Food that sustains
How many of us nowadays know exactly where the ingredients of our food come from? The rise of mass production, agricultural breeding of livestock and planting of farm produce has industries use the quickest methods to produce quantity. Livestock have steroids pumped into them. I have also cringed at watching documentary images that show the inhumane treatment of ducks, pigs, cows and other animals.
Today’s dominant form of agriculture relies on synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides, large amounts of water, major transportation systems and factory-style practices for raising livestock and crops. Artificial hormones in milk, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, mad cow disease, and large-scale outbreaks of potentially deadly e.coli are all associated with this industrial form of food production. It’s scary when you really think about it. And I have been so conscious of this as I love eating!
On the other side of the equation, it’s also heartening to know that noted chefs in the country are likewise coming from the perspective of healthy and sustainable food. And trends like organic agriculture, slow food preparation and natural food production are now mainstream practices.
In a recent community-helping trip to Baguio, we had the good fortune to be guinea pigs for a chef. We ended the long day enjoying wine with friends at The Manor. Chef Billy King came to sit and have a glass of wine with us as our conversation moved to fresh whole foods. Chef Billy, now totally involved with his food sourcing and combinations, started a whole lecture on the quality of taste, and the way ingredients come together. Inspired that we were so totally involved with the discussion, he told us to come the next day and that he would cook us a vegetarian meal. So we dutifully trooped back the next night to enjoy a light, vegetarian meal of top quality, with the artistry of the chef in full flower as he played on the extreme subtleties of flavor. How does one bring together the “quirky” combination of goat cheese in a tempura dish? Or the fresh salad with yoghurt dressing, or even strawberry ice cream with vinaigrette and peppercorns? The mushrooms of his salsa spring roll were freshly picked from the gardens and the taste said it all! We left that dinner table with the “unbearable lightness of being!” “Food is like architecture,” chef Billy tells us. “Don’t bastardize anything that is classic — just add a slight twist to flavor!”
To celebrate a birthday, we trooped to eat in the destination place Antonio’s of Tony Boy and Agnes Escalante. While the chef wasn’t around, his whole spirit permeated the natural beauty of his place, and the food, as always, was exquisitely superb. Agnes, the secret force behind the operations of the place, and the wind beneath the wings of the chef, briefed us on her latest projects — raising free range poultry and other livestock, looking at more planting of bamboos in Negros Occidental and more projects all under the banner of sustainable food production.
In our provincial journeys working and helping local communities, what was clear to us was that small producers and farmers had so much to offer such as wholesome produce free of any pesticides and local artisanal food favorites made only in certain places. It was during such jaunts that we conceived of the idea of bringing the produce of the farmers directly to the plate at a relaxed atmosphere that would once more inspire people to live and eat sustainably. I have two business partners who are veterans in the field of setting up food establishments, so what did I, the neophyte in this venture, have to fear? Except perhaps a thickening waistline as we just kept food tasting and eating! To stage and put this idea into a professional and different level, we brought in my friends chef Sau del Rosario (who I met in Paris many moons back when he was working in Le Divellec Seafood Restaurant in Paris, one of the top restaurants in the city), another advocate for tasty, elegant and natural cuisine to create the new menu, and green architect Dan Lichauco to help transform the interiors. And the result of this collaboration is Le Bistro Vert Sustainable Foods at Fraser Place on Valero street, Salcedo Village in Makati City. It’s a venue cool and fresh, peppered now by stenciled bamboo which architect Dan says is the most sustainable grass in the world, and a small herb garden outside where chef Sau will soon be picking his aromatics from.
Chef Sau’s sustainable food menu, supported by Cordon Bleu-trained assistant chef Michelin Galang, ensures that food products support earth-friendly initiatives and help sustain local farmers. With his local ingredients and his international experience in Nice, Shanghai, Bangkok and Singapore, chef Sau now comes home to the concept of homegrown sustainability. He often tells visitors the following when they ask why he opts for this concept of sustainability. “For one, we want to be ecologically friendly by providing offerings gathered without harming the environment. Secondly, we want to promote healthy lifestyle by opting for natural, not highly fertilized stuff. And thirdly, we want to support local (goods) producers by patronizing the smaller farmers. The three are “actually closely linked, all working to change lifestyles by influencing people to become sustainable, therefore help better the Earth.”
I have nothing to complain about now! I love food and now there is healthy wonderful food within reach and a famous chef cooking it for me at that! And provincial communities are helped as we source from them produce and ingredients (like the sun dried tomatoes from the Kababaihan Masigla ng Nueva Ecija, or the wonderful cheeses from Davao, organic eggs). We don’t really need to add carbon footprints by flying in tons of imported ingredients when our chefs’ creativity can be inspired by what is abundant locally.
Tacked on the wall is a small panel that explains what we are trying to do to the experience of simple daily dining.
“The JOY OF EATING SUSTAINABLY... A pioneering attitude. A system of traceability. The practice of sustainability.
Fresh, seasonal, locally grown, mostly organic ingredients are fused into simple wholesome dishes.
Le Bistro Vert Sustainable Foods is our dedication to the cause of living with awareness and concern for our wellbeing, support of small farming communities, choosing food production that is healthy, with fair wages and humane animal treatment.”
