Chefs Collaborative

Photo of Chef Paul Buchanan courtesy of Dave Anderson

Chefs Collaborative: How did Primal Alchemy come about?

Chef Paul Buchanan: After years of working for top restaurants, hotels and catering companies, I ventured out on my own 10 years ago to start Primal Alchemy Catering. The name came about because I like to cook ‘close to the food’ with respect to ingredients and sourcing. Primal meaning first and Alchemy, transformation… cooking is the first science of man.  You could say “turning food into gold”! As in delicious I guess…

CC: What is your favorite dish to prepare?

PB: I love to cook fish, so anytime I prepare a fish dish I am happy. Currently I like a Pacific Northwest Native American dish called Potlatch Salmon with grilled corn salsa, red quinoa, apricot and lime oil…and I only use fish outlined by sustainable guidelines, such as Seafood for the Future.

CC: How do you renew your inspiration to cook?

PB: Going to the farmers market inspires me seasonally, my daughter inspires me to cook healthfully, reading books and talking with other chefs who share techniques inspire me to experiment. Ultimately I am most inspired by quality ingredients and the challenge of staying authentic to whatever menu I am creating.

CC: How do you connect with the people that supply you with your food?

PB: I am continually making closer connections with my local food shed. Farmer’s Markets are easy, but proteins can be much more challenging. We are working with several small local farmers who can provide us with naturally raised pigs, lamb and beef. Facebook has been a big help in sharing information with other locavores.  I even have a local high school Ag program raising pigs for my charcuterie.

CC: We noticed on your Facebook that you were urban farming some carrots. Do you look to mostly non-traditional sources for ingredients?

Photo courtesy of Dave Anderson

PB: We love urban farming and I am very proud of this year’s carrot crop. I like to expose people to ingredients they may not have seen before like Romanesco, purple carrots, Lamb Tongue, or Crosnes. I like some simple classic ingredients too but I like to surprise people both with taste and the visual experience.

CC: Your website says that you cook for two to two thousand. How do you keep sustainability in your menu as the number of people you are serving increases?

PB: We give advance notice to our farmers when we have large events and we use several different ones for different ingredients. For instance, for the TED Conference we use greens from The Growing Experience, a local urban farm right here in Long Beach.  The most difficult high volume is proteins like beef, lamb, and especially pork. It is not as profitable as using commodity meats but we believe it is worth it to source the best quality in responsibly-raised meats that we can. Seafood is fairly easy to source and we stay in close contact with Andrew and David at the Long Beach Aquariums “Seafood for the Future” program to share their information on sustainable sources of seafood.

CC: Everyone loves a pampering meal, but what’s your favorite “street food” and why?

PB: I love Al Pastor Tacos from a tiny little place in the middle of a parking lot here in town. At our new kitchen we are hoping to serve some street food dishes from a take away window starting this summer. Some delicious but a bit more healthy street food maybe. One of my favorites will be Red Thai Curry Shrimp over Black Japonica Rice.

CC: With a restaurant, hours, as long as they may be, are somewhat fixed but with catering this isn’t necessarily the case. How do you maintain a good balance of work and personal time?

PB: My wife helps me with some elements of the business so I see her fairly often. Since I can set my own schedule to some extent, I make it a priority to spend quality time with my daughter that starts everyday by packing her lunch and sitting down to a good breakfast together. We eat as many meals together as we can.

Photo of Chef Paul courtesy of Dave Anderson

CC: If you weren’t cooking what would you be doing?

When I was 12 years old I wanted to be an underwater demolitions expert but now that I have more sense…If I wasn’t catering I would be an advocate for children’s health. I would be teaching nutrition and good eating habits to kids and make every effort possible to improve the quality of food that they are fed in schools.  Actually, I do quite a bit of that anyway, all of my volunteer time is spent on improving food for kids.

CC: What in your life has taught you the most about food?

PB: My own curiosity to explore and hanging out with other chefs…we like to get together and cook, always learning.  Travel is good too, nothing like finding some cool food or ingredients in a far-away place.

CC: What advice can you give for someone who is looking to incorporate sustainability into their business?

PB: Ask others in your area what sustainable foods they source, hang out at farmer’s markets, get onto Facebook or the internet in general and start typing in the sustainable items in your area that you are looking for. Partner with a farmer or farmers to grow vegetables or raise livestock for you.

