Clark Wolf's Rants, Raves, Diatribes...and a few other Thoughts

I Love to Eat

 

It was rather amazing - bordering on surreal - to sit comfortably at the Indianapolis Repertory Theater for the Premier of James Still's wonderful one man play about James Beard.  I Love To Eat was a spot on theatrical representation about the Father of American Cookery that engaged and entertained, while highlighting a number of the basic philosophies he espoused (ok, bellowed) making him as relevant today as he was back then.

So nice to see my old friend (he fed me about once a week that first year I lived in New York) up there, chatting away on telephones, passing along critical information (sometimes called gossip) and reveling in all things gustatory.  Wow.  I'm guessing we'll see this in New York and San Francisco at the very least.

Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Launches ‘True Italian’ Initiative in U.S. to Help Consumers Distinguish Authentic Italian Food Products

Seattle, WA (Vocus) November 8, 2010

 

Top American and Italian food and wine authorities, including a host of nationally-acclaimed, award-winning chefs, will gather in Seattle November 8-9 to deliberate the issues of authenticity and “truth in food”—from examining the recent locavore/globavore debate to exposing the harmful effects of an epidemic of national and global food fraud—as part of the U.S. launch of True Italian, a consumer education initiative of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and Buonitalia SpA designed to improve understanding regarding the specific, unique characteristics of authentic Italian products.

The Seattle summit is the first of its kind in the United States and kicks off a national, multi-city effort. It will feature awareness-raising events, such as food sampling and taste testing from premier Italian restaurants and specialty food retailers. These educational events are designed to help consumers—who are increasingly adamant about knowing where their food is coming from and how it is produced—distinguishes authentic Italian foodstuffs from inferior or imposter products, appreciate the role of regional products with cultural and culinary significance, and make wiser, more informed buying decisions.

Consultant, author and James Beard Foundation award-winner Clark Wolf will moderate an impressive culinary think tank comprised of leading chefs, food writers, retailers, producers and restaurateurs in a dialogue that will include “international sustainability” and the role of authentic foods in a culinary culture that increasingly values locally sourced products—balancing the environmental imperative of relying on local, sustainable production with the cultural demand for authentic regional products.

The summit will also consider global counterfeiting and the epidemic of faux Italian food products on the market—as many as 7 out of 10 foods sold in the U.S. as authentic Italian are imposters, according to the Italian Farmers Union—with offenses ranging from Italian “look-alike” or “sound-alike” packaging, misleading product claims and clever substitutions to outright fraud. Often of inferior quality or flavor, these imitation products not only cheapen the Italian brand, they cause significant harm to the Italian economy, agriculture and livelihood of the small producers and family farmers that make up a majority of Italy’s food delivery system.

In addition to Wolf, panelists and participants in the Seattle True Italian Summit include Food & Wine 2008 “Best New Chef in America” Ethan Stowell, executive chef and owner of Anchovies and Olives, How To Cook A Wolf, Staple and Fancy Mercantile, Tavolàta, and author of Ethan Stowell’s New Italian Kitchen; James Beard award winner for Best Chef—Northwest, Holly Smith, executive chef and owner of Café Juanita; Jason Stratton, executive chef of Cascina Spinasse and a Food & Wine “10 Best New Chefs for 2010”; Francesco Lupo, food marketing consultant for the Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma; Nancy Radke, U.S. director of the Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano; Bruce Silverman, regional vice president—Pacific Northwest, Whole Foods Market and Adam Stevenson, executive chef of Earth & Ocean—W Hotel.

The True Italian campaign was introduced in North America during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics where the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry hosted a summit of leading international food professionals at Casa Italia, the headquarters of the Italian Olympic team. The Seattle summit will be followed by events in San Francisco and New York City.

True Italian was developed to highlight the unique flavors and unsurpassed quality of authentic Italian food and wine products, protect the reputation of the Italian brand and support the farmers, vintners and artisans who have built Italy’s reputation for excellence. Although targeting all consumers, the True Italian campaign emphasizes the 30+ million Americans who self-identify as food enthusiasts and who tend to be savvier and sophisticated in their selection and consumption of food and wine. Research undertaken by Buonitalia reveals that even these “foodies” often lack the knowledge to recognize authentic Italian products.

