So for the most part I have been cooking here in Gotham for almost a decade - ten years of working through the hallowed halls of some New York City's great restaurants. In the process I have worked with some of the finest ingredients you could possibly imagine; truffles from Italy, perfectly marbled kobe from Japan and cheeses from every corner of the world. However, my relationship with these ingredients, which I handled with such reverence that it would probably make my first born extremely jealous, always began the same - it came to me through a door, a door in which a delivery guy walk through to be more exact. This past Thursday, I got my first introduction on how great local produce can inspire the palate and can stand neck in neck with the fancy, schmancy ingredients of the world.
I went to help set up our Katchkie Farm Stand over at Port Authority, I was asked to go the day before by my Chefs to help insure the quality of the produce coming down from the Farm. So at 5:30 in the morning I made my way to Port Authority to meet up with one of GP's Farmers. As we waited for the rest to arrive, I couldn't help but admire the vegetables he had brought down. I asked him what time he left Katchkie - he replied 2AM (that's a serious delivery run). Then he told me that these vegetables I was looking at got picked yesterday. Less than 24 hours ago, these vibrant carrots, the glistening beets and even the humble onions were sitting pretty in the ground. Now, it was here and in a few hours it'll be sitting in someone's fridge waiting to show the lucky owner what a real vegetable should taste like.
We started setting up, piling on the beets, the radishes, the baby carrots, cucumbers, turnips and the rest of the vegetables. The smell just grew and grew, strong enough that people would stop dead in their AM commute (which is pretty hard to do to a New York commuter) and just take a moment to enjoy the aroma. I tried a French Breakfast Radish and right there I understood what every great chef (and cook) already knows - Mother Nature, when allowed to do her thing on her own time table, can crank out a pretty mean plate. One lady took a look at the carrots and exclaimed,
"Wow, I got to roast some carrots this weekend!"
Can you imagine what these vegetables would taste and smell like cooking in your home, if it looked and smelled this great in Port Authority?!
Fresh honest local produce, what a great new concept. I say new because I think we kinda lost touch with the idea of eating. Food we eat now is less about "how and why we eat" but rather "we need to eat"- which is a shame since we all need to eat, that is a given. Why not enjoy the process again, stop and smell the vegetables so to speak and let the vegetables at your local farmers market tell you what you'll be having for dinner rather than some magazine and or the telly. Its time to start feeding yourself, your friends and your family real food again, take all the credit for what will undoubtedly be the best veggies anyone you feed will eat and get back into the art of dining.