Greening the Restaurant Industry: Deep Fat Fryers + Free Market Capitalism = Clogged Toilets

Somewhere Adam Smith is having a hard time finding a working toilet and he doesn't know why.

Could it be fryer grease from the restaurants in free market heaven is clogging the sewers?

If you can believe anything you read in the news, that seems to be the case in heavenly Richmond, BC. Here's the headline:

Restaurant grease buildup costly to Richmond

How costly?

The City of Richmond has been handed a $480,000 repair bill — one of the biggest to be borne in Metro Vancouver — this week to fix a sewer main that ruptured after being clogged with grease.

and later on

Metro Vancouver — along with local municipalities — already spends up $2 million each year to clean up clogged and backed-up sewer pipes.

and lastly

It's estimated it will cost Metro Vancouver $1 million per kilometre to rehabilitate this sewer, and it will take 10 to 12 years to complete the work.

Paragraph two makes it clear:

The city suspects restaurants were responsible for the grease buildup

Wow! Richmond, a true rising star in BC's food culture, is destroying the civic infrastructure with old grease.

While the economic (let alone the ecological) toll of broken sewers is all kinds of fun to think about, even more fun is reflecting on the broken broke-ass broken-ness of our economy. What is it about free market capitalism as practised in British Columbia that some entrepreneur, multi-national fuel conglomerate or government agency isn't collecting all this grease (before it hits the sewers) and turning it into a magical liquid that can fuel engines?

What's crazier still is that converting fryer grease into bio-diesel is not a new science. "The history of bio-diesel began in 1880..."

Here's where a little centralisation can come in handy.

Let's take all the above costs and, simply for the sake of argument, call that number (ha!) One Million Dollars. Sure, the total costs will probably run somewhere in the tens to hundreds of millions, as initial estimates for large scale projects sometimes don't reflect reality--but for now, let's pretend a million bucks appeared like Manna from heaven, ear marked for a bio-diesel project, despite the anti-incentives like ending tax-exemption for bio-diesel in 2009.

With $1,000,000 could "we"

1. Train restaurant employees to collect fryer grease, an not pour it down the drain?

(This is perhaps the largest hurdle facing bio-diesel production from fryer grease)

2. Collect the bio fryer grease/transport to refinery?

3. Refine this grease and use it to run vehicles?

4. Donate surplus bio-diesel, as the ultimate profit is realised by the reduced stress the grease places on the sewer system--an ultimately unknown number that is larger than any of us realise.

It's like traditional Chinese medicine--you pay the doctor to keep you well, to maintain the body--the doctor doesn't get paid when you're sick.

"We" should be paying to keep the sewers free of fryer grease to avoid the much more costly repairs. When grease is kept out of the sewers, it can be refined, re-used and monitized. When it is thrown down the sewer, it becomes a gigantic tax-suck and eco-disaster.

Back to market centralisation, could the restaurants in the Okanagan collect their own fryer-grease and some how monitize it for the benefit of the restaurants in the Okanagan? Wouldn't that be a fun emoticon-insignia to put on your menu? How long before everyone wants a "We belong to the Okanagan Fry Grease Refinery Society because that's just how hip and evolved the restaurant culture is in the Okanagan" emoticon next to their deep fried offerings! Can stickers for the window be far behind?

Even if all that theoretical Okanagan bio-diesel was given away, don't you think it could be a wildly huge marketing coup for the region and its restaurants?

I wonder if the new prison will make bio diesel from their fryer grease?

Congress in Session

Canadian Chefs' Congress 2010: Oceans for Tomorow.

Canadian Chefs' Congress 2010: Oceans for Tomorow.

Canadian Chefs' Congress 2010: Oceans for Tomorow.

Canadian Chefs' Congress 2010: Oceans for Tomorow.

Canadian Chefs' Congress 2010: Oceans for Tomorow.

To the Chefs attending from the Okanagan, knowing that you have a long sustainable bike ride ahead of you, here's some fun things to think about as you pedal your way along on HWY 3.

And you should take your bicycle, partially because it is a glorious drive and also, really now, if it wasn't the year of the oil spill, it was the year of spraying the even more disgusting oil dispersant (presently enjoying a good cherning thanks to Hurricane Earl.)