CC: Why are you a member of Chefs Collaborative?

PB: I have been a member of Chefs Collaborative for years because I support the ideals of sustainability and chefs sharing information on the green effort in their businesses. Chefs Collaborative is a repository and distribution center for sustainable knowledge.

Grilled Sardines, Fennel Citrus Salad; photo courtesy of Dave Anderson

CC: Is there anything else you would like to add?

PB: Every chef can do their part no matter how small to help the world pollute a little less, recycle a little more, buy a more sustainable fish or meat product, and feed their guests a little better. Chefs Collaborative helps with information to do all those things and more.

As you’ve probably read, the FDA is on the cusp of sending GM salmon to a seafood purveyor near you. If deregulated, GM salmon will be the fist transgenic animal to hit the shelves in this country.

The “AquAdvantage” salmon, the 14-year and $50-million-dollar project of AquaBounty Technologies, begins as a GM Atlantic salmon egg. That egg’s genetic data is spliced with chinook and ocean pout genes before being fertilized by the sperm of an arctic char. In this way, science gives us the “Frankenfish”–so-called because detractors point out the fish’s resemblance to the troubled monster created by Dr. Frankenstein.

Nothing has yet been decided. The FDA has much to consider. Is the GM salmon safe to consume? Does it really grow that much faster than normal fish? How will it affect the environment?

If the past is any indication of things to come, the FDA will approve the GM fish. In the past two decades, GM corn and soy have become ubiquitous thanks, in part, to government’s enthusiastic approval. These GM crops have had far-reaching consequences, including the genetic pollution of non-GM crops. Despite these casualties, government has recently renewed its charge by okaying the production of GM alfalfa.

These made-in-America GM foods have been resisted by Europe, Japan, and even Africa. What’s more, Europe and Japan require labeling for their GM foods, though small in number they may be. Here at home, the FDA has resisted calls for the labeling of GM foods–and things won’t be any different for GM salmon, if approved.

For now, the FDA is considering the facts presented by AquaBounty. Questions have been raised about data collection methods, especially the conflicts of interest that undergird the whole approval process. But the real questions are these: Do we want to create a fish that, if it escapes, could outcompete wild salmon? Do we want to dine on lab-spawned salmon when perfectly good salmon can be had from icy Alaskan waterways? Most of all, do we want to set a GM precedent, so that Frankenfish will be followed by GM beef and GM chicken?

When answering these questions, we can’t forget the example of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. Things didn’t turn out too well for either of them.

It’s a good thing that I’m not a photojournalist. Let’s face it this is not a great photograph. What it does do quite nicely is encapsulate the general attendance of the Chefs Collaborative sustainable meat discussion that took place on February 15^th at the Russell House Tavern in Harvard Square, Cambridge.

On the left, hiding behind his coffee mug, is James Lionette, jack-of-all trades, local food activist, chef, small business owner …. On the far right of the photo sits Dick Dawson from venerable Le Cordon Bleu. Meanwhile, the men shaking hands are, on the left Adam Tiberio, a highly skilled butcher from New York, who has endeavored to re-establish the craft of animal butchery and local networks by opening an abattoir in New York City, and farmer Ted O’Hart of Brambly Farms who pasture raises, among other things, some of the cutest and happiest looking heritage breed pigs you are likely ever to see.

This well sums up the general attendance of the talk, 25-30 farmers, chefs, educators, graduate students, butchers, purveyors, buyers, journalists, and consumers, many representing multiple categories at once. Another very interesting participant was Jonathan Dietz of the startup FoodEx, a company currently in its beta phase, that strives to provide storage and shipping logistics to local producers outside of the normal network of food purveyorship. The discussion was lively, to say the least.  And after a quick round of introductions and general project networking, i.e. the Dietz’ FoodEx, Tiberio’s abattoir, and Chef JJ Gonson’s Cambridge Community Kitchen (aided to conversation by the topic of charcuterie literally put on the table by Chef Michael Scelfo), we broke into smaller groups to best discuss and digest the topics surrounding production, use, and implications of sustainable meat.

