The fade-in finds Joyce Chen behind a kitchen counter. She explains that today she will be cooking for the fussy eater. But, she declares, she doesn't mean somebody who is fussy in attitude but whose body is fussy. As she goes on to clarify, the body can be fussy from within or from without: from within means a person who's been told by a doctor to avoid certain foods; from without means a person who is concerned with his or her figure and wants to be slim. (Here, Chen motions with her hands to indicate a svelte figure.) The point, then, is to cook in healthy, non-fattening, ways. In China, non-fattening ingredients include mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and seaweed. On the other hand, she goes on to say, the Chinese often cook with sugar, cornstarch, and oil, and the camera shows these ingredients in close-up. Since these are not for the fussy eater, they will be done without in today's instruction and so Chen spirits the unwanted items away. She plans to make three dishes: a salad, an egg white mixture, and a bean-curd dish. Bean curd allows one to leave out meat in a dish, if so desired, but in a manner that is still tasty and nutritious. Chen begins with the salad. She slices up celery as the main ingredient but since that is not colorful, as she notes, she will also add sliced celery. A bit of finely sliced ginger root could also go in for additional flavor although one might leave the ginger out if serving the salad to children who might then find the dish too hot. Once diced, the ingredients can be parboiled but Chen finds that they remain crispier if simply soaked in ice cold water with a dash of salt for up to an hour. One then drains the ingredients and puts them aside in the fridge for a while. Chen next proceeds to the egg white dish. The whites will be steamed (and the yolks are left out as they are fattier). One beats the whites with sherry and then mixes the result with chicken broth and beats the mixture again. The broth can come from a can and Chen then advises to put the can in the fridge overnight to separate out any fat. The dish is not colorful at this point so Chen recommends adding chopped scallions or spinach or even a bit of diced ham (trimmed of fat to remain in keeping with the low-fat theme of this episode). The mixture is then lowered onto a can placed inside a steaming pot and there it sits for five to eight minutes. Chen now shows how to make the bean curd dish which, she notes, is a main course dish (and she spells out "main" very carefully: m . . . a . . . i . . . n). One can buy bean curd (otherwise known in China and Japan as tofu) at a Chinese grocery store. It even comes in a canned variety. The bean curd is soaked in water. Meanwhile, since, as Chen notes, it doesn't have much taste, other ingredients are needed. Mushrooms are a good option and Chen recommends soaked black mushrooms as one can use the liquid in cooking the dish. She removes the mushrooms from their water and then squeezes them to get any remaining liquid out. She then pours the liquid into a hot wok. "Waaa," she utters as the wok is very hot and the liquid splatters up. She turns down the heat and adds bamboo shoots to the mixture. And then with evident excitement, she proposes adding an ingredient found only in the U.S.A., as she puts it: dried shrimp from New Orleans. Finally, in goes the bean curd which is first cut up by gently holding it in one's hand and cutting it into small squares (Chen advises that this is not dangerous since the curd is so soft that one doesn't risk cutting oneself). Chen repeats the ingredients as a cutaway reveals each one on a card attached to Chinese figurines. With the bean curd done, Chen returns to the celery salad to make its dressing. One can mix soy, MSG and, if allowed in a low-fat diet, just a bit of sesame seed oil for flavor. Chen mixes everything together. She then removes the egg dish from the steaming pot and declares that she wishes the viewer could see the lovely colors of the dish on this black-and-white show. Chen plates up the bean curd dish. "Uh oh," she declares as a little bit misses the plate. She observes that sometimes she messes up a bit in the kitchen, just like the viewer. Chen removes her apron and puts the three dishes on a platter which she then carries to the dining area. She indicates that she'd love to make other low-fat dishes on a future show. She sits at the dining table and explains that these dishes can make a fussy eater happy and can turn a happy eater into a fussy one (in other words, someone who will appreciate low-fat cuisine). Chen signs off.