Even though Sarah Stegner, executive chef at The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago, has been cooking for more than two decades, she admits there was a time when she wasn’t sure when commonly used items such as leeks or carrots came into season.
“You get disconnected,” she says. About four years ago, Stegner, searching for ways to improve the restaurant, found that produce that came directly from farmers was “good-flavored and fresh.”
Procuring the quantities she needed was a challenge, though. That’s how Stegner learned about “sustainable cuisine,” a term that encompasses regional produce as well as meats, eggs and cheese that are bought directly from farmers rather than the purchase of commercially raised food.
“I’d heard the term,” she says, “but I didn’t really know what it meant; I did know farmers had the best products.”
Rick Bayless, chef and co-owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, feels the disengagement too.
“For the last several generations, there’s been no honest dialogue between those cooking and those growing,” he says, citing the example of a nearby restaurant window display with an artfully arranged bowl of Bosc pears.
Problem is, in early May the pears likely came from New Zealand.
“They could have been doing beautiful displays of (local) asparagus, ramps–we just got in the most gorgeous wild onions, one little bowl of strawberries or wild morels from around here,” Bayless says. “The pears looked pretty, but it just shows me we’re completely disconnected.”
Both Bayless and Stegner are proponents of sustainable cuisine. Bayless is co-founder and serves on the board of Chef’s Collaborative, a national network of culinary professionals supporting the movement. Stegner is a member.
Sustainable cuisine doesn’t necessarily mean 100 percent of a chef’s purchases come directly from producers, nor does it always mean organic. Though both use organic products, Bayless and Stegner support farmers who grow produce that doesn’t necessarily qualify as organic but nonetheless is grown differently from that of commercial producers. For Bayless, that means “very, very low chemical input; they’re working with natural cycles and natural ways of cultivating healthy ground. It’s about what you put into things, not what you don’t put on them.”
Eve Felder, associate dean for advanced cooking at the Culinary Institute of America, says that direct relationships with producers have flourished for hundreds of years in other cultures. They did at one time in the U.S., too, but it has been in the last three decades that chefs have become increasingly aware of the quality of product such relationships yield, she said.
A different breed
Ann Yonkers, a farmer, chef and organizer of FRESHFARM Markets in Washington, D.C., says that Americans moved away from sustainable cuisine after World War II because of increased industrialization (including that of agriculture) and suburbanization. A subsidized national highway system that let companies ship food long distances, coupled with the growth of supermarket chains and the advent of refrigerated shipping, all contributed to the change.
From Yonkers’ perspective, it’s no wonder farm-fresh produce tastes so good. Using tomatoes as an example, she says varieties have been developed to withstand the perils of shipping, which is why most have such thick skins. (The average piece of produce may take a couple of weeks to get to the supermarket–perhaps longer if you include the time spent in warehouses along the way.)
“Those tomatoes bear no resemblance to a real, ripe tomato,” Yonkers says. “Because we’ve had them for 20 years now, there are people who don’t know what a ripe tomato tastes like. It’s terrible for society to lose the taste of something so uniquely delicious.”
Local bounty
Even in the Midwest there’s abundance–and, yes, in winter too. When Odessa Piper opened L’Etoile in Madison, Wis., 25 years ago, she says her natural inclination, raised in a “make-your-food-from-scratch home,” was to go out and forage. She found wild plums, native shagbark hickory nuts and morels, which all found their way onto her menu. Even in winter, she serves “light, appealing salad presentations” such as slaw of butternut squash with daikon radish and dried cranberries on watercress (available all through the winter from Midwest streams) with a light vinaigrette.
Piper, who calls her restaurant “regionally reliant” (as opposed to regionally exclusive), says that “taste is not separate from quality of life.” A natural result of supporting local agriculture is the demand for more farmland and green space.
According to the American Farmland Trust, we lose more than 3,000 acres of farmland daily to sprawl and development. Can chefs really make a difference? Stegner, Bayless and Piper use 85-100 percent locally produced foods in summer.
Rink DaVee, coordinator of Home Grown Wisconsin, a cooperative of 25 farmers that serve more than a dozen Chicago-area chefs, says restaurants are another market for the farmers, beyond farmers markets and CSA (community-supported agriculture) farms. New markets allow them to grow, and therefore earn, more.
“People listen to chefs,” Yonkers adds. “They eat their food and want to know why it’s so good. If the chef is honest, he or she will say, `The reason it’s delicious is [the fresh ingredients].’ “
Earning respect
Frank Mendoza, executive chef at the W Hotel’s We Cafe, recently took his staff to visit Chef’s Garden, one of his producers near Toledo, “partially to do something fun (trout fishing) and to get some training in the real world of cuisine, which is on farms.”