In that fun spirit, lets start here



Now you've probably all seen that by now, but why not watch it again?

And while you're there, why not watch the "critique" (and then ask yourself with whom would you rather dine?)



So first the premise (and some soft, sensible acoustic guitar strumming with a catchy beat)
The Canadian Chefs’ Congress 2010 on Vancouver Island will focus on chefs and their relationship to the ocean and its current fragile state. We will look at sustainable practices as well as the impact of our actions of today on the oceans of tomorrow.

Of course the first question that arises is "exactly what are you trying to sustain?" But before we get into that, let's watch this--a fun little movie based on Alan Weisman's remarkable book The World Without Us.



Based on this delightful little video, what say "we" all call for a 500 year moratorium on all oceanic commerce? No more oil rigs, no more nuclear submarines spraying sonar shattering the minds of aquatic mammals, no more gigantic fishing ships crusing the oceans. Hands up...anyone? Because if "we're" trying to sustain the health of our oceans, we simply need to stop going in the oceans to do the anti-life death kulture shenanigans that Humans (who live on land) like to perp in places that aren't their own. Simply leave the oceans alone.

A nice long "time out." We can tighten up our local beef/pork/lamb/goat meat and dairy reality in the meantime.

If , on the other hand, "we" are trying to maintain old paradigms in the face of even older challenges growing more and more unmanagable with each passing convulsion of late capitalism then I imagine that is another dicussion that's all together different than one surrounding the far simpler question "how do we do right by the ocean?"

Sometimes I think the fish thing has gotten a little out of hand. Who would benefit from a moratorium on all large scale ocean commerce? Probably the people living 100 miles away from the Ocean.

100...miles...away...from...the...ocean. A diet based on that which is within one hundred miles of your home? Hold on...I think we have something here!

Now don't get me wrong. When I'm within 100 miles of the Ocean I love me some sea food. I become one of those squids that moves through the fish eating for pleasure.

When I'm in the Okanagan, I'm not so much caring about the sea food. In fact, I feel sadness and disconnect when I see Halibut on any menu in the southern interior of BC. (Don't worry, I feel sadder and disconnecteder when I see it on a menu in Minneapolis MN.)

I thought it was neat that there was an abundance of Salmon this year. I do love me some salmon, and now that I've had some local salmon, I'm going to want some year after year...our lakes and waterways are amenable to large salmon runs, right? Certainly we want to keep those clean and functional and free from incinerator debris or nuclear waste or things like that. I'm not saying there should be no fish...I'm just saying it needs to be local, and needs to be harvested responsibly, and all the rest.

The Okanagan has as vibrant and diverse a food shed as any place in Canada without Oceanic fish. The Okanagan needs to exploit that more efficiently (in the form of a functional livestock slaughter reality in the south of the valley...maybe a dairy too). Why not build a regional cuisine upon that which is actually local, and in so doing, actually support the local producers and actually invest in the surrounding land? Save the fish for trips to Van.

Questions? Comments?

Winter In August / No Shame / Cookin' With the Dish Washers / Long Live the Village Idiot

Well, maybe not winter but it has been cold--especially in the morning. Cold enough that I picked all the peppers...which probably means it's going to get warm again. You're welcome.


I picked all the remaining tomatoes too...not as impressive. Not really a great year for tomatoes. Not in my back yard anyway.

(Who else is going to have a whole bunch of green tomatoes left over?)

The peppers were prolific, but they just never fully ripened. Some did. Most didn't. I guess this is Canada after all, and we can't expect vegetables that do their best in Mexico to also do their best 5000 kilometres to the north.

But we can do our best, and after Mr. Peltier's inspiring post, here is my best attempt at using what I have (peppers) to get what I want (dinner.)

