Soon that salad you order at
Virgil's Café, in Bellevue won't come from across the state or from even across the street. It will come from Virgil's own back yard and even, perhaps, the roof of the dining room.
For many area restaurants, local and slow are increasingly popular ways of preparing food. Many of the city's best restaurants are increasingly relying upon local product and then cooking those foods for extended periods of time.
Some credit the changes to the Slow Foods and Locavore movements. Though to others- like Chef Matthew Buschle at Virgils - such thinking is nothing new. "I don't know why people have to invent tags. It's just the way things should be done," he says.
Last year Buschle's garden served his restaurant's entire green needs for two months, and plans are in place to expand the existing garden onto the roof of a new addition at Virgils. Buschle's not the only local chef looking inward for his produce supply either - he cites chef and restaurant owner, Patrick McCafferty as a kindred spirit.
Buschle says McCafferty, who owns
Slims in Northside, has his own extensive gardens and homegrown operation. "To see what he's done is inspiring," he says.
Old or new - influential or not,
Slow Foods is an ambitious international group effort committed to changing the world's relationship with food on a local level. It seeks nothing less than to alter the world's means of food production and consumption. The group, founded in 1989 in Northern Italy, claims to have over 100,000 members in 132 countries
SlowFoods USA is the national American organization.
In a nutshell, the movement is concerned that the growing, cooking and consumption of traditional foods is disappearing. Slow Foods wants to turn back the hands of time before fast food became ubiquitous. The three central principles of the Slow Food movement demand that food be sustainably produced in ways that are sensitive to the environment, that those who produce the food be fairly treated, and that the food is healthful and delicious.
Slow Foods pursues its goals by simultaneously engaging in a number of different projects. For instance, in working with local
schools, Slow Foods helps to plant gardens, from which produce will be directly incorporated into school meals. In other programs, Slow Foods works, through its various chapters, to help farmers produce traditional or 'heritage' foods.
All of this information, arguably, would be of only passing academic interest if the Slow Foods movement were not so influential on a local level as well.
Not only is the Slow Foods movement responsible, to a significant degree for the regions recent explosion of local farmers markets and C.S.A.s, it also directly influences what you eat at some of the city's leading restaurants. It may also contain within its philosophy the blue print for leading the local moribund restaurant industry from its current state of distress to a new model of success.
Slim's owner, Patrick McCafferty feels that both the Slow Food- and its sister
Locavore movement (a culinary movement much like Slow Foods, only with emphasis upon the production, generation and eating of quality local foods) are important not only for its influence upon the styles of local chefs, but also because the Slow Food/ Locavore movements represents what McCafferty calls "the new model of the urban restaurant."
McCafferty explained that the old, or traditional model for operating restaurants involved reliance upon expensive dining rooms and large kitchens populated with kitchen help and wait staff. "All those things," he says, "are expensive; and, often valued more than food."
Under the new Slow Foods/Locavore model, restaurants purchasing locally from known sources are assured not only better quality and fresher food, but also benefit from more reliable delivery that decreases the likelihood of shortages or non-availability of foods important to their menu.
"We grow watercress, our culinary herbs, as well as all our lettuces, and greens," McCafferty says of Slims. "We don't have to rely on anyone for this produce and it will always be there, delivered on time."
McCafferty's self sufficiency doesn't end there though. "In addition to product, we also grow flowers for table and plate - such as violas, hibiscus, pansies, primrose; and a handfull of fruits that we use on the menu as well, such as comquats and meyer lemons," he says.
According to McCafferty, in eliminating these shortages most often associated with long distance purveyors, Locavore and Slow Food reliant restaurants also avoid concurrent price spikes.
"Consistent availability, and better cost control not only means a more consistent menu reflecting what I want to see on the menu, but, also means better odds of turning a profit," he says.
Additionally, McCafferty notes that people are not only increasingly concerned with serving and eating healthy food, but also want to have a relationship with the people growing and/or preparing their food. Thus for those committed to this type of cooking, Slow Food and Locavore principles means that reservations are also up.
This type of accountability is especially important to Val Taylor. Taylor, a freelance writer living in Montgomery, became interested in documenting the availability of Locavore food sources about the time McCafferty was opening Slims.
"I knew that many farmers still kept selling produce and meat, even after the farmers' markets closed for the year, but I didn't know how to contact or buy from those sources," she says.
Her curiosity led Taylor to create a
list of local purveyors offering quality, local artisanal products. She distributed her information via a mailing list. In time, Taylor also created a Locavore
blog page which now serves to educate the public about locavore food products. Providing education as to the availability of these foods is especially important to Taylor.
"There are a lot of misconceptions regarding the locavore movement," she explains. "People think, for instance, that these products are necessarily expensive. However that simply is not the case. What is important is education and planning." For Taylor, her mailing list and blog serves to provide necessary information to the local community.
In similar fashion, the local slow food movement also hosts a
blog as well as hosting monthly meetings - this year's kickoff meeting at
Park & Vine in the recently rejuvenated Gateway Quarter was well attended.
That the local Slow Foods meeting was so well attended it is not a surprise to Debbie Gannaway. She and her son Matthew, own
Kroeger and Sons Meats located in
Findlay Market. The Gannaway's bought the business from Mark and Michael Kroeger. At the time of the sale, the Kroeger family had owned the business for some three generations.
Gannaway explained that she did not come to the embrace Slow Food philosophy after her purchase of the Kroeger shop, but that her purchase of the shop was rather a natural extension of long held beliefs. She explains that in the 20 years prior to buying the business, she had shopped at Findlay Market on a nearly weekly basis - even through the dark days when the market was poorly attended and the city was offering free rent to the merchants in an attempt to stem the exodus of businesses.
Since that time, however, business for both Kroeger Meats and the Market in general, has taken off. Gannaway credits the success of her business, in no small part, to Locavore and Slow Food philosophies. She especially credits the Slow Food's philosophy of eschewing fast foods, in favor of eating a home cooked meal with family and friends, as putting her business and the market back in the black.
"People want to eat at home and they want to serve healthy food and want to know the people they're buying from," she explained. "Our shop, and the market, fills that need."
Which is not to say that Cincinnati's Locavore and Slow Food movement is strictly a matter of economics.
Josh Campbell is a chef and creator of Findlay Market's
World Food Bar and chef at the newly opened
Mayberry's on Vine Street. He's also a big fan of the Locavore and Slow Food philosophies. He explains these philosophies generally create great food and also reflect the way he was taught to cook. Campbell points out an immersion cooker on the counter behind him, "those lamb ribs," he says, "have been cooking for 24 hours at 155 degrees."
However, Campbell cautions that the implementation of philosophy always comes second to aesthetics. In other words, the foods gotta taste great- no matter what you call it.
Photography by Scott Beseler
Slims' garden in Northside
Matthew Buschle at Virgil's
Plantains
Slims window greens
Farm fresh eggs at Slims
Foie gras creme brulee at Mayberry
Lamb Shanks at World Food Bar
Josh Campbell