“Americans eat to live, Europeans live to eat.” Until recently, this snipe at our fast-food culture was pretty accurate. But today growing ranks of ordinary Americans are viewing food in a whole new light. Chefs are stars, organic is in, and diets don't mean depravation. Welcome to the new normal of conscious cuisine.

The Low-Carb Craze

If the low-carb craze is slowing, you wouldn't know it from the way meeting attendees are scarfing down high-protein fare. At the Insurance Conference Planners Association Educational Forum in Washington, D.C., in July, items such as lamb chops, salmon, and scrambled eggs were consumed with gusto. Pasta and bread? Forget about it.

Meeting menus at the major chains are finally getting into the Atkins groove. In April — three months after Starwood Chairman and CEO Barry Sternlicht observed that the low-carb box lunches at Starwood's World Conference in Phoenix disappeared faster than the sushi — Starwood launched its Low-Carb Lifestyle by Sheraton program, including a special banquet menu, in 200 Sheraton hotels in the United States and Canada. The program features more than 15 menu items for meals and breaks across the day — most of which contain fewer than 5 net carbohydrates — and an assortment of low-carb drinks. There's even a low-carb chocolate mint to leave on attendees' pillows at night.

Hyatt and Fairmont also are introducing Atkins-friendly banquet menus. “Every hotel company that does meetings is starting to offer them,” says Robert Mikolitch, director of catering at The Fairmont Washington. “And we lay out three times as much meat on the buffet table as we used to.”

“There's not an event we do that doesn't have a low-carb option,” adds Carole Statland, director of catering, Park Hyatt Washington. In March, Hyatt introduced a low-carb menu to Hyatt restaurants, room service, and banquet menus at more than 100 of its U.S. properties.

The approach is somewhat different at Marriott Hotels and Resorts, whose new Fit-for-You menu program is designed to meet a spectrum of health-conscious diets, including “carb conscious.” It also has low fat, low cholesterol, and organic categories. Bruno Lunghi, senior director of event management operations, Marriott International, says catering proposals and meeting menus printed on the Fit-For-You menu paper are being made available this fall to chefs at Marriott properties throughout the United States.

How are chefs getting creative with low-carb cuisine? Scott Lahey, executive chef at the North Maple Inn in Baskin Ridge, N.J., offers Mediterranean platters with marinated veggies, soprassata (spicy sausage), and cheeses on his banquet menu. At the Silverado Resort in Napa Valley, Calif., the chef develops customized low-carb menus using seasonal ingredients and such high-protein items as farm-raised abalone, kobe beef, and kurobuta pork.

But it's not always easy to add culinary flair to a low-carb menu, particularly for breakfast. At the Park Hyatt Washington, Statland has had success with deviled eggs, cheese trays, strawberries, and low-carb bagels with cream cheese. “People on Atkins understand you are somewhat limited,” she says.

Interactive Food Experiences

At RCMA's Behind-the-Scenes Experiences, participants enjoy the opportunity to help prepare food that will be served at their Tuesday noon luncheon. Invariably, the hands-on learning experience is a highlight of the morning.

When attendees checked into the Sagamore Resort at Bolton Landing, N.Y., last January for ICPA's Northeast chapter meeting , they were given a signature green chef's apron. The next morning, they broke up into teams, donned the aprons, and joined the resort's chefs in the kitchen to prepare a gala luncheon feast.

Interactive and teambuilding food experiences at meetings are very popular. At Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla., a favorite teambuilding option is a cooking challenge that has incorporated as many as 600 meeting attendees over a two- to three-day period, says Anne Hamilton-Chehab, vice president of resort sales and services. Using kitchens that are closed during lunch, participants are given “baskets” of food from which they must create a meal that is judged by the manager or group leader.

