Mark Dornstreich of Bucks County’s Branch Creek Farms supplies Nectar with his fragile baby zucchini, which must be packed with care to preserve the blossom.
The Green Table -Raising Awareness from Tiller to TineBy Jen L. KaretnickThe server at The Whistling Swan Inn & Restaurant in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, set our salad of baby field greens, goat cheese, roasted red pepper vinaigrette and balsamic syrup down with a justifiably proud flourish. After all, it looked as vibrant as a Matisse painting. "Just so you know," she pronounced enthusiastically, "the greens are provided by one of our kitchen staff. By day, he's an organic farmer."
Two decades ago, gastronomic pioneers, such as Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and Larry Forgione of An American Place, had already begun their work, demonstrating to chefs all over the country that quality products, procured from private gardeners who grew heirloom vegetables never intended for life on a supermarket shelf, made for more flavorful dishes.
Back then, however, the grower wouldn't have also been prepping those very greens in the same kitchen to which he or she delivered them. The server wouldn't have been eager, or even able, to fill us in - the most she likely would have volunteered is a pepper mill. And there's no way we would have been so encouraged by the server's acumen that we then were emboldened enough to ask if the fish used in the Baja tacos with roasted sweet corn-chipotle salsa and chive aïoli was sourced from a stable species.
It was. Contrast this tableside conversation about the viability of Hawaiian snapper with a time, 15 years past, at An American Place when we asked the server if the swordfish had been line-caught at a mature, reproductive age. We got back a look so blank the makers of Botox would have been inclined to bottle it.
Green table dining is finally coming of age, and from all different angles - beginning with multitasking on the part of the farmer, which perhaps was inevitable. Certainly it makes sense that one who coaxes baby field greens from seed with reverence would also wash, tear and toss them with the same delicate care. The fellow at The Whistling Swan isn't alone; at Carneros Bistro & Wine Bar, chef Janine Falvo says the gardener who tends the large, on-site vegetable and herb patch, where customers dine al fresco, is also a cook in her kitchen. And vice versa: Those who whisk and sear vocationally take pride in growing their own products. Falvo, for instance, has a fervor for her full basil garden, which nurtures six to eight varieties, and consults every spring with the gardener, sorting through heirloom seeds herself.
Indeed, chefs are no longer content to merely have exclusive sources for organic vegetables. They now want to be involved in growing, raising or grooming all of their ingredients, ensuring that every item is picked, caught or slaughtered during the right season, in the best possible provenance and under the most favorable or humane conditions. As Falvo says, "I want to know that the animals were treated with respect, and that the products were raised with the same passion that I cook with."
In fact, these concerns are more wide ranging than you'd suspect. Take Ian Troxler, executive chef at Montana's Lone Mountain Ranch, a resort that is a member of the Chef's Collaborative, a network of more than 1,000 promoters of sustainable cuisine (Chez Panisse also belongs).
"I am able to buy almost everything we use here at LMR from ranchers within the state - beef from Big Sky Natural Beef, pork from McAlpine Ranch, lamb from 13 Mile Farms and North American elk from Montana Elk Company. I also source flour from Wheat Montana, flax seeds, garbanzo beans and lentils from Timeless Seed Company, honey from Wild Bee Honey Company and cereals from Cream of the West," he says. "By buying locally, I not only get a better product than by sourcing from conventional outlets, I also contribute to less diesel being burned to get the products to my kitchen."
This collaborative, proactive concern for procuring environmentally sustainable food brings eating local, seasonal products to a heretofore unexplored dimension. When superstar chefs first connected to small-plot farmers and engendered - or reinstituted, depending on your point of view - American regional cuisine, they drew straight lines from Point A to Point B. Once discovered, the farmers, some of whom were not yet professionals in the field, so to speak, brought their carefully nurtured produce to the back doors of top-notch restaurants. Mushroom foragers and the like, sure of a warm welcome, followed suit.
Financially, these relationships were so symbiotic that it was the chefs' support that either launched them or kept them in business. But the road back to the farm and field remained less traveled, especially by those chefs who didn't fully embrace the concept, except for the fact that their paying customers seemed to like more unique ingredients, cared little about the added expense and came back for more. So while they dutifully took the right cues, labeling their menus with the domains of those who supplied the green zebra tomatoes and morel mushrooms, the dirtiest their hands got was at the cutting board.
"When chefs made agreements with hobby gardeners, it was more about gaining a competitive edge," observes Michel Nischan, host of the new LIME network's "Homegrown: Pure and Simple" show, which emphasizes procuring and cooking with sustainable products.
