Posts Tagged ‘Farm to Table’

Posted on January 26, 2010 - by Lisa Madison

Café Boulud – Palm Beach

Guest Blogger: Bill Couzens, Founder of LessCancer.org

Café Boulud – Palm Beach opened its doors in 2003.  Its location in the historic Brazilian Court, a 1920’s Spanish styled Palm Beach landmark turned luxury boutique hotel, is in the heart of Palm Beach and moments away from the famed Worth Avenue. Café Boulud’s cuisine is not unlike its New York City sister restaurant Café Boulud NEW YORK where classic French dishes are prepared with ingredients sourced from the seasonal specialties available at local markets.

Chef-Owner Daniel Boulud is a seasoned restaurateur with five restaurants; one in New York City, one in Palm Beach, FL and three abroad with plans to open additional locations in Miami, London and Singapore in the coming year. Chef Boulud is also an accomplished author having published several books, including Cooking with Daniel Boulud (1993), Daniel Boulud’s Café Boulud Cookbook (1999), Daniel Boulud Cooking in New York City (2002),Daniel’s Dish, Entertaining at Home with a Four Star Chef (2003), Letters to a Young Chef (2003), Braise: a Journey Through International Cuisine (2006).

Boulud credits much of his restaurants’ success to his world–class team. One such invaluable team member is Chef Zach Bell, Executive Chef of Cafe Boulud-Palm Beach, recognized by StarChefs in 2008 as a Rising Star Chef and twice nominated for “Best Chef: South” by the James Beard Foundation.

Chef Bell makes it a practice to visit local farms and markets to personally inspect the local foods the restaurant will be serving. Local vendors Chef Bell shops with include:

Deep Creek Ranch for beef and lamb as they do not use hormones or other growth stimulants or routine antibiotic treatment.

Wild Ocean Seafood Market providing some of freshest local seafood.

Green Cay Produce CSA in Palm Beach County and as well as Swank Produce for hydro-natural lettuces, greens, micro greens tomatoes, beans, baby beats and carrots. According to their website, Swank Produce does not use fungicides, herbicides, or pesticides. This is important re the unintended consequences of pesticides that can cause harm to humans, animals, or the environment.

Erickson Farm
The Erickson family manages the tropical fruit, spice and vegetable farm. Mangoes are their specialty and they are grown with the philosophy that includes alternative practices instead of the use of pesticides and herbicides by using the effective organic solutions available and implementing cultivation techniques that aid in pest and weed control when possible.

In addition to making every effort to shop local, organic ingredients, Chef Zach has a house rule of no corn syrup in any ingredient – including the ketchup – and so the restaurant no longer uses purchased ketchup but rather cooks its own from scratch.

Most notably Chef Bell and Café Boulud have joined in the supporting The Glades to Coast Convivium, a chapter of the slow food movement that includes Broward and Southern Palm Beach Counties. Slow Food is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.

Palm Beach and the surrounding counties are mostly noted for the production of tomatoes, peppers, beans, corn, cucumbers and squash–though it is often difficult for consumers to find local produce for sale in neighborhood supermarkets which rely on larger farms that ship produce nationwide. However, large increases in the population during the winter months coincide with the growing season, opening possibilities for local marketing of produce. Every Saturday the Palm Beach farmer’s market promotes locally-grown fresh fruits, just-picked vegetables, fresh seafood, meats and poultry, dairy products, specialty teas and coffees, fresh-cut local and imported flowers, specialty foods, foods to go, pies, and breads.

“Beyond the obvious benefits in freshness, quality, and flavor, eating seasonally and sourcing food locally can be make  important contributions to reducing carbon emissions. The local farms that are additionally certified organic and the markets that sell organic foods also have great potential for reducing exposures to pesticides and other chemicals, benefiting both  the environment and  human health” according to Dr. Maryann Donovan, Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

Devotees of Daniel Boulud will not only find comfort in Cafe Boulud’s exquisite fare and quality but they will discover that standards for buying local, organic and eliminating corn syrup from the restaurant is one best practice in working towards healthy people and healthy communities.

Posted on November 12, 2009 - by Lisa Madison

The Local Foods Movement and the Recession

By Khaled Allen
Originally posted on Farm to Table

The Sustainable Food Movement Gains Momentum

We all know that locally grown sustainable food is better for us and the environment, but it often seems to be bad for our wallets. Even though foodies are willing to go to extreme lengths to support good food, will mainstream America ever do so?

With the country’s economy in shambles, paying three dollars per pound for organic potatoes seems ridiculous. As a recent college graduate, I have to carefully weigh the cost of eating responsibly.

I have been told that my dedication to sustainable, local agriculture, while praiseworthy, will never displace our mainstream food system because of the increased costs, that sustainable eating is a luxury. I have been told that conventional agriculture was the most responsible way to feed the growing population. This opinion is proffered by those who view sustainable food as a fad. As long as it does not interfere with conventional agriculture, it is nice to have around, but should not be thought of as the central way to feed the country. Economics would win out in the end, and people would vote with their wallets. And yet, this attitude did not mesh with my recent experience.

The sustainable food movement seems to be gaining momentum, despite the recent and crushing recession. What better time to test peoples’ dedication to revamping the food industry than during a recession?

Investigating at the source

I headed to several local farmers’ market to ask the farmers themselves how the economy was impacting their businesses. What I found was that farmers and farmers’ markets are actually doing very well.

Most of the farmers I spoke with said that the recession has not impacted their business at all. A representative of Riverbank Farm, an organic farm in Roxbury, Connecticut, cited consumers’ growing concern with healthy food as sufficient motivation for them to frequent her farm’s stand. She did point out, however, that the local community was fairly wealthy, and that fact might impact peoples’ food purchasing choices. Another farmer, however, said that he travelled to farmers’ markets all over the state and had done well at all of them, regardless of the affluence of the local community.

Not every farmer I spoke with was doing so well. One organic farmer felt that consumers treated local produce as a luxury, and spent their extra cash on other things, or bought cheaper food to compensate. A farmer from Middlebury, Connecticut gave a different reason for his farm’s difficulties: an increase in the number of farmers’ markets. According to him, because consumers now have more flexibility in when they get their produce, they are less likely to visit any particular farmers’ market, unwittingly hurting individual farmers.

While this development might be a bad thing for the farmer, it is a good sign for the movement as a whole, indicating an increased interest in locally grown produce and a consumer base large enough to sustain growth in farmers’ markets. This farmer also voiced his opinion that while people may be cutting back generally, he felt that they were buying proportionately more local food.

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