I was lucky enough to sit in with farmer Ann Marie Bouthillette of Blackbird Farm, Chef Peter McCarthy of EVOO, Erin Carlman Weber, a graduate student at Boston University’s Gastronomy Program, and the aforementioned Jamey Lionette. While the conversation started off on the topic of the logistics of being a small scale producer, and of the skills so desperately needed among food professionals to be able to deal with more varied and labor intensive food stuffs, the theme quickly turned to the exclusivity of local foods. Spearheaded by Lionette, we hashed through how and why to get local products, specifically meats, into the market at lower price points, without taking away from the livelihood of those in the supply chain.  So how did our conversations square with the group at large?

Our conversations were aggregated into the following points:

Five points from chefs/buyers to producers:

1. Time: Many chefs want to order direct from producers but don’t always have time to track down separate suppliers for all of the different proteins. The lack of a centralized ordering and distribution system is a strain on time resources. Also with regards to ordering systems, it’s useful for chefs to have easy and fast access to product information.
2. Storage: It’s more viable for producers to sell whole animals, but it’s not always feasible for many chefs. In small restaurant kitchens, there may not be space to keep all of the meat.
3. Labor cost: Not all chefs have the skilled labor on hand to be able to break down whole animals efficiently. And many restaurants need such a high volume of just a few cuts of meat that having staff butcher whole animals isn’t the best use of labor.
4. Consistency: For many chefs, consistency with regards to cuts, availability, and quality is really important.
5. Cooperation: Because buying and working with local and sustainably raised meat is often more expensive and time-consuming, a business relationship that is flexible and transparent and functions like a partnership is important.

Five points from producers to chefs:

1. Whole animals: Selling meat is much more viable for producers if buyers take the whole animal. Then farmers don’t have to worry about moving the lesser-used cuts, and chefs don’t have to worry about the butchering at the slaughterhouse being up to their standards.
2. Help build the market: If chefs and buyers can help educate their customers about what it takes to raise animals sustainably, the market for sustainable meat will build. If customers understand the true cost of the food they’re eating, it becomes easier to pass on cost increases, as well.
3. Farmers aren’t in control of the entire supply chain: The issues with too few slaughterhouses and not enough aggregated distribution hamper producers’ ability to provide the consistent volume and cuts that chefs and buyers need.
4. Consistency: If there is any way for chefs to make up-front agreements about the volume and timing of purchasing, that helps farmers plan their breeding and slaughtering cycles and helps with the consistency that chefs are looking for.
5. Cooperation: Because sustainably raising animals meat is expensive and time-consuming, a business relationship that is flexible and transparent and functions like a partnership is important. If chefs are open to different cuts of meat, frozen meat, differences in flavor according to season, etc, they will have an easier time sourcing sustainable meats.

In the end, after the official talk ended, the conversations persisted and among the card passing and friendly banter it was easy to realize that these truly are the conversations that need to happen to strengthen the avenues of supply for local and sustainable products, and and it starts with putting people together.

Be sure to check out www.chefscollaborative.org for a full pdf of the notes from the discussion and a complete list of attendees. And follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out about upcoming events. Also, Jen was busy Tweeting the discussion in real time, in the future you too can follow along: @chefscollab.

Last week I chose to forgo my usual shameless plug for Facebook and Twitter in favor of getting into the “tumultuous” events in Egypt. This week, however, I’ve already managed to plug Facebook and Twitter—twice. Might as well keep being redundant and re-reference Egypt, after all, if what Thomas Kostigen says is true, Egypt is more of a domestic issue than it seems at the surface, especially based on Lester Brown’s assessment over at Grist.

What a time to be standing behind “foodies” in their various incarnations. The folks at James Beard and Food and Wine certainly are, so we extend our best wishes to members Jason Stratton, Loretta Keller, Jason Franey, Jake Rojas, and Sonja Finn.

The way that end of the week news review generally works is I keep a file of bookmarks of “overflow “ throughout the week and you get to see all that overflow in a wrap-up. Well it has been a tumultuous week  in the world especially in Egypt and while many are ready to speculate that rising food prices are partially to blame for rising civil unrest, here at home my overflow is meager. Although thank you for following along on Facebook and Twitter in increasing numbers and reducing my need for an overflow.

So here’s what you haven’t heard from us—the UN is reporting that fish consumption is at a record high. No real surprise there, Salmon even made it into the Whitehouse this past week for all of the President’s visiting Republican leaders. Let’s hope that the butter used in the meal wasn’t flame retardent, and that the President’s fish was sourced more progressively than his stance on reforming food systems in the U.S.

