Restaurateurs Sizzle Over Kung Pao Study

Just one order of kung pao chicken was sold at the Mandarin in Beverly Hills the other day; normally the Chinese restaurant sells about 20 orders. The reason for the drop: the startling findings in a study released by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The group asserts that one order of kung pao chicken and a side of steamed rice has as much as 76 grams of fat--the equivalent of eating four McDonald’s Quarter-Pounders.

But a lot of Chinese restaurateurs are crying foul.

“This is an indictment of a dish that’s not really fair,” says Bob Mandler, owner of the 10-year-old quick-service chain Chin Chin. Kung pao sales at Chin Chin’s Brentwood branch were nonexistent the day the study was released. “Chinese food is eaten family style. Who eats a whole order of kung pao chicken?”

CSPI, a nonprofit consumer interest group based in Washington, bought nine orders of 15 popular Chinese dishes--egg rolls to sweet-and-sour pork--from 20 restaurants in Washington, Chicago and San Francisco.

The ingredients in each sample were separated and weighed. CSPI then combined the samples--all the various kung paos, for instance--and shipped them to an independent lab to be analyzed for calories, fat, saturated fat and sodium.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” says Philip Chiang, owner of the Mandarin. “(The fat count) depends on what part of the chicken you use, how it’s trimmed, what kind of oil you cook it in. There is so much involved.”

According to Jayne Hurley, associate nutritionist at CSPI, there were up to 9 ounces of peanuts in orders of kung pao purchased in Washington versus only 2 to 3 ounces in San Francisco. “San Francisco,” says Healy, “actually brought the average down.”

Tony Silvagni, maitre d’ at Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills, puts it this way: “I’ve worked here two years now. I eat Chinese food every day, and I’ve lost weight.”

BACK IN BUSINESS: There was a time when Steven Sponder, founder of the popular Palace Cafe in Santa Barbara, thought he was going to have to close because of rising workers’ compensation insurance rates. He wasn’t alone. Border Grill on Melrose, Jay’s Deli in Long Beach, and Steven Pyles acclaimed Routh Street Cafe in Dallas have all closed due in part to the cost of workers’ comp.

Five years ago, an employee filed a claim for a back injury and Sponder saw his premium rate jump from $20,000 per year to $60,000--in one day.

“All I could think about was how--and when--I would go out of business,” says Sponder.

Then Sponder heard about a former judge who conducts workers comp seminars. According to the judge, the best way to handle a claim is to bring the injured employee back to work as quickly as possible. Find the employee something to do. It’s infrequent, he said, that someone is totally disabled at work. Sponder would rather have the employees sit through a shift doing nothing than have them draw benefits at home.

“We’re all paying for cases where the lawyers tell the employee, ‘Whatever you do, don’t go back to work,’ ” says Sponder. “It should be left to the doctor to say what an employee can or can’t do.”

In one recent case, one of Sponder’s employees was slated to go on permanent disability, which would have cost his insurance company $200,000. By bringing the worker back to a less strenuous job, the insurance company only had to pay out $1,000 in doctor bills.

“At first,” says Sponder, “the employee wasn’t so thrilled because the lawyer had promised him thousands of dollars. But on the other hand, he still had a job.”