Wine Clash at Pecha Kucha

Many of our readers are familiar with the Ohio vs. Michigan Wine Clash, the brainchild of Slow Food Columbus member Andrew Hall.  If you’re not, you should be:  It’s a great event, very much in the spirit of Slow Food.  And Andrew will be giving a presentation about the Clash at the next Columbus Pecha Kucha event, on February 11, from 7-9:30 p.m., at the OSU Urban Arts Space at 50 West Town Street.  We’d urge you to attend.

Ohio was the largest wine producer in the U.S. at one time, and while Ohio wines may still be pretty much unknown in such faraway places as Burgundy and the Napa Valley, by God, they’ve heard of us in Michigan.  That’s due in no small part to Andrew’s efforts.

We have to admit, when we started this chapter we didn’t think much about incorporating local wines into our events.  Kamal Boulos of The Refectory was the first to suggest Ohio wines with a dinner at one of our events—and not just any Ohio wines but red ones.  We took him up on it (nervously!) and were pleasantly surprised by the 2004 Busch-Harris R4 Cabernet.  After that, we asked Andrew to recommend some Ohio wines for our locavore dinner at Flying J Farm—and unbeknownst to us, the idea for the Clash was born.

The thing that makes all of this so interesting is that Andrew doesn’t work for the Ohio grape industry or any of the wineries.  Nor is he a dyed-in-the-wool locavore, or naïve about wine (far from it, in fact).  His reasons for taking on this massive endeavor are… well, come out on Thursday and hear them for yourself.

@rick_bayless, Why is the Sky Blue?

Not long after we discovered Shorties, the internet award for best producers of short real-time content (i.e., Twitter users), we decided to find out who was leading the pack in the food category.  The leader, by far, was chef Rick Bayless.  We weren’t too surprised, having enjoyed his restaurants in Chicago and having heard through the grapevine that he’s a pretty personable guy.

When we started following his Twitter feed, however, we were in for a bit of a shock:  his niceness and generosity are really pretty amazing.  He regularly fields basic cooking questions, apparently from total strangers (“@Rick_Bayless picked up some chili threads in Boston. Any ideas?”  Answer: “I’ve only used them as garnish.”)  He answers questions that one could hardly imagine asking, such as those that one might reasonably find answers to in cookbooks he’s written (“@Rick_Bayless hi chef, do you marinate or use any brine for your meat for carnitas?”  Answer: “Slurry of salt and lime overnight”).  He thanks people and sends out quick compliments on home chefs’ renditions of his or other dishes.

In other words, he is nice and generous with his time and expertise to a degree that is not only unusual but inspirational.  It wouldn’t surprise us to find, before long, that he’s achieved a sort of Chuck Norris-like status among the Twitterati: the variety of questions that he answers led Colleen to offer the title of this post as a humorous tribute to his knowledge and patience.  (We wouldn’t be surprised to see him reply “Air molcul’s scatter blue lite more than red”.)

So if you use Twitter, check out the Shorty Awards and give Chef Bayless a follow.  If you like what he does, give him a vote.  He’s educational, but more than that, he might change the way you think about social media.

(But please don’t ask the poor man why the sky is blue.)

Postscript on unintended consequences: I always send out the titles of new blog posts on Twitter.  What happens when you mention Rick Bayless’ Twitter handle in such an announcement?  He notices it—and in this case sent along a little smiley face.  That little smiley went out to all his followers and increased our two-day readership by about 1,200%.  So, welcome, Rick Bayless fans (and thanks, Chef!)

Taste Education: Château Belgrave Vertical

Join us at The Twisted Vine on February 17 for a unique taste education event: a vertical wine tasting.  A vertical tasting is an opportunity to engage in a controlled experiment, in which the thing being tasted is held constant and the period in which it was produced is allowed to vary, to isolate the effects of time (or things that vary with time, like climate) on taste.

In this case we will sample six consecutive vintages (1995-2000) of Château Belgrave, a Grand Cru Bordeaux from the Haut-Médoc appellation.  The proximity of the vintages means that variation in sunlight, rain, temperature, and so on will probably produce more variation in the taste of the wine than will age, so we will focus on the differences that those variables can make in a given growing season.  Master Sommelier Matthew Citriglia will join us at the tasting and offer his perspective on these issues.

The tasting begins with a reception at 6:00 p.m., with the vertical to begin promptly at 6:30; late arrivals will be difficult to accommodate.  Cost includes samples of the six wines as well as a white Bordeaux at the reception; food will be provided both at the reception and during the tasting.

Wednesday, February 17, 6:00–9:30 p.m.; $30 member / $40 nonmember + $1.99 service fee.  Click here for more information on the wines.  Click here to reserve a spot.  We hope to see you there!

