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I have been a professional cook and chef for some time now, and I have taken enough nutrition classes to know how to discern the nutrition information of most any food item. Americans purport to be thinking about their health more than ever even as they still consume Whoppers and Big Macs like they are going out of style (and I would argue that they already have). The problem with trying to require restaurants to list calories, fat grams et al. on their menus is threefold.

First, as sad as it makes me to admit this fact, it is hard enough to get most cooks/chefs to whip up palatable food. With the advent of the food-obsessed American, more exotic ingredients and techniques from around the world are being increasingly incorporated into restaurant repertoire. And, just as chefs often botch the use of these ingredients, so too would it be a crapshoot getting honest dietary information out of that chef. You have a better chance pulling teeth from a crocodile.

Second, even if the chef is a competent individual capable of correctly calculating calories and the like, there is no guarantee that he or she is going to give you that accurate information. Some chefs are ignorant; the rest are malicious. If most Americans were provided the dietary information in restaurant dishes aside their description in the menu, there would be a sales spike in salads. And, while this is not necessarily a bad thing healthwise, the profits generated by a kitchenful of salads are much smaller than a windowful of filet mignon. The potential for doctored numbers is great; many chefs already take many liberties in naming ingredients on their menus.

Finally, there is no guarantee that the cook making your pasta on Tuesday is the same one on Friday. And cook one could be really liberal with the butter, while cook two might go heavier on the olive oil. Different cooks have different opinions of how a dish should look and taste. And what looks really healthy one night might really be a big plate of artery clogger.

Should restaurants and chefs be required to provide dietary information on request? Absolutely! Chefs worth their salt should be able to go to a calorie book and derive the pertinent data from within. They should have done this during menu creation, balancing the healthiness of each of their menu items. And a restaurant should be willing to provide this raw data to anyone who wishes. After all, most decent chefs would have this information in their computer already; just print the information and take it to the table. But most Americans are dining out in an effort to escape from the drudgery and admonishment of numbers. Forcing restaurants to place this data directly on the menu is an unnecessary burden; customers who desire this information are better served asking their server to retrieve it from the chef.

Learn more about this author, Zach Bigalke.
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