Epicure avoids stuffing, surrounded by paper plates (4)
I believe the answer is:
feet
'plates' is the definition.
(plates of meat is Cockney rhyming slang for feet)
'epicure avoids stuffing surrounded by paper' is the wordplay.
'avoids stuffing' suggests removing the centre (letters stuffed into the word are removed).
'surrounded by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'paper' becomes 'FT' (newspaper the FT, Financial Times).
'epicure' with its middle taken out is 'ee'.
'ee' placed into 'ft' is 'FEET'.
(Other definitions for feet that I've seen before include "Linear Units of a third of a yard" , "Unit used to measure" , "Have both on the ground to be practical" , "Base supports" , "Metrical units" .)