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A Happy Trend

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    Posted: 18 September 2013 at 12:14
Although you wouldn’t know it from the Food Network stars---most of whom seem to think that “heirloom” describes a specific variety, rather than a class of veggies---more and more fine dining chefs, when they develop new recipes, not only insist on heirlooms, but go with specific varieties.

This has been a pet peeve of mine, and one of the negatives when anything goes mainstream. “Heirlooms” are in. So chefs, foodies, greengrocers, and a host of other fad riders all tout them. But alas, few of them know what “heirloom” means when applied to produce.

Thus, the slow recognition that a dish’s flavor can truly be affected by the specific variety used in it is a healthy development.

Awhile back, for instance, I first learned about KY Flat Tan Field Pumpkins when the pastry chef at Blackberry Farm, in Knoxville, used them in two desserts. Along the way she mentioned that John Coykendall grew them for her. John, an old friend, is the chief horticulturist for that upscale resort.

I immediately called John about this incredible culinary pumpkin, and he sent me seed. I’ve been growing them ever since.

For me there was a double-barreled appeal to the KY Flat Tans. Not only was I introduced to a truly fantastic cooking squash, it was, serendipitously, a Kentucky heirloom as well.

The latest variety-specific mention I’ve seen comes from Curtis Di Fede, co-owner of Oenotri, in Napa California. Writing in Food Arts magazine, he details their Pancetta-wrapped rabbit stuffed with Jimmy Nardello peppers & green garlic.

This recipe should really appeal to my buddy Roger. Last time he and I shared a dinner that included rabbit was at a Lexington, Kentucky restaurant that has an incredible good reputation. It’s also incredibly undeserved. The rabbit, in a word, sucked. As did the other three meals served that night.

I won’t mention the joint by name. But if you find yourself in Lexington, and feel like dining at a restaurant whose name is a synonym for blue, go lie down until the feeling passes.

More to the point, Roger is a big-time promoter of Jimmy Nardello, both at the Blue Grass Farmers Market and at various heirloom events. So imagine a rabbit dish that lives up to its billing using one of his favorite peppers.

I’ll have to cook it for him one of these days.

Has anyone else noticed this trend? What examples can you provide?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 September 2013 at 14:26
I don't have any real first-hand examples of this, simply because of where I live - but I've seen it a few times on a few cooking shows - I can't recall any specific examples, just noticing that they got right down to the variety, and how it is a better choice than x,yz variety. If memory serves, apples were involced a couple of times, and tomatoes another.
 
As Brook says, it doesn't happen often enough.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AK1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 September 2013 at 19:44
This whole trend is a crock of poop. It's nothing more than chefs/restaurants overcharging for food. It appeals to the recent batch of "foodies" who go to the latest /hippest restaurant and order the latest trendy dish and then post it on social media so that all their friends can see how cool they are because they're having a $25 hamburger made from hand ground beef from a breed of cow that didn't exist for the past hundred years, on a bun made from flour ground by monkeys from a species of wheat that only grows in my neighbours backyard. Then finally topped with a tomato that's been grown by my grandmother for the past hundred years in a barrel with volcanic soil from the original eruption of Mt Etna, and only watered by tears from a virgin that was cryogenically frozen before Pompeii was covered by ash.  I could go onWink


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HistoricFoodie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 September 2013 at 20:26
Don't sugar-coat it, Darko. Tell us how you really feel.

I would have to disagree with you, however. While there certainly is some of that going on, heirlooms, as a trend, have been steadily building since the 1980s.

The difference is they've now become part of the mainstream. As with all such things, the faddiness will pass. But heirlooms will remain as an important part of the gardening/culinary world.

And, I have to add, that if you really can't tell the difference between, say, a Cherokee Purple and whatever hybrid your market sells, it's not a problem with the trend; it's with your tastebuds.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gracoman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 September 2013 at 20:30
Originally posted by AK1 AK1 wrote:

This whole trend is a crock of poop. It's nothing more than chefs/restaurants overcharging for food. 
While you and I understand this trend, and the keyword is trend, I read this weeping from laughter.  Why?  Because it's the truth. 

This does not mean we, as home cooks, should not embrace these wonderful "old" methods or ingredients while we can, and the keywords are while we can, but we must realize we are the minority here.

"A crock of poop"

Overpriced Food In A Nutshell


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AK1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 September 2013 at 21:28
My issue with heirlooms is this. There are hundreds of varieties of fruits/vegetables/nuts... all over the place.  If I live in some place and grow, let's say, a bean that has been grown for many years in the area. It grows well there and has adapted to that  area.  Once it is grown somewhere else there is a change, because of climate differences, soil composition etc. What is a heirloom in one area becomes something different somewhere else. Still an heirloom possibly but different from what it was.

Think about it! If you sent me seed from your famous "Brooks Big Butt Blasting Beans", and I grew them where I am, I could end up with "Darko's Dead Derriere" just because of growing conditions.


I guess when all is said and done, all I am asking for is good wholesome, local food. I don't need or want to pay for some "brand" name. Don't try to impress me by telling me that this bean stew is made with some specific bean that looks just like a kidney bean and tastes like it just came out of a can.  

"Oh Messieur, these flageolets came from the finest farm, and we used the finest steel to make the can, and if you cook them at precicely 117 degrees celcius, and stir them counterclockwise with a slight twist, rainbows will fly out your ...... 12 hrs later. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HistoricFoodie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 September 2013 at 22:58
The thing is, Darko, you could make the same argument about anything, including hybrids. Is the Celebrity grown by a farmer in Iowa the same as the Celebrity grown by a farmer in Ohio? 

