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Shrimp & Smoked Oyster Chowder uses smoked oysters instead of bacon for a woodsy flavor.

Lots of food professionals think that fat equals flavor. Can't something taste sublime without a burdensome amount of fat and calories? Food & Wine editor-in-chief Dana Cowin asked some of her favorite chefs, many of them known for super-indulgent dishes, to come up with recipes that would cause food lust without containing untoward quantities of fat and calories. Here are some of their ideas:

From Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene and Holeman and Finch Public House in Atlanta: Two ways to give his Shrimp and Smoked Oyster Chowder a creamy conistency without fat are to add cubed potatoes to the broth for thickness along with naturally low-fat buttermilk for a creamy tang. Instead of fatty bacon, he uses smoked oysters to give the chowder a slightly woodsy flavor.

Laurent Tourondel of the BLT Steak empire follows the example of Thai cooks by aiming for a mix of sweet, salty, sour and bitter flavors in his Thai Crab & Green Mango Salad.

When cooking Grilled Pork Tenderloins with Vegetable Curry, Sue Zemanick of Gautreau's in New Orleans uses coconut water (the clear liquid inside young coconuts) combined with two tablespoons of full-fat sour cream instead of coconut milk (one cup of which has 552 calories, 47.9 percent of them from fat)

Paul Kahan of The Publican in Chicago uses spelt flour, high in protein and fiber, to make Spelt Focaccia with Kale, Squash and Pecorino, which has the heartiness of a pizza.

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