Smart Chefs Stay Slim: Lessons in Eating and Living From America's Best Chefs

Chefs are around delicious, tempting food all day. So how do they manage to look good while eating so well? When People magazine editor Allison Adato found covering the restaurant world was taking a toll on her own waistline, she turned to top chefs for their secrets.  Here, more than three dozen greats like Eric Ripert, Thomas Keller, Rick Bayless, Tom Colicchio, and Michelle Bernstein reveal how to:

• Always enjoy the food you love

• Choose big flavors for maximum pleasure

• Read a restaurant menu and indulge the way smart chefs do

• Cook the easy, satisfying meals that pros prepare at home

• Use lemon, salt, and olive oil to make almost any dish terrific

• End your day with a square of chocolate

You don’t have to cook like a four-star chef to eat like one! Like so many Americans, celebrity chefs also face the strain of balancing a good diet with a busy lifestyle. Now they share their own smart tips, scrumptious recipes and personal stories of losing over 100 pounds, of taking off baby weight and eating with kids, and of celebrating a love for food without sacrificing health—all while indulging an appetite for life.

Allison Adato is an award-winning journalist and senior editor at People magazine. Her work has appeared in Los Angeles Times magazine, and she was a staff writer at Life magazine. She lives with her family in New York City.