This year’s second ever “Slow Food” Picnic at Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works is quickly becoming the city’s white-hot red letter day food event. In an effort to expose our taste buds to “what we’re missing as a modern society” in our mad dash to industrialize the heck out of anything edible, the Picnic is an opportunity to savour something a little more thoughtful, a little more slowly prepared.
And that suits the roughly 1000 plus visitors that chose to celebrate almost the end of summer with a day that could rival a July in Vietnam on the humidity front just fine. Touted as an eco-gastronomic event, the picnic did a few things very well- it offered the requisite pamphlets and postcards (a tired looking apple that said: “Say No to Jet Lagged Food” was a personal favourite), Toronto’s finest tap water (not one bottle of water was available at the event) and a spate of terrific edibles. The latter had the happy effect of converting some skeptics (that looked like they were dragged along by food-enthusiast partners) that perhaps seasonal and local might just be better- at least better tasting!
Big Name Chefs and Super Star Farmers/Artisan Producers
Many of the big hitters were there- Jamie Kennedy, Marc Thuet, Brad Long, Jeff Crump, Michael Stadtlander, Anne Yarymowich, Mark Cutrara, Jason Bangerter, Anthony Walsh, David Lee and Patrick McMurray to name but a few of the area’s top chefs in attendance. But this year, it’s the farmers/artisanal producers who shine as the food world’s new "rock star" and NOT the chef.
For home cooks and gourmands especially in North America, this may seem revolutionary given the media’s willingness to tout celebrity chefs as being kings or queens of the culinary castle. But ask any chef what makes a superlative meal, and even molecular gastronomists will say "the raw ingredients." Or better yet, let’s hear from Brad Long (co-owner of Veritas in Toronto and now chef turned farmer) himself, “The only way I can cook at my best is if I have ingredients that are the very best and the only way they’re going to be the very best is if the purveyors/farmers/artisanal producers are functioning with quality, honesty, integrity at all times and with every conscious effort to do so sustainably. Without that we’re all, eventually, lost.”
Chef Jason Bangerter of Toronto’s Auberge du Pommier adds, “The whole event is based on terroir to table and the relationships between producers, chefs and public. I think the hottest thing there will be the creations made using these fantastic ingredients. I think the whole local farm, wild forager, artisanal producer relationship with chefs is the hot spot right now and that the public is attracted to this is amazing as well.”
It's All About the Raw Ingredients
Amazing indeed because chefs, like Long and Bangerter have forever known that it all starts with the raw ingredient- that’s the jumping off to point to a really superlative dish. But now home cooks are starting to make that connection and for many, getting off of pre-made food/meals, or as Patrick McMurray of Starfish Oysterbed and Grill calls it, “valueaddedprepackaged” food is a big deal. And the irony, as Jeff Crump points out- is that pre-packaged food lacks value more often than not. What you’re paying for is convenience, not quality, sustainability or even flavour for that matter.
Back to those ingredients that are the star of the show- they will preferably be local (eschewing most of our “jet-lagged” grocery store choices), seasonal, sustainably produced and whenever possible, organic. There were several of these examples on hand at the picnic- including a peach halve that's produced by the seventh generation of the Hipple Family in Beamsville, Ontario. Representing the clan at the picnic were two ebullient twenty-something siblings that grew the picture-perfect ripe Ontario peaches filled with a lady sovereign grape soup, diced blue plums, Montforte crème fraiche and wild Ontario walnuts. This was one of the simplest and best offerings sampled that day. Chef Alex of Jamie Kennedy's Gilead Cafe created this embodiment of late summer refreshment, taking happy advantage of manager Laura Hipple's farm-fresh family connection.
The Never Ending Choices
Over at the Scaramouche station, Keith Frogget used Andrew and Natasha Akiwenzie’s pristine Georgian Bay white fish to prepare a salty and satisfying brandade on a single, crisp potato chip. Bangerter highlighted wild mushrooms of every stripe from Forbe’s Wild Food giving them a lightly battered, flash fried treatment until they were perfectly crisp. Washed down with a little Spruce Soda from Quebec (this stuff is Magnificent- it’s a new favourite !), you’ve got a bit of Canadiana any time of year! From local grilled goat to Berkshire pork sausages, oysters to sorbets- along with organic micro brewed beer and wines- there was something for absolutely every palate on hand.
In Europe and much of Latin America, the farmer, cheese-maker, bread maker or butcher is already applauded for growing, making or producing food that's worthy of a standing ovation. Here in Canada (one can extend that to North America), apart from chefs-in-the-know, we're just starting to get back to our roots - especially those in our own, flavourful backyards! Here’s looking forward to the third year at the Brickworks and to unearthing other gustatory delights!
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