Cultivating Children: A Reply

Caitlin Flanagan’s Atlantic article, “Cultivating Failure: How School Gardens Are Cheating Our Most Vulnerable Students,” has been getting a lot of buzz—most of it, predictably, negative—in food circles recently.  The argument that a focus on gardening and real food detracts from schools’ mission of teaching, made by the mother of school-age children, is easy to dismiss as a too-predictable cry to stop this mucking about in the dirt and for the love of God get my kids into Stanford! But taken seriously, we should ask:  What claim do school gardening and food programs have on the time of school-age kids?

That question gets to the purpose of school, which Flanagan asserts is education, period.  But on that basis we should also eliminate band, art, physical education, and athletics (the latter is not as far-fetched as it sounds: Robert Maynard Hutchins abolished the athletic program at the University of Chicago, at the time a Big 10 powerhouse, because he deemed it inconsistent with academic achievement).  If that’s what we want from primary school, so be it.  But my sense is that it isn’t.

Schools are about education, to be sure; but they’re also about cultivating children—about encouraging the development of many different facets of their development during their growing years.  Does food education belong to this curriculum?  There’s a good case to be made that it does.  With obesity at epidemic proportions, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that re-learning how to eat is a priority for us as a society.  The current recession has highlighted the fact that the knowledge of how to grow and cook one’s own food could benefit many, both financially and nutritionally.

A final argument is that, in all likelihood, school garden programs actually do no harm, academically speaking.  Flanagan tacitly admits as much herself, when she writes,

I have spent many hours poring over the endless research on the positive effects of garden curricula, and in all that time, I have yet to find a single study that suggests classroom gardens help students meet the state standards for English and math.

Surely, however, if she’d found any evidence in all of her research that suggested that classroom gardens hurt student performance, we’d have known about it.  But no such research is on offer:  Flanagan merely claims that gardening doesn’t actually improve English and math scores.  She actually offers no evidence at all in support of her central thesis, which is that school gardens are cheating students of other educational opportunities.

Terra Madre Potluck Dinner

On December 10th we were one of more than 1000 communities that celebrated Terra Madre day and Slow Food’s 20th Anniversary with a pot luck dinner bringing together Slow Food members and some of the farmers who supply our food.

Terra Madre is an international network of food producers, cooks, educators and students from 150 countries who are united by a common goal of global sustainability in food. The “food communities” of Terra Madre come together biennially to share innovative solutions and time-honored traditions for keeping small-scale agriculture and sustainable food production alive and well.

We celebrated Terra Madre by sharing dishes inspired by the seven pillars of Terra Madre, which include cultural food traditions, small scale producers, local foods, and foods that are good, clean and fair. We had a wonderful range of home made dishes some made from home-grown produce and some from local farms or producers. The farmers who joined us for the evening were:

Long time supporter Dick Jensen from Flying J Farm in Johnstown Ohio, where we held our first farm dinner;
Dairy farmers Bill Dix and Stacy Hall from Pomeroy Ohio, we toured their farm when we visited Snowville Creamery this summer;
Val Jorgensen from Jorgensen Farms who supplies Jeni’s ice cream with mint and other herbs, produces honey and breeds sheep; and
Mike and Laura Laughlin from Northridge Organic Farm whose produce often graces the tables at the Worthington Inn and Northstar Cafe and can be found at several farmers markets.

Some of the wonderful dishes we shared:

In 2008 Slow Food Northern Ohio sponsored some of their members to attend Terra Madre in Torino Italy. In 2010 we hope to follow suit and send some members of Slow Food Columbus to represent us at this international gathering. Bear, Colleen and I met with Abbe Turner from Lucky Penny Farm Creamery and she shared her experiences of traveling to Terra Madre 2008. She found it both an educational and inspiring experience with opportunities to learn, taste, network, discuss and share experiences with people doing local food all around the globe.

This will be big fundraising endeavor for us. The potluck was the first step in a journey that we hope will allow some of our members to travel to Torino.

Links:
Terra Madre
Terra Madre USA

Making egg nog from Snowville milk and cream.

A Slow Taste of Tuscany at Basi Italia

When we got a note from the publishers of Douglas Gayeton’s new book Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town telling us that they were planning a nationwide dinner in conjunction with Slow Food USA to celebrate the release of the book, which describes slow living and the slow life, and asking us which restaurants in Columbus would be appropriate, we had no hesitation in responding.  “Italian?”  we said.  “You want to talk to John Dornback at Basi and Kent Rigsby at Rigsby’s Kitchen.”  We didn’t know, at the time, that Kent’s son and sous chef Forbes had broken his ankle; fortunately John and his crew remained intact, and before long we were being cc:ed on messages about organizing the dinner.

