Health and fitness are about to take a giant step forward for Jewish diners as a well-known Brooklyn nutritionist is teaming up with a limited group of kosher restaurants that will be featuring nutritionally approved, diet-friendly menu items.
“Our clients are always asking us where to eat and what to order,” explained Tanya Rosen, founder and owner of Nutrition by Tanya.
With branches of her company in Flatbush, Boro Park, Williamsburg, Monsey and Lakewood, Tanya employs a dedicated team of nutrition experts and personal trainers and her clients have happily shed hundreds of pounds over the past several years. Her line of Tanya Approved Products (TAP), available in kosher supermarkets and Nutrition by Tanya locations throughout the greater New York area, includes muffins, diet cheesecakes and kugels. All have been extremely well received and Tanya has frequently found herself inundated with questions about smart restaurant choices for those who dine out.
“We have always given our clients basic guidelines, telling them to order items that are grilled, not fried, and vegetables, not oily potatoes, but they still wanted more specifics and there are always hidden items in many restaurant foods,” observed Tanya, who is also the co-owner of Shape Fitness in Flatbush.
Tanya set out to work with a few well-chosen eateries, conferring closely with chefs to ensure that any item bearing the TAP logo was both nutritionally sound and unapologetically delicious.
“We went into restaurants and we sat with the chefs,” said Tanya. “We weighed how much cheese was in a wrap. How much oil was in this item and how much butter was in another. We broke everything down and either it met our criteria, we modified certain components or we created our own TAP menu.”
The first restaurant to receive a TAP window sticker, informing customers that the menu offered choices that wouldn’t wreck their diet, was Boro Park’s Nori Bar. Sushi can often have as much as a full cup of rice in every roll, noted Tanya, and with hidden extras including spicy mayonnaise and high-in-fat avocado, it can pack a surprising number of calories. The special TAP-approved sushi menu offers portion-controlled light dressings; eight one-ounce sashimi varieties, which count as one protein each; and four vegetable rolls that can be eaten without any limits. For those with a sweet tooth, Nori Bar will have four Tanya-approved desserts: a sushi birthday cake, made of layered black rice, cooked fish, mango and cucumber; Pan-fried bananas with cashews; and sugar-free date syrup and a fruit sushi, wrapped in thinly sliced mango.
“We don’t compromise on quality or taste,” noted Tanya. “Everything will be fabulous tasting, not the kind of diet food that makes you feel deprived.”
Tanya has also been working closely with Pescada, a popular Flatbush restaurant that specializes in fish; Bordeaux, an upscale new-American steakhouse on Coney Island Avenue; Freund’s Famous Sushi and Grill in Boro Park; Manhattan’s Pitopia and several others. Outside of the city, expect to see the TAP logo at Chopstix in Teaneck and eateries in Monsey’s Town Square shopping center including Fireside, Hava Java and Chop and Chill as well as at the Evergreen sushi counter.
Tanya intends to add a few more strategically situated locations to her roster of TAP partner restaurants, giving her clients the ability to eat out throughout the metropolitan area. She views the TAP logo as a hechsher of sorts and plans to ensure that her nutritional guidelines are being strictly followed so that both her clients and the general public can enjoy worry-free restaurant meals.
“We want to make it easy for people,” explained Tanya. “The reality is that there are people who are going out to eat constantly and we want to give them the confidence to be able to do that while still sticking with the plan.”
For more information on Nutrition by Tanya and TAP-approved products, visit Tanya’s site at www.nutritionbytanya.com, email her at [email protected] or call 844-TANYA-DIET.
