Here’s a quick sneak peak, featuring Eatocracy and Mario Batali in this short video interview.  The topic:  food, love, and what to make on a first date to impress.  His technique is surprisingly simple, and trust us, it should actually work!

More words via CNN video from top restaurant chefs regarding the BP oil spill disaster. Featuring Chefs John Besh, Marcus Samuelsson, Michael Voltaggio, and Michel Nischan from the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.

Watch it here.

Mario says:  “Clearly the vertical garden isn’t big enough to really harvest on a regular basis, we’re certainly not sending our produce purveyors home with their tails between their legs, but what for us it represents is a visual image of exactly what we think people should be thinking about.  It’s beautiful, I think it looks great, it’s totally green, but what it represents is the idea that we should be greening our society, we should be thinking about ways to be more local, to be more organic, to be more fresh.”

Composed of dandelions, marigolds, geraniums, and 20 different varieties of herbs, the edible vertical wall is self sustaining, and is watered with connected vertical supports.    According to Elizabeth Meltz, Director of Food Safety and Sustainability for the Batali / Bastianich Hospitality Group, this is only one of several methods Batali is using to green up his restaurant venues.   Others include a bottled water ban, full scale recycling and composting programs, LED rechargeable candles, and energy efficient faucet aerators and kitchen appliances.

Once again Mario, we salute you.

Watch the video here.

Chef Paul McCabe

Being recognized by the James Beard Foundation as a Rising Star of American Cuisine is only one of Chef Paul McCabe’s impressive achievements in the culinary world. He’s also won Golden Sceptre and Golden Baccus awards from the Southern California Restaurant Writers, the Wine Spectator Magazine Award of Excellence, and his restaurant Kitchen 1540 was named the Best Hotel Dining by San Diego City Search, Best New Restaurant by San Diego Magazine, and hailed as Best Restaurant Service by San Diego’s Ranch and Coast Magazine.

Chef Paul McCabe is the executive chef of the gorgeous L’Auberge Del Mar resort and its Kitchen 1540 restaurant, located in the coastal village of Del Mar in San Diego’s North County. Operating with a a farm to table philosophy, his kitchen proudly serves hormone free beef, sustainable seafood, and fresh local produce according to season. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to interview Chef Paul, and he graciously shared a restaurant recipe with us as well.

Savory Tv: We’ve been reading about your international experience in the culinary world, is there any one region or country that is near and dear to your heart outside of the US? Do you bring this influence to the kitchen at 1540?

Chef Paul McCabe: Spain is a great source of inspiration for me. The variety of ingredients and dining options are found no where else on the planet. You can get great tapas at the markets or small restaurants, the best cured meats and cheeses and Spain has more Michelin star restaurants than any other country. Here at Kitchen 1540, our kitchen is grounded in the craft of our industry, guided by principles of sustainability and creatively motivated by modern cooking techniques.

Savory Tv: We know that you choose local, organic, and sustainable ingredients in your cuisine. Sadly not long ago, a proposed ban for Atlantic bluefin tuna was rejected. Our question for you is: how do you feel about chefs serving non sustainable seafood to satisfy consumer demand?

Chef Paul McCabe: Well, who am I to tell other Chefs what to do or what to serve? I am adamantly against serving non sustainable seafood.  We work closely with Kanaloa Seafood, a certified sustainable seafood distributor, to ensure that all seafood we order is from a sustainable source. About six months ago we made the decision to remove all Tuna from L’Auberge and Kitchen 1540 menus and have taken a stand to help save this magnificent Fish. I do believe it’s up to the Chefs and restaurants in this country to help educate the public.

Savory Tv: Do you think that restaurants are moving forward in this regard at all, towards responsibly serving sustainable fish on their menus?

Chef Paul McCabe: Yes! But not fast enough…if we want our grandchildren to see and experience this fish then we must act now!

Savory Tv: With summer quickly approaching, which ingredients are you looking forward to working with?

Chef Paul McCabe: Spring is my favorite season but San Diego farmers are growing some amazing produce! I always look forward to the corn, fava beans, heirloom tomatoes and all the incredible stone fruit.

