Can everyday meals be super-healthy yet delicious? Katie Caldesi insists they can - and may even keep type 2 diabetes in check. Sandra Carter reports.

It’s easy to despair about food advice. Butter, eggs, bread, wine, fruit juice… good or bad? Add in reports of obesity and type 2 diabetes ‘epidemics’, and cooking meals can seem a joyless challenge.

I am in Katie Caldesi’s family kitchen in Gerrards Cross with a few other students on a cookery class to explore new ways to produce winsome dishes. Some here are coping with type 2 diabetes, others, like me, would like to lose a little weight and feel more energetic. Katie will show us how.

We set to and make intriguing bread rolls with nuts, seeds, grated mozzarella and eggs (no flour), broccoli soup enriched with coconut, salmon pate given extra texture with red lentils (sounds iffy, it’s lovely), crisp thin pizzas with a base of ground almonds, flaxseed, mozzarella and eggs. (Katie also makes pizzas with grated courgette and almonds, or you can fry an omelette on one side, add toppings and finish under the grill.)

Then we cook pot roast chicken packed with flavour, harissa roast cauliflower steaks with tahini dressing and salsa, and the grand finale, a buttery almondy sponge pudding topped with hot raspberry sauce and custard (with only vanilla extract to add a hint of sweetness).

What’s missing? Sugar, of course, the ultimate villain, and starchy carbs like flour and potato. These dishes are low on carbs of all kinds. And when we come to taste it all, it’s a revelation of delicious flavours.

Katie, who runs Caldesi restaurants in Bray and Marylebone with her celebrity chef husband Giancarlo as well as a popular Italian Cookery School, has written a dozen cookbooks on regional Italian cuisine and world salads. She had no idea that her latest, published earlier this year, would become an instant best-seller.

“The Diabetes Weight-loss Cookbook absolutely hit the zeitgeist of the moment,” she says. “There has always been a call for help with weight-loss, but today everyone knows someone whose life has been touched by diabetes.”

The couple join forces with High Wycombe nutritional therapist Jenny Phillips to explain the link between carbohydrates and type 2 diabetes and provides a wealth of low-carb recipes.

As we chop and stir we hear how this food-loving couple started on this journey. “Giancarlo has always loved his Italian food, especially pasta, and of course running the restaurants we are surrounded with traditional Italian cuisine. But six years ago he became very unwell and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. He took the medication and followed the guidelines to reduce carbs but was still unwell, and found he was also gluten intolerant. Cutting out wheat and going on a very low carb diet, to our amazement in time he reversed his diabetes, was off medication and lost 20kg. The whole family noticed health benefits too.”

As Katie began developing new ways to cook for the family, she explored the emerging science behind low carb eating and discovered a worldwide community. “People around the world are experimenting with ways to keep their carb count down and cook really delicious food without the sugar spike. We’re all learning from one another as we share ideas.”

How about the Caldesi restaurants? “We still serve our traditional Italian dishes,” Katie says, “but we also add low-carb options, for example, ragu over buttered cabbage instead of pasta. A lot of people choose it.” For details of the cookery schools at Gerrards Cross, Bray and Marylebone and The Diabetes Weight-Loss Cookbook, see www.caldesi.com/shop