Welcome to Jeremy Barlow, chef-owner of Tayst restaurant, who joins us as our guest chef today. Jeremy will pose a couple of questions this morning and stop in periodically to weigh in.
Topic 1
I am a staunch proponent of local foods and local businesses, and I believe the majority of food bloggers tend to feel the same way. If you want to talk about food when you're not eating it, you're probably a foodie. If you're a foodie, you probably frequent restaurants that serve local product because local food is better. (How's that for paying attention in my logic class?)
Anyway, it's a constant battle to stay true to this belief due to all sorts of challenges, from developing relationships with farmers to sourcing asparagus in the winter to coping with a drought that freezes then dries up again; however, as my whole staff recently discovered while eating baby carrots right out of the ground at Farmer Dave's, every bit of extra work that goes into buying local is worth it.
I see the nation and particularly Nashville at a culinary crossroads. On one hand, you have a portion of the population following independent restaurants that are pushing toward using all local ingredients while continually supporting the local community in numerous ways. On the other hand, you have corporate chains numbing the country's palate with their collective "American menu" and at the same time slowly sending the independent restaurants the way of the neighborhood hardware store and movie theater. As "greening" becomes the hip thing to do in this country, and as the voice of the "locavore" gets louder, by virtue of its role in the greening, my question is this:
Does our community—and the nation as a whole—have the ability to return to the ways of old, i.e. eating seasonal food at local places? Or are we doomed to follow the path of cattle in a feedlot, supplementing our diet with antibiotics and diet drugs while we eat the same menu at every restaurant?
