Its true that recently, in foodie land, a lot of attention has been given to the notion of cutting down the amount of "stuff" (handling, processing, time etc) between food at its source, and food in our mouths. Everyone seems to have a freshness radar which is now keenly used among some of the more traditional criteria to conclude on which dishes at which restaurants are best in class. Which begs the question...who is doing this, or more importantly who is doing this_ best?
My first experience with this kind of eating, aside from scoffing mulberries from a tree as a kid, was at Blue Hill in the West Village of NYC. Blue Hill is affiliated with Stone Barns Farm near Tarrytown in Westchester NY. A significant portion of the menu is created from the produce of the farm - vegetables, meat, dairy, everything. Basically, if no animals were killed that day, there is no meat on the menu...kind of thing. I have had, possibly, the best egg I have ever tasted at Blue Hill which was featured on the 5 course tasting menu, along with its mother, the chicken, beside it on the plate. Sounds like a cult suicide, but was delicious! The dish was quite simply called 'this morning's egg'.
My first experience with this kind of eating, aside from scoffing mulberries from a tree as a kid, was at Blue Hill in the West Village of NYC. Blue Hill is affiliated with Stone Barns Farm near Tarrytown in Westchester NY. A significant portion of the menu is created from the produce of the farm - vegetables, meat, dairy, everything. Basically, if no animals were killed that day, there is no meat on the menu...kind of thing. I have had, possibly, the best egg I have ever tasted at Blue Hill which was featured on the 5 course tasting menu, along with its mother, the chicken, beside it on the plate. Sounds like a cult suicide, but was delicious! The dish was quite simply called 'this morning's egg'.
I sat on the plane to Sydney around Christmastime last year chatting to a photographer (also apparently talented foodie/ author) about this and he whipped out a sample of his love project - Harvest to Heat. It explores the concept of farm to table, sustainable eating with some of the most sought after culinary minds in America, the likes of Mario Batali (Babbo), David Chang (Momofuku) and Eric Ripet (Le Bernadin) to name a few. The book embodies my love and lust for food, beautiful recipes and goregeous photographs in the raw and modern context of sustainable eating - which is not to be confused with humane eating, as the book includes a tongue in cheek interview with a fois gras artisan.
Now that I survived the hot and sticky summer, flicking through H2H has me reinspired to get my ass back into the kitchen and over the stove this fall!
