Cork & Knife Editor Chip Griffin had a chance recently to stop in and visit with Chef Ethan McKee of the new Washington, D.C., restaurant Rock Creek Mazza, which follows the first restaurant, Rock Creek, which is located in Bethesda, Md., just outside the District.

As the episode opens, we watch McKee assembling and plating a soft-shell crab dish involving reduced beet juice and local arugula with olive oil and lemon juice.

Rock Creek Mazza, which has been open for about 10 months now, is McKee’s first go-round at being the captain of the ship. During the show, he tells Chip about his path to the cooking world, some of his early experiences, the cooking styles he has observed and the style he now uses at the restaurant. Some of the highlights of their interview:

• The restaurant has a panel of advisory nutritionists. None of the main entrees are more than 500 calories; none of the starters go above 300. Only one-third of the calories from any of the dishes are to come from fat, per the nutritionists’ counsel.

• No butter or heavy cream is used in the cooking. Instead, they choose olive or grapeseed oil. This ensures cooks can’t “cover up” dull or uninspired dishes with heavy sauces.

• They choose local farms for their meat and produce whenever possible.

• McKee grew up in the restaurant business. His mother owned a restaurant, and he spent a great deal of time there from a very young age. When he got old enough, he worked in the front of the house at that family place; he “didn’t think about cooking for a while” but he knew right away the front of the house spot was not for him.

• He went on to cook with Chef Bill Jackson at the Carlyle Grand in Arlington. Then, after doing a stint at a French restaurant in Vail, Colo., and another French in McLean, Va., he moved to the job where he met the man who had the “biggest influence on how I cook”: Todd Gray, executive chef and co-owner of Equinox restaurant in Washington.

• Gray’s style is something McKee emulates, with his own ideas woven in. The style, in a nutshell: “It’s pretty simple,” with not a lot of fluff and extravagance. “I’m not doing a lot of techniques that are unapproachable,” he says. The most important thing is to have access to, and use, top-quality ingredients.

• McKee reads a lot of cookbooks, which gives him inspiration when he is looking to change it up.

• It’s the first time McKee has headed a kitchen on his own. The biggest challenge: Building a good team. Being relatively unknown in the celebrity chef world, he isn’t as established as some in the industry. So attracting talent can be an issue.

• When he cooks for himself at home, he also likes to go simple: bacon and eggs. When dining out, he indulges in a lot of sushi, and he also tries to go to interesting places that will give him a window into what other chefs are up to.

• The soft-shell crab with horseradish “cream” (it’s yogurt-based!) is one of the best dishes currently on the menu.