Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

January 11, 2007 issue

Bistro Roca Eliminates Trans Fat from Menu

Bistro Roca in Blowing Rock has removed trans fats from all foods served at the restaurant. The move to a zero trans fats policy by one of the area’s new restaurants stresses the restaurant’s commitment to providing its neighbors and restaurant patrons with the highest quality food available.

“Our chefs and management have always been focused on providing the freshest, highest quality and best-tasting foods, and our latest step to remove all trans fats from our food is something we feel very strongly about at Bistro Roca,” said owner Cindy Milner. "We want our guests to feel comfortable eating with us on a daily basis knowing that we offer healthy, nutritious meals."

Beginning last month, the chefs began switching all breads and rolls, fry oils and other products to trans fat-free products. “The process wasn’t as hard as we first imagined,” said Michael Foreman, executive chef. “We make all of our own salad dressings with 100% olive oil. And our desserts, which are made in-house are made with cream and butter.” Roca has never used margarine or shortening in any of its foods. The piecrusts are made with butter. “The final step was to settle on a fry oil,” Forman continued. “We found a cold-pressed soy fry oil made here in North Carolina with no trans fat.”

Trans fats, or trans fatty acids, are formed when liquid vegetable oils go through a chemical process called hydrogenation, in which hydrogen is added to make the oils more solid. The majority of trans fats can be found in shortenings, stick (or hard) margarine, cookies, crackers, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods and other processed foods made with or fried in partially hydrogenated oils. The consumption of trans fat raises LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and lowers HDL (“good”) cholesterol, causing arteries to become clogged and increasing the risk of developing heart disease and stroke. Researchers at Harvard’s School of Public Health have estimated that trans fats contribute to 30,000 U.S. deaths per year.

Bistro Roca’s elimination of trans fats comes at a time when healthcare officials, restaurant owners and food companies are paying increased attention to finding alternatives to the use of trans fats in food preparation. A recent ruling by the FDA now requires that all food companies list any measurable trans fat content (0.5 grams or more) separately on the Nutrition Facts panel of all packaged foods. In addition, in September the New York City Board of Health voted unanimously to move forward with plans to prohibit restaurants in New York City from serving foods that contain more than a minute amount (less than 0.5 grams) of artificial trans fat.

Bistro Roca is located on Wonderland Trail in Blowing Rock and serves lunch and dinner every day except Tuesday. The restaurant opened in June 2005 in the fully renovated and historic Antlers Bar property. Anyone with questions about the restaurant’s move to no trans fats is encouraged to call 828-295-4008.