I learned something new yesterday.
I went to one of my favorite restaurants where a friend is the manager. I had asked her if she would give me the recipe for a cream of mushroom and potato soup they serve. Of course it had cream in it and I commented that I would probably substitute evaporated goat milk for that, and that I had good luck using it in other recipes that called for cream or half-and-half. She said it wouldn't be the same, and that they use manufacturing cream. I hadn't heard of such a product. She said it was normally for sale just to restaurants and she got some to show me. Wow! That stuff is so thick! It is higher in fat than heavy cream that we would find in the regular grocery store. So let's see, I guess my point is that, if you are watching fat and calories, that "cream of whatever" soup or cream sauces you find in restaurants could be a lot higher in fat content than what you might guess. On the plus side, manufacturing cream is not ultra-pasteurized so I'm sure it works better in certain cooking applications.

I love cream soups that I make at home. I usually make mine with skim milk, and if I want a thicker or creamier consistency, I will add some non-fat skim milk powder.

I shudder when I think of some of the cream soups my husband has eaten in restaurants (thicker than most gravies, and I'm not a big gravy fan either).

I always wondered how restaurant soups could cram so many calories into their soups. Even when I used whole milk, bacon, AND butter, my clam chowder was still only about 250 calories a cup. When I would see nutritional information for some restaurant soups at 450 calories and up, I couldn't figure out how they managed that without an oil slick on top. Now I know.

Restaurants also use super-high-fat mayonaise, much higher in fat and calories than commercial mayo like Hellmann's. And it often has dairy added to it, which people who have to watch out for lactose don't expect (I've worked as a cook ).