But let’s end on a more positive note: Congratulations to member Willamette Valley Vinyards for Taking Best in Show at the 2011 Portland Wine and Seafood.

Until next week: Happy Valentines weekend.

I’ve had tongue on my mind lately. This past fall I enjoyed a wonderful tasting menu while sitting at the bar at Craigie on Main that included, among a trio of lamb delicacies, a cute and tender tongue. In the cold days of winter these memories of warmer times have a strange way of creeping back in. Not to mention my predisposition for offal. Luckily, with friends like mine, a grassfed cow’s tongue isn’t too hard to come by. So tonight I set about starting a braise of tongue and heirloom Jacob’s Cattle beans. Cattle with cattle was just too much fun not try.

You might be wondering, at this point, why I’m telling you all this. Most of what I learned about food I learned living in Italy; most of what I learned about cooking I learned working in the kitchen at James. Italians taught me that food is tradition and community and Jim and Kristina Burke taught me, among other things, that whether in your home or in a restaurant the person you cook for is always a guest.

This idea as food as tradition came back to me the other day at the Chefs Collaborative office when I picked up a communiqué on heirloom beans, and this probably more than anything, is what sent me into the kitchen tonight. How many traditions come together in a pot of beans.

Tomorrow some friends of mine from Virginia will come over and we will have baked beans and tongue with corn bread and braised kale, and a little bit of the south will go into the pot of beans. So too will a little bit of the time I spent in Italy, and in Philadelphia and every other field or kitchen that I’ve been fortunate enough to stand in. Not to mention the legacy of baked beans in New England, of braises in winter, of heirloom beans themselves—and I could go on.

Ultimately as cooks we too are just guests at the bountiful table of the farmers, foragers, and fishermen who provide us with the raw materials. And what gracious hosts they are. Reach out and touch your community. Food is nothing without the tradition that surrounds it and with high quality, local, sustainable food we can give our guests the visceral feeling of tradition that, from the highest heights of haute cuisine to the lowliest peasant stew, is the flavor of excellence.

In a recent blog post, Jon Rowley shared some wisdom about fish handling. “How a fish is caught and handled during its first three hours out of the water determines its eating qualities.” Well then, what happens to the highest-quality wild Alaskan salmon during this critical three hour period?

It isn’t easy to generalize about salmon handling in Alaska. Handling varies according to area, gear type, and species. (If you’re interested in how the areas are divided, see the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s report on the 2010 salmon haul.) For this post, my focus is troll-caught salmon, which can produce some of the high-quality salmon available. (It must be noted that gillnetting can also produce great salmon, as often seen on the Copper River.) With this variability in mind, let’s take a look at how troll-caught salmon should be handled.

First, the salmon needs to be caught. The Department of Fish and Game determines the fishing season and the number of salmon that can be caught. Their goal: to allow fishermen to operate, but in a way that ensures the salmon run will be strong for years to come (sustainability). This often means curbing the year’s salmon catch, or, if a species is struggling, canceling it entirely. In short, salmon fishermen follow rules that often change from year to year.

But the best ways of handling salmon remain constant. Salmon can be sold as fresh or frozen. In the case of troll-caught salmon, we’re usually talking king, coho, and, to a lesser extent, sockeye–the species most commonly sold fresh. Jon says that the salmon should be processed, “as soon as possible after they come aboard.” But before the salmon come aboard, the fisherman should “conk them on the top of the head… so they don’t flop and lose scales.” After stunning the fish, the fisherman bleeds it by “severing an artery between the heart and gill” and then the fish is dressed and iced before rigor mortis settles in.

Jon notes the importance of the salmon’s scales. “They’re the best indicator of freshness and handling,” he says. As the time out of water increases, scales (and quality) drop off. If the fish has a full coat of scales, it has been handled perfectly.

Salmon is mostly caught from mid-April to late-October. The salmon run is the annual journey of salmon back to their birthplace, to spawn new salmon. Salmon spend their saltwater lives accumulating fat, which they expend on the difficult trip back to freshwater.

