Late Spring 2008
In this Issue:
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A lot of water and a long wait for flavor For too many Americans, the opportunity to savor fantastic, flavorful, nourishing and memorable food is an illusion. I’m not talking about community pot lucks or family Sunday lunches. |
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I recently decided to examine just how much food can be wasted by institutions in America. I chose an “all you care to eat” facility and here’s what I learned. |
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Adding Flavor to Food & Nutrition Education For many of you who have attended Field to Plate workshops, or have purchased our products, you know how we feel about flavor and taste. We believe that success in nutrition education involves understanding the food journey and food memories of the individuals we work with. |
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Continuing Education Workshops If you haven’t done so already, take a peek at our innovative continuing education workshops in Santa Fe, Colorado, Maryland and the Isle of Crete this Summer and Fall. |
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Beginning in the Fall 2008, creative downloadable food education toolkits and thought-provoking presentations. |
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Perspectives on Food
A lot of water and a long wait for flavor
(continued from cover)
For too many Americans, the opportunity to savor fantastic, flavorful, nourishing and memorable food is an illusion. I’m not talking about community pot lucks or family Sunday lunches. Nor am I talking about those recipes that have been handed down generation after generation. Whether they are too rich, too salty, too lavish or too sweet, those recipes and those meal occasions are the culinary fabric of America. For too many Americans, that great tasting 1 minute old tomato that drips down your chin and stains your shirt is also an illusion. And, for too many Americans, the “food like substances” that Michael Pollan refers to are a daily nutrient delivery medium which also share the name “food.” Before you accuse me of being anti-patriotic or failing to understand the all-American palate, allow me to explain.
I’ve spend the last 7 years criss-crossing America. I’ve eaten at local diners and been served by some of this country’s most talented chefs, be they household names or local unknowns. I’ve eaten in fields on white tablecloths and I’ve stood in line at a lot of hotel buffets. Like you, I’ve stood at many airport gates passing time because of delays and had far too many bags of peanuts hoisted at me in the name of sustenance for a cross-country flight. Suffice to say, I’ve had some of the very best and an awful lot of the forgetful rest. Here’s my conclusion: just like the gap between rich and poor, there’s a huge equity gap between what’s truly flavorful and nourishing food and the rest. Enough already I say.
My husband and I made a mad 2.5 hour dash recently to hear a presentation in a rural part of a neighboring state. Breath-taking drive and a great evening, but we missed dinner. So our only options were a national pizza chain. Hadn’t eaten there in maybe 10 years. That night we had no choice. Hey , why not? I say that if you are going to pass comment on food, and talk to people about meaningful food choice, you have to continue to check in on who's doing what with food, regardless of your “food preferences.” So the pizza place was run by young adults. I’d say between the ages of 18 and 24. That’s consistent with most fast food/fast casual restaurants in America these days. Run by kids. It was 9:50 PM. The kids (young adults) were delightful, accommodating and efficient. We ordered a veggie pizza and like every good American, jumped in the car and hot footed it home, pizza slices in hand. The crust was great. But of course! It was bathed in oil! But if you had put a blindfold on me, I would not have been able to discern what was on the pizza. I vaguely recall a green pepper flavor rising up from the goo, but that was it. What on earth are we eating I asked?
We had a similar experience at a 3 star hotel in DC. We opted for the breakfast buffet. Bad mistake. We had the same “what are we eating?” experience. The fruit salad was melon and pineapple. Now pineapple –when ripe – is flavorful year round. But melon has a distinct season. So the three melon varieties in the salad were indistinguishable. They were, as one Boston chef once observed in one of my workshops, a lot of water and a long wait for flavor. Ever had one of those experiences? Is it any wonder that Americans struggle with fresh produce?
For too long, too many Americans have never had the opportunity to compare the truly great with the truly mundane. And – until we afford Americans that opportunity, we cannot expect them to choose differently either. Do me a favor. Hold a party and have a standard deli tray with cheese slices. The kind you pick up at the grocery store or from the warehouse club. Put a blindfold on people and ask them to taste three different cheeses. Make sure you have “Swiss”, cheddar and mozzarella. Throw in some Provolone too. I can almost guarantee that the tasters will not be able to tell the difference between the cheeses. It all tastes the same. It just comes in different colors. Then move to the second plate. On this plate, you’ll have a good Emmentaler (Swiss), a sharp Cheddar (perhaps a Cabot or a local/regional producer) and a true Buffalo mozzarella. Maybe a local goat cheese, but that’s mixing up the animal!! Let people participate in the second tasting and you’ll soon see that they won’t need help coming to flavor conclusions. You can do the same thing with chocolate. Not the national brand kind, but the good kind. We do this in our workshops, and you don’t have to help people draw conclusions. Great flavor and quality food doesn’t need interpretation. It literally speaks for itself. . Be it cheese or be it chocolate, allowing people to taste the truly great against foods designed solely to satiate, is the difference between talking about food and sowing seeds of food memories that will nourish for a life time.
And yet sadly, millions of Americans will never ever have the opportunity to taste food that takes their breath away or makes their taste buds soar. That’s undemocratic.
