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The Dispatch wrote
Farmers’ markets enable pros to find affordable, flavorful produce for diners
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
BY JILL LASTER
Not much excites Tony Miller the way eggplants at the North Market do. Except maybe tomatoes. “You come down and go, ‘Ooh, ooh, ooh,’ ” said Miller, the chef at Latitude 41 in the Columbus Renaissance hotel since it opened in 2006 .
Miller and other chefs seek the best ingredients for their dishes. In central Ohio, many trust farmers’ markets for the freshest-tasting, most interesting and, in some cases, least- expensive fruits and vegetables.
Miller buys produce from such markets almost exclusively during the summer — especially in June and July, the peak season for tomatoes, sweet corn, green peppers and some other choices.
To gauge how a pro prepares for his kitchen creations, The Dispatch recently went grocery shopping with Miller.
Latitude 41 Videos:
- Latitude 41 Recipe – Roasted Pork Belly
- Latitude 41 Recipe – Hawaiian Tuna Crudo
- Latitude 41 Recipe – Prosciutto and Melon Salad
- Latitude 41 Recipe – Farm Fresh Gazpacho
- Latitude 41 Recipe – Spring Lamb and Goat Cheese Agnolotti
That is a fine enough article and I am glad it highlights a deserving chef.
But … how f’ing lazy and parochial the Dispatch comes across with these things! Chefs @ farmer’s markets was worthy of comment 15 yrs ago. Now it is like commenting that doctor’s use stethoscopes. I wish I had a job where I could write w/o thinking and wander around the market with a chef for a few hours.
The really cool kids have their own gardens these days.
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But … how f’ing lazy and parochial the Dispatch comes across with these things! Chefs @ farmer’s markets was worthy of comment 15 yrs ago. Now it is like commenting that doctor’s use stethoscopes.
heh… funny, I was thinking something similar — not quite that the Dispatch seems lazy and parochial per se, but that they’d picked the wrong slant for this article. They could have sold it as, With all of the choices available to a modern chef in one of the top restaurants in the city, Tony Miller still prefers the Farmers’ Market — that says something great about the city’s Farmers’ Markets; or perhaps cast it as a David vs. Goliath, small organic local food vs. big agribusiness article, and when it comes down to it, chefs like Tony Miller vote for the former. Either could have been done with the same raw material.
All I was thinking was, “Damn, I hope Tony doesn’t show up before me and buy all the good eggplants.”
“When cooking at home, Miller has started using locally grown and produced foods almost exclusively – for heightened flavor and to improve his health. Since March, he said, he has lost 100 pounds.”
100 pounds, that’s amazing, that’s 5 months :shock:
Really? I thought it was still pretty unusual for local restaurants to use local foods. Perhaps it’s more common at high end places, but I really don’t see it very often at your more casual joints.
Really? I thought it was still pretty unusual for local restaurants to use local foods. Perhaps it’s more common at high end places, but I really don’t see it very often at your more casual joints.
Which category does Latitude fall in? The answer is why such an article is a re-tread. A more interesting slant would be to ask certain high-end chefs (who can do great stuff) why they don’t use local and seasonal products.
An article about a casual diner-type joint that assiduously goes local would be worthy of newsprint. The two big issues are 1) cost and a clientele that usually doesn’t care enough to pay the diff & 2) consistency of menu.
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Really? I thought it was still pretty unusual for local restaurants to use local foods. Perhaps it’s more common at high end places, but I really don’t see it very often at your more casual joints.
Which category does Latitude fall in? The answer is why such an article is a re-tread. A more interesting slant would be to ask certain high-end chefs (who can do great stuff) why they don’t use local and seasonal products.
Or to talk with farmers who have carved out a more lucrative niche for themselves by growing specialty produce for these chefs. The Culinary Vegetable Institute (sounds like heaven, doesn’t it?) does just that, and has training sessions for chefs on how to use their obscure veggies. Charlie Trotter is a frequent guest.
Or talk to some local chefs who (used) to claim they got vegetables from there, but never had them on the menu nor did their staff have any idea what the hell we were talking about.
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Or talk to some local chefs who (used) to claim they got vegetables from there, but never had them on the menu nor did their staff have any idea what the hell we were talking about.
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Interesting! Food provenance is tough to prove.
I thought this was a great article. For a second, I thought I was reading an article from a news outlet in a more progressive city. I can’t believe people here are even criticizing it.
+1
I’m willing to bet that less than 5% of the restaurants in Columbus utilize local food sources.
I’m willing to bet that less than 5% of the the population in Columbus cares where their food comes from.
Taking potshots at the mainstream media for being too mainstream is silly. That’s great if anyone here on CU is in the minority of people who care about this sort of thing already. If so, perhaps this article was not written specifically for you, but instead for someone else.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. On balance I’m very glad it was written, and the demand for local food is not nearly what it should be in area restaurants. All true.
My comment was just meant to suggest that, while well-conceived, the article could have been better targeted.
+1
I’m willing to bet that less than 5% of the restaurants in Columbus utilize local food sources.
I’m willing to bet that less than 5% of the the population in Columbus cares where their food comes from.
There’s a good reason for that. Most farmers don’t really have produce that’s all that good, and the growing season is very short. I’ve quit trying to buy at farmer’s markets for that reason.
And I do care, I want the best.
Paul
My potshot is not for mainstream, but for the laziness of writing a story that is a cliche and has been for 10 yrs. That the editor didn’t spike it as such marks the paper as being parochial and small-minded. I will grant I might be giving too much credit to the media in other cities though.
That identical story (reporter goes to market w/ chef) has been in uncounted papers and blogs and TV.I think I’ve even seen it locally in the past. I wish I had a job where I got paid to copy what other people had done and hang with a chef for a day. A non-lazy reporter could have made something good with this as well as something more informative than just a single restaurant to consumers who do care.
Here is an example I remembered from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette a couple years ago. I like this article because it also goes into the reasons restaurant don’t go local.
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You are not looking very hard then.
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