I hate to keep bringing up The Omnivore's Dilemma, but nothing else I've read lays out so precisely how vast the magnitude of the problem is. "Counterintuitive" doesn't begin to describe the U.S. agricultural economy, which is based upon a reckless rejiggering of natural order—forcing fields to grow enormous monocrops that are damaging to the environment, forcing animals to eat food their bodies did not evolve to process. And for all the talk about how organics are some kind of costly yuppie luxury, the hidden costs of the system dwarf organics when dragged into the open—and as Pollan demonstrates, the crop yield from organic farms is much larger and more sustaining than the competition would have us believe.

What cause for optimism there is in Pollan's book comes from the consumer. Sweeping change will start with demand, and as the market for locally grown, chemical-free produce and meat grows, so will the number of people who meet it.

A chef (ahem) might consider doing a taste-test. Put locally grown produce up against that shipped from across the country (or the globe, in the case of Peruvian asparagus); put grass-raised local beef up against the butcher's finest import. As Pollan suggests, using the examples of culinary superstars such as Alice Waters, chefs will have to teach the vast majority of us there's a difference.

that right there is an excellent question. thank you. (cousin to: will you change to flourescent lightbulbs and buy a hybrid car etc.)

but we're talking food here and the notion is an interesting one in regards to the philosophy of eating - like jen who commented on the earlier post that introduced you saying 'why can't food just be food?' i suppose she see's the candy and big macs as the real thing and your recreations as 'weird and unappetizing'. what does she see when she looks at a bag of dorito's? or a box of kraft mac and cheese? i'm guessing - real food...

i have no faith in the nation as a whole when it comes to - among other things, making the big change. it would take a friggin revolution. king corn rules. there are movements, books and movies but the masses want pizza hut and the more upscale version, CPK. and it becomes a total political issue. farm subsidies etc. and the food bill and who it caters to... it's all about money. health is secondary.

my problem with the upscale fine dining at a place such as yours - and ombi and f. scotts - and any good restaurant across the world just about - is the question of health per meal which translates into fat grams and overall caloric intake. restaurant food is as a rule heavily laden with animal fat. i realize no one is forcing you to have dessert and there might be the one dish in a lighter broth - but overall honestly the calories and fat in a big mac and fries with a chocolate shake is not much different than a standard upscale restaurant meal. when you take a salad and add cheese and/or lardons which i LOVE by the way - like a lot - well, you get my point. and i do subscribe to the pollan mentality that it's more often the issue of what did your cow eat, then eating just any ol kroger steak. but still, most beefophiles will say corn fed is the way to go for flavor - and they are not wrong. yet i buy grass fed.

also, why source asparagus in the winter? why not wait until SPRING? winter asparagus from god knows where tend to arrive here tasting sub-standard no matter how attractive they may somehow look.

anyway - just some thoughts here... i realize fine dining is more occasional and folks tend to splurge when out - but i try and stay away from all of that on a regular basis because i don't always want to be the pain-in-the-ass special order me me me patron. especially on a busy night...

pink - i yearn for your eloquence... my comment after yours is a waste of space...

Does our community—and the nation as a whole—have the ability to return to the ways of old, i.e. eating seasonal food at local places?

Not at the prices the 'local places' charge. The typical Nashville family makes around $45k a year. These families (aka the community as a whole) cannot afford to eat at organic/local food prices. Its simple economics.

Secondly - Americans have grown to love variety. Mexican on Monday, Chinese on Tuesday etc... In the days of old, when people ate locally, they ate the same things for entire SEASONS. That would never fly without a massive shift in priorities.

I'm writing for profit today so no time to loll about in all of this, but re: Ridley's comment about a taste test. At the Farmer's Market last season, we set up a blind taste test of local strawberries--those that survived the freeze anyways--and trucked in strawberries. The locals were unanimous winners. I feel certain it would be the same with any other food. I sauteed some cabbage last night that had been picked Wednesday in Bon Aqua, and it was spectacular with just olive oil, salt and pepper. Back to work.

the masses want pizza hut and the more upscale version, CPK

That is an insult to Pizza Hut.

Not at the prices the 'local places' charge. The typical Nashville family makes around $45k a year. These families (aka the community as a whole) cannot afford to eat at organic/local food prices. Its simple economics.

I am squarely in that boat, and you might be surprised how well you can do.

exactly pink - but if you just wanta turn on the light, take a hot shower, run my the mapco for a cup of coffee on your way to krogers for groceries - you will get what you get. it's about making EFFORT something thsat americand so less and less when it comes to food...

excuse that last line...