Certainly the canners and mass marketers think so. 

I'm also not convinced that the effects of terroir are quite as dramatic as you make out. In some cases---Vidalia onions come to mind---there is a very distinct difference. But those situations are rare, which is precisely why they stand out. 

I'm also the first to admit that there are heirlooms that don't cut the mustard. But taken as a group, any heirloom will out-perform any hybrid when it comes to taste. That being the case, why not choose a local heirloom variety (and, yes, you are right---there are thousands of them, including a whole bunch grown by wherever you are) with great flavor over a tasteless hybrid? The fact is, you don't have to choose Broo's Big Butt Blasting Beans; not when there are so many varieties that have been grown by you for generations. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AK1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 September 2013 at 00:03
Oh, I completely agree with you Brook. Personally I don't feel that there is much difference (at least taste wise)between certain varieties of fruit/vegetable grown in different locales. It's just that some people feel the need to promote certain names and then feel that they should charge a premium for it. 
Just because I get my beans from "Bob's Farm, rather than Bill's does't necessarily make them better. But it seems that restaurants are "cashing in" on that.  "Oh look !our baked beans are made with beans from Bob's farm" Here ya go....10 bucks a bowl...Here's the pic on Facebook... I'm so cool!!!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HistoricFoodie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 September 2013 at 02:34
I think you're significantly overstating the case.

Restaurants whose chefs even know the difference tend to be fine dining establishments, which are pricey to begin with. If they make a big deal out of the ingredients it's more to satisfy the chef's ego, than to justify those high prices. 

The fact is, well-run restaurants use targeted cost figures. Food costs, for instance, should never exceed 30 percent, and good chefs strive to keep them as far below that as possible. 

A chef who brags that his beans are from Bob's Farm isn't using that to justify higher prices. He's pandering to a market that believes, rightly or wrongly, that Bob really is better than Bill. 

Where that might impact menu prices if if Bob, believing all the hype, ups the price of his beans. The chef is then likely to pass that higher price along. But it isn't likely to matter. Anyone willing to fork out a hundred bucks a head for dinner certainly isn't going to notice, or even care, about the extra buck and a half he's paying for his beans. 

It's just that some people feel the need to promote certain names and then feel that they should charge a premium for it. 

If we're talking things like Monsanto charging a premium for organic veggies, then, yeah, I'd agree with you. But that's not the issue here. What we're looking at are chefs and cooks who specify a particular variety because its flavor profile best fits what they're trying to accomplish. In my original post, for instance, the flavor and structure of Jimmy Nardello peppers may or may not matter to the dish. But it's obvious that Chef Di Fedde believes so. 

I'll say this for sure. If you were to make that dish, substituting regular bell peppers, it most definately would not be the same. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 September 2013 at 11:04
After reading some more of the responses on this and absorbing some angles that hadn't occurred to me before, I think we can agree that for the most part, fresh, locally-grown products have are in general much better. When it comes to heirloom varieties I it seems to me that these benefits are usually multiplied; I mentionend apples and tomatoes above, and those are two areas where I have seen this first hand.
 
Differences among heirlooms, where one would be "preferred" over another? I am sure this could be the case in some instances where a certain flavour or texture - or even colour - is the desired output. These differences might nudge a dish from "really good" to "superb," but I am willing to bet that even the "wrong" (for lack of a better word) will still be better than any mass-produced ingredient.
 
I'm generally speaking about produce here - when it comes to meats, that's probably another dicussion, because there are differences - but often the most expensive or "trendy" doesn't necessarily amount to being the true best.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HistoricFoodie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 September 2013 at 13:44
However you define "best." I'm always leary about using that word, because each of us has different criteria. Yet, we'll argue the point ad naseum because we don't realize we're starting from different baselines.

Here's a good example. If by "best" you mean a veggie ideal to meet the needs of the food distribution system, then Celebrity is the best tomato. Which is, of course, why it is the number one choice for contract tomato growers.

On the other hand, if by "best" you mean a tomato that has complex flavor, that actually tastes like a tomato, celebrity would be your last choice. That's when you'd go with one of the heirlooms (or, frankly, some of the other great-tasting modern open pollinated varieties).

Same with meats. If you're a cattleman, and by "best" you mean the breed that,through marketing and consumer ignorance is the most popular, and therefore returns the highest dollar, then you go with Black Angus. If by "best" your criteria are more naturally raised, flavorsome steaks, you probably go with a different variety, preferably one grass raised.

For various reasons, Scotch Highland cattle are the world's most perfect cows. But is that the same as "best?" I dunno. And I'm certainly not prepared to argue that they are.

If you're using modern recipes, heritage breeds of hogs are certainly not the best, even though they bring to the table all the things that make pork what it is---including higher fat content, deeper, more robust flavor, etc. So, is Berkshire or Duroc, or any of those best? Maybe not, despite their better taste.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 September 2013 at 13:54
good points all, brook; my usage of the word "best" should ahve been asterisked, for sure. for instance, i love the cherokee purple tomato, which tastes really, really tomato-y to me. my wife was unimpressed with it, and to be honest the colour kind of put her off.
 
funny thing is, even though the colour of the cherokee purple tomato doesn't bother me in the slightest, i cringe, almost to the point of physical revulsion, at eating blood oranges. i actually MADE myself taste one once, and loved the flavour - but to me, the colour and the flesh remind me of fish gills, and that's pretty much where i stop considering the flavour.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HistoricFoodie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 September 2013 at 14:07
Well there you go, Ron. No matter what objective criteria might be used to prove otherwise, blood oranges will never be best for you.

And the simple fact is, the importance of subjective criteria when judging food cannot be over stated.
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