I do love me a pepper. One of my favorite pepper memories comes courtesy of Frost Restaurant in beautiful Williamsburg Brooklyn. Holy crap I love Frost. Is that a boss name or what? F r o s t ! Of all the Italian restaurants I've enjoyed, and I've enjoyed a hand full of good ones, Frost really stands out--if for no other reason than the first time I ate there, before you even got the menu, they brought out the bread (no butter) and a small pool of olive oil in which bathed a big, beautiful, long, dangling, bright red Italian pepper just daring you to eat it. Marone! (p.s. re-bread, re-oil and re-pepper were free)



Speaking of peppers, I also love me some Indian food...really really spicy Indian food. Another peppery favorite was Punjabi Grocery & Deli. While there were (and are) no end of great Indian restaurants in the 5 borroughs, more than one person of Indian descent told me when looking for authentic Indian food, "just go where there's lots of cabs"--meaning go where the Indian cab drivers eat--meaning Punjabi Grocery & Deli. What's more, you could get the full meal deal at 3:30am after a long and joyous night at the Village Idiot.

While that was about 18 years ago, I remember like it was yesterday--eating what seemed at the time (3:30 am after a long and joyous night at the Village Idiot) to be absurdly, nay, punitively spicy food and asking myself "who are these Punjabi people and why do they make such exciting, delicious food?"

Though not a Punjabi, Rafi Fernandez knows how to bring Indian food to the people. How can you go wrong with a book entitled "Great Indian Dishes"? My favorite recipe in the book is for South Indian Pepper Water, aka Tamatar Rasam. But those are different peppers. Those use the little dried red ones...Ring of Fire is what I think they are called. Go on, double the peppers--we have lots of them in the Okanagan.

Trying to figure out what to do with all these poblanos and cayennes, I grabbed for my trusty copy of Yamuna Devi's Lord Krsna's Cusine...and it wasn't there! Where in Krsna's name did I put it? Where ever it is, I'm here to tell you it's an epic, and once you read it, you'll never look at any food the same way again.

No matter. There's Diana Kennedy. She'll help me. The Essential Cuisines of Mexico...just about sums it up, no? While I didn't find a recipe for Too Many Goddamn Poblano Peppers, I did find a recipe for Chilorio, aka Chile-Seasoned Pork--which I wilfully misread, substituting 1/2 off pork chops from the sell-it-now freezer ($4.05/kg) for the usual pork shoulder. I also substituted fresh poblanos, of which I still have at least 30 for the rehydrated ancho, which I didn't have the patience to rehydrate.

Next thing you know, taco dinner. Yum!


Aside from the avocado and the cumin, (well, and maybe the flour tortillas) it all either did or could have come from the Okanagan.

Now, on to some bread making...

Uh, Yeah...

Everything is cool, everything has always been cool, there has never been any problems. Why are you shouting?

As it Begins, So Too Does It End...or does it?

Do words mean anything?

Did CFIA put a halt on wine beef?

Or does the CFIA "salute" wine beef?

Was wine beef fun while it lasted, or is wine beef a new and exciting local product?

I suppose you could always ask--or simply share your feelings.

A Big Day

I'm not sure if any of you look at the tracking counter on the lower right hand side of the site. If you do, you will have noticed that the first number in the tracking went from a 1 to a 2 in the space of a day.

Thanks to the magic of MetaFilter and the kind interest of username Fizz who wrote a post for said MetaFilter on Sezmu Beef, Okanagan Daily Special recieved 1198 page loads and 1089 unique visitors. In one day.

Fizz also has a wonderful blog of his own called Whitesnails. Do visit, if for no other reason than the skinwich.

Now, what does this all mean? Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but I think it means that there is interest in wine fed beef--which is grown in Oliver, which is in the Okanagan (here.)

My sadness, however, is that there is no nearby processing plant. Before the cows become beef, they must take a fairly long drive in a truck. No drinking and driving permitted! A local processing plant would mean a truly local diet for the Okanagan. 100 mile diet? Pfft! Who needs to go 100 miles when you live in a future version of the Okanagan where there is a local processing plant that served the agricultural community (citizenry) of the region.

Now if only someone would finally start making some Okanagan grape seed oil...but that's another post for another time.

The Red Wine Beef Debate: Resolution...YES!!!

After reading much on the debate of the new Semznu Meats "red wine beef" topic, I felt it was time to get to the bottom of this once and for all.