Savory Tv: Thank you for joining us Chef!  Have a wonderful Summer.

Clean Seas Hiramasa Crudo
Compressed Fennel, Sake Cured Steelhead Roe, Duck Cracklings

Ingredients
12 oz Clean Seas Hiramasa
1 Cup Kosher Salt
1/4 Cup Sugar
1/4 Coriander Seeds
Fennel Fronds from one bulb of fennel, chopped
4oz Fennel Bulb, Shaved and compressed in a cryovac machine
.5oz Micro Sorel
.5oz Sake Cured Steelhead Roe
2 Smoked Duck Skin, julienned
1/3 Cup Lemon Vinegar
1 Cup Extra Virgin Olive oil

Method
For the Hiramasa:
Clean the Hiramasa filets and set aside in the refrigerator. Mix the salt, sugar, coriander and fennel fronds in a bowl and mix. Cover the Hiramasa with the salt mixture and let cure for 3 hours. Wash the fish under cold water to remove the salt and pat dry.

For the Duck Cracklings:
Place a heavy bottomed sauté pan over medium heat and add the duck skin and cook until crisp, drain and set aside.

For the Vinaigrette:
Mix the vinegar and olive oil and set aside.

Presentation
Slice the Clean Seas Hiramasa in quarter inch pieces and place six on a rectangular plate. Mix the shaved fennel, sorel and some of the vinaigrette in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Place the fennel salad on top of the fish and add the roe and duck cracklings and serve.

Chef Rick Bayless uses the Earthboxes for his urban rooftop garden for Frontera Restaurant in Chicago.  In the video, Rick speaks about how freshness is used to expose the Mexican culture in Chicago.   He discusses working with local farmers as suppliers, sustainability, and organics.  Rick also speaks about a  wonderful program that he has initiated to provide grants to local family farms.

For our recipe lovers, Rick Bayless has several authentic Mexican recipes on his site here, and we also have a collection of short recipes that he has shared on Twitter.   If you visit Chicago, treat yourself to Rick’s newly opened restaurant, XOCO.   It has received countless fantastic online reviews already, and features contemporary expressions of Mexico’s most beloved street foods.

In this very special guest post for Savory Tv, Chef JoAnna teaches us how to incorporate slow food into our fast and busy lifestyles.  Thank you JoAnna! }

Slow Food for Normal People

You may hear famous foodies and professional chefs talk about “slow food” all the time .  Many of us have grown weary of hearing about it, but if you’d like become more familiar with the term, click here to read the wikipedia article for it.

On a grand scale, Slow Food seeks to reconnect people with the food they eat.  They pay attention to the cultures, community, and production behind it.  Slow Food’s members include culinary professionals, food enthusiasts, farmers, food producers, educators, and students.  Slow Food USA aspires for a world in which all people can eat delicious food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it, and good for the planet.

On a more immediate scale, and to understand how the movement got it’s name, slow food is meant to be a direct contradiction to Fast Food.  Italian journalist Carlo Petrini in 1986 organized a protest in response to the opening of a McDonald’s, and was dubbed the father of the movement.  Since then, the Slow Food moment has developed chapters all over the world, and succeeds in making us feel guilty about whether or not what we’re eating is good enough.

Michael Pollan wants us to “eat food, not too much, mostly plants”.  Julia Child would make these offhand comments on her television show, “The French Chef” of how much better life would be if people would take the extra time and make food like they did in the old days.  Don’t get me started on Alice Waters, who I find to be more of a culinary bully than her adversary Tony Bourdain.  Back in March ’09,  I posted my thoughts about that Leslie Stahl piece on “Saint Alice”. Waters has the right idea, but in my opinion her methodology is flawed.  Her premise is that eating good, nutritious food is a right, not a privilege, but her manner of spreading that philosophy reeks of elitism.   Even Julia Child talked a little smack to Alice Waters:

“You have an unduly doleful point of view about the way that most people shop for food.  Visit any supermarket and you’ll see plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.  And if you don’t like the looks of what you see displayed at the market, complain to the produce manager.”