Savory chestnut custard

John, of course, rose to the occasion with élan.  The first course on his $39 prix fixe menu was a savory chestnut custard with rosemary and sea salt.  I have to confess, I’ve never been a huge fan of chestnuts:  hearing people wax musical about them roasting over an open fire from my childhood home in California made them sound far better than the reality ever could have been, or in the end turned out to be.  But make them into a custard with sea salt and rosemary, and their subtle dusty bitterness plays beautifully off of the richness of the custard and the salty crust.  A definite win.

Pancetta-wrapped radicchio

Next came the glory—the surprising (to me), unmitigated pleasure—of the pancetta-wrapped radicchio with candied onion and balsamic vinegar.  I never would have anticipated it, but I thought this was hands-down the best dish of the night, and one of the more inspired I’ve had in a long time.  Again, it was a tutorial in how the elements of a dish play well together:  bitterness from the radicchio was dominant, supported by sweetness from the balsamic and smoky salty umami from the pancetta, all bound together with a satisfying textural crunch and heft.  I could have eaten it all night; in fact, when one of my tablemates offered me the second half of one of hers, I fear that I made a bare minimum of effort in offering it to everyone else before accepting.

Wild Boar Ragu with Potato Gnocchi and Braised Millcreek Chicken with Chorizo and Fingerlings

The main course was the only place where diners had a choice of dishes.  I chose the wild boar ragu with housemade potato gnocchi and was rewarded with gnocchi whose sweetness nicely balanced the acidity of the tomato and the pronounced gaminess of the boar.  When John’s wife Trish asked us which of the mains was better, I thought it’d be a tough call—until I tried a forkful of the chicken dish.  Normally chicken is, well, chicken; but as Trish pointed out, it’s a good test of a restaurant’s quality, because in the right hands it can be done amazingly well… and this was.  Meltingly tender, with sweet fingerlings, garlic, and delicious savory chorizo, it was simply delicious.  Tinged with sage and cinnamon accents, it just enveloped you with a warm autumnal glow.

Arborio rice pudding with fig caramel

The dessert, an arborio rice pudding with fig caramel, topped off a delicious evening.  I remember enjoying it, though I fear it was the victim of its predecessors’ success:  so far gone was I in my happy food coma that I neglected to write down a single note about it.

All in all, Basi ended up with something like 90 people on what would otherwise have been a quiet night, and we ended up with a fabulous four-course dinner at a very reasonable price—a win all around.  Our thanks to the publishers for a delicious idea!

Jeni’s in Vogue

When we think of artisanal food in Columbus, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams are always at the top of the list… and Jeni Britton Bauer’s sparkling, bubbling passion for food is amazingly infectious.  So it’s heartwarming to read Jeni’s account of their well-earned writeup in Vogue this month.  Give it a read, and join us in congratulating Jeni and her team!

Fair Food – Fair Wages

This week (November 18th-November 26th) is National Supermarket Week of Action, part of the Campaign for Fair Food. As one of the biggest feasts of the year Thanksgiving is an appropriate time for us to remember the workers who produce our food and thank them for their labor by helping to ensure that they receive fair wages and working conditions.

You may remember that earlier this year we wrote about slavery issues in Florida’s tomato fields but concerns about fair wages for farm workers are not limited to tomato fields. Farmworkers in the US earn approximately $11,000 a year. Their real wages have not risen in over 30 years.

Kroger is one of the grocery chains that is being targeted as part of a campaign to address the sub-poverty wages and human rights abuses faced by farmworkers who harvest their tomatoes. If you shop at Kroger please consider printing off one of the store manager letters and taking it with you when you next shop there. Tell Kroger that you support fair wages and working conditions for farmworkers. The more Kroger (and other companies) hear from consumers that this is a priority the more it creates a demand.

The Fair Food project aims to promote a more socially just food system. Their website includes a multimedia presentation called “Fair Food: Field to Table” which comprises three short videos that give more background and information on the issue and fair food movement. The first video deals with the realities for many farmworkers today, the second shows a model of good practice farm labor conditions and the third focuses on advocates and businesses at the forefront of the movement. I highly recommend watching them.

