Love Letters with Spicy Lamb Sausage

Batali's iconic pasta dish at New York City's Babbo restaurant consists of delicate pasta envelopes filled with peas, cream, and mint, stewed in a hearty tomato and lamb sausage sauce. Examining Mario Batali's recipe for Mint Love Letters with Spicy Lamb Sausage as contributed to Food & Wine, reveals that the dish weighs in at 578 calories.

 

Calorie Breakdown

Peas: 53 calories

Mint: 1 calories

Parmesan: 431 calories

Cream: 411 calories

(Merguez: 110 per serving)

Cheese: 400 calories

Flour: 1,820 calories

Eggs: 420 calories

Oil: 31 calories

Oil: 60 calories

Onion: 28 calories

Carrot: 20 calories

Tomato: 70 calories

 

Total = 578 (after dividing by eight servings)

Eric Ripert’s Ultra Rare Scallops

This dish at Le Bernardin helped showcase Ripert's mastery with seafood. Having analyzed Ripert's recipe for the dish as published on Delish, the barely-cooked scallops, served on mounds of rare mushrooms weigh in at approximately 215 calories.

 

Calorie Breakdown

Butter: 305 calories

Mushroom: 130 calories

Garlic etc.: 18 calories

Vinegar: 7 calories

Crème fraîche: 55 calories

Oil: 248 calories

Scallops: 83 calories

Butter: 15 calories

 

Total = 215 calories (divided by four servings)

Wylie Dufresne’s Fried Eggs Benedict

How Dufresne managed to turn a traditional brunch dish into a masterpiece of molecular gastronomy is still beyond comprehension, but his Fried Eggs Benedict at WD-50 is just that. The dish is unhealthy (though amazing) as it sounds, and at least after analyzing his recipe for the dish as published on Starchefs, weighs in at a whopping 1,477 calories.

 

Calorie Breakdown

Weirdness: 10, 35, 3.5 calories

Egg yolk: 547 calories

Citric acid: 148 calories

Butter: 4,589 calories

Egg yolk: 320 calories

Flour: 100 calories

Bacon: 157 calories

 

Total = 1,477 calories (after dividing by four servings)

Daniel Boulud’s Sea Bass in Syrah Sauce

At Daniel Boulud's eponymous restaurant in New York, the showcases his French creds with this Sea Bass in Syrah Sauce, whose recipe is on his site. As it reveals, in typical French gastronomic fashion, there's plenty of cream and butter to go around. That may explain the dish's 863 calories.

 

Calorie Breakdown

Sea bass: 501 calories

Potatoes: 658 calories

Butter: 407 calories

Oil: 124 calories

Mushrooms: 11 calories

Chicken stock: 86 calories

Wine: 488 calories

Cream: 52 calories

Butter: 204 calories

Leeks: 109 calories

 

Total = 863 calories (after being divided by four servings)

Grant Achatz’s Black Truffle Explosion

It's still hard to wrap your head around this dish at Chicago's Alinea. The ravioli filled with black truffle juice plays with the boundaries between liquid and solid. Using the recipe for Achatz's signature dish on Alineaphile, the total calorie count totals approximately 509 calories. Think about the damage done by one bite, and what an extra order of the dish for the table can do.

 

Calorie Breakdown

Truffle: 150 calories

Butter: 1,076 calories

Truffle oil: 126 calories

Parmesan: 235 calories

Cornmeal: 1,231 calories

Oil: 10 calories

Milk: 6 calories

Whole egg: 189, 328 calories

Flour: 728 calories

 

 

Total = 509 calories (divided by 8 servings)

Dan Barber’s Brussels Sprouts

Barber's iconic farm-to-table restaurant, Blue Hill, made vegetables the star of the meal, which explains the popularity of his simple yet legendary Brussels sprouts dish, roasted and deglazed in balsamic vinegar and adding up to 250 calories, at least according to analysis of his recipe for the dish as published on Serious Eats.

 

Calorie Breakdown

Brussels sprouts: 76 calories

Oil: 371 calories

Vinegar: 56 calories

 

Total = 251.5 calories (after dividing by two servings)

 

Alice Waters’ Baked Sonoma Goat Cheese with Garden Lettuces

Alice Waters' signature dish embodies the key features of the cuisine that made Chez Panisse famous: simple, seasonal, and fresh. You may or may not find this 475-calorie dish on the daily-changing menu, but it still has people talking.

 

Calorie Breakdown

Oil: 371 calories

Vinegar: 3 calories

Shallot: 20 calories

Oil: 150 calories

Goat cheese: 304 calories

Greens: 54 calories

Bread: 1,000 calories

 

Total = 475 (after dividing by four servings)

Commander’s Palace Turtle Soup

The signature dish at this New Orleans institution may or may not have fed everyone from Jefferson Davis to Mark Twain. Wonder whether its 982 calories were there from the beginning.

 

Calorie Breakdown

Turtle: 979 calories

Butter: 1,215 calories

Onion: 88 calories

Celery: 38 calories

Garlic: 134 calories

Peppers: 71 calories

Veal stock: 60 calories

Flour: 455 calories

Sherry: 1,166 calories

Hot sauce: 2 calories

Worcestershire sauce: 54 calories

Lemon juice: 21 calories

Tomatoes: 97 calories

Spinach: 65 calories

Eggs: 465 calories

 

Total = 982 calories (after dividing by five servings)