Slow food, they way those celebrity chefs do it, is elitist.  They’re suggesting that you’re not doing it right if you can’t achieve the magic trifecta required of a foodie:

• The Inclination to make food from scratch
• The Time not only to procure the ingredients but to make the complicated recipes
• The Skill to turn these edible treasures into something divine to eat.

I don’t see how making more of an effort to eat better food is elitism.  I hope that by the time you’re done reading this you won’t think that’s my intent.  Eating local fresh organic food is historically the staple of most of the world’s population.  It’s called farming, and rarely seen as elite.  I used to live in Los Angeles, where some of the best produce in the United States was available year round at open-air farmers’ markets several times each week.   Now I’ve moved to rural TN, where I have a nice little garden.

When I’ve dug through my rocky garden plot, when I’m on my hands and knees, putting seeds in or pulling weeds out, that’s just a choice.   Moving away from L.A. was also a choice.  You can hardly call my new lifestyle elitist…but I’d bet you’d love a dish of my fat little yellow squash and those shiny peppers roasted up with some onion.   If my chickens ever lay, I’ll serve you a fried egg with it, and you’ll think you died and went to heaven.  I can’t grow it all, so what doesn’t come from my backyard I buy from the mainstream stores as well as from the woman who sells her fruits and veggies from under a tent across from the donut shop.

I’m not trying to start a movement or become famous. I just want to make good food and share it with people, and maybe share a couple of ideas on how people can make good food for themselves. Wherever you are, for better or for worse, there’s a grocery store nearby.  They sell several beans (canned, less than $1/each, or dried, which is even cheaper) and I’ll bet you can find brown rice too.  Add in some fresh -or freshly frozen- veggies and you’ve got a wholesome meal that can taste great.  Add in some herbs and spices, maybe some olive oil or some butter, and you’re going farther than most home cooks.  You like meat?  Add some.

What I’d like to do here is strip down the idea of slow food and make it more accessible.  Let’s set aside the arguments of those in the Slow Food Movement… That we’re not paying the real cost of food at the checkout aisle.  Whether the real costs of your food choices are being paid in environmental costs and healthcare costs.  Just for the moment, let’s forget about “food miles” and “green cuisine” and “sustainability” and all the rest… Let’s just ignore Brillat-Savarin and his snide insinuations when he says, “Tell me what you eat: I will tell you who you are.”  All we’re going to think about for the moment is “can I eat something fast, easy and cheap without going through a drive-thru or buying food frozen inside a cardboard box”.

Truly, I think that it’s your choice to eat whatever you want. It’s too bad that it doesn’t work like the late Mitch Hedberg’s ideal:  “It would be cool if you could eat a good food with a bad food and the good food would cover for the bad food when it got to your stomach.  Like you could eat a carrot with an onion ring and they would travel down to your stomach, then they would get there, and the carrot would say, ‘It’s cool, he’s with me.’ ”

I think the fast-food places that offer healthy options do it for largely political reasons.  Those items won’t help them make a profit or reach an economy of scale because such a small number of people buys that food.  Fat, salt and sugar taste good.  Fast food companies are not in business to help you live longer and stay slim… they’re out to make money. and they make a lot of it because people get addicted to fat, salt & sugar.  They bring you in with the dollar menu and suddenly you’ve ordered a supersized combo meal.  Please, take a minute to read this.

What I’m saying is that, if it’s important to you, take the time to prepare good, healthy food for yourself in advance, and you’ll be giving yourself an option. Here are some ideas for easy, cheap, grab-and-go food:

• all kinds of fruits & veggies
  these are good for guiltless munching. You can even buy them cut & bagged in advance.
• whole wheat bread and spread
  YES, even a PB&J but you could go more interesting like having cucumbers & cream cheese sprinkled with black pepper)
• multigrain bread and cheese
  This actually holds up for a little while, though I wouldn’t go longer than 8 hours
• dried fruits, veggies, nuts & seeds
  make sure you do portion control in advance, it’s easy to eat these mindlessly

AVOID things like pasta & rice, they have too much water in them to make them stable and safe at room temperatures for too long.

