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With only a couple of weeks left in 2006, it is a good
time to sit back, review the year that has passed, and
set goals for the year ahead. For us at The Healthy
Butcher, it is essential that we revisit the reason for
having started the business so that we
continue to strive towards our initial vision. Framed
and hanging on our wall from Day One is our mission
statement which states: “To ensure your food is produced
the way nature intended.” To us the meaning of this
statement is simple – more than anything else, it means sourcing food that has been
produced organically and locally. It’s been a good year.
In 2006, we have dealt with and affected the livelihood
of no less than seventy local farms and educated a
countless number of consumers on the product we sell,
how to cook all parts of an animal (not just the loin),
and to enjoy the food you consume… Live to Eat, so to
speak. But, to put things into context, we have only
just begun – so much yet to learn, so much yet to do.
How often in the course of our daily busy lives do we
afford ourselves moments to relish in the act of
preparing and eating food? For most of us, our enjoyment
of food has fallen victim to the frenetic pace of our
lives and to our increasing estrangement from the
natural processes by which food is grown and produced.
Packaged, artificial, and unhealthy, fast food that we
consume is the most dramatic example of the degradation
of food in our lives, and of the deeper threat of
cultural and environmental loss. |
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Slow Food is an organization, or more
accurately, a worldwide movement started in the late
‘80s that advocates the same principles we advocate. Slow Food
is founded on the belief that the food we eat should
taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way
that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or
our health and that food producers should receive fair
compensation for their work. Today, Slow Food has over
75,000 followers! And to think, it all started when
Carlo Petrini, armed with bowls of penne, decided to
resist the steady march of fast food and all that it
represents when he organized a protest against the
building of a McDonald's near the Spanish Steps in Rome.
On October 26-30, the
second edition of
Terra Madre,
organized by Slow Food, took place in Turin,
Italy. This world meeting of food communities brought
together almost 9,000 people in Turin: 4,803 farmers,
breeders, fishermen and artisan food producers from
1,583 food communities and 150 nations; 953 cooks; 411
professors and representatives from 225 universities;
2,320 observers and guides; 776 volunteers. Jamie
Kennedy was one of Canada’s delegates at Terra Madre
2006 and we are very honoured to have Jamie write his
reflections on the event for our last Live to Eat
newsletter of
2006.
Jamie Kennedy hardly need’s an introduction. He is the
author of two acclaimed cookbooks, a pioneer of
contemporary Canadian cuisine, and one of Canada’s most
celebrated and talented chefs. The amount of positive
press and reviews Jamie has received in recent years is
almost overwhelming; but well deserved. His passion and
advocacy for sustainable practices in agriculture,
fishing and husbandry have formed the basis for his
gastronomic outlook, ensuring that his patrons enjoy the
best in locally-sourced, naturally-raised ingredients.
One of the themes of this year’s Terre Madre 2006 was
the role of the cook… and without further ado, Thoughts
on Terra Madre 2006, by Jamie Kennedy.
For more information on Slow Food, visit
http://www.slowfood.com or the Toronto convivial
at
http://www.toronto.slowfood.ca, or email Slow
Food Toronto Convivium Leader Pamela Cuthbert at
pamela@toronto.slowfood.ca.
For more information about Jamie Kennedy and his
restaurants, visit
http://www.jkkitchens.com |
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MORE HEALTHY CHEESES
COMING TO
THE HEALTHY BUTCHER
For 35 years, a
display fridge that we've dubbed "Cheesy" has been housing
cheeses for a family-owned deli in south-western Ontario... now,
Cheesy will continue the tradition at The Healthy Butcher! On the left, owner
Mario Fiorucci & manager Nick Gaston carry a wheel of rare,
Certified Organic Parmiggiano-Reggiano which was brought in to commemorate Cheesy's
move to our store. Look out for more
artisanal, local, and organic cheeses!
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SEEKING
VOLUNTEERS
In an upcoming Live
To Eat Newsletter we plan on analyzing the "economics" of
eating organic. What is the premium you pay or would pay to
buy more or all organic food? We are looking for any individual,
couple or family to share with us their typical grocery list.
All names will be kept confidential. If you're interested in
participating, please email
info@thehealthybutcher.com
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I remained in Italy for a couple of days following the Terra Madre Conference in
Turin. I stayed in the Piemontese region and visited Bra. It is in Bra that
Carlo Petrini’s concerns around the future of food culture crystallized into the
organization known today as Slow Food. For me, it was a pilgrimage of sorts. I
wanted to see the place; I wanted to dine there. We were a bit early for our
lunch reservation so we strolled around and dropped in at Café Converso. We had
coffee and chocolate at the bar and looked around. There, sitting in the corner,
reading the paper and sipping coffee was Carlo Petrini. Here was the man who
made it possible for 6000 delegates to be transported from their villages around
the world and dropped into an urban setting in Italy for a few days to hear
people speak and to meet each other and share their joys and struggles about
food.