On the food inc. website there was a heated debate going on about the ethics of the red wine beef product being offered up here in our backyard, Oliver B.C. Although I could not help but get caught up in the online debate, that is not what today was about. I wanted to do a side by side comparison of the Sezmu Beef to the AAA Alberta Beef that I currently have on the menu. Now I picked the Flat Iron Steak for no other reason than that is what I alredy use on a daily basis. For those not in the know, the flat iron is a cut from under the shoulder blade of the cow, it is a muscle that gets a fair bit of exercise and therefore develops a good amount of flavor. The flat iron still maintains an acceptable tenderness to be a good grilling steak.

As you can see there is already a distinct difference. The Sezmu Beef flat iron is on the left and the AAA Alberta Beef flat iron on the right. The flesh of the Sezmu beef is much darker and deeper in the Sezmu and there is a remarkable difference in the fat marbling. To be fair I will let you know that the Alberta beef was from cryovac and the Sezmu came in wrapped as if by a supermarket meat department. The cryovac may have affected the AAA beef somewhat, but by looking at this photo I think we can all agree there is a big difference between the two meats regardless.

I did try to keep the variables the same in cooking the meats to see how the two products would react to the exact same circumstances. Both steaks are cut to 170g portion size, and were cooked side by side in the same pan for the same length of time.

Once again, there were some signifigant differences with the two products. At first glance you can see that the yield and juice retention of the Sezmu Beef is much greater than the AAA. As the two meats rested, the AAA Beef bled almost a tablespoon of juice and the Sezmu a fraction of that. As before the Sezmu Meat is on the left.

Okay, so I had already made up my mind by this point...I was really hoping that the local red wine beef would be a superior product to my AAA standby, but I was really not prepared for this much of a difference. When it comes to beef the Alberta AAA is no slouch. A picture is worth a thousand words.

This photo gives a much better visual of the yield and juice retention of the superior Sezmu product. In a blind tasting six of six employees in the kitchen preferred the Sezmu meat.

As for the flavor, the Sezmu meat had a richness that encompassed the palate so much that the AAA beef could not compare. the Sezmu had a buttered corn on the cob flavor to the meat...noo...if you had slathered some rendered beef fat onto some fresh corn with a mouthful of beef. Hmmm...maybe still not quite right. Anyway it was very enjoyable and made the AAA pale in comparison to my tastebuds.

Now there is obviously no wine flavoring to the meat, and it is a tough call to decide whether it is the wine or the extra attention these cattle receive that makes the difference. I do recommend that you try this test for yourself if you are still not convinced. Heck try a different cut and let me know how it works out. I know that I will be changing my beef supplier tomorrow to the local artisanal option.

Oh, I almost forgot...the price is almost the same!

Happy Eating...

R.

Garden Update / Beets me

It's garden time in the Okanagan. Sure, the season got off to a slow start, but be patient. It'll come. Hopefully.

The first run of Poblanos are in. Good times! These grew right in the back yard. Started them from seed. Simple! And don't you make no never mind about the lil' scab on the second to the left on the bottom. We all have scars--true or false?



You gotta love this whole web 2.0 paradigm...type "Poblano pepper recipes" into your google machine and what comes up first? A blog called "Poblano Pepper Recipes", that's what.

Speaking of that strange phenomena of humans willingly and freely sharing data with one another for free, I came across this handsome Canadian blog wherein the poblano makes an intriguing partner. Hands up, who in the last year has made a creamy cauliflower poblano soup?

Maybe I'm not seeing too many hands, as I'm given to understand that pairing wine and peppers isn't always the easiest thing to do, or the most flattering for either.

Peppers and beer? And where is our Rancho Chico anyhow?

In other news, someone did a little food costing and came to the staggering realisation that they were paying $1.16 per beet, for the beets on the right.



Which is probably a deal when you consider all the travelling they got to do and all the packaging they got to sleep in.

The ones on the left are merely from my back yard a few kilometres away. Those poor beets never had the joy of seeing a packaging plant, or a "reefer truck" since they came to work with me in a re-used paper bag. Those beets on the left are hardly worth $1.16 each. Plain ol' boring local unpackaged Okanagan back yard garden beets...not even from a farm with a name.

Questions to the economy: How much do the beets on the left actually, really cost? And just how is that figured out anyway? Is there a difference between the "cost" of something and the "value" of something, and if so, what accounts for (and who determines) that difference?

Question to cooks: Which one would you rather use?

Question to eaters: Which one would you rather eat?

