The Chefs’ Table
Brought to you by The Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia
Welcome to the premiere issue of The Chefs’ Table! We hope that you will find these bi-monthly e-newsletters to be informative, thought provoking, even humorous, but most importantly, useful. Please feel free to forward this on to your peers who may not already be receiving it or perhaps even be involved in The Collaborative for the 21st Century’s programs. In order to grow and prosper in our businesses, we must be willing to share our ideas and our passion for the buy local movement. Since this newsletter is for you, please let us know if there is an issue, producer, recipe or organization that you’d like to see highlighted. Feel free to contact us at contact@wvfarm2u.org with your thoughts and questions.
Food for Thought
Rod Stoner
We are about to embark on yet another chapter of The Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia with this first e-newsletter, The Chefs’ Table. The
focus of this publication will be to create communication in many forms
between the farm community and the end user of their products.
Appropriately, the name of the publication came from the chefs’ table that
exists in many food establishments in various forms. In some establishments
the chefs’ table is where the chefs gather and have lunch together. It is
here that ideas are exchanged, new dishes created and tasted, menus are
developed and the day's activities are reviewed. In other establishments
the chefs’ table is the table created by the restaurant in order for the
chef to create a tasting menu for the restaurant’s guests. This table is
where the season’s special foods and the chef’s creativity come together for
the enjoyment of the customer.
We hope The Chefs’ Table will stimulate ideas, communicate
useful information and further our common goal of a collaborative effort of
all. Through this we can sustain the farm community's long tradition of supplying
their products to the public for their consumption in their homes or the
many outstanding restaurants, hotels, resorts, bed and breakfasts and
special attractions in West Virginia.
The Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia will grow if the farm
communities share their vision for the upcoming 2008 season and the chefs and
food service owners and operators talk about their menu plans for the 2008 season.
There is no time better to do this than right now. The ground is frozen or
should be. The farm community is ordering seed and plants for the spring
planting. If the two parties got their heads together, imagine what could be
done to encourage further growth of our collaborative efforts.
I stopped to see Brian Wickline between Christmas and New Year’s in Union and
met him in the parking lot in his muddy boots and winter garb straight
from his work in the county. In our discussions he asked me to come to
one of his future meetings to share ideas. He also mentioned that Dale
Hawkins, Executive Chef from Stonewall Jackson Resort, will be coming to
Monroe County to do some recapping of 2007 and planning for 2008 with area producers. This is what I hope you are willing to do. Stimulate ideas, make new friends, and plan your menus together for 2008.
Until next time, have a healthy day!
Buy Local - More than just a Trend
Dale Hawkins
From everything that I read in the trade journals, one of the main trends in restaurants now and for the next few years at least is something that I have a great deal of interest in—the buy local movement. So I thought that it would be good if there were a place where it’s easy for those of you who want to, to find out more about buy-local without a lot of work. We’re all too busy for that.
From everything that I can see, there are a lot of chefs around the country who are capitalizing on this movement to better serve their customers and, at the same time, increase their revenues. Why? There appears to be a tremendous interest on the part of our customers with disposable income, especially in the trendy parts of the country—the east and west coasts.
My guess is that interest in buy local will only increase here in West Virginia and that is one of the main reasons why we started The Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia, why we are publishing this e-newsletter and why I will be contributing to it on a regular basis. In fact, there may be more interest around us right now than we first realized.
I expect that many of you are familiar with Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal Vegetable, Miracle. If you haven’t read it, you’ve heard about it somewhere. It’s not just a “foodie” book—in many ways it shows market trends. In fact, Tom Witt, the economist at WVU who does virtually all the economic projections for the state, works with the Collaborative 21C and he recently shared with me one of his favorite parts. You’ll immediately see why—the economic implications of this statement are staggering.
“Each food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles," writes Steven L. Hopp, Kingsolver's husband, in the first of a series of sidebars sprinkled throughout her book. "If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week."
Tom added, “[One meal a week of all local products] should be very doable in the summer.”
I also got an e-mail this past week from a guest who had been here at Stonewall Jackson Resort and whom I had a chance to talk to about the Collaborative 21C. She wrote, “You probably already know about this book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, but I'm listening to it via audio books and it is exactly what your organization is about. It's gratifying to know that there are more people doing what you are trying to do but it is still a very small ‘David against an ever-powerful Goliath.’ Her book has stimulated me to be even more ‘buy local’ in our household than ever and to ask about it when we go out to good restaurants.”
I am a little surprised and excited at how much interest there is in the concept. Some of you know that I asked the Monroe County farmers to do customized growing for Stonewall Resort last season and, due to its success, I will be going there very soon to talk about the upcoming season. I will share more on our on-going dialogue in the next e-newsletter.
The 3rd Annual 2008 Cast Iron Cook-Off was on January 25-27, 2008 at Stonewall Resort. The culinary teams had a lot of fun and there was once again fierce competition. Seventeen, 10-person culinary teams, with eight of the team members being amateur cooks were led-by one of the region’s finest culinary talents and their Sous chef. The teams prepared a four course meal. The meals, menus, and recipes were developed by each team’s chef, and were judged by state agri-business leaders.
If you are not familiar with the event, please check out http://www.castironcookoff.org/ and think ahead to 2009. It is an excellent opportunity to interact with some of the best culinary talent in Appalachia while raising money for scholarships and awareness for the farm-to-table movement in West Virginia. This year’s teams included the Charleston Marriott, the Blennerhassett Hotel in Parkersburg, Stonewall Resort, Provence Market in Bridgeport, Smokey’s on the Gorge in Lansing, Solera Café in Morgantown, Chimney Corner Café in Ashland, Kentucky, and Bridge Road Bistro in Charleston. Look at the 2008 Cast Iron Cook-Off award winners below to see the caliber of the competition.
The 2008 Cast Iron Cook-Off Award Winners:
Overall Grand Champion – Lightburns (Stonewall Resort)
Best Overall Menu – Bridge Road Bistro
Honorable Mentions - Main Street Grille, White Water Grille
Best Teamwork – Pierpont Community & Technical College
Honorable Mentions - US Foodservice (ProStart), Solera Café
Best Use of Appalachian Produce – Lightburns (Stonewall Resort)
Honorable Mention - Provence Market
Best Use of Appalachian Proteins – Bridge Road Bistro
Honorable Mention - Café Cimino
Most Creative Course – Lightburns (Stonewall Resort)
Honorable Mentions - On the Potomac, US Foodservice (ProStart), Blennerhassett
Most Creative Single Course Presentation – Provence Market
Honorable Mention - On the Potomac
Best 21st Century Interpretation of Traditional Appalachian Cuisine – Berry Hills Country Club
Honorable Mentions - Café Cimino, White Water Grille
Best Use of Cast Iron – Bedford Springs
Honorable Mentions - Café Cimino, Main Street Grille
The “Whistle While You Work” Award – White Water Grille
Honorable Mentions - Smokies on the Gorge, Main Street Grille
Best Use of Appalachian Value-Added Products – Bridge Road Bistro
Honorable Mentions - Berry Hills Country Club, Main Street Grille
People's Choice Award - Berry Hills Country Club
Honorable Mentions - On the Potomac, US Foodservice (ProStart)
Governor Gaston Caperton honored at Cast Iron Cook-Off Reception
The Collaborative for 21st Century Appalachia honored former West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton with its 2008 Pioneer Award for his vision of the significance of the tourism industry for the mountain state. The state’s 31st Governor was honored during a special reception at the annual Cast Iron Cook-Off at Stonewall Resort on January 26.