Note: This was originally published on July 10 2015 and I was reminded of it in a memory on Facaebook. I thought it was still so relevant today that I’ve posted it again. It said so much about our food world then and now with all the hoopla of cuisine, chefs and daring restaurants teasing us with greatness and triple digit tabs.
The food world is under siege with trendiness. Fried chicken has become an artisanal super-star. The rarest tomato, the sustainable fish fillet, the rigors of omikase and Asian panache–even pizza are elevated to otherworldly stardom. Canned food is left in the dust unless you can it yourself at a farm table in the middle of your highfalutin country kitchen. Then there’s the whole wide world of farm-to-table as though it were something really novel when in fact it’s how the world used to eat simply and well: food from the field—unprocessed, unadulterated, fair and fresh.
At table at Turner Farm supper
Then there’s the barn supper, a hot ticket nowadays where we pay up well over $100 per person for a famous chef who’s taken off his gloves and toque to get down and dirty with “real” food sent simply to the table in a setting that looks tailor made for a Ralph Lauren ad.