Question to you, dear reader: if I had a surplus of these beets (on the left) and I wanted to put them up for sale, barter or trade on the open market, what would be my best option?

1. Try and get a contract with one of the large food distributors that serve the valley
2. Ask at the local supermarkets if they would be willing to allocate some retail space for local tax paying citizen grown local product
3. Put a notice on the Okanagan Daily Special Stock Exchange [ODSSE] saying "hey, I got a small surplus of beets and I bet I can come in at under $1.16 or I'll trade for php tutoring" (or something similar.)

ANSWER EQUALS "C"!!!

Join the Okanagan Daily Special Stock Exchange [ODSSE]! What is it? Why it's just a simple listserv--a mailing list, connecting producers and consumers via the internet. Is that clever or what? Farmers and cooks, growers and eaters alike are encouraged to join. Got some beets you want to move? Looking to beat $1.16 a beet? JOIN! It's easy and fun!

Of Farms and The Lesson Of PIGFOOT

Hot on the heels (trotters?) of Sean's success linked to innovation, everyone's friends at the New York Times posted this article about the close knit relationship between farms and restaurants.

From the article:

And increasingly, small-farm success is linked to innovation. “The fun is trying something new — when a chef says to me, can you grow it?” said Richard Ball, the owner of Schoharie Valley Farms in Schoharie, N.Y., for the last 17 years. “I try six new things every year. To grow higher-end and many different crops — well, it’s survival for us. That is how we stay alive.”

I won't harp too long on this one, but I'm having a harder and harder time coming to grips with the fact that there is a feed lot right here in the South Okanagan and yet there is no local beef in the restaurants of the South Okanagan.

Not to disparage 6 new and different types of onions or rutabagas or whatever, but what if farmers regularly brought out a new breed of pig or cow for our consideration? Would that stunt the restaurant industry? Would that cripple our local agriculture/hospitality economy or would the synergistic relationship between the two sectors benefit everyone?

Maybe Mangalista tastes no different than your average Jimmy Dean (tm) oinker and Wagyu is tastes no different than your average Ray A. Kroc satan burger made of dethkulture ground. Maybe people aren't interested, and can't tell the difference. Maybe people, when told of a special featuring a braised, breaded, fried pigs foot stuffed with pig cheek they actually heard "chicken sandwich" and didn't notice when PIGFOOT arrived at the table, 13 times, in the space of an hour.

In the off chance if there is a difference, and everyone who comes to dine in the Okanagan isn't an uncultured rube idiot, and "we" are predisposed to celebrate heirloom varieties of plants, why not heirloom animals?

Oh, and don't forget innovation. Apparently success is linked to it.

Okanagan Daily Special Stock Exchange

Good morning Okanagan!

Just the other day, my neighbor came by and mentioned she had 20 pounds of beautiful cherries from her friend's farm and was wondering if any of the local restaurants where I sell my labor would be interested in some local cherries.

I was sceptical, and furthermore, I don't much relish the job of middleman.But I asked at the Tuesday through Thursday restaurant, and much to my surprise, the chef there wanted cherries.

Typical typical typical!

This got me to thinking about how our beloved internets could be of service, which let me to create

THE OKANAGAN DAILY SPECIAL STOCK EXCHANGE.

Go ahead, click on it.

The (my) idea is that people like my neighbor (and other producers) can post messages like:

For Sale: 20 lbs Cherries

with all the salient details, while buyers can post messages like

Wanted: 20 lbs Cherries

These messages will, through the magical powers of the interwebs, be sent to all subscribers to the newsgroup. Visualise an in box filled with opportunities.

My hope is that larders shall always be stocked and that precious Okanagan produce (and the labor invested therein) shall never be wasted.

Would you like to be a part of? Then JOIN! It's as easy as reading and sending e-mail!

Naturally this is a work in progress, and as always, I look forward to your comments, suggestions (and most of all) participation!

This is a free service from your friends at Okanagan Daily Special.

Of Wine and Beef

Wine Beef. Okanagan's Finest.



While there's no sign of any reply to Sean's query, which is a pity, I did get to eat some of this Wine Beef a.k.a. Okanagan's Finest.



Though the jus does not taste like wine, the beef (and the jus) was quite red and quite delicious.

