Aubergine Kitchen Gives Meals a Healthy Makeover

The goal of Aubergine Kitchen is “To offer food that our customers love, but in a healthy way,” said Elcio Zanatta, who owns the Utah-based chain with his wife Mirian Zanatta.

 Started in Orem in 2014, there now are 10 locations, with three more on the way.

 While some places talk “clean ingredients,” and “healthy,” Aubergine takes it seriously. The popular Chicken Harvest Bowl is typical of the fare you’ll find. Roasted chicken is flanked by broccoli, cauliflower, yams, sweet potatoes, almond wild rice, shredded kale, and chopped tomato, with a cilantro jalapeno cashew dressing.

  “What sets us apart from other restaurants is the way we cook,” said Zanatta, when I interviewed him for a Standard-Examiner story.

 1. All the cooked veggies and proteins (chicken, tri-tip steak, tofu and fish) are roasted or baked.

2. The restaurant doesn’t use any seed oils (such as vegetable oil, corn oil, canola); only extra-virgin olive oil.

3. “We don’t use any sugar,” Zanatta said. “Our bakery items are sweetened with dates and fruits. Even our salad dressings are made without sugar or seed oil.”

4. There’s a big variety of veggies in the bowls and salads: sweet potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, romaine, spinach, kale, cucumbers, onion, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, and avocado.

5. There are good-for-you grains such as quinoa, almond wild rice, or even cauliflower “rice.”

6. Sweets also get a healthy makeover. Acai bowls, shakes and smoothies are sweetened with dates, stevia and monkfruit extract, and some contain good-for-you ingredients like spirulina and collagen. You can also enjoy, a “Nice Cream” frozen dessert made with coconut milk; coconut chia pudding, and gluten-free cakes or brownie bites made with “clean” ingredients.

7. There’s no soda pop on the premises. “It doesn’t match our beliefs,” said Zanatta. The drinks are made from fruits, veggies and a little stevia for sweetness. They also offer kombucha and kefir water. “They are amazing,” he said.

The bowls and salads offer a variety of global flavors, such Coconut Curry, Trip-tip Madeira, Greek Salad, the Rio bowl, and the Mediterranean bowl. Bowls and salads are around $13-16.

If you don’t find exactly what you want on the menu, you can create your own bowl or salad by choosing from the menu board’s list of ingredients.

Hot sandwiches include a hot steak melt, avocado cashew melt, chicken caprese melt, or chicken muhammara (a spicy dip made with walnuts and red bell peppers. 

Muhammara is also part of the Exotic Dip plate, along with hummus and baba ganoush. It comes falafel rounds and pita wedges for dipping. It works as a shareable appetizer, but it could also be considered a hearty meal.

Elcio Zanatta’s personal favorite is the Mediterranean Bowl, “because it’s got a variety of vegetables, and I love falafel. Our falafel is baked, not fried.”

  Most recently, Aubergine locations started serving breakfast — things like acai bowls, avocado toast, overnight oats, and veggie omelets.  

“We use only great ingredients,” said Elcio Zanatta. “Of course it’s harder, but that’s our purpose. It’s easier to buy processed foods, and open a can and serve it. But we don’t, we want to give to our customer the same food we like to give our grandchildren.”

Utah seems to be an incubator for fast casual restaurant chains, such as Cafe Rio, Vessel Kitchen, Cafe Zupa’s, Rumbi Island Grill, Costa Vida, and others. But the Zanattas took a longer route — they moved here from Brazil.

Elcio’s family was originally from Italy – “And the number one thing Italians like is to be around the table eating,” he said.

Mirian’s family is Lebanese, “And she’s a wonderful cook,” Zanatta added.

They also spent some time living in Europe, adding to their culinary knowledge base.   

Elcio Zanatta worked many years in Brazil’s clothing business, before moving to the USA so their children could study at Brigham Young University. He learned the restaurant business while running his friend’s Brazilian steakhouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

When the couple decided to move to Utah, they wanted to open their own business. They saw a need for affordable, healthy cuisine in a fast-casual format.

“I had been trying to eat healthy since I attended a Tony Robbins seminar in 2005,” said Zanatta (Robbins is a motivational speaker who advocates a plant-based diet). “But there was nowhere to go out to eat. We wanted something delicious, but healthy.”

Mirian took the role of executive chef and began creating the recipes.

They decided to name it “aubergine,” the European term for eggplant.

“Aubergine has a nice sound, and it’s related to Mediterranean cuisine, which uses a lot of eggplant in things like moussaka,” said Elcio Zanatta.

They opened the first restaurant in Orem, where they lived. The second location, in Sugar House, turned out to be the hardest.

“To open a second location is a big jump, and Sugar House had some issues with parking and other things. We considered closing it,” Elcio admitted.

  But, his son, Eduardo, cautioned that the Sugar House location was like a test for the business.

  “He said if we stayed with it, Aubergine would be successful; because if we’ve already worked through all these challenges, the next locations after this will be easy,” Zanatta said.

  So instead of closing, they worked through the issues, and “Today it’s a great location.”

  Since Sugar House, they opened in Lehi, Riverton, American Fork, Draper, Utah Valley University, St. George, Farmington, and Park City, with more places on the way.

  To further spread its nutrition message, Aubergine Kitchen is sponsoring a health seminar with New York Times best-selling author Dr. Joel Fuhrman on April 11, 5:30-9:30 p.m., at the Utah Valley University ballroom in Orem. Price is $30, which includes a $12 Aubergine gift card. Registration can be found on the Aubergine Kitchen website, https://auberginekitchen.com.

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