Kathy Sonnabend-Rowe, senior vice president, food and beverage at Sonesta Hotels, Resorts and Nile Cruises, feels passionate about “the personal touch of the chef,” and is expanding Sonesta's interactive food experiences. Among the most requested hands-on food stations at Sonesta for an hors d'oeuvres reception is a mashed potato station with mashed basil and buttered sweet potatoes, garlic Yukon gold potatoes, and sour cream and chive white potatoes. Attendees choose the type of potato, and then top it with fresh peas, caramelized onions, blue cheese, or gorgonzola.

At Marriott International properties, traditional “action stations,” such as pasta stations and carving stations, “are being updated with current food offerings, such as dim sum, small plate stations in the style of tapas, and mini comforts such as mini pot pies and braised short ribs,” says Lunghi. Increasing numbers of attendees, he says, are asking chefs at omelet or stir-fry stations to customize their orders, which is “very appealing to those on special diets.”

Interactive food experiences can become learning opportunities. At the North Maple Inn, Lahey does culinary demonstrations that teach attendees how to buy, clean, and de-bone salmon, or how to make olive oil infusions.

Cutting-Edge Cuisine

After years of being known for rubber chicken and tasteless mystery meat, hotel banquet food has morphed into a new realm of trendy cuisine. This includes everything from serving meat platters at breakfast — a typically European tradition — to placing dessert samplers in the center of the table rather than serving full-size desserts to each attendee. Regional and seasonal are the buzzwords of the new meeting menus, and comfort food reigns. Here are some examples of meals across the day that typify the new way of thinking about meeting menus.

Breakfast: Whole grain cereal, yogurt parfaits, cheeses, and sliced meats accompany traditional bacon and eggs on full breakfast buffets. Toast stations include homemade grain and nut breads that attendees can top with seasonal jams. Chefs may carve fruit to order or blend customized smoothies.

Lunch: Salads assembled to order are the latest trend in lunch buffets. Sonesta's Little Havana Cuban food experience, for example, includes made-to-order arepas (traditional Venezuelan corn cakes), empanadas, grilled fish, and churrasco steak with chimichurri sauce (a savory blend of garlic, jalapeno pepper, oregano, and parsley).

Chicken Caesar salad or cold poached salmon with marinated haricot vert (skinny string beans) typify a lighter breed of plated lunch.

Breaks: Food at breaks is all over the map and more diverse than in the past. Fresh mango juice and low-carb energy bars; espresso and mini-chocolate croissants; and beef and turkey jerky are a few examples. Sonesta's Tropical Break features chocolate-dipped fruits and coconut and banana smoothies. And high tea is coming into vogue for an afternoon break in many venues.

Larry Pirner, executive chef of Intrawest — which manages the Copper Mountain Resort and Conference Center in Colorado — offers a different twist on the break. Along with snacks, attendees receive a gear bag that includes a water bottle, chocolate-coated espresso beans, and a high-energy squeeze pack (a gel-like food). Attendees not only chow down, but they also participate in activities that could include racing mini-bikes or hand-painting coffee mugs that get fired overnight and are given as takeaways at the next morning's coffee break.

Dinner: Whether buffet or plated, dinners are at the apex of the new culinary experience. Rather than complaining about the boring banquet fare, attendees are buying cookbooks that feature the gourmet chefs who wowed them at their meeting dinners.

A dinner reception, for instance, might include mini entree stations with fresh-grilled tenderloin steak, fresh seafood over couscous with a citrus buerre blanc, garlic-mashed purple potatoes, and grilled asparagus. Regional buffets with such items as tapas, paella, or Cajun jambalaya are also popular.

Another trend is to serve a two- to three-course plated dinner in one room, and then move attendees to a different room for socializing and an interactive dessert station.

Plated dinners range from informal, family-style meals — where big plates of comfort foods are passed around the table — to four- and five-course white-glove feasts. What they have in common is the use of fresh, seasonal ingredients. Game is the new twist on red meat; exotic fruits are being used for flavor-enhancing relishes; and wild Alaskan salmon is replacing sea bass as the fish of choice. Vertical food presentation is an ongoing trend, with such items as quick-fried onion strips or matchstick potatoes giving height to the plate.