The roast was an eye of round. The last time I cooked an eye of round, I made boliche. It wasn't super delicious, mostly because I'm not a very good cook. It was a little dry--which isn't totally unusual for that cut. Not a lot of fat there.

This wine beef roast, made by Syl, cooked on the bar-b-que with a mustard crust, was not dry at all. It had a wonderful texture and a deep, vivid taste--from the well cooked ends to the more rare middle.

They know a thing or two about cooking a roast at the feed lot, so I got to taste Okanagan's Finest under optimal conditions. Sadly there wasn't a "regular" eye of round roast against which to compare the Wine Beef, but I'd say there's a difference.



Now all we need is a local abattoir...

Pig Fistfight!

Not only that, a Portland Pig Fistfight!

That New York Times and its Portland perv...when will it end?

Never, so long as Portland is on the vanguard of acting out in the name of cred.

And Goddess bless Portland and Eric Bechard for keeping it real. (Better pictures, worse article here)

Local is local, after all. Does terrior matter or doesn't it?

It would appear that Chef Bechard is involved in another venture, Thistle. Looks like he's trying to make it happen all within McMinville.

From the article

A year ago he opened a restaurant called Thistle, 40 miles southwest,in the rich agricultural and winemaking region surrounding McMinnville.

Mr. Bechard says his goal is to eventually run the restaurant solely with food from surrounding Yamhill County. Every local connection he makes and every local dollar he spends, he believes, strengthens his ties to the economic and political future of the place he lives. He says that kind of a commitment makes a place, any place, better.

McMinnville...sleepy little agricultural town energized by the wine economy...chef trying to source from local growers...Sound familiar?

In other news, the sleepy little agricultural town of Healdsberg has been energized by the food economy, and is now on equal footing with Napa and Sonoma as a destination. That's because food drives development. True or false?

"Then the food revolution came to town." It says so right there in the article.

Rich people will go into a bad neighbourhood for a good meal, again and again and again. Then, before you know it, that neighbourhood isn't "bad" any more. I saw it happen in North/North East Portland. I saw it happen in the East Village as well.

Crazy that...

"Chef" as we know it.

