Behind the Line: Hugh Amano
Topic: State of the Industry/Trends
Molecular/Farm-to-Table
Do you secretly wish the farm-to-table hysteria would just go away, since everyone should use fresh food anyway?
- Hugh Amano
- Chef
- Food on the Dole
- Chicago, Illinois
Absolutely--but not so secretly! My position is that while the support of the farms is a great thing, I fear it is a trend/fad, and we all know what happens to those. Just ask Max Headroom or try to find your old Vuarnet or hypercolor shirt. The thing of it is, the more a restaurant/person catalogs for you the farms that they use, the less I trust them. I was in a restaurant once that had two different pork loin dishes. But on one, the pork was from such-and-such farm. Who can say where the other was from. But I've know enough cooks in my life to know that there's no way those two pork loins are ALWAYS going to be kept distinct from one another, whether on a butcher's block or in storage or on a grill, and anyway--why the option? "No thank you, I'll have the garbage pork loin, please."
Indeed, it is kind of like wanting to get a raise because you've showed up for work on time with matching socks, shoes on the correct feet and spelled your name correctly. As fully functioning human beings, shouldn't we be doing that already, and should we really be asking for credit for it?
It is a difficult position to take though--on the surface, being anti "Farm-2-Tableā¢" makes one look like a bit of a sinister kitten-juggler with a handlebar mustache, but in fact, my argument is for us all to be immersed in the sensibility of a farm-to-table ethic without getting any points for it. And for the record, I love cats.
Answers from other users
- Nate Hamilton
- Chef de Cuisine
- Harvest
- Madison, WI
Yes and no. If not everyone is using farm fresh food, I'd rather my guests know that I'm one who does. So in that sense, I'll fly the farm-to-table banner as high as it'll go.
Now if we could g...
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- Ashlee Aubin
- Executive Chef
- Wood
- Chicago, Illinoise
"Farm to table" as a catch-phrase has become a little passe. It seems as though, restaurants that cling to it are justifing doing as little as possible to their ingredients. While I certainly don...
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- Patrick Sheerin
- Chef/Partner
- Trenchermen
- Chicago, IL
It's an unfortunate necessity until we get to a point that as both diners and chefs we can be certain in our food systems that we are growing for quality and not quantity. It should be the logical...
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- Jennifer Plank
- Toast
- Cleveland, Ohio
No, I think that the more hype around it, the more people will understand how important it is. Not just on from a restaurants point of view, but for people to bring in local and fresh foods to thei...
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- Matt Danko
- Pastry Chef
- The Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat
- Cleveland, OH
I think the trend is a positive turn for America, as long as it takes for all people to eat healthy and to be educated on their food I don't mind.