In recent years, the Department of Fish and Game has been strict with salmon seasons. The coho season has lasted a few short months around when summer turns to fall. The summer season for troll-caught king has been supplemented by limited fishing in other seasons. Indeed, fresh king can be had in the winter–but for a price.

Frozen at Sea (FAS) salmon is a viable alternative.

In the Frozen at Sea process, salmon are caught by vessels that are specially outfit for freezing. After freezing the fish, it is dipped into the water (glazed), producing a thin sheet of ice that keeps air away from the fish before a final, very cold freezing. FAS salmon can also be vacuum-packed. 

When working with your purveyors, make sure they know what you expect. When bringing in wild salmon, ask questions about the quality of the fish. Find out about the relationships your purveyor has with the people supplying the salmon. If they deliver salmon that doesn’t meet your standards, tell them why. Jon believes that good salmon takes a philosophical and financial commitment. ”The quality of fish coming into a restaurant depends directly on how much the chef knows about buying fish, and the relationship chefs have with their purveyor.”

So here we are at another Friday news wrap-up. While admittedly food new hasn’t been the hornets’ nest of activity this week that it has in weeks past, as many of you know, food is always happening. The changing seasons are apparently happening too.  Whether or not you believe in Puxatony Phil’s 2011 prediction for an early spring, (and for those of you on the East coast, whether or not you can see past the feet high snow-banks) member Carol Murko brings us news that lambing has begun.

Perhaps some of this seasonal lamb will end up in the kind of  C.S.A’s our member The Food Change is happy to report help feed those in need in New York City. Either way, community support of agriculture is on the rise. This is good news for the younger generations of Americans since, with the new Farm Bill, the average age of farmers in the United States may potentially drop. And thanks to member White Oak Pastures these young farmers in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama will finally have a place to slaughter their sustainably raised poultry.

Well that, roughly, is the week in food. Until next time have a great weekend

Last week I looked at alternatives to farmed salmon. Sure, it’s often nice to substitute a farm-safe fish for salmon, which doesn’t fare well in net pens, but this isn’t an everyday solution. People love salmon. They certainly aren’t going to stop ordering it. This is why salmon was chosen by aquaculturists to begin with–it was popular and fetched a pretty price at market.

If we are to wild eat salmon, we need look no farther than the fisheries of Alaska. Wild Alaska salmon, though it can be expensive, is both responsibly fished and the best tasting salmon around. Alaska strictly controls its fisheries, which are certified by the Marine Stewardship Council as sustainable and well managed.

Salmon season runs from mid-April to late-October. However, good salmon can be had out of season. If flash-frozen and handled properly, frozen wild salmon can taste as good as fresh. (This is because fresh wild salmon, especially species other than king, can be mishandled in the shipping process.)

Anyway, here are profiles of five species of wild Alaskan salmon:

King. The largest salmon, king (also called chinook) is also the most sought-after and expensive. This is because it is the fattiest. As expected, king salmon’s fat gives it a buttery flavor, a wonderful oiliness, and a silky texture, which has been likened to that of smoked salmon. King’s flesh ranges from white to red. Aside from its price tag, the downside to king is that it isn’t always available.

Coho. Similar to king but available later in the season, coho (also called silver) has largely been replaced by king. In the past, coho stocks were overfished and king took over.The two species have a similar taste, though Coho is milder. It isn’t quite as expensive as king.

Chum. Similar to pink, chum (also called dogs, because of its canine-like teeth) is usually canned or smoked. Its dry flesh smokes well.  Chum’s low fat content makes it less appealing to cook than other salmon species. Though, Chum possess the most prized roe of any salmon. Chum is also the most widely distributed salmon, swimming in waters from California to Korea.

Pink. Another fish usually canned or smoked, pink (also called hump) is the most abundant of the salmon species. It also has the lowest fat content. Pink swims to the sea shortly after hatching. It doesn’t spend its early years in freshwater like king, coho, and sockeye.

Sockeye. The darkest-fleshed salmon, sockeye (also called red) is leaner than coho and king but still has a high fat content. Sockeye’s flavor is usually described as “deeper” than the other species. It does very well raw or barely cooked. Be careful with sockeye because it tends to be more poorly handled than king, often arriving bruised or torn. Make sure it isn’t, and that it has a briny, open-ocean smell.

In the coming weeks, I will post more about handling these species.

(Illustrations courtesy of Salmon Nation.)