I never intended the pursuit of healthful, organic cooking to be my lifelong endeavour, much less my passion. But I am passionate about achieving balance in every meal, about eating what is ripe and best in its season, and about enjoying the pure pleasure of eating simply and well.

My recipes are not overloaded with whole grains, tofu, and legumes. I cook all of these foods, but I also cook delicate seafood, robust red meat, and chocolatey desserts. My method is to allow the base ingredient to shine in its full glory. Corn is all about corn, sweet peas are about sweet peas, and so on. I use healthful techniques such as steaming and poaching. I adjust less healthful methods, like sauteing, by varying pan temperature and choosing oils that can withstand high heat without breaking down.

I was raised on Southern country cooking (read: soul food) and then trained as a chef in Continental and French restaurants. The first restaurant I owned, Miche Mache in Norwalk and then Stamford, Connecticut, featured a blending of the various styles of cooking that reflected my background and training. The menu included plenty of dishes that relied on fat, which is not surprising considering my culinary heritage.

I built my career by staying on the move and keeping my nose to the cutting board. My first job was at a truck stop in Northern Illinois, but I eventually landed in the kitchens of some of the best French restaurants in Chicago. French methodology amazed me. My mother always saved fat � beef, chicken, pork, bacon � for cooking, but when I entered a French kitchen I learned to cook with butter and expensive oils.

After Miche Mache had been open for three years, my wife, Lori, and I learned that our five-year-old son Chris had Type 1 diabetes. The news rocked our world and changed our family life forever. The doctors made it clear that the relationship between Chris�s diet and his overall health was crucial both for his daily well-being and for his life expectancy.

Word about Chris�s illness spread, and the outpouring of support was heart-warming and reassuring. Many also shared their own health problems. Many of our regulars had diabetes, heart disease, liver and blood disorders. The fact that so many of my friends and customers had health problems was an eye-opener for me. Combined with what I was learning about my son�s illness and its link to diet, I was determined to offer dishes on the menu that would be healthful and delicious.

After a few anxious months, I achieved some balance, both in my family life and at the restaurant. Out went all the junk food at home and in came fruits and vegetables and bottled water. At work, a similar, albeit partial, purging took place. I researched healthful oils, which turned me on to grapeseed oil, and I drastically cut back on the amount of animal fat I used in sauces. Vegetables became even more important on the menu, just as they had been on my mother�s table when I was growing up and learning about food.

The turning point in my career when I met Drew Nieporent and Michael Bonadies, partners in Myriad Restaurant Group and responsible for some of the world�s best and most respected restaurants: Montrachet, Layla and Tribeca Grill in New York; Nobu in New York and London; and Rubicon in San Francisco. I closed Miche Mache, went to work for Drew as a corporate consulting chef, and opened several hotel restaurants for clients.

During three three years, I had an ongoing discussion with Michael about having my own kitchen again. The opportunity arose when Drew and Michael began working with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Worldwide. The company proposed opening a Manhattan hotel with a restaurant to match the "urban oasis" concept for the rest of the hotel, which included a spa, gyms, and serene guest rooms. The hotel was named the W New York. Drew suggested calling the restaurant Heartbeat; he also suggested I take it on.

My head was spinning with ideas. I was being asked to open a debut restaurant in New York, the culinary capital of the world. What could be more thrilling and a better opportunity? Then Drew told me this concept meant creating a menu that used no butter, cream, or saturated fat. I was terrified. What would the sophisticated New York dining public make of this?

I thought about my son, Chris, my former customers at Miche Mache, and Drew�s vision. As simply and predictably as the sun rises over a farmer�s fields, everything lined with surety. I understood our destiny: Heartbeat, regardless of how well it was accepted and appreciated, was meant to happen.

I immersed myself in the kitchen. I realised that without cream and butter, my sauce arsenal would be severely limited, but when I recalled the work I had done with various fruit and vegetable juices, I thought of using them to finish sauces and broths. I looked to Asia for powerful flavour statements made with few ingredients. I experimented with low-temperature sauteing to prevent oil from breaking down over high heat and converting into free radicals. I worked with seasoned steaming broths, citrus zests, short-term brines, and long, slow roasting. I bathed in grapeseed oil and showered in citrus!

We scrambled for six months before we hit our stride � but hit it we did. The key was in relaxing. We were trying way too hard and not letting the ingredients speak for themselves. We allowed these amazing ingredients to do the work for us. We kept the food pure and simple. Almost overnight, everything changed. People started to refer to dishes as �amazing� instead of �good�. As I had said, before we opened Heartbeat, I started experimenting with juices to make success. I discovered numerous vegetables than can be made into rich, satisfying sauces. Some are lighter than others, and some take more time to make than others. All require a desire to experiment with the juicer, a degree of patience, and a mind open to new cooking techniques.

Along the way, I discarded my belief that fat was vital for flavour. With care and a desire for flavour, juice and pristine stock reductions result in sauces as delicious as any made with fat. I found that when you eliminate the fat, you also eliminate the ability to season the sauce with abandon. This makes it trickier to right an unbalanced sauce, but if you begin with the best and freshest vegetables and choose ingredients that love each other, chances are your sauce will naturally fall into balance. And the flavours will be refreshingly pure and simple.

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