Lighten Up

When fat-free looks so finger-licking fabulous, how can we resist? And when Sesso and Fire, the restaurant at The Park Hotel in Delhi, beckon with their low-cal philosophy, we give in.

When Fire decided to overhaul its entire menu, it brought a dietician on board. It now offers a special diet cuisine created by Dr Shikha Sharma and her associate Karuna Kheda, along with Executive Chef Bakshish Dean.

Sharma recommends a meal of cumin gazpacho soup, Malabar pepper snapper with tamarind and melon scoops in a lemon and mint dressing.

True to its Spanish origins gazpacho means vegetables, the soup has generous helpings of cucumbers, tomatoes, and green and red capsicum.

And this superabundance of colour and flavour is easy on the bathroom scales8212;a mere 85 calories per serving.

Knowing this makes it easier to dig into the tingling entreacute;e, which is fish fillets marinated in a mixture of ground black pepper, chilli-garlic-ginger paste and lemon juice, and then baked in banana leaves. The dietary damage? None to speak of really, at 61.3 calories.

We decide to celebrate8212;with dessert, naturally. The melon scoops not only sound light and summery, but also have a featherweight 43.8 calories per serving.

At Sesso, chef Dino Martelli recommends the fresh citrus salad loaded with lettuce, pomegranate and oranges. No heavy cream for the dressing, he says proudly.

His salads typically have 92 to 100 calories per serving, while the tapas averages 125.

For pasta sauces, Martelli uses minimal fat-free cream along with lean pieces of meat8212;such as slivers of parma ham. We tried penne with meat ragu, which contains a waistline-loving 200 calories per serving, and the zesty pasta with oranges which only has 125.

We ogled but denied ourselves the desserts in the deli, preferring to sample from the fruit basket Martelli had dressed up for the occasion. Finally, three-course meals that don8217;t leave us feeling guilty.