Desserts: When it comes to dessert, not much has changed. Attendees are still eating sweets, particularly chocolate. What is new is that there are more choices than in the past.

Along with sugar-based desserts, a typical dessert buffet includes fruit and cheese, for example. One trend in plated desserts is smaller portions, or an offering of mini desserts. Another is the rebirth of the chocolate fondue, where guests dip fresh fruit or pieces of cake into a big pot of warm chocolate.

Big Eats: Conference and Convention Centers

Let's face it, convention and conference centers have not led the charge in innovative menus — until now. Ethnic theme events created by Victoria Todd-Smith, senior executive chef/F&B manager at Kent State University's Professional Education & Conference Center in Kent, Ohio, for example, include A Day with Degas, featuring the 19th-century French cuisine popular during the Impressionist movement.

Todd-Smith, who spearheaded this year's International Association of Conference Centers' Copper Skillet Competition (an international competition that pits chefs against each other in an Iron Chef cooking format), says that she enjoys putting together country-specific meals that expose attendees to new flavors and culinary traditions.

Seasonal banquet menus featuring locally grown foods have become a hallmark of the new conference center cuisine. Scott Lahey's signature dish is crispy-skin wild salmon with smoked tomato broth made from fresh Jersey tomatoes.

Lahey, who represented the United States at the Copper Skillet Competition, says that he often picks up the tomatoes himself from a local farm stand. Similarly, the New England Center at the University of New Hampshire in Durham serves groups local fried clams for just one month each year, when the clams are “sweet and plump and better than lobster,” says Gary Armitage, general manager.

Third-party contractors who manage convention foodservice for some conference and convention centers — most notably Sodexho, Aramark, and Centerplate — have upgraded their menus to include everything from high tea with finger sandwiches, mini scones, and chocolate-dipped strawberries to low-carb dinner entrees such as a duo of mirin-glazed Atlantic salmon and beef tenderloin medallion with Cabernet Sauvignon demi sauce. Sodexho's Your Health Your Way program — a series of meals that are low in fat and calories and contain at least 3 grams of fiber — is a new banquet menu option at Sodexho-managed facilities.

In-house convention center cuisine is making huge leaps. Who would expect Thai shrimp salad with wild greens, fresh mint, and basil; chilled papaya bisque; mango-roasted duck breast with red currant sauce; or macadamia nut cassata with tart orange coulis from a convention center?

These are just a few of the delectable regional specialties prepared at the Hawai'i Convention Center's 20,000-square-foot kitchen, where food is taken very seriously, says Randall Tanaka, director of sales and marketing.

The attention to cuisine at the center goes beyond the banquet menu, he says. Exhibitors can order food delivered to the booth, for example, which he says is a very popular program. He notes that the center's staff works with the planner to look at the menu offerings over the entire course of the event — including any off-site meals — so that menu items do not repeat. The biggest trend, he notes, is customized banquet menus that are based on the attendee profile.

Meet the Chef

In any venue, if you want to ensure that your attendees are served a memorable meal, ask to meet with the executive chef.

“It's particularly important if you are on a tight budget,” explains James Wolfe, director of administrative services for NCCI Holdings Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla. — based company that provides information on workers compensation insurance.

Wolfe, who attended the culinary program at Johnson & Wales in Providence, R.I., before embarking on a planning career, suggests that this meeting take place during the site inspection or pre-con meeting.

“It will ensure that your event is important to the chef,” he says. You don't need Wolfe's culinary credentials to have a productive conversation. “Just ask what the chefs like to fix and what unique regional or seasonal ingredients they like to use,” he advises.

Who Does What in F&B?

F&B Director: Some are hands-on and some are not. Ask for special menu recommendations. If the F&B director pulls out the stock list, talk with another member of the team.

Catering Services Manager: Empowered to offer standard banquet menus and to negotiate some prices.

