His contribution to the book is a recipe for scrambled tofu with vegetables and cheese.

The vegetarian menu includes a breakfast burrito of scrambled tofu in a whole wheat tortilla, a deal at $3.95.

Scrambled tofu on Turkish bread goes down well, or the goats-cheese omelette with roast capsicum and spinach will fill the gaps.

The breakfast menu ranges from matzoh brei with homemade jam and Mexican-sauced scrambled tofu to udon noodles and eggs cooked six ways.

These include a pressed tofu omelet, lightly boiled tofu topped with citron-flavored miso (soybean paste), scrambled tofu with vegetables and seasonings, and chilled tofu.

It can be used in many recipes in place of cheese, such as mashed and fried potatoes, as well as put into scrambled tofu as a substitute for scrambled eggs.

As for the food, portions are modest in size but distinctive; a scrambled tofu breakfast is $5; a smoked turkey sandwich with radish sprouts, cucumber, nori seaweed and wasabi mayo, $6.50.

She is doing it anyway, in her low-key style, giving lectures in which she suggests cutting back on fried food and introducing vegetarian dishes like scrambled tofu and eggplant fried with cooking-oil spray.

Sherri Ellis, 32, who is black, tasted the scrambled tofu and other low-fat vegetarian dishes as part of a free two-week pilot program Ms. Foster directed over the summer for people who are more than 100 pounds overweight.

Along with superb teas, the town house with a small front garden serves good breakfasts (French toast, cilantro scrambled tofu), eclectic tea friendly light meals (beef kebabs, tandoori breads, varied bento boxes) and its trademark ginger scones.

Before hearing from the evening's speaker, Howard Lyman (a former Montana cattle farmer who now works in Washington for the Beyond Beef Campaign), two dozen attitude-free people helped themselves to quinoa and leek casserole, marinated arugula salad, curried tofu, scrambled tofu, and carob ricemilk to wash it down with.