Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/623506
We're rolling with it and the farmers are, too. For chefs, the menu cycles are changing; things you'd put on in the fall are put on the menu in late summer. We're resilient and getting more resourceful. I read a quote from you saying, "Drought- stressed produce cooks differently." How so? I do a lot of preserving and noticed the fruit got soft really fast so, if you're making jam, it turned to mush if you didn't pull the fruit out. I've been putting up preserves for 30-something years and for the first time, the fruit cooks in five to seven minutes when my recipe says to cook it for 25 to 30 minutes. If you leave it in longer, the fruit loses its contours. It's just shocking. Is it fair how the media focuses on almonds being a water-intensive crop and not as much on the huge amount of water it takes to produce beef? I don't know if it's water awareness but I am seeing less beef con- sumption here. There is a greater emphasis on poultry, pork, game birds, and lamb. I read that 30 percent less rice is being planted this year in California. Are producers turning to other grains? Yes, there is less rice because of the water shortage. There's a lot more farro, bulgur, and quinoa. Have you encountered small farms on the brink since they can't irrigate? Some of the farmers are nervous. When the season is shorter their incomes are truncated. What kinds of changes have you made at home to conserve water? If I have to blanch vegetables I'll use that water three or four times. When it's done, I pour it in the garden. I reuse water baths for the jars when I'm putting up preserves. You want to salvage every drop. Maybe my housecleaning isn't as good as it used to be. My garden looks horrible. If you went out there now you'd want to cry. The streets in the city are filthy. I was sweeping leaves and saw all the dirt underneath that rainwater would normally wash away. I wanted to hose it off but don't want to be arrested. You've joined with chefs like Alice Waters, Suzanne Goin, and Daniel Patterson to call on California Governor Brown for a moratorium on fracking. What are your concerns? Jerry Brown is a real grown-up of a governor, certainly very conscious and aware of the environment. We've been lobbying him, but I don't know yet if we've stopped some fracking. It uses an enormous amount of water, among causing other problems. In your book Inside the California Food Revolution, you wrote that 1970-2000 were revolutionary years in food. Are these days revolutionary in another way? What is new is the awareness of not wasting anything. There's a whole vegetable movement, following the same idea as using the whole animal. Carrot top pesto, for instance. Chefs are cooking with carrot tops and using the stems of Swiss chard. No one wants to waste food so nothing is discarded. They're getting more creative. We have farmers cultivating ingredients we didn't have before. And I'm seeing a few more women farmers. It's a hard life for anybody. What other trends are you seeing? The condiment movement is strong. People are using more kimchi and Korean hot sauce, throwing it into mayonnaise. I made spicy mostarda with plums and cherries and use it to liven up chicken. And people are into Moroccan spices, and much more into new flavors. Look at the success of Sriracha. If you go to our farmers market you will see so many different kinds of cucumber—Persian, Italian, Japanese. There are 40 kinds of potatoes when years ago there were three, basically russet, red, and white. People are bringing back seeds from their travels and giving them to farmers. Then what do you do with it? It's a learn- ing curve for everybody. Maybe five years ago two guys were grow- ing padron peppers and now 20 guys are growing them. We have "Last year we had a warm winter and cold spring plus the drought, a triple whammy for farmers. All the cycles are of, completely unpredictable." PHOTOS: JOYCE GOLDSTEIN WINTER 2016 105