Nikki Dinki, Bobby Deen do junk food makeovers

It should go without saying that any dish containing bacon likely is not going to be dietetic.

In Nikki Dinki’s mind, those fried strips of salted, smoked pork are the biggest offenders in adding unnessary calories, and they’re exactly the type of thing she and co-host Bobby Deen, an Albany native, are trying to replace in dishes in their series “Junk Food Flip,” which returns for its second season Tuesday on Cooking Channel.

“Bacon is one of those things that people seem to always throw it on top,” Dinki says, “and I think sometimes it’s wonderful, it’s valuable and bacon is delicious. But there are a lot of times that I look at a dish and I think ‘Was there bacon in there?’ … I don’t think people quite understand how many calories they’re adding by … adding those things.”

In the series, Dinki and Deen visit lower-end eateries in Southern California looking to create healthful versions of decadent dishes. Frequently, that means things like beef, pork and anything fried have got to go. In the end, the restaurant owners decide whether the new version is as good as the old. If it is, it goes on the menu. If not, they get a cash prize and bragging rights.

In Tuesday’s season opener, they drop in on the wrestling-themed Lucha Libre Taco Shop in San Diego to reinvent the Champion’s Chicharrones Nachos, which uses fried pork rinds for nacho chips and weighs in at a whopping 2,300 calories with 169 grams of fat.

“(It is) actually the highest-caloried thing we ran into …,” Dinki says. “Besides the fun food, it was such a fun place and really just made for a really, really cool episode and a fun time. And I think one of the coolest things is that we were able to make something that was 550 calories that was comparable to what they were doing. And so it was probably the biggest (calorie difference) between doing our healthy version and their indulgent version, and we were able to cut the amount of calories and fat drastically.”

Q&A

What book are you currently reading?

“Currently I am reading a ‘Clan of the Cave Bear’ series that my mother is a huge fan of, so I finally gave in and am reading it. It is one of the longest books that I’ve ever read in my entire life and a little slow-moving, following early man. But it’s been entertaining. …”

What did you have for dinner last night?

“I had ramen. I still have a bit of a stomach bug so I got some nice, simple ramen. It was a good thing.”

What is your next project?

“The book (”Meat on the Side Cookbook“) comes out in June and so we literally just wrapped that up, which is really exciting. And now, because I’m kind of a crazy person, I already kind of have my head thinking about book two (laughs), even though book one has not come out yet. So really, I’m in the process of just kind of data-banking a lot of recipes and developing and kind of just getting back to cooking.”