"something that americans do less and less when it comes to food..."

gnomey - are you saying that americans as a whole are cooking mexican on monday and chinese on tuesday? probably not. they are eating at the near equivalent of fast food places. why not take that $ and cook something nutritious and healthy for that family of 4? or is your next argument that we're too busy to cook...

Let's take this in sections until my coffee kicks in.

The OD is great and i'm in the process of reading it right now. I think taste test is the essence of your comments and we've done that. I took my entire staff to a farm for the day and as we ate baby carrots, turnips and mustard greens out of the ground the realization of the difference in flavor and the benefit to the community -- and earth -- was pretty overwhelming. I am pretty fortunate with a great staff that believes in what we do; but there has been a definitive change in the passion that my servers talk about the food and the care and love that my cooks use when handling all of our product. As far as a taste test for the general public I think places like tayst, ombi, flyte, f.scotts and the other restaurants in town that source local product do that everyday.

The government screws up everything. I agree that change starts with demand and that is the question, will the nation change.

Cousin to going green yes but a much easier change, do I go to restaurant X or rest. Y

I like your philisophical take on viewing food. How much of what we grew up on determines what we see as real food. ( nature vs nuture) I think that is a question for another blog.

I disagree with the lack of healthful in dishes. During the spring and summer when my dishes are full of vegetables and the seasonal bounty its all about the veggies why hide with animal fat. In the winter when it becomes more comfort food the dishes become heavier but there are still healthy options. Also, Health is controlled by portion size, an issue we were criticized about when we opened. There is no reason for eight pounds of food on a plate.
Last time I checked the restaurant business is the service industry and the fact that you feel like a pain in the ass for paying for something you want is ridiculous and an unfortunate side effect to years of snotty , egotistical fine dining employees. It's just food and people go out to relax and give them whatever the hell they want.

Your comment about no faith in the nation as a whole is really what this question is about. I agree it will take a revolution. As the local places get picked off one by one does that revolution have a better chance of starting, actually I think it has already started, or rather becoming loud enough.

So i took to long for a response and there are a lot more posts.

Local food, mostly veegies, does not cost more. I've done the comparisons. Yes organic food in the grocery store cost more but your paying for a government label and the same shipping costs. Go to the markets, talk to the farmers most of these guys are organic but don't want to hassle with the label.

The best thing about joining a CSA for the first time this year was learning to create variety out of seasonal offerings. It was an enjoyable challenge to experiment with ingredients which we previously thought were garnishes, lest we smother to death under a mountain of kale.

Just because you have the same ingredients to cook with for months at a time doesn't necessarily mean you have to eat the same thing for entire seasons. You can still have your Mexican on Monday and Chinese on Tuesday. You just have to introduce some creativity into the process.

What is a great underappreciated vegetable? I'm always on the lookout. Of late I've fallen hard for brussels sprouts—though perhaps not enough to try roasting the marrow of the stalk, as was mentioned here in an earlier thread.

Jeremy -- Have the Nashville Originals come up with ways to address these issues, to begin the local groundswell toward eating locally?

i just feel that spring or summer, butter rules in most restaurant dishes...

as for speaking up - for those that know me they can attest to the fact that i am no wall flower. i'm one of those mouthy new yorkers - but asking for it 'my way' at a better restaurant always makes me feel as though i'm forcing the kitchen to rethink the dish on a dime. and i don't want the no thought version either. because i can grill a fish dry and steam some veggies all on my lonesome...

excuse me if i divert. this has always kinda bugged me...

oh pink - your mention of roasted brussels sprout marrow made me swoon. you really know how to get a girls attention...

Most people aren't interested in spending 2 hours a night in the kitchen inserting 'creativity' into the cooking process. That is why fast garbage is so successful.

Locally grown organic food is great - as long as it it priced similarly to conventional food. However, there many instances where local & organic is far less efficient than non-local. Up to 25% less efficient. That means you need 25% more land to grow the same amount of food... That is a HUGE problem. Where is that extra land going to come from?

For locally grown/organic to be successful it needs to be easy, inexpensive and efficient. As of today it is none of those things.

ps. good luck eating locally in Alaska in the wintertime. Hope you like fish.

tobinthegnome - 2 hours? where do you come up with such things? try 30 minutes. or less. we're not talking gourmet cooking - we're talking rustic. the farro i made - on my blog if you care to check - took 30 minutes from first slice into the squash to my table. instead of farro use rice. tobin, do you live under a rock? i mean really. it sounds like you expect it all handed to you on a silver platter or you're just not gonna deal with the positive aspects. do you sneer in the face of buying a decent knife to cut the veggies with? because very good chef knives abound for $30. or is it a problem because then they'll need to get sharpened?

sounds like you just wanna be a continous part of the problem, not willing to do one damn thing to be part of the solution.