The juxtaposition of my
perceived greatness of this man together with my witnessing him in an ordinary
moment, reminded me that the ideology that slow food embraces is simply a set of
values that all of us share. Somewhere along the way, we got off track and the
values were misplaced. Now we are in the process of correcting ourselves. The
incredible growth of the slow food movement over the last two decades is proof
that we care. Terra Madre is proof that, on an international scale, people can
come together from all the villages of the world with no political agenda, but
rather a common global purpose; to celebrate the provenance of their food. To
some, this means merely putting some food on the table. To others, it is more of
an exploration of food culture. To all, it is about making sure that food comes
from local sources and that it is grown or prepared by people in their community
using sustainable means with respect to proper stewardship of the land.
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I muse over the experiences of the last few days in Turin. I am at the Terra
Madre conference once more. Two years ago I attended the first Terra Madre
conference. It struck me then as a United Nations of Food. A collage of colours
from all over the world. There were people involved with food from a grassroots
level. The conference was about sharing. We shared knowledge, experience, food,
wine, and challenges. There was openness amongst the people of the world and
recognition that what brought them all to Turin was the importance of sustaining
good, clean and fair practices in the growing and production of the food we
share in our communities. People left Turin comforted and bolstered in their
beliefs that work in our chosen field has no boundaries. It is clearly a global
struggle with as much diversity as there are villages in the world. At the
conference there was formal communication, achieved through a series of seminars
called Earth Workshops.
The topics ranged from
exploring indigenous grape varieties in Sicily to the topic of GMO in food to
the idea of micro-financing as a means for supporting entrepreneurialism in
developing communities. I believe as much could be learned informally “in
between classes” in the common dining area where the organizers provided lunch
for 6000 every day or on the bus to one of the myriad places of accommodation
that we, as delegates were billeted to. I couldn’t help but think that Mr. Petrini understood that this natural communication between people would happen. The importance of the dining table has been an important part of Italian culture
for centuries. What better backdrop for the people of the world to embrace the
ideology of Slow Food than in a milieu where gastronomy is a reason for being.
This year, Terra Madre
chose to highlight the role of the cook. The cook is an essential link between
the grower, the producer, the winemaker, the fisher, the cheesemaker and the
consumer. The people that shake the pans, shape the loaves and sweeten our teeth
are also the ones who can germinate ideas about food in people’s minds at their
table. The cooks are the ones who, in addition to learning and practicing their
craft, are also aware of an additional calling. Cooks hold a certain
responsibility in our culture. Part of our responsibility is to educate people
in the ideas around sustainability. But, the first responsibility is to
ourselves; we need to educate ourselves about how we can sustain the
availability of good, clean and fair food in our own communities. It almost
seems cliché to talk about sourcing products locally, but it is the key point in
the furthering of these larger ideals that Slow Food recognizes as so vital. How
else will we establish regional identity or differentiation unless we operate
from a local point of view. The benefit is not only in developing unique
identities in food culture, but also in contributing to our local economy. In
Italy, one experiences this local approach to food culture in every region.
Carlo Petrini speaking at the
opening of Terra Madre 2006 |
In Piedmont, on this
trip, I sampled veal braised in Barolo followed by a host of local cheeses
together with wines from the villages in the region. There is a simple gastronomical beauty that emerges from this marriage of ingredients from a local
place. This is an exercise in terroir based gastronomy that is practiced
throughout Europe. It is a practice that we as cooks from North America need to
promote and practice in our own backyards. While in Europe, the focus of Slow
Food is to maintain and sustain the uniqueness of regional, artisan production
of food, in Canada and the United States it is more a mission of discovery to
identify what will become our own local contributions to the world of
gastronomy. Canada is a fusion of so many cultures from around the world, each
bringing their own culinary traditions to the table. |
Our challenge is unique. At the same time as celebrating the world’s food cultures in Canada, we must
also nurture a new cuisine that stems, perhaps, by interpreting many of the
world’s food cultures through a series of criteria that satisfy a “local”
definition. In the process, something unique may emerge that may be identified
with a region. This process will take time, no doubt, but if we look again at
the European model, we realize that the culinary traditions of Europe have taken
hundreds of years to evolve.
If you wish to contact Jamie Kennedy, send an email to
info@thehealthybutcher.com and we'll be sure to pass on the message.
To access past issues of live to eat? Click
here.
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| MORE INFO ON THE HEALTHY BUTCHER...
The Healthy Butcher is located at 565 Queen St. West, in
downtown Toronto.
To contact us, call 416-ORGANIC or visit our web page.
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MORE INFO ON ORGANICS, NUTRITION,
RECIPES, and COOKING GUIDES
We have a full library of information
at the click of a link.
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| OUR PRIVACY POLICY
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