More information can also be found at the Alliance for Fair Food, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Fair Food Project whose website  has a list of resources and suggestions for farmers, consumers, businesses and teachers. Here are the suggestions for consumers:

• Buy local, buy direct, and get to know your farmer! When you have a personal relationship with a farmer it is easier to talk about workplace conditions on the farm.
• Buy Fair Trade labels when possible.  By purchasing fair trade certified products you show support for workers and farmers all over the world and support the growing movement for domestic fair trade in the U.S. and Canada.
• Join a CSA.  By being a member of a farm, you can get to know the farmer personally, and can meet the workers for yourself.  You can let your farmer know it is important to you for the farm to provide good labor conditions.
• Talk with other people.  Potluck, share food, and share the stories behind the food: Where did it come from? Who grew it? What are working conditions like? Getting others thinking about these issues is crucial.
• Get involved in local organizations.  Fair trade could be a great issue for sustainability groups or community groups.  Go to a meeting and see who else is interested in working with you.
• Get in touch with a local farmworker organization to learn more about the issues in your area. Host an event such as a film screening or art exhibit, and have members of the organization come present beforehand.
• Educate others.  Take a look at our “Be an Educator” section to learn more about how you can give a presentation and teach others about the issues.

Local Foods Roundtable

The Local Foods Roundtable was held at the Ohio Department of Agriculture on Thursday November 12th. We were very pleased to be part of the Roundtable because it mirrored our own idea for a Local Food Summit but at a state level rather than just Central Ohio. We were even more pleased that the event attracted over 100 people. The day’s conference included a number of break out sessions covering topics such as innovative local food distribution, marketing and outreach, small scale processing, building partnerships in food policy and engaging economic development in local food and agriculture. It was inspiring to hear some of the stories around the state including some fantastic initiatives in Knox County, Athens County and the Cleveland-Cuyahoga area.

There were also opportunities during the day for informal networking including the Slow Food Columbus reception at the end of the day, which we volunteered to host in the hopes of fostering more connections and opportunities for dialogue. Participants at the conference were from a wide variety of organizations, OSU extension, universities, businesses and non-profits and represented many geographic areas of the state as well as different parts of the local food economy.

Congratulations to Amalie Lipstreu (senior program manager for sustainable agriculture) for planning and co-ordinating the event and thank you to everyone who participated. We hope that there will be many more opportunities for networking, collaboration and discussion in the future. Now the challenge is how to build and maintain connections between groups that could work together on common aims or assist each other with skills, contacts and experience.

We had hoped to showcase and serve Ohio wine and cheese but after months of wrangling about permits we were frustrated to find out that we would be unable to serve wine. We did not know that Ohio had any partly dry counties left.  It does.  (Guess where the Department of Agriculture is located?). We did serve some delicious local products though including bread from the Eleni Christina bakery (owned by Slow Food member Kent Rigsby), ramp crackers from Integration Acres and flax seed crackers Stan Evans bakery in Grandview, roasted Wayward Seed Farm Chioggia and golden beets and local apple cider. Many thanks to Blue Jacket Dairy for donating some of their fabulous cheeses for the reception: herb chevre, Ludlow, pumpkin quark and a variety of cheese curds.

Wine Clash II: The Sequel

The indefatigable Andrew Hall has struck again, pitting Ohio wines against their Michigan counterparts in a reprise of last year’s groundbreaking Wine Clash. Now, as then, the focus was exclusively on quality, with an array of judges ranging from sophisticated consumers up to Sommeliers, and on local wine, with an unyielding requirement that all wines be produced from grapes grown in-state.

A few things were slightly different this year, however.

For one thing, last year’s broad array of top wines made people wonder which state had won the competition. (Perhaps the proximity of a certain football game had stirred up their rivalrous tendencies?) For another, the number of categories made it difficult to say which wine was the overall winner.

With those points in mind, Mr. Hall set the wines against each other—an evenly-matched set of 11 from each state—and carefully tallied the scores. You can read about the results in an article written by one of the judges. (Next year, Michigan, next year….)

Why do we find this event to be so exciting? (And we do.) Two reasons stand out. The first is that wine is the neglected stepchild of the locavore movement. Even in California, restaurants that compete to see who can source produce and meat from the closest farmers think nothing of having a predominantly European wine list—a discrepancy that locavores have noticed and find more than slightly annoying.

The second reason is that it’s a great example of taste education in action. Wine is an area in which prejudice and social convention trump taste; put simply, people are often afraid to trust their taste buds for fear of looking or sounding like they don’t know what they’re talking about. (This fear is most readily apparent on first dates.) And following social convention with wine generally means gravitating toward France, Italy, California, maybe Argentina or Spain… but not Ohio or Michigan. But wine experts, who do trust their taste buds, are actually a lot more generous than the general public when it comes to the best of Ohio and Michigan wines. If you really want to surprise some of your friends this holiday season, pick any wine off of this list—doesn’t really matter which one—and pour it for them without telling them where it’s from.