Low-carb dieters who eat out have gotten good at picking around the potatoes and scraping off the sauce. But more and more restaurants are tailoring dishes so that even the most die-hard Atkins adherent can eat the whole thing.

As Burger King makes news with bunless burgers and Subway hawks low-carb sandwich wraps, upscale establishments have also been keeping up with the trend, pouring on the cream and perfecting flourless batter.

While there is still much debate about the potential benefits or dangers of low-carb diets in the medical community, the trend shows no sign of waning. About 10 million people, or 3.6 percent of the population, were on a regimented low-carb diet as of September, according to the market research company NPD Group. In emphasizing protein over starch, many restaurateurs say they are simply following their own changing preferences.

At the Rattlesnake Club, one of Detroit's most expensive and fashionable restaurants, limiting carbohydrates is part of chef-owner Jimmy Schmidt's culinary philosophy. Schmidt says he has long avoided refined carbohydrates like white flour, white rice and refined sugar in his own diet, and tries to keep those ingredients to a minimum in the Rattlesnake's menu overall.

About a year ago, he took it a step further with a separate low-carb menu, which now has three choices each of appetizers, main courses and desserts, as well as two salad choices. Schmidt estimates it accounts for 20 to 30 percent of his Detroit sales and up to 50 percent at the other Rattlesnake in Palm Springs, Calif.

Customers "are thrilled because they don't have to say, `Well, I'd really like the tenderloin of beef, but I don't want the potatoes,'" Schmidt said. "This simplifies it."

From Malpeque oysters in champagne (net carbs: 3 grams) to the "gingered pumpkin creme brulee martini" (also 3 grams), the Rattlesnake's low-carb menu doesn't sound like diet fare. A full four-course low-carb meal costs $69.

Another Detroit hot spot, Opus One, added nine low-carb entrees to its lunch menu in the fall.

"It's because, quite frankly, I eat that way," co-owner James Kokas said.

Opus One's low-carb menu is a fairly simple substitution process: Hold the croutons on the chicken caesar salad, and serve the meat with a Bernaise sauce, consisting primarily of butter and egg yolks, instead of a demiglace, which has carb-laden vegetables and wine.

Low-carb food has always been available in restaurants. Ordering steak instead of pasta is an obvious choice, so many of the recent changes have just been a matter of marketing.

"Some restaurants, recognizing that this is a popular diet, are highlighting their ability to do it," said Tim Zagat, who publishes the Zagat restaurant surveys.

But for chef Douglas Rodriguez, self-proclaimed king of Nuevo Latino cuisine, catering to diets like Atkins and South Beach is about more than just selling lots of ceviche, an almost pure-protein seafood dish, at OLA in New York and Miami.

Rodriguez, who says he lost 60 pounds by watching his carbs, tries to infuse his food with traditional flavors while avoiding Latin American staples like rice and yucca.

"It's just the protein with a Latin-flavored sauce," he said.

The Rattlesnake's Schmidt focuses on developing particularly pungent sauces, so that even if they are high in carbohydrates, a tiny bit can go a long way.

"The sizzling tuna has a little papaya chile vinaigrette that goes over it, but it only gets a tablespoon of it," he said. "You get a lot of flavor out of it without having a quarter cup of some salsa."

Schmidt has developed batter for frying shrimp and cheesecake cookie crust that are protein-based. He sweetens desserts with inulin, a fiber extracted from chicory root.

Across the board, restaurants are looking for new bases for meals to replace pasta, said Christopher Muller, a professor at the University of Central Florida's Rosen School of Hospitality Management.

Muller's own Za-Bistro, located in Orlando, Fla., and nearby Maitland, shuns pasta without specifically marketing itself as low-carb.

"Pasta is a very high markup item for restaurants, and it's also high value for the customer because you get big portions of good-tasting food," he said. "Now we've had to find ways to substitute that."

Za-Bistro has solved the problem in part by allowing customers to add salmon, chicken and shrimp to salads to make a full meal.

Despite the popularity of low-carb diets, many nutrition experts say the science around them is fuzzy. Fruits and vegetables may be mostly carbohydrates, but they are still crucial to healthy eating, they say.

"We know we are getting a lot of good stuff from fruits and vegetables, but we don't have an understanding that can just give you a supplement and replace all of that," said Barbara Rolls, professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State University.

Zagat, meanwhile, said restaurants need to remain flexible enough to also serve people on lowfat diets.

And, he noted, there will always be those who break their diet when they're out on the town, as he did after coming face to face with "incredible cakes" at the famed Commander's Palace in New Orleans.

"When they put that in front of me, my Atkins diet died," he said.

Copyright 2003 Associated Press.

Restaurants shape menus to Atkins Diet