Interesting point. My college friend from Alaska went home for the holidays to help his town kill a whale. (At least that's what he told us. It is, after all, a great pick-up line.) That's an extreme, but it does illustrates a connection between culture, food and natural resources that is almost non-existent in much of the Lower 48. I mean, for me, driving to my CSA is foraging.

I think you are missing my point. I'm simply pointing out the significant hurdles we as a culture will face if we choose to transition from industrial agriculture to a locally based alternative.

I think to do that, you need to bring the locally/organic options to the people in a way that they are already familar with. You can't expect a sudden shift in American eating habits. Farro isn't going to fly with most people (including me). Make it familar, tasty, cheap and easy and it will be a success.

ps. Most people aren't going to spend $30 on a knife. A knife set, maybe...

i said USE rice - tobin, just try thinking how things will work - as opposed to why they won't...

on the subject of knives - buy 1 good knife for $30 that will last, instead of a set of very cheap and worthless knives that will be useless. you really only need 1 or 2 knives. that's a fact.

TgG:

The continuous decline in market share of Wal-Mart, plus the flood of hazardous Chinese products disproves your last argument.

American consumers will pay more for quality. It is a tremendous misconception that cheap and out-of control wins every time.
.

As always I agree with everything. Everyone deserves the cleanest, healthiest food, but sourcing is the problem, as is getting the hay down where the goats are. My CSA tried -- it was so ironic. We/they wanted to distribute leftover or unclaimed boxes each week to a family who needed them, but the hitch was that the needy party had to be able to drive to Green Hills to get the stuff.

Claudia, I totally agree about the knives. I was looking at my set the other day. I could ditch 4 of the 7 knives in the set and never miss them. CeeElCee was smart to buy RUAbelle just one knife for their anniversary. Saved a bundle.

Gnomey, as far as getting it cheap, there were 6 markets before the drought this summer in various locations. All had better and cheaper.
It is not a question of more land it is a question of efficiently used land. Up until the fifties farms were self sustainable, farmer daves farm is only 9 acres and he supplies a good amount of the vegetables for 17 restaurants, All year long.
I hate to break it to you but the entire world including the US until post world warII did get their food this way. Sometimes progress is a bad thing.
Unless you're just playing devil's advocate you view is the one that will eventually kill blogs like this. When the local restaurants go, the creativity and diversity will go, then there will be nothing left to eat let along to talk about.
You are right though, it will be fast easy and cheap; probably bad, fattening, dangerous to your health too.

Carrington
The purpose of the originals is ideally to fire up the community enough that they join the movement. We are still working on getting that message out there. There are cities out there that have not been infiltrated by the chains and exist mostly with independent restaurants.

"as for speaking up - for those that know me they can attest to the fact that i am no wall flower. i'm one of those mouthy new yorkers - but asking for it 'my way' at a better restaurant always makes me feel as though i'm forcing the kitchen to rethink the dish on a dime. and i don't want the no thought version either. because i can grill a fish dry and steam some veggies all on my lonesome..."

Then your going to the wrong kitchens. Bad execution is bad execution regardless of whether it is spur of the moment or thought of. My suggestion would be to let them know when you make a reservation. You give my a couple days notice I can give you a healthy veghead 10 course tasting. My comment on animal fats was for my restaurant habits.

There is a farm in maine, can't remember the name, that grows local produce all year long. They have developed a rolling greenhouse system that allows them to vary land use and grow in the winter. Super cool.

ok - sign me and my guy up for saturday night. i'm on a diet. i eat everything except papaya but i'm thinking that won't throw you...

btw - i am not knocking butter and pork fat. and i know that restaurants use them with abandon - many of the best restaurants in the world- i mean classic french cuisine is all about that - and it's because they taste good... like really good. especially when done with finesse and a deeper understanding of true cooking.

hey - if anyone else wants to go to tayst to meet jeremy and eat his food, c'mon...

How many restaurants serving classical french food are left? Even in france?
Claudia, let me know when and how many and what dietary restrictions you have or you can test me and wait until saturday.

ALso I was rereading my initial paragraph and the asparagus comment should read "dealing with customers who want me to source asparagus in the winter"
That is one of those times I actually say no.

A new question has been posted, but feel free to keep this dialog going....