Another thing is to have tools available to you so that you can “make do” without advance preparation. Keep these where you spend a lot of time, or somewhere that you have easy access, like your car.

• get a minimal set of flatware
  Just a fork & a spoon, maybe a table knife. Go to a Goodwill and pick up a few sets. Then you can just wipe them off, then throw them in your bag, then toss them the sink when you get home.
• sharp knife
  good for peeling veggies, slicing apples, cutting cheese… Asian markets have plastic-handled knives that come with plastic sheaths so you won’t cut yourself or anything else during travel, but you can also put one in a plastic toothbrush holder. a pocketknife will work, too, but I’d rather suggest something you’ll wash thoroughly.
• tiny can opener
  One you can find in the housewares area in the grocery store or drugstore, or at your favorite 99¢ store. Practice using it.
• salt & pepper
  I give you permission to pocket a few extra packets of salt & pepper the next time you see them.
• multigrain or table-water crackers
  They won’t go bad if you keep them closed up, and they finish up any snack you can think of.

Now you’re prepared to avoid fast food.  You can stash canned food in your car or desk drawer.  Choose things that you can eat cold such as tuna, pork & beans, canned fruit… None of these are perfect foods, but they’ll get you past the “ohmygawdineedacheeseburgerrightnow” temptations.  If you were going to get in your car & drive for food, stop by a grocery store instead.  Get some bread, cheese and some fruit, and you’ve got a great little lunch.

If you want a proper meal, you have some limitations.  Make things that don’t have to be refrigerated, won’t spoil over 5 hours, and can be eaten at room temperature.  There are HUNDREDS of cookbooks out there for these kinds of recipes, and thousands of websites available for research.  One of my favorite go-foods is a salad made with whatever lettuce greens are available, topped with garbanzo beans or black beans, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and some sliced carrots.  If you keep the dressing on the side, this will survive beautifully for several hours without refrigeration. A hard boiled egg is nice, if you can manage to peel the egg just before you eat it, so it stays fresh longer.  Yogurt has an out-of-refrigeration shelf life of 5 hours if you buy the individual containers.

Make yourself two or three grab & go lunch kits. You can use plastic containers with self-sealing lids, waxed cardboard boxes, or wide-mouth glass canning jars (my personal favorite).  You can load them up in advance and keep them in the fridge, or have them clean and ready to pack, so that when you’re running out the door, you can put in stuff you made for yourself.  One of my favorite grab & go meals is:  cooked brown rice, diced chicken (or black beans), frozen (or canned) corn, salsa and grated cheese.  Basically it’s a burrito in a jar.  I prefer the glass jars because you can put them straight in the microwave without worrying about BPE in your plastics, and they hold up a lot better in the dishwasher than those disposable plastic containers.  Also, they’re not as fragile as you think.

If you wanted to go all out, you could make a complete fried chicken dinner at home for less than it cost to buy it at KFC.  Cabbage for coleslaw and potatoes for potato salad are about the cheapest things in the grocery store! While it’s not health food, it stands to reason that cooking at home saves money.  And it could be better for you if you’re using sunflower oil and making sure that the chicken is cooked through properly.   So why would people choose fast food fare? It’s easy. it’s cheap enough.

Don’t make it hard on yourself. If you have screaming kids in the backseat, it’s even more important that you be a responsible parent and not feed them the junk that gets passed through a car window.  Keep a box of dry cereal in the car for munching on, some sugar-free hard candy if the kids are old enough, some low-salt pretzels, dried fruit, and some nuts (raw almonds are good snacking nuts).  If you don’t like my ideas, there are plenty of places to look for other ideas for healthy snacks.  If none of this is very important to you, then as I said, you can make your own choice.  Please pay at the first window.

JoAnna Minneci

http://chefjoanna.com
http://twitter.com/ChefJoAnna