In other words, the initial foray into foodstuffs sourced from minimally manipulated agriculture - what we now term farm-to-table fare - was very much a chefs-only movement. Via the plate, they showed their customers what it tasted like to eat from the earth, but they didn't tell them how to do it. Nischan, a James Beard award-winning chef whose restaurant with actor/organic guru Paul Newman, The Dressing Room, is slated to open this August in Westport, Connecticut, notes that some chefs, even today, remain willfully opposed to dishing the dirt about what they serve: "There are still those who don't believe the consumer needs to be fully educated."
On the other hand, there are chef-restaurateurs such as Patrick Feury of the two-year-old Nectar restaurant, located on Philadelphia's Main Line, who realize that the farm-to-table path is more like a two-way street with plenty of intersections - and that their guests, who themselves are increasingly more inclined these days to shop regularly at farmers' markets and participate in community-supported agriculture, are traveling it with them.
At 39, Feury epitomizes today's "green generation" - one that grew up with farm-centric philosophies as elementary rather than revolutionary. He tends his own, on-site kitchen garden, stocked with heirloom tomatoes and herbs, and also ranges far afield gathering his daily provisions. Early every morning, he and his crew make the 90-minute drive to Long Beach Island in a van outfitted with two refrigerated compartments, one set to 30 degrees, the other to 42. The first stop is Viking Village in Barnegat, New Jersey, where fishing boats tie up loaded with scallops, squid and tuna; on the return trip through Pennsylvania, they hit Bucks County farms for produce.
"Getting ingredients firsthand, there's no disconnect. Dealing with a middleman, there's a breakdown," the chef emphasizes. And certainly, dishes such as his Jamison Farm lamb skewers with six-month-aged Shellbark Hollow Farm goat cheese, Branch Creek Farm chrysanthemum and amaranth, and Cross Creek Farm honey and soy glaze (paired with Villa Maria's 2005 Private Bin Riesling) or poached Nova Scotia lobster and grilled Viking Village scallops with Branch Creek Farm lobster-and-water-chestnut-stuffed zucchini flowers, leek fondue and lemon grass lobster bisque (matched with the 2003 Peter Michael Belle Côte Sonoma Chardonnay) prove Feury's network has less dropped calls than Verizon. This is why the chef's mushroom hunter calls him from the woods so he can "pick by cellular"; why, when he went to cook at the James Beard House, he took tekkei - the Japanese notion of putting a face to the food source - literally and brought all his growers with him, seating them in the dining room among the patrons and serving them their own veggies.
Feury also understands, as Nischan says, that, "The more the consumers know, the more they fall in love with organic product. We chefs facilitate, we make the dialogue so that they can vote with their wallets. The original stuff wasn't about quality; it was about not eating chemicals. And so you got limp carrots that had been sitting there for ten days. They were organic, but they were terrible. The customers' awareness of the need for quality has raised the bar."
Every vegetable Feury buys is exceptional. "I've got my farmers growing me baby everything," he notes, "zucchini, eggplants, potatoes, turnips the size of marbles." These special requests earn the farmers bigger cash crops. "They wind up growing and harvesting more throughout the season." And it's a boon to the customer as well: "I like to leave them on the plate whole so the guests can identify the entire vegetable, which is really fun," he says. Should a patron then query him on where they might be able to find the tiny turnips, Feury is happy to share his knowledge.
Robert Weland, executive chef at Washington D.C.'s Poste Moderne Brasserie in Hotel Monaco, also believes in hands-on edification. In the two years he's been at Poste, a fine-dining restaurant that inhabits the former mail sorting room in the historic 1855 General Post Office, he both planted the extensive courtyard garden and wrote a training manual about it for his staff to study. An amusing opus, the file, currently 33 pages, includes everything from the history of the botanicals, to sun/shade instructions, to folklore ("chickweed water is an old wives' remedy for obesity"). Weland knows it so well he's as likely to give you a dissertation on the stinging nettle - "they have large teeth around the leaf edge, which I think of as reaching out to bite you" - as he is to serve the spinach-like green to you, blanched, bound with ricotta and settled in the belly of ravioli.