Hey J.B. Thanks for playing along with the Bites Blog, it has all been very interesting. I gotta tell ya, I know a few places you source from because I source my home food from the same places. I have been behind you by hours or a day, when buying some of my meat and tomatoes. I keep giggling now, when I asked for a cut of certain meat, and I always say, did Tayst get to you first? Also, I really like your 2 oz wines by the glass. As someone who does not drink much, I can actually have wine pairings with each course and not be too tipsy before dessert. I need to blog about Tayst at some point.

Jeremy -- I'm not wishing more work on you, but I do wish you were open for lunch.

carrington
anytime you want lunch you let me know. I got a milk crate waiting.

re: french food - you're right - but even non-classical french food... butter abounds. it is in nearly every restaurant dish. bourdain is pretty adament about that - not that he's the final word...

dinner for 4 - saturday night. keep it low in calories and fat for me -seriously. that's all. we can be there at 7:30!

Jeremy -- Is it a locally grown milk crate?

Claudia your in

OK, so danny from DW farms just dropped off some lamb leg for the weekend and we had two good discussions.
He has six sides of grass fed beef hanging at the butcher right now which I would love to sell but can't because I only have room for one steak on my menu. Good ol corn fed fatty juicy american steak. The steak is good and has a lot more flavor but I could never sell it.
He brought in some red mustard picked this morning. While at farmer daves we ate some baby mustard that tasted like dijon. This mustard was full grown with a decreased Dijon touch but a lot more heat. In fact there was actually a discernible difference in the flavor of two leaves from the same bunch. That is something that can only happen with fresh local stuff. It's way cheaper then storebought as well. Sorry for the rant but I got real excited with the difference of the leaves

Jeremy, don't listen to Carrington. There are plenty of places she can have lunch. Please don't open for lunch. A, it would be a ton more work and as a husband, father and chef already working a 60-70 hour week, that's the last thing you need. In my experience, the best places to have full-service upscale experiece dinner are often the places that are not open for lunch: F. Scott's, Margot, Zola, Tayst, Park Cafe, Eastland, Watermark, Flyte....there are notable exceptions of course, among them Ombi and Radius. Both of those restaurants were struggling at dinner though, and lunch has helped them build their dinner crowd. I can't see how adding lunch would benefit you, and I can see how it could take away from your focus.

Didn't sound to me like he was considering opening for lunch, just offering to make lunch for Carrington. Maybe Carrington will let you share her crate. Or better still, maybe she'll let me. On second thought, that had better be some crate.

kay - for the record, i do know that ombi was open for lunch from day 1...

I know he wasn't considering. I was just trying to get Carrington to leave him alone. For God's sake, what does she want from the man? And even so, he offered her a crate. Since I don't work in a real office, I don't do real lunch either. So a crate sounds pretty luxurious if someone else is cooking. What are you talking about Claudia? Must be some comment buried in the mountains of words above. i know you know your ombi.

hiya kay - it was just regarding your reference above from 2:33 pm...

Sorry, I got in on this late. One point to consider when everyone talks about how expensive eating organic and/or local is, is the percentage of your household income spent on food and how that has reduced drastically over the years. Check out this

http://www.ilfb2.org/fff06/51.pdf

brett
is that just grocery or is it all food stuffs, dining etc.?
Notice the significant drop after fertilizer started

Aw, Kay, let Carrington have her lunch. Next thing you know, she'll bust in with picketers the next time you offer to make somebody a sandwich. Where will it end? WHERE?

More important matter: what do I do with the giant bag of onion, celery and carrots I just chopped? I'm thinking a roux....

buy a chicken. make soup. and then some stock. freeze the stock...

I'll bring you Parmesan rind--from the 30 pounds I foraged from Whole Foods for Holiday Guide--to thicken the stock.

30 pounds of rind???? or 30 poundfs of Parmesan?

30 pounds of rind. The actual wheel of cheese arrived in a dumptruck.

barlow - and now we are 6...

Just a short comment about eating "local". Eating locally improves the visibility of production practices, and decreases the distance between eaters and producers. And, as with many things we purchase at the stores, we rarely see the implications of our food purchases. Is "out of sight-out of mind" an adequate operating principle for our relationship with the very stuff that sustains us? Switching from eating food imported through the global food system to food grown in a local region, allows consumers to participate in determining production and distribution practices. Eating locally is eating responsibly, allowing us,to assume relationships of obligation and care for the land as well as for each other. As a farmer with a growing Community Supported Agriculture program, our farm supporters place a value on "eating good close to home". They truly have chosen to vote with their $ to support the small, sustainable, local farm and its farmer, rather than the large distant corporation. Should we all not take more responsibility for the way our food is produced, processed and brought to our tables?