There was a lot of sampling on their tour of the farm and greenhouses, Mendoza said. The number of lettuces, herbs and experimental items almost produced sensory overload. The cooks had lots of questions about sustainable farming too.
Chris Sokol, a banquet chef at W Hotel, had been on a farm before, but he says he thinks many cooks on the trip were surprised by the amount of work going into production. It gave them a greater respect for the foods they work with.
“Most of this stuff is not what you find in grocery stores,” Sokol says. “Greater respect makes a big difference; it translates into how we’re handling what we get in and the steps we’ll take for the final presentation.”
Education goes both ways. Farmers don’t typically frequent the Ritz-Carlton, DaVee says. “Some are even reluctant to go to these restaurants when they’re invited by the chef; they feel out of place. But to see the kitchens, meet the staff, eat the food and see how your product is being used and appreciated is a wonderful experience that makes us do a better job.”
“The world of the restaurant cook isn’t the world of the farmer,” Bayless says. But that will change if he and his staff have a say. He can tell their orbits are merging when the weather is bad and cooks come to work and say, “The farmers must really be suffering today.”
There’s another sign. It’s not uncommon for celebrities to dine in Bayless’ restaurants. When they do, he says, “We seat them in a quiet place and don’t really approach them.
“But if the farmers come in, you’d think the king and queen had arrived.”
Roasted tomato-green chili salsa (Salsa de molcajete)
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Yield: 2 cups
You’ll taste the essence of Mexico in a bite of this salsa, though you may get more than you expect. Roasting focuses the tomatoes’ sweetness and rounds out the typical green grassiness of fresh chilies, creating perfect harmony. Adapted from “Mexico–One Plate at a Time,” by Rick Bayless.
2 medium tomatoes
2 medium jalapeno chilies or 4 serrano chilies
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup finely chopped white onion
1/3 cup loosely packed chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water
Dash vinegar or fresh lime juice, optional
1. Heat broiler. Roast tomatoes on a baking sheet 4 inches below heat until darkly roasted and blackened in spots, about 6 minutes; turn. Roast the other side until blistery, about 6 minutes; cool. Pull off skins; discard. Cut out the hard cores.
2. Roast chilies and garlic in a dry skillet or on a griddle over medium heat, turning occasionally until they soften and darken, about 5 minutes for chilies, 15 minutes for garlic. Cool; slip papery skins off the garlic. Chop the roasted garlic and chilies in a food processor or crush in a mortar and pestle or molcajete; add tomatoes. Pulse or crush to a coarse puree.
3. Scoop chopped onion into a strainer; rinse under cold water. Shake to remove excess moisture; transfer salsa into a bowl. Stir in onion, cilantro and salt. Thin with about 2 tablespoons water to reach desired consistency. Top with vinegar or lime juice, if desired.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
4 calories, 11% of calories from fat, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 0.9 g carbohydrates, 0.2 g protein, 35 mg sodium, 0.2 g fiber
Chilled roasted pepper and heirloom tomato soup
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Adapted from a recipe by chef Sarah Stegner of the Ritz-Carlton Chicago.
1 red bell pepper
4 tomatoes, preferably heirloom
2 tablespoons each: diced onion, fresh lime juice
1 sprig cilantro
1/8 teaspoon salt
Pinch celery salt
4 tablespoons fresh goat cheese
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup small rustic bread cubes, sauteed in olive oil
8 basil leaves
1. Char red pepper over an open flame or under a broiler until it blackens on all sides; place pepper in a paper bag for 10 minutes. Pull off skin; discard. Remove seeds and core. Chop 1/4 of the pepper into small dice; set aside. Refrigerate remaining pepper for later use. Meanwhile, heat large saucepan of water to a boil; cook tomatoes 10 seconds. Remove to a bowl of ice water to cool; peel.
2. Combine roasted pepper, tomatoes, onion, lime juice, cilantro, salt and celery salt in a blender; puree until smooth. Place 1 tablespoon of the goat cheese in middle of each of 4 chilled bowls; sprinkle with pepper. Drizzle with olive oil. Ladle soup around the goat cheese. Top with croutons; garnish with basil leaves.
Nutrition information per serving:
170 calories, 53% of calories from fat, 10 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 7 mg cholesterol, 16 g carbohydrates, 4.7 g protein, 240 mg sodium, 2.5 g fiber
