Beef gets a bad health rap – but it is necessary for a healthy lifestyle, according to a visiting celebrity chef.

Scott Popovic – Angus Beef Corporate Chef – was speaking after hosting a winemakers dinner at the Waterlot Inn, where he designed the six-course menu which included beef brisket with herb gremalota in a marrow bone. It was hosted by Mr. Popovic and local chef Barry Cohen.

"In terms of a healthy diet, beef does sometimes get a bad rap," said Mr. Popovic. "The biggest thing to know about beef when it comes to a dietary frame is that beef is a powerhouse. It has a lot of zinc, iron, B vitamin and protein. You need beef to sustain a healthy lifestyle.

"But like everything you need balance. I wouldn't recommend eating it every day, three times a day, just like I wouldn't recommend eating chocolate three times a day, every day, for years. Everything in moderation. That is the key to a healthy diet."

He said beef has 29 cuts that are just as lean or have less fat than a chicken breast. "Chefs are very conscious of diet requirements and what people are eating," he said. "But they also realise that people want quality food and they want to indulge in a great steak.

"If a customer wants a leaner steak there are options. Sirloin and filet mignon, for example, are all very lean options."

Mr. Popovic comes from a fine dining background. He has worked for Charlie Palmer at Aureole Restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada, among other places.

"In Las Vegas, we were very fortunate to be able to interact with a lot of great chefs such as Thomas Keller of the French Laundry restaurant in Yountville, California. I have been very fortunate to work with these guys and to learn from them."

He fell into the job at Angus through a series of "one thing leading to another". "I wanted to challenge myself and do something different with the knowledge that I have," he said. "I love talking and being able to explain food to everybody. So one of the things I get to do with my job is to travel around and talk about beef and food."

Mr. Popovic grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of an auto worker. "In Ohio, until probably the past 15 years, it was very meat and potato-centric. I grew up with my mother feeding me meat and potatoes, gravies and stews and eating a lot of very eastern European ethnic food.

"There is a high concentration of eastern Europeans in Cleveland."

Mr. Popovic's ancestors were originally from a small village in Croatia, near the border with Serbia. "In Cleveland, they eat lots of cabbages and noodles and things like that," he said. "There are lots of perogies and kielbasa, and bratwurst. As a professional chef it has definitely molded me."

That influence could even be seen on Saturday's menu at Waterlot. One of the courses included a beef slider (a mini hamburger) topped with onions, a fried egg and bologna.

"That literally came about from my upbringing," said Mr. Popovic. "My dad would finish his shift at 8 a.m. Before he went to bed he would make himself bologna, and a fried egg on toast."

And Mr. Popovic said it seemed that his father was a man ahead of his time, because bologna is very popular in the United States right now. "You don't think about that kind of thing in a fine dining setting," he said. "But it represents my culture. You are seeing bolognas, pastramis and corn beef popping up on fine dining menus including Bobby Flay's Burger Palace."

Like a lot of chefs, Mr. Popovic's first culinary influence was his grandmother. "My mother would take me to my grandmother's house. My grandmother would always be in the kitchen cooking. I would pull up a stool and watch her. As I grew up I started to help her. My next-door-neighbour was a chef. He took me on a catering job for a party for the Governor of Ohio."

After getting this small taste of the glitz of the culinary world, he was hooked and he eventually attended Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, South Carolina. After working restaurants in Charleston, he worked in Las Vegas, Nevada for a time.

"It took my dad a little while to understand what I did, and also the hours I worked," he said.

"When everyone else is out playing, you are working. After I graduated from culinary school, one of my first jobs was at a restaurant in Cleveland. He came in and watched me work for three hours. I was chopping. I was in and out of the ovens. Sweat was pouring off me. He said 'is that how work is for you? I am proud. You work hard, and I can tell you love what you do'."

The next winemakers' dinner will be a Farmland Foods Winemaker's Dinner with chef Frank Domingas on May 22 at Waterlot Inn. The seven-course dinner for $110 plus 17 percent gratuity includes wine pairing. For more information telephone the Fairmont Southampton on 238-8000. There is also a Wente Winemaker's dinner at Bacci on May 7 for $89 and 17 percent gratuity.