Weland's attention to detail goes well beyond the anthropomorphosis of self-protective perennials. For his signature fennel-roasted pork tenderloin with braised fresh bacon, he sources responsibly raised meat from Joel Salatin of Swoope, Virginia, whose operation he describes as a "smaller-scale Niman Ranch." For olive oil-poached wild Alaskan king salmon with sorrel pistou and summer bean salad, he procures ethically caught wild fish and shellfish from retired marine biologist Jim Chambers, who has forged a second career by fishmongering for upscale D.C. restaurants. "He's great," Weland says, "because he knows which species you shouldn't be eating. Right now, for instance, he's going on about bluefin tuna." The upshot, of course, is that Poste is a bluefin-free zone.
Weland is so enthusiastic about environmentally friendly cuisine that this summer, he initiated weekly shopping classes for his most inquisitive customers. Every Thursday, he takes small groups to the Penn Quarter FRESHFARM Market, where he introduces them to sustainable farmers and their products, explaining organic practices and techniques. After they return to Poste, he prepares representative dishes, such as pan-roasted Amish chicken with fava bean pesto and morels, and pairs them with biodynamic wines like the Sauvignon Blanc from Ceago in Clear Lake, California.
For those who can't make the shopping excursions, the chef hosts a private Market Table at Poste that seats ten and features only items supplied by the courtyard garden, Penn Quarter FRESHFARM Market farmer-purveyors and members of the Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative, in addition to eco-conscious fishermen and ranchers whose stock is ethically treated.
The step from role model to teacher is a short one, but it does take some commitment beyond the daily demands of running a culinary operation. Eric Pateman, owner of Edible British Columbia in Vancouver, for instance, has a very full plate: He manages his extensive new store, which stocks local products and promotes the region's gastronomy through various programs, and also has organized the ambitious "Farm to Fork" dinner series.
"British Columbia's amazing bounty is often overlooked and underutilized by our community," he says. "Eighty percent of the agricultural crops that are produced [here] are not consumed in province, and while no one expects us to eat it all, we can do better," he enthuses. "Edible B.C., in cooperation with local farmers, restaurateurs and vintners around the province, is staging the dinners to help put the focus back on where our food comes from, by introducing diners to some amazing local farms."
A typical Farm to Fork dinner begins with a wine-tasting reception with the winemaker, followed by a farm tour that concludes in a pasture dotted with linen-dressed tables. Diners sup by candlelight in view of the open-air kitchen, sharing a five-course meal, comprised of the farm's particular specialties, family style. Pateman invites area agricultural and culinary experts to provide insight into the evening's meal, answer questions and even share recipes.
Chef Michael Schwartz recently launched a similar program in the subtropics. Proprietor of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink, which debuts this autumn in Miami (Au Bon Climat winemaker Jim Clendenen is an investor), Schwartz teamed with Paradise Farms owner Gabriele Marewski to present "Dinners in Paradise," a seasonal series taking place December through April in the Homestead/Redland region, an historic agricultural belt southwest of the city.
Staged in farm fields, too, the dinners tap the talents of Miami's top toques - guest chefs such as Giancarla Bodoni from Escopazzo in South Beach and Maria Frumkin from DUO in downtown Miami. The featured chef employs ingredients from Paradise and surrounding farms, including Margie Pikarsky's Bee Heaven, and is encouraged to source proteins from local purveyors like Blue Heron Aqua Farms. Each five-course meal is matched with organic vinifera wines; Schnebly Redland's Winery, which makes surprisingly dry mango, lychee and other fruit wines, supplies the apéritifs. Transportation to and from the rural site and a tour of the farm are also included in the $150 meal ticket.
"This is a major event. It takes a lot of work," says Schwartz, a long-time proponent of eating locally and organically, who even keeps his own chickens for eggs. "It will always be my passion, but I do it because it makes sense," he adds. As for Marewski, it's both a lifestyle and a living; she's a raw foodist whose five-acre, certified organic farm in Homestead is dedicated to supplying top-end area restaurants.
Many chefs vitally depend on individual growers like Marewski to supplement their small kitchen gardens. Others, however, are determined to become completely self-sufficient, and have the land and resources to do so. Al and Beth Granger, the owners of Glasbern, a renowned inn and dining destination in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, committed themselves to a farm-to-table reinvention about two years ago. Now the 100-acre Glasbern farm is planted to 150 varieties of crops, and chef Kevin O'Kane has the pick of them for his menu. "I'm up there in the fields once or twice a week," he says. "Depending on the season, there's wild strawberries, Swiss chard, 40 types of vine-ripened tomatoes. I can get the artichokes and asparagus as young and tender as I want them."
