--- title: Certifiably Good description: Chefs seek a new culinary seal of approval for healthy dishes canonical: https://time.com/archive/6642076/certifiably-good/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-07-16T04:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-26T16:23:27.310Z article:section: Health og:title: Certifiably Good og:description: Chefs seek a new culinary seal of approval for healthy dishes og:url: https://time.com/archive/6642076/certifiably-good/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt884470013fe7f925/698a450109208f4f6441b37f/360_culrestaurants_0716.jpg?branch=production&width=360&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 360 og:image:height: 203 og:image:alt: 360_culrestaurants_0716.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Certifiably Good twitter:description: Chefs seek a new culinary seal of approval for healthy dishes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt884470013fe7f925/698a450109208f4f6441b37f/360_culrestaurants_0716.jpg?branch=production&width=360&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Certifiably Good > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=51bd4f31-83cb-4ee8-ab60-c01d7fe64a1a&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/) Jul 16, 2012 4:00 AM UTC  Ingredients from the asparagus-and-beet salad served at New York Citys Rouge Tomate, the first U.S. Ingredients from the asparagus-and-beet salad served at New York Citys Rouge Tomate, the first U.S. Grant Cornett for TIME by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/) Jul 16, 2012 4:00 AM UTC It’s impressive enough for a chef to get a Michelin star. But Jeremy Bearman managed to earn his without the help of a key ingredient: cream. His Manhattan restaurant, Rouge Tomate, also uses very little butter. Bearman is steering clear of these staples of fine dining because he is following a new set of culinary guidelines–voluntary standards not unlike architecture’s LEED certification, which denotes a building’s energy efficiency. The new system is called SPE, short for sanitas per escam (Latin for “health through food”) and stresses not only using local, seasonal ingredients but also combining them in ways that maximize their nutritional value. The emphasis on nutrition isn’t just lip service; a dietitian works closely with Bearman to ensure that all his dishes are healthy as well as haute cuisine, telling him to swap out the duck fat here, add some more whole grains there. Until recently, however, Rouge Tomate’s patrons were none the wiser. The restaurant’s owner, SPE creator Emmanuel Verstraeten, says he intentionally kept the good-for-you message off the menu. “We didn’t want to scare people away,” he says. Some diners still equate healthy with bland. But convinced by the interest expressed by other chefs in his SPE principles, Verstraeten is ready to go public. This spring, the Belgian-born restaurateur launched a certification program that invites U.S. chefs to submit recipes–or entire menus–for revision to meet the criteria he developed with the help of several nutrition experts. The program’s 90-page charter details such things as eking more iron from plant-based foods by combining them with vitamin C–rich produce–hence those strawberries in that expertly tossed spinach salad. In dishes with naturally salty ingredients like olives or soy sauce, adding foods rich in potassium such as raisins and plums or even protein like halibut and salmon can counteract salt’s effect in raising blood pressure. Tomatoes, meanwhile, are better in a sauce rather than served raw because healthy oils help release the cancer-fighting compound lycopene, which is fat soluble. Verstraeten’s goal is for the SPE logo to become a selling point at restaurants–and a moneymaker for his consulting firm. For about $300 or less per dish, it will help restaurants rework their recipes so they can get the SPE seal of approval. A handful of chefs have already signed up, including Guillaume Hazal-Massieux, at La Bcasse in Maple City, Mich., who submitted three dishes for certification. He’s eager to see how his clients react, though he realizes that a logo alone won’t persuade people to eat healthier. “This is a first good step to making restaurant food better,” he says. As long as it continues to taste good too. Rouge Tomate, New York City Chef Jeremy Bearman earned a Michelin star for how good his food tastes and SPE certification for how healthy and sustainable his ingredients are. To maximize the nutritional content in his octopus salad, left, he paired the lean protein–which is a rich source of B-12, selenium and potassium as well as omega-3 fats–with chickpeas, which are high in fiber. Low-calorie Moroccan spices provide flavor and lessen the need for sodium. At right, Bearman’s locally sourced, antioxidant-loaded beet-and-asparagus salad includes a quail egg for protein and a dressing made from fat-free Greek yogurt and whole-grain mustard to reduce calories. La Bcasse, Maple City, Mich. Chef Guillaume Hazal-Massieux was already using fresh, locally grown ingredients, but to make his glazed scallops healthy enough to earn SPE certification, he had to lower the amount of oil used in preparing the vegetables as well as the glaze on the scallops. The revisions cut calories by 17% and fat by 41%. The dish now provides 25% or more of the daily recommended intake of nine vitamins and minerals, and the vegetables and pineapple salsa qualify as two servings of fruit and vegetables. The Living Room, East Hampton, N.Y. The restaurant’s roasted chicken had to undergo a recipe overhaul in order to get certified. The changes included replacing butter with lower amounts of healthier oil and swapping out potato puree for potatoes roasted in their skins, which contain fiber and vitamin C. Now the dish provides 25% or more of the daily recommended intake of 10 vitamins and minerals, 39% fewer calories and 52% less fat. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6642076/certifiably-good/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6642076/certifiably-good/"},"headline":"Certifiably Good","datePublished":"2012-07-16T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-26T16:23:27.310Z","description":"Chefs seek a new culinary seal of approval for healthy dishes","url":"https://time.com/archive/6642076/certifiably-good/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt884470013fe7f925/698a450109208f4f6441b37f/360_culrestaurants_0716.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt884470013fe7f925/698a450109208f4f6441b37f/360_culrestaurants_0716.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"360_culrestaurants_0716.jpg","caption":"Ingredients from the asparagus-and-beet salad served at New York Citys Rouge Tomate, the first U.S.","creditText":"Grant Cornett for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6642076/certifiably-good/","name":"Certifiably Good"}}]}] ```