Chefs Collaborative

The sun came out, the air was crisp, and it was a perfect day for a picnic. The Seattle Chapter of Chefs Collaborative and Slow Food Seattle hosted the third in a series of five American Heritage Picnics this past Sunday and I was fortunate enough to attend.

At 11 AM, blankets were spread along the grass of the Daybreak Star Cultural Center in Discovery Park while some of the best local chefs served some of their signature dishes featuring ingredients indigenous to the Pacific Northwest. It wasn’t long before I was digging in to the perfect plate. Maybe I didn’t plate mine perfectly, but it was picnic- and darn it looks good!

Dishes starting at 12 0′clock on the plate and moving clockwise towards center.

Navajo-Churro Lamb stuffed with Chard and Olives, chef John Sundstrom, Lark Restaurant

Speckled Like a Trout Lettuce with foraged mushroom vinaigrette and Alderwood Smoked Cheese, chef Seth Caswell, Stumbling Goat Bistro

Artisan bread provided by Essential Baking Company with Seastack Cheese from Mt. Townsend Creamery

Corn, plum, and onion salad, chef Thierry Rautureau, Rover’s

Green Heritage Tomato en Escabeche, chef Fernando Divina, Tendrils at SageCliffe

Spanish style Ozette Potato and chorizo salad, chef Tamara Murphy, Brasa Restaurant

Grilled Marbled King Salmon, Dustin Ronspies, Art of the Table

Grilled Smoked Pink Salmon with heirloom tomato and roasted corn relish, Riley Starks and Craig Miller, Willows Inn on Lummi Island

Center of plate, and unfortunately buried underneath:

Roasted eggplant with spicy heirloom tomatoes and corn pudding, chef Sean Dominoski, La Medusa Restaurant

Grilled grape leaf wrapped crab apple with nootka rosehip jam and Quillisascut raw milk cheese, with Aunt Molly’s ground cherries ‘godiva style’, chef Karen Jurgensen and Lora Lea Misterly, Quillisascut Farm School

Smoked mushrooms and heirloom beans, chef Maria Hines, Tilth Restaurant

And like all great picnics, there was dessert.

Huckleberry Shortcakes with toasted hazelnuts and lemon basil cream, chef Elise Fineberg, TASTE at the Seattle Art Museum

Chefs Collaborative board members, past and present, gathered on Randall’s Island for last weekend’s Farm Aid concert to benefit family farms throughout the United States.

Right to left: Amy Bodiker, chef Robin Schempp, Joan Dye Gussow, Jennifer Wilkins, chef Peter Hoffman, and son Theo.

This month’s Yankee magazine features a story by Bill McKibben about the Farmers Diner, a Quechee, VT-based restaurant where I recently ate a mediocre grilled cheese sandwich. At the Farmers Diner, even the music on the jukebox is local, and a t-shirt for sale features a quote from past CC board member Joan Gussow: “I prefer butter to margarine because I trust cows more than chemists.” The idea of starting Farmers Diners all over the country–using the ingredients of the particular regions–is a compelling one, but we wonder, as McKibben did, can you get big and stay local at the same time?

While many people in the U.S. are paying premiums for local and organic foods, a recent story in the LA Times describes a small movement of people who are rejecting consumerism and pulling together meals–and wardrobes and homes–from the garbage. Called freeganism (which includes an activity known as dumpster diving), it’s often practiced by middle class people who are choosing to simplify their lives–in the extreme. One man’s compost is another man’s supper, I guess.

In The New Yorker food issue, Adam Gopnik writes about taking the Eat Local Challenge in New York City. He forages for wild edibles in Central Park, sources linden honey from rooftop hives, gathers eggs from the Bronx, finds greens grown in Brooklyn, and drags CC board member Peter Hoffman on a field trip to an uptown slaughterhouse in search of a New York chicken. He points out that eating locally caused widespread famine among our ancestors. True. But it’s something different for those of us at a remove from the sources of our food: “To shorten the food chain is to pull it close,” Gopnik wrote. And whether you’re a chef, a diner, or a home cook, there’s a growing community of people discovering that the closer we are to the food chain, the better. Even if the greens were enriched with elephant manure.

An AP story running in today’s Chicago Tribune talks about robots as they relate to the future of American agriculture. As enforcement of immigration laws becomes more stringent, the low-paid labor pool on big farms is shrinking, the AP reports. Robot-pickers might be an efficient alternative, but will they be able to read the land like a farm worker can? Next up, robotic prep kitchens!

A long weekend in the Windy City turned up deep dish pies and hot dogs galore, but the biggest thrill was at the Chicago Green City market in Lincoln Park, where we tasted Red Haven and Flaming Fury peaches, watched a chef demonstrate how to make bruschetta, bought Sungold tomatoes and itty-bitty blueberries for lunch, and marveled at the bounty of local meat and cheese, fruit and herbs, bread and pastry, vegetables, honey, and yes, even wheatgrass at this Midwestern market. Nearby, CC Board member Bruce Sherman runs North Pond restaurant, a spot known for its commitment to local growers–some of whom can be found at Green City.