If O'Kane sounds like the proverbial kid-in-the-candy-store, it's probably because Glasbern has also recently instituted a livestock program, pasture-raising Scottish Highland beef and free-ranging Cornish hens, among other hormone- and antibiotic-free species. For such "pasture-to-plate" specialties as the Glasbern grass-fed roasted beef sirloin with dried cranberry demi-glace, Glasbern grass-fed lamb chops with wilted spinach, cannellini beans and red wine sauce or the oven-roasted Glasbern-pastured chicken with garden vegetable ragout, roasted potatoes and chicken jus, he really need only step outside. "Other hotels have to rely on large distributors. We're very lucky here," he says.
Of course, such luck can't occur without benefactors such as the Rockefellers and inspired caretakers such as the Barbers. These two families are responsible, respectively, for the creation of Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, which "demonstrates, teaches and promotes sustainable, community-based food production," and Blue Hill at Stone Farms, the on-site restaurant that puts these policies into delicious action.
A literal collection of family stone barns renovated by David Rockefeller and his daughter Peggy Dulany in honor of their wife and mother, Peggy, a farmland activist who died in 1996, the Stone Barns Center is a not-for-profit, four-season working farm that raises everything from radishes to rabbits. The center promotes education by hosting schoolchildren on tours, producing conferences and holding seminars and classes on subjects ranging from constructing greenhouses to pickling tomatoes, among other programs.
At Blue Hill at Stone Barns, where Laureen and David Barber are proprietors and his brother and partner Dan is the chef, guests can experience the fruit of these labors quite actively. "The road ingredients travel from harvest to the dinner table becomes a part of their 'character.' Simplifying this path changes the taste, often enhancing it," their press materials say. "'Fast food' at Blue Hill at Stone Barns means from the farm to the kitchen without obstacle or delay."
The accessibility of the "living pantry" is similar to what Nischan hopes to accomplish at The Dressing Room in Westport, where he intends to install an extensive weekly farmers' market in the parking lot to supply both his and neighboring restaurants with vegetables, cheeses and other artisan foodstuffs. It's the build-it-and-they-will-come - and become sustainably-minded, too - approach. But he has another objective in mind that dovetails with the underlying motivations of most of these chefs: To save the country's unheralded bits of farmland. "We lose 9,000 acres of farmland per year in Connecticut," he says. "It'd be nice to go to a positive couple of hundred instead by supporting the little farmsteads."
Preservation and consumer education are components of the mission statement put forth by Les Dames d'Escoffier, an international professional association comprising the most influential women in gastronomy, including the late Julia Child. The Dames's current Green Tables Civic Agriculture and Garden Initiative demonstrates unique ways that heritage agriculture can be brought into the modern-day corporate model, thus rescuing one and improving the other. Appropriately, farm-to-table pioneer Alice Waters is one of those spearheading the multifaceted project.
Her long-term effort is just one example for growers, chefs and diners who may feel like they are doing their part by choosing paper bags over plastic at Whole Foods. It's not enough to rest on a crown of laurels when there are still those who need to be taught that such a prize is woven from bay leaves, and might be of much better use in seasoning your soup.
Malabar Spinach Soup
with Minted Yogurt
From Chef Michael Schwartz
- 1 cup whole milk yogurt
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 white onion, diced
- 1 quart vegetable stock
- 2 bunches Malabar spinach (substitute regular spinach or Swiss chard)
- Salt and pepper to taste
In a medium size stock pot, heat butter over medium high heat. Add onions and cook 4-5 minutes until soft. Add vegetable stock and simmer for 5-7 minutes.
Stir in Malabar spinach, season with salt and pepper and stir, cooking until just soft. In a high-speed blender, blend in several batches until smooth. Adjust seasoning and serve immediately in espresso cups or small shot glasses. Top with a dollop of yogurt.
Serves 6
Carneros Bistro Cobb Salad
From Chef Janine Falvo of
Carneros Bistro & Wine Bar
- 1 pound mâche
- 2 heirloom tomatoes, diced
- 1 bunch scallions cut on bias, green part only
- 1 avocado, peeled and diced
- 1 dozen quail eggs, hard boiled, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1/2 pound Point Reyes blue cheese, cut in wedges
- 4 Prosciutto Chips (recipe below)
- 1 cup Original Vinaigrette (recipe below)
Dip 4 thinly sliced prosciutto in simple syrup. Between two pieces of silpat, lay prosciutto slices and weigh down with additional sheet pans. Bake for 20 minutes at 250°. Allow to cool and carefully remove with spatula.
