Mon 14 Sep 2009 11:10 pm
Just about anyone who read Shannon Borg and Lora Lea Misterly’s book, Chefs on the Farm,
On Sunday, we get a vicarious chance to visit, in the form of an “Urban Picnic” fundraiser featuring foods from a dozen top chefs and restaurants who share the farm’s ethos – including Lark, Canlis, TASTE, and Top Chef Robin Leventhal, not to mention farm chef Misterly herself. Picnic tickets bankroll the farm scholarships that Seattle’s Chef Collaborative awards each year. Dining on sweet corn ragout and churro lamb and other goodies is an enjoyable way to contribute, and it does go both ways: When I talked to this year’s scholarship recipients, Zephyr Paquette of Elliott Bay Cafe and Zack Chamberlain of TASTE, I realized how much of their experiences at the school cycle back to us all.
“I think everyone should go (to Quillisascut),” said Paquette. She was already familiar with some of the mechanics of cooking on the farm — she’s broken down “a million chickens” for her work in restaurant kitchens, for instance. But experiences like seeing the process through with a live animal, butchering one particular goat, taking it apart, and making it into sausages, were new even for her. She returned with a new appreciation of the true price of some ingredients. “I am totally willing to pay $12/pound for huckleberries, because we went up the mountain to pick them, and boy was that hard. We went for two hours, I think there were 15 of us, and we got maybe 5 pounds.”
Even more than that, she found a new sense of purpose.
“I’ve been searching so hard lately for what I want to do — how am I going to do something in the world to make a difference, how do I want to make a difference?” she said. During one of the morning meetings at the school, after the early chores, it hit her. “We started talking about farmers markets, and how they’re supposed to be there for everyone” — but aren’t. Her goal now: Help people who wouldn’t otherwise have the money, time, or cooking know-how to access the sorts of ingredients that the Quillisascut and Slow Food chefs favor. She’s now busily mapping out how she’ll do that. Movements like Slow Food get tagged as elitist — and, as we’ve seen, it can be harder for people to access fruits and vegetables than overprocessed junk. People with Paquette’s energy and inspiration, though, can change that.
Chamberlain was just starting out his farm week when I spoke with him by phone, but his first day was packed: It was only mid-afternoon, and he’d already been through slaughtering and skinning a lamb, talking about respect for food and avoiding waste… then hands-on demonstrations on beekeeping.
He was inspired to apply for the scholarship partly because of his restaurant, which focuses on local ingredients from small farms. But it was a trip to Lummi Island last year for reefnet fishing that pushed him the rest of the way, “into the progressiveness of food, and what activities are possible.” Someone like him, he realized, could cause a ripple effect.
“Bottom line…I’m the guy who’s purchasing a lot of food, and I can purchase very consciously by doing activities like this.”
Seth Caswell, head of the Chef’s Collaborative and the upcoming Emmer & Rye, noted that’s one reason Chamberlain and Paquette were chosen for this year’s scholarships. They were “both in positions of leadership in their kitchens,” able to share and inspire others.
Caswell was already known for his farm-to-table work when he visited the school himself in 2007, with the entire staff of Stumbling Goat. But even for him, there were surprises — like how much everyone, servers to sous chefs, was eager to apply what they’d learned.
Interested in the picnic? It’s from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, on the rooftop courtyard of Rainier Square, 1333 5th Ave. Cost: $89 for Chefs Collaborative and Slow Food members, $99 for others, children under 10 free. BYOP (plate, glasses, and utensils.) Tickets here.
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