I hope that those of you who have worked with me in a busy professional kitchen would say that I am, above all else, professional. That is to say that I take a tremendous amount of pride in the field of work which I have chosen.
Sure, like most in such a setting, sometimes I may say some things that to an outsider would be grounds for a H.R. manager to take a strip off of myself or anyone else who is in earshot. However, that is just par for the course. Being crude, crass, ignorant, belligerent, condescending, or god forbid, questioning, just so happens to be the world in which we dwell.
All of this sits just fine with me given the right atmosphere. When it is busy, and as we say, 'are in the shit' there is nothing and I do mean nothing that can't be said and then forgotten almost instantly. It is a survival technique. I am sorry to say that most of us thrive on this atmosphere. That is why we do what we do.
With that being said, If that is the professionalism that we exist in, then there is a reason that we cook behind closed doors. There must be a reason why we all dress in sparkling white coats and come to work clean shaven and wear silly hats that make people smile.
It is to provide an illusion to the customer. It was intended to make the nice couple coming to the carving station at the buffet to feel a calming, to set them at ease knowing that the person cooking there food is a "chef". A chef is someone who knows all there is to know about food. From a guests perspective a chef is like going to the doctor when your sick. The customer has learned to trust the coat and the hat more than the food on the plate. Anyone can put on a white coat, embroider their name on the breast, put a flag on the collar and a fancy restaurant emblem on the sleeve and call themselves a chef. And guess what, the general public will believe them. Why? Because we taught them too. We("chefs") knew a long time ago that we and the people that we work with were not the all knowing supreme beings that we need to be in order to sell people food. Why do doctors all wear white coats, because we trust it.
Thankfully, food is changing. Well, lets go a step further and say that food has changed. It has. Most "Chefs" have no idea where there food has come from, what it was sprayed with, what it was spliced with in order to stay "consistent". So, scratch that previous thankfully and let me insert a new one here. Food can be brought back. It can be sold to people, they will buy it. However, and I know this will be a hard pill for some of you to swallow, in order to sell it we must kill the "chef". We all need to just be "cooks". Remember that, when you were just a cook. When you knew that you had so much to learn and so many skills to master. What a feeling it was.
I have been getting that feeling back. I have spent my whole two days off, after cooking lunch for 700 people in 3 days, making bread and cheese. Why, because I am a cook. I am not a chef. The title seems to instill in people a sense of ownership. Of having the knowledge that other people don't. I don't want to sell food to people because they trust my white coat with a name on it. I want to sell food to people because I poured my heat and soul into it. I am clean, I am organized, I am all the things that people call "chef". I've got the papers to prove it. Oh, no wait. Those papers say "professional COOK". If the food industry is going to survive when those trucks inevitably stop running, we will have to stop hiding behind swinging doors, silly hats, and white jackets with our names on them. Believe me. I will always be more comfortable sitting at a table watching my cook prepare my food through an open kitchen, wearing an Iron Maiden T-shirt and cammo shorts, than eating at a restaurant with white table cloths and a swinging door...always. With that being said, I will most likely always wear a white coat but that doesn't mean that I should instantly be trusted. Perhaps the only ones that should wear whites are the ones who are willing to get them dirty.
The food has to start taking the main stage again, not the person or people who cook it. I want to be able to walk into a restaurant in the next five years and see people who love what they do actually doing it. If what you love to do is serve local food that you or someone you know grew, do it out in the open. But local can and should mean so much more. We can sell anything. If we think that we are good enough to put names on jackets, faces in magazines, on television, or yes like right here, the internet, then shouldn't we be able to cook and sell the whole cow. Or have we gotten better at selling ourselves than the food?
Like the cheesy saying goes, "if you build it they will come". If we as cooks, not chefs with names, but cooks as cooks work together to learn from one another we can change the way the game is played. A good friend and fellow contributor to this site had a very good idea the other day that I would like to share with you, and hopefully he will elaborate on later. What if, and hear me out on this. What if, instead of having a monthly meeting in which we all come together to eat a cheap meal and pat one another on the back about what a great job we are all doing, we raised our dues a little, put our meetings aside for a while and saved up. Maybe did a couple of fund raisers, until we had enough money to take out a loan on a piece of land. And on that land we built a small kitchen with room for growth. With say like a meat locker and everything that one would need to do some serious preserving of fruits and vegetables. What if we could grow some things on the piece of land that we could then preserve. The time to return to a co-op mentality is coming fast and guess what? It works.
So, now that I have ranted and raved all over the map. Can I just say that regardless of what your jacket does or doesn't say, I love you. I really do. All of you who really do love to cook, it's not really our fault. It's how we were brought up. It's how our chefs were brought up. That doesn't mean that we can't change the way we do things. It would be great if we could all remember that we are just cooks and it's only food and none of us and I do mean none of us should be seen as idles, we are merely disciples spreading the good word of food. Worship the food, not the cook.

In The Weeds

"When a cook is said to be in the weeds..."

Thus begins the article on René Redzepi and his restaurant Noma in The New York Times. It actually was put on the "cover" of said news paper's web site.

(It kind of makes you wonder what The New York Times is not reporting on. Makes me wonder that, anyway.)

You've got to admire Redzepi's dedication to local indigenous plants. The article mentions such delicacies as Scurvy Grass and Sorrel. And yet, once those happy feelings have abated, you're left with what's the big whup?--at least regarding use of local and wild plants (his plates look quite exciting.)

Harvesting local, wild plants (including mushrooms)...yeah, uh...yes! Um, isn't that how it used to be all the time? Is this part of some kind of larger cultural trend...maybe a larger cultural trend against culture?

Not to make things harder on anyone, but if I were designing a culinary curriculum, one of the questions would be "name at least 5 perinneal and 10 annual herbs that can grow in your zone." Another would be "identify, harvest and prepare or incorporate 10 different 'wild' plants from your region."




What are the native, edible plants here in the Okanagan? Do Elderflowers count? How about Saskatoon berries? Wild rose hips? Help me out! Can't we make a big "cheat sheet" of all the edibles with pictures and everything? Flowers too: can't tell your calendula from your bergamot? Shouldn't there be a one stop web resource for Okanagan chef's for all that info?

Late breaking news: Noma cookbook available for pre order.