By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Magazine
Sunday, May 22, 2005

Ever since he left the Roof Terrace at the Kennedy Center for Rock Creek restaurant in Bethesda, chef Fred Przyborowski has been busy distancing himself from his classical French culinary training.

At Rock Creek, the potato chips that flank his lean but tasty buffalo burger are not fried, they're sprayed with olive oil and baked. His chocolate cake substitutes sour cream for butter. And once a week he meets with a nutritionist to make sure each entree has no more than 500 calories, preferably fewer.

"It's a totally different way of cooking," Przyborowski says, in a voice that sounds both impressed and conflicted.

It's also a totally different way of eating. Rock Creek opened in a former deli in March with the mission of serving food that is good for you, and tasty to boot. Owners Judy Hammerschmidt and Tom Williams, longtime friends and novice restaurateurs, refer to their project as "conscious cuisine." Eager to open more such places, they're already helping to solve the home-dinner problem with a clever carryout service. Patrons who phone in orders between 3 and 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday can pick up their meals without leaving their cars, from Rock Creek's curbside entrance.

Menu writers will tell you that even though customers say they want healthy options, they tend to behave differently when they actually order a meal. Thus, a heart-healthy symbol next to a dish typically means it won't sell well. The menu at Rock Creek opens like a regular list, with "small plates" (appetizers) followed by main courses. Flip the paper over, though, and you'll get a nutritional breakdown of each dish. Calorie counts, fat counts, sodium and fiber measures -- it's plenty of information to help you make the decision that's right for you, and it reveals a few unexpected facts: At 530 calories, the vegetable sandwich weighs in heavier than that buffalo burger. (Pesto sauce is to blame, says the chef.)

The biggest surprise, however, is how satisfying some of the food is, even if you're not trying to eat lighter or smarter. The chef's lobster "bisque" tastes richly of the sea, with choice bites of lobster bobbing in a brick-colored liquid; the trademark "creaminess" comes not from a dairy product but from pureed Yukon Gold potatoes and basmati rice. Przyborowski's Mediterranean sampler would look very much at home at one of the area's mezze purveyors. Glossy stuffed grape leaves, garlicky hummus, some olives and a fluffy, herby tabbouleh make for delightful grazing. In another fine appetizer, slices of slightly charred tuna "carpaccio" arrive on a glistening nest of slightly crunchy seaweed.

The kitchen doesn't just trot out the usual mixed green salad, but takes the extra step of making it into something fetching, with toasted almonds, blood oranges and goat cheese. On the homier side, there's a bowl of white bean soup, thick with celery, fennel and tomato, that tastes as if it came from the stockpot of a good home cook. The crab cake, on the other hand, needs to be more consistent. One night it's moist, another it's dry. But I always approve of its co-stars on the plate: a refreshing apple-and-celeriac slaw and a few zigzags of chervil aioli, modified to include yogurt as well as mayonnaise. Lunch time finds a lovely fish sandwich -- blackened mahi-mahi -- rounded out with a jazzy sauce that smacks of heat and citrus, plus a crisp jicama salad.

The portions at Rock Creek are intended to satisfy you rather than stuff you. So the beef filet approximates the size of a deck of cards and the rockfish is cut to about six ounces. Lapped with a light red wine sauce, that meat is good, and arranged to seduce the eyes with bright green asparagus and some crisp bites of potato. The fish, though, was both overcooked and served without a starch when I had it. The presentation reminded everyone who tried it at my table that what we were eating was supposed to be good for us. Who wants the visual lecture?

Rock Creek is still in development. "For me, it's baby steps," the chef himself says. While there's much to like about this newcomer, I wouldn't count its dreary bread as a plus. And those big baked potato chips turn out to be chokingly salty. Spinach linguine bound with a rough sauce of crushed black olives, capers and garlic is gloppy, and the kitchen needs to better monitor its cooking times. An otherwise pleasing entree of seared scallops, nicely matched to a tingling roasted pepper sauce, was marred by its bed of arid rice.

Still, there's plenty that's right. Przyborowski manages to transform chicken, too often a wallflower among entrees, into something special. His free-range bird is succulent, and enhanced with verdant green beans, gently crisp carrots and -- best of all -- spaetzle punched up with lemon zest and cracked pepper.

I wish Rock Creek had lavished as much time on coaching the staff as it did on whittling calories from popular dishes. The servers are all friendly enough, but they tend to disappear just when you need them. And another nit: It's okay to deliver the check before it's requested in a coffee shop or a fast-food venue, but not in a restaurant that aspires to a certain stylishness. Twice, my bill has appeared as I was still eating dessert. It makes the diner feel rushed and the restaurant look amateurish.

Dessert is no doubt the chef's biggest challenge, and a bit of a letdown for his patrons. Strawberry soup is good for a few sips, but grows tiresome thereafter; its wiggly centerpiece of panna cotta tastes more of gelatin than of cream. Warm rhubarb in a phyllo purse is just fair.

The brightest note in the last course is roasted pineapple served with a scoop of tangy yogurt sorbet and a sail of dried pineapple. This finale is refreshing, attractive and something you'd be inclined to come back for -- whether or not you care that it's a mere 140 calories.