Many of us are now realizing what some chefs have known for years: the healthiest and most delicious food comes from local farmers, fishermen, and artisan suppliers.
We’re learning more and more about our modern food industry and discovering insomnia-inducing details like the high economic, environmental and health costs attached to imported food that appears cheap at the cash register.
Local sustainable agriculture and eating is becoming the new normal. We simply want to feel good about the food we’re eating.
Chef Donna Wadsworth has ran her Vancouver catering company, Savoury City, based on socially-responsible values since it opened over eight years ago.
Wadsworth has created a sustainable business that is ethically and ecologically-sound. But most of all, Savoury City provides customers with flavourful healthy food – menu items are made from scratch using locally-sourced seasonal ingredients.
Jeff Crump is applying his local food philosophy in Ancaster, Ontario. Crump is executive chef of the Ancaster Old Mill and his passion for good food came from working in world-famous restaurants and doing extensive research.
A true academic, Crump identifies investigative food journalist Michael Pollan (author of An Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto and Food Rules: An Eater's Manual) and chefs Thomas Keller (of The French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley) and Alice Waters (of Chez Panisse in Berkley) as major influences on his career.
When Crump started at the Old Mill in 2002 he brought with him community food suppliers and forged a strong business relationship with a nearby farmer.
Before long, all the restaurant kitchen staffers were in the farmer’s field planting, weeding and harvesting delicious produce that would be end up on the menus.
Crump and Old Mill pastry chef, Bettina Schormann share their experience going back to the land in their recently released book, Earth to Table: Seasonal Recipes from an Organic Farm(Random House Canada 2009, $29).
Earth to Table is more than a cookbook. In many ways it reads like a novel reminiscent of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a literary piece that integrates seasonal memoirs with didactic segments and recipes.
Stunning food photography highlight seasonal ingredients that are easily found in B.C. Professional and amateur cooks will be inspired by recipes like Penne with Asparagus Carbonara in spring, Corn on the Cob with Chili Lime Butter in summer, Mile-High Pumpkin Pie for fall, and Hanger Steak with Beet Horseradish Relish in winter.
Crump and Schormann encourage us to make the most of seasonal fare by including how-to sections on foraging for greens, berries and mushrooms; canning and preserving summer produce; planting an herb garden; and shopping the farmer’s market.
Serious foodies or not, readers will enjoy intimate interviews with six world-renown like-minded chefs such as Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal (of The Fat Duck, England), and Matthew Dillon (of Sitka and Spruce, Seattle). They offer honest and thought-provoking insights on their own experiences and philosophies regarding local sustainable cooking and eating.
Like most of the chefs profiled in Earth to Table, Crump and Schormann don’t consider themselves political activists and they’re not interested in trying to convert any of us into locavores.
“Bettina and I want readers to enjoy the book and come to their own conclusions about what kind of food they want to eat.” says Crump during a recent visit to Vancouver. “For us it’s about quality and taste and it just so happens that preferring locally-grown seasonal food is good for the environment, keeps our money within the local coffers, and allows us to meet some really interesting people.”
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