Weighing in on Food Waste
Food for thought from Andy Sarjahani
Photos Courtesy of Andy Sarjahani |
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I recently decided to examine just how much food can be wasted by institutions in America. I chose an “all you care to eat” facility and here’s what I learned:
- Average daily patron count for this facility: 2502
- Average pounds of edible food discarded daily: 1166 (excluded liquids, including soup)
- Approximately 40% of waste resulted from overproduction with the remaining waste resulting from uneaten food
Pondering the issue over many sleepless nights, I realized many aspects contributed to the waste I observed. “All you care to eat” facilities facilitate the following:
- We take more than we need (think eyes bigger than the stomach)
- We create “sample platters” that result in nibbling on various dishes only to trash the rest
- We consume far more than we need because “we can”.
- Using trays enables us to accumulate mass amounts of food in one trip which will inevitably be discarded.
Be it an issue of overproduction, or overconsumption, the idea that food is so readily available and abundant that we can over produce and “over choose” without consequence, is fast becoming obsolete. As rapidly as food and energy prices are soaring, I’m wondering how long it will be before we those edible food waste bins shrink to an unrecognizable size.
Adding Flavor to Food & Nutrition Education
For many of you who have attended Field to Plate workshops, or have purchased our products, you know how we feel about flavor and taste. We believe that success in nutrition education involves understanding the food journey and food memories of the individuals we work with. Once we understand the journey and the flavors and textures that our clients and customers have been exposed to, we can then work on expanding their food horizons, and importantly, their palates.
The wine industry has perfected the art of sensory expectation (and subsequently expanding the consumer’s palate) by introducing wines in flights. Tasting in flights allows you to experience the subtle difference a year can make in a chardonnay produced from the same vineyard. The same tasting technique helps you distinguish the difference between that same chardonnay and a Riesling – same vineyard. So take that same idea and ask “can we apply this technique to fresh food?” After all, it is surely easier to help consumers increase the fresh food variety in their diets if they know the flavor of what you’re talking about. Right now, we encourage food choices through color or nutrient composition, but less often through flavor. We do use enticing descriptors, but unless you have a starting place to benchmark the consumer’s palate, you could find yourself recommending asparagus (grassy) to someone with a sweet corn (sweet) palate. That approach will hardly lead to success.
With insights gleaned from Chef/author Deborah Madison and produce expert, Mark Mulcahy over the years, Field to Plate has developed tools that we believe will enable food, nutrition and health educators to apply exciting new sensory approaches to education. We’ve been introducing these tools in our workshops for the past two years, and have seen how inspired educators become when they approach nutrition education from a solid sensory perspective. Our sensory tools, which will part of all Field to Plate toolkits as well as available for individual purchase, beginning in the Fall of 2008, allow educators to more closely evaluate the sensory experiences of your clients and make fresh produce recommendations that closely match their palates and food experiences. We feel that this sensory approach, coupled with sound nutrition advice, will lead to greater success in fresh food education.
Continuing Education Workshops
If you haven’t done so already, take a peek at our innovative continuing education workshops in Santa Fe, Colorado, Maryland and the Isle of Crete this Summer and Fall. Click for detailed information.
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Our Latin Fusion workshop (MD) is a culinary-cultural immersion in Latin foods and culture, led by Chef Liesel Flashenberg in a bilingual environment. |
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Talking to People about Food (MD & CO) is a four hour immersion in creative tools and thinking around food education. If you are looking for some inspiration, think about adding this workshop to your list of events to attend. |
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Refreshing the Shape of America’s Plate is our 3.5 day program with Chef/author Deborah Madison and the Santa Fe School of Cooking. This program is limited to 26 participants and is extremely popular. Check out the program and send in your $200 deposit to reserve your space. |
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Finally, don’t miss our magnificent Exchange Forum experience on the Isle of Crete, Fall 2008. If you are interested in sustainable food systems and sustainable communities, do think about joining us for this 7 day program co-hosted with Chef Nikki Rose, Crete’s Culinary Sanctuaries, and local food, agriculture and cultural experts from the Isle of Crete and University of Crete. The program focuses on deepening our understanding of the much touted Mediterranean Diet. We move far beyond the science to literally experience what it means to live and eat around the Mediterranean. A remarkable program complete with a post-conference tour option on the island. |
New from Field to Plate
Downloadable Toolkits for the Food and Nutrition Educator
We’ve stepped up to the plate, upped the action and are
producing an inspiring series of downloadable toolkits and individual
tools for food and nutrition professionals. If you are talking
to people about food, these toolkits bring a completely new
perspective to the food and nutrition discussions you have with
your clients. Look for the following toolkits which will be
available for download and purchase Fall-Winter, 2008.
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Thought-provoking downloadable presentations about food and food choice
Looking for thought-provoking presentations that go beyond “what
to eat” and “good for you messages? “ Tired
of trying to dream up something new or different when you’re
asked to present to local groups? Field to Plate is introducing
an ongoing series of ready-to-use presentations that go beyond
the calories and delve deeply into issues impacting food choice
and food systems in America. Look for this series of downloadable
presentations complete with presenter notes, starting this Fall
with
Food Waste: The Consequences of Abundance.
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