Executive Chef: Some will help you plan great meal events, and others wear their whites for show. If you're looking for culinary creativity, get the executive chef involved.

Banquet Chef: At the very least, the banquet chef will be charged with the success of your food events and can provide important insights during menu planning; he may also be involved with meal preparation.

Sous Chef: The banquet sous chef (literally under chef) is the one who makes the meal happen. Make it a point to touch base with him when you're on-site.

Service Manager: Oversees dining and reception areas. The service manager can help you review timing and service needs.

Service Captain: Oversees a group of waiters or may function as the service manager for a small event.

Beverage Manager: Orders beverages and sets the prices.

10 BUDGET-SAVERS

You can add sizzle to banquet foodservice without busting the budget. Consider these tips:

1. Top silver-dollar pancakes cooked on the breakfast buffet with fresh fruit and whipped cream.

2. Include a panini station on the lunch buffet instead of deli cold cuts.

3. Offer mini-pizzas or focaccia with unexpected toppings such as smoked salmon, brie, prosciutto, and fresh mozzarella.

4. Serve a chicken Caesar salad for lunch instead of a three-course meal.

5. Use pencil breadsticks in a vase with crudite around the base as a centerpiece.

6. Put whole loaves of rustic breads on a cutting board with a knife, accompanied with an olive tapenade and a tomato concasse (toppings).

7. Serve almost any food in a martini glass — mini-martini glasses will save the most money.

8. Serve tender, juicy braised beef instead of tenderloin.

9. Instead of a 10-inch dinner plate, ask for a nine-inch plate and smaller food portions.

10. A cut-fruit centerpiece comes alive when a chocolate fondue is served for dipping at the end of a meal.

Thanks to The Fairmont Washington, D.C.; Park Hyatt Washington; Silverado Resort; Sonesta Hotel, Resorts and Nile Cruises; and Walt Disney World Orlando for these helpful hints. For more money-saving tips, log onto meetingsnet.com, click on Checklists in the Survival Guide section, and then go to Food and Beverage Savings.

POINTERS from a Professional

“Look for venues with progressive-thinking chefs in the kitchen," urges Tom Ney, Director-Food Marketing for Rodale, the Emmaus, Pennsylvania-based publishers of such magazines as Prevention and Men's Health as well as The South Beach and Abs Diet books. (How can you find out if chefs are progressive? Google them). Here are Ney's top pointers for pulling off a memorable meal:

Broiling meats can be tricky, particularly for a large group function. A good alternative is a filet dipped in rosemary-infused oil and baked in a low temperature oven.

Be politically correct whenever possible, out of respect for your attendees. Stay away from swordfish, sea bass, foie gras, and veal.

• Ask for the hotel's restaurant menus along with the catering menus to see what the kitchen can produce.

• Request a test dinner as insurance.

• Ask the chef to try aromatic broths instead of sauces.

• A three-dimensional relish rather than a flat sauce adds both height and flavor complexity to a dish.

• Never put alcohol in recipes (not even sauces) out of respect for religious or health concerns of attendees.

Skip the Sugar

Are today's breaks healthy? Not necessarily, says Dr. John La Puma, the lead researcher on a study about medical meeting food. He suggests the following break fare to maintain peak performance:

1. Bottled sparkling and still water, with lemon and lime wedges.

2. Good hot coffee and a selection of teas, with nonfat milk, half and half, and soy milk available. Also, consider offering hot yerba mate (a natural stimulant beverage with no side effects) and hot chai.

3. A bowl of seasonal, ripe fruit, preferably regionally grown.

4. Bowls of shelled, toasted, and unsalted almonds and walnuts.

5. Fresh corn tortillas and whole grain crackers, made without trans or saturated fats, and fresh blanched broccoli, cauliflower, and spring onions (or other vitamin-rich seasonal vegetables) served with a cooked tomato-based salsa and a simple guacamole, made without mayonnaise or sour cream, and with lime and chili.