For the Original Vinaigrette:
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup Cabernet vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 small clove garlic, finely minced
- 1/4 cup arbequina olive oil
- 3/4 cup canola or grapeseed oil
To plate:
Toss mâche lightly in vinaigrette. Separately, toss avocado to avoid browning. Place mâche towards left side of the plate. In lines, place tomatoes, scallions, avocados and quail eggs on the plate, garnish with blue cheese wedge and prosciutto chip. Drizzle dressing lightly over the balance of the salad.
Serves 4
Grilled Viking Village Scallops
with Stuffed Squash Flower & Leek Fondue
From Chef Patrick Feury of Nectar
- 12 U/10 day boat scallops
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Stuffed Squash Flower (recipe below)
- Leek Fondue (recipe below)
To serve, place the Leek Fondue in the middle of each of four plates. Top with three scallops and lean the squash blossom against them.
Serves 4
For the Stuffed Squash Flower:
- 1 11/2 pound lobster, tail and claws only
- 1/2 cup chopped scallions
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1 cup chopped fresh water chestnuts
- 1 serrano chili, seeded and finely chopped
- 2 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 quarts chicken stock
- 1/4 pound butter
- 2 ounces brandy
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Fill a disposable pastry bag with mixture. Cut about 1 inch off the end. Put the pastry bag to the bottom of the open end of the flower. As it fills, pull it out and close ends of blossom.
Bring stock, butter, brandy, salt and pepper to a simmer and place blossoms in the liquid for 3 minutes. Remove and reserve.
For the Leek Fondue:
- 6 leeks
- 1/4 pound butter
Lamb with Herb-Mustard Rub & Grilled Apple Chutney
From Chef Michel Nischan of Homegrown: Pure and Simple
- 1 5-pound leg of lamb
- 1/2 cup rosemary leaves
- 1/2 cup sage leaves
- 1/2 cup mint leaves
- 1/2 cup dried lavender
- 1/2 cup lemon thyme leaves
- Peel of 1 lemon
- 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup whole grain mustard
- Grilled Apple Chutney (recipe below)
Spread mixture over lamb and allow to rest for 2 hours.
Grill lamb for 1 hour until outside is firm and crusty. The center should be quite pink. Slice and serve with Grilled Apple Chutney.
For the Grilled Apple Chutney:
- 2 Braeburn apples
- 1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
- Salt and pepper to taste
Fennel-Roasted Niman Ranch Pork Tenderloin
From Chef Robert Weland of Poste Moderne Brasserie
- 1 4-pound pork tenderloin, tail ends trimmed and reserved
- 2 teaspoons Fennel Rub (recipe follows)
- 2 teaspoons Porcini Powder (recipe follows)
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Pork Jus (recipe follows
In a sauté pan, heat olive oil and sear until golden on both sides. Finish in 250° oven until meat thermometer reads medium. Let rest before carving. Plate and moisten with Pork Jus.
Serves 4 to 6
For the Fennel Rub:
- 3 tablespoons coarse salt
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon fennel pollen
- 1 tablespoon fresh black pepper
For the Porcini Powder:
- 1 ounce dried porcini
For the Pork Jus:
- 4 tablespoons grapeseed oil
- 2 small onions, halved and sliced
- Reserved pork tenderloin tails
- 4 ounces dried porcinis (soaked in hot water for 15 minutes)
- 6 thyme sprigs
- 4 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
- 2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar
- 1/2 cup dry Sherry
- 4 cups dark chicken stock
Makes 3 cups
Roasted Beef Sirloin
with Dried Cranberry Demi-Glace
From Chef Kevin O'Kane of Glasbern
- 24 ounces beef sirloin, trimmed
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
- 1 cup veal demi-glace
- 1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
- 1/4 pound pearl onions, poached and peeled
- 1/4 pound fresh spinach, cleaned
- 1 large vine-ripened tomato, wedged
- 4 slices brioche toast
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ounce fresh rosemary
Add dried cranberries to sauté pan and deglaze with wine. Release fond from pan, add demi-glace and reserve.
In a separate sauté pan, heat olive oil and add pearl onions. Cook until tender and and add spinach and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
Lay a brioche toast in center of each plate and top with vegetables. Slice beef thinly and place on top.
Warm cranberry sauce slightly and quickly whisk in softened butter and pool around the plate. Garnish with fresh rosemary.
Serves 4
- JLK
