On a crusade for healthy eating

Graham Kerr, the "Galloping Gourmet" of 1960s television fame, crusaded against overindulgence - and for healthy eating - in Kalispell this week.

That is quite a switch from his days of leaping about the set, glass of wine in hand, while whipping up sinful concoctions laden with butter and cream.

Kerr shared his passion at Flathead Valley Community College as the kickoff star for the foundation's Festival of Flavors 2008 fundraiser. His appearance was arranged through his son Andrew, a Flathead Valley resident.

Andrew said instructor Hillary Ginepra has helped him develop a cooking program at Youth With A Mission, a Christian group in Lakeside.

Since Kerr, his wife, Treena, and his friend Karl Guggenmos were visiting his family, Andrew said he saw a way for the community and culinary program to benefit.

"I wanted to bless Hillary and the program here," he said.

Kerr, the first superstar television chef, charted a new course away from butter, cream and copious wine after his wife suffered a heart attack and stroke. Now, he champions the virtue of moderation in calories as well as alcohol.

As a wake-up call to Americans, Kerr cites statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We have 440,000 people malnourished from unwise overeating," he said.

On Wednesday, Kerr and Guggenmos, dean of culinary education at Johnson & Wales University, met with community college culinary students who later cooked up Kerr's recipe for elk steak served with local produce for the first festival event.

After the meal, the two discussed the future of food as participants on a panel open to the public. Kerr uses such forums to alert Americans that they face bleak health as well as economic consequences from decades of nutritional decay.

He considers the food industry an enabler, shrugging off social responsibility in feeding a food-aholic epidemic. As portions and people grow larger, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other diseases plague a larger and ever-younger segment of the population.

"We have a very broken system at the moment," Kerr said.

During an interview with the Daily Inter Lake, he and Guggenmos described their work together on an upcoming book as an effort to unite two "completely different spheres" to provide customers information and alternative choices in restaurants and grocery stores.

"I represent the customer and he represents chefs," Kerr said. "We are the bookends for American cuisine."

He referred to their opposite perspectives as well as his West Coast home in Washington state versus Guggenmos' East Coast home in Rhode Island. Kerr laughed as he pointed out even their initials are opposites- GK versus KG.

The two share common roots in Europe. Kerr was born in London, where his father managed hotels; Guggenmos grew up in Germany.

Kerr first learned his way around the kitchen from the chefs at his father's hotels while Guggenmos worked his way up to certified master chef in Germany's education system.

In America, Guggenmos earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Johnson & Wales University as well as certifications as an executive chef and culinary educator from the American Culinary Federation.

Guggenmos said he started a second career as a culinary educator after working 30 years in the food industry as a professional chef at hotels, restaurants and country clubs in Germany and the United States.

As a dean at Johnson & Wales, Guggenmos influences about 6,000 students at four campuses which now present nutrition as a matter of course in the curriculum. But even with an educational assault, he admits the industry ignores obesity and other concerns.

"We say the health issue is not my problem," he said. "We've got to entice people to eat food - create the pleasure of eating."

Decades ago, pleasure in food and drink seasoned with zany antics fueled Kerr's rise to fame on television as "The Galloping Gourmet," a show produced by his wife in Canada. The show ended in 1971 when the two were critically injured when a truck struck the motor home in which they were sleeping.

The accident led the couple to spend two years sailing and then to settle in the United States where first Treena then Kerr and their children became born-again Christians. Along with their religious conversion, Kerr's wife inspired his rebirth as a proponent of eating small but well when her health collapsed in 1986.

Since then, Kerr has written numerous cookbooks and appeared in radio and television programs, including a PBS series "Graham Kerr's Gathering Place" and the National Cancer Institute's "5-A-Day" program series.

Kerr, still lean and energetic at 74, speaks volumes to the virtue of following his healthful advice. But most Americans haven't since obesity and its health consequences remain rampant.

Working with his chef friend, Kerr hopes to turn the tide by chipping away at what Guggenmos calls a brick wall in the food industry.

Kerr suggests giving customers a second menu with nutritional information as an easy step.

"I want to give people a whole-mind experience," he said.

Calling menus sales pieces for the senses, Kerr said sumptuous food descriptions activate the right brain while only price stimulates the left. He wants calorie and other nutritional data included for analytic left-brain decision-making.

Kerr also advocates adding more flavorful healthy alternatives to the lineup, like "a lovely piece of yellow-fin tuna."

"My submission is that the customer now has no choice," he said.

Kerr claims diners are enticed into gastronomic sinning by masterful marketing techniques. But Guggenmos counters that previous efforts made by the restaurant industry to inform customers of calories, carbs and fats have fallen flat.

"We've tried this," he said. "The customer doesn't want to know."

Guggenmos said major chains such as Applebee's provide nutritional information. According to the National Restaurant Association, customers don't look at it.

Even more discouraging, he said, the industry shows no interest in cutting portions because such efforts have trimmed down customer traffic.

"The industry is going the opposite direction to bigger portions," he said.

But Kerr refuses to give up.

He suggests that the government should play a role in making consumers face the truth about the health consequences of continuing to shovel mountains of food into their bodies.

He points to the success of safety belts and anti-smoking government efforts.

He ties it into mounting health care costs.

"This is as dangerous to your health and future economy as smoking is," Kerr said. "Who's going to pay for it?"

Guggenmos agrees that portion size contributes to the nation's expanding waist lines. Yet he said the industry can't survive without providing what the consumer wants.

"They say, 'You try serving a 4-ounce steak to a customer,'" he said.

Kerr continues to look for a meeting place in the middle with a realistic view of the American lifestyle. He said convenience has become the hallmark of meal planning.

He said he has lived long enough to see meal preparation time tolerance fall from one hour to 20 minutes to 10 minutes.

"Seventy-four percent of us have no idea what we're eating for dinner at 4 p.m.," he said. "We turn our lives over to convenience food."

People interested in reading about Kerr's ideas, appearances and recipes should go to www.grahamkerr.com.

His recent books include "The Gathering Place, Volume II," "The Gathering Place," and "Swiftly Seasoned with Graham Kerr."

As he looks to the future, Kerr foresees a day when 80 percent of Americans take two-thirds of their meals through a straw, reserving just one-third of food intake for "the enjoyment factor."

Guggenmos disagrees with that prediction, but the debate continues.

Kerr said their book may take several years but they will they butt heads for as long as it takes to find a middle ground between customers and the $50 billion food segment of the economy.

He sees the stakes as too high to give up the food fight.

"I'm being sickened by this industry," Kerr said. "It's broken and we need innovation to fix it."

People interested in reading about Kerr's ideas, appearances and recipes should go to www.grahamkerr.com. His recent books include "The Gathering Place, Volume II," "The Gathering Place," and "Swiftly Seasoned with Graham Kerr."

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.