Fortunately, cooks, farmers, restaurateurs, sommeliers and all kinds of food innovators around the world are answering the call for sustainability. Despite being a word that we can hear anywhere, sustainability is nothing new. It is a practice from which we have distanced ourselves and to which it is urgent to return.
It’s the foundation of our culture, explains chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant. “It has been lost in recent times, as our way of eating and harvesting has evolved, more focused on ‘the best of the best’ and not on taking advantage of all the edible parts of the crop.”
Barber, pioneer of farm-to-table since 2004, explains that, historically, kitchens were created around the maximum use of resources. “Traditions such as turning certain cuts of meat into charcuterie have been maintained not only because they are delicious, but because they correctly reflect what the land can give us,” explains the renowned chef.
Pick of the Day: Blue Hill at Stone Barns
Traceability and waste management have been a priority for Dan Barber since the inception of Blue Hill at Stone Barns. The restaurant, which has two Michelin stars and a green star awarded by the same institution, is located in the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York, from where he leads the farm-to-table at its highest level. “Throughout our history, we have always challenged ourselves so that each person in the restaurant experiences part of the farming of the farm,” Barber explains.
“We realized that this was almost impossible when running an a la carte menu, so we got rid of the menus and transitioned to a format of farmer’s feast based on the day’s harvest. Thus, each table at Blue Hill receives different dishes, giving the diner an experience linked to temporality, and the kitchen team, greater freedom. Despite not being a perfect system, Barber believes that “it’s an honest reflection of the farm within the dining experience.”
The Blue Hill team considers themselves lucky, because thanks to the reputation they have built, a large part of their clientele comes to the restaurant in search of that experience based mostly on vegetables and grains and accompanied by some protein. And although diners with a more traditional mind arrive from time to time, for Barber they are those who find it most satisfying to serve.
“If, for example, they expect a great rib eye with a glass of wine, we give them a steak of radish. We start with an incredibly sweet, late-season radish and cook it like chicken. The result is a steak tender, with a delicious caramelized crust. We serve it with a rich meat-based sauce that pairs perfectly with any good wine”.
As pioneers of gastronomic sustainability, the greatest wish for Barber and his team is that in the future there will be no distinction between a sustainable restaurant and a normal one. “That operating a restaurant simply means doing it in a sustainable way”, he explains before talking about us, the diners, since he believes that, to become a cultural change, sustainability decisions go far beyond the individual.
“For me, the solution is to cook well. In the United States, the average family throws away about 25 percent of the food it buys,” she explains. “There is a huge opportunity for consumers to make a real change. One way to start is to buy less and cook more often. Learning to make the most of ingredients is the result of experience in the kitchen.”