Through the efforts of the True Italian campaign, Buonitalia SpA, the Rome-based government agency responsible for promoting, internationalizing and safeguarding Italian agricultural products, aspires to provide support to Italian food and wine producers and help reinforce Italy’s competitive capacities in the global marketplace.

For more information about the True Italian initiative, please contact Karen MacKenzie or Mysty Stewart at MacKenzie Agency Public Relations, (707) 545-3280 or visit the True Italian website, http://www.trueitalianclub.com. 

American cheese: Forget the yellow squares

 

Clark Wolf gets excited when he starts talking about cheese -- American cheese.

The restaurant and food consultant, who is also an author and occasional magazine contributor, is passionate about the wealth of American cheeses he now has at his disposal when he hosts classes in San Antonio, Texas.

That was not the case in 1976, when Wolf ran a small cheese shop in San Francisco or in 1980 when he helped open Oakville Grocery, also in San Francisco.

"There was nothing to sell, American," he says. "There were all kinds of imitation cheeses; there was dry jack and there was Oregon blue.

"Now, we can actually do a whole class in Cheese 101, really learning all about cheese, using American-made cheeses."

Wolf spent years smelling, tasting and researching the growing number of artisan cheese made in this country. He's fascinated with cheese, and he's not alone.

"There's a huge interest. It's got a lot of good nutritional value. It's a perishable food that isn't real perishable. It's got this sense of freshness," he says.

His book, "American Cheeses," is a guide to "The Best Regional, Artisan and Farmhouse Cheese, Who Makes Them and Where to Find Them" (Simon and Schuster, 2008). He's most proud of the fact that every one of the artisans featured in the book is still making cheese. His favorite is Laura Chenel's California Chevre. Chenel was the first to hit it big making goat cheese in the late '70s. Wolf loves it for several reasons:

Full article here

Immortal Milk at Central Market

 

Clark Wolf loves cheese -- and cheesy wit. As I adjusted my camera to capture the gorgeous array of artisanal cheese and fruit displayed at the front of the room during his Cheese Tasting 101 course Sunday evening at the Central Market Cooking School, the author, consultant, and cheese expert piped in, "They say cheese!"

When asked if I could get his picture in front of the display, he laughed, "Yes!" and posed, "I stand before my cheeses."

The class would be peppered with such humor, along with Wolf's infectious enthusiasm for fromage.

Wolf explained that cheese was what first ignited his passion for food. After working as a waiter on a railroad line, he then opened a cheese and wine shop at the base of Nob Hill in San Francisco, where a chance meeting led to a friendship (and dinners, once a week) with the Godfather himself, James Beard. When asked what was served on these occasions, "It was always a surprise. Once I arrived to find the old, 350-pound man wielding a blowtorch over a four-quart pan. He took a spoon and said, 'Listen to this!' and (thwack), 'That's what crème brûlée should sound like!' Then I learned what crème brûlée should taste like. We ate the entire thing...and I learned about the importance of benchmarks." Wolf, like Beard, believes in order to accurately judge whether something is good or not, one must first taste the standard-setters in that arena. It's a simple concept that made for an all-around decadent and delicious Sunday evening.

Full article here

True Italian, Olympic Style

 

 

Not all the Olympic action was on the ice and snow this past February. I know because I write this having just returned from Vancouver where, among other activities, I helped judge a culinary event of Olympic proportions. The contest, pitting Italian Chef Cesare Casella against American Chef Rick Moonen, took place as part of the first North America True Italian Ingredients Summit, a two-day conference intended to highlight the unique flavors and unsurpassed quality of authentic Italian food and wine products. The True Italian campaign was launched during the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver as the Italian Ministry of Agriculture hosted a summit meeting of top North American food professionals at Casa Italia, the headquarters of the Italian Olympic team. The conference was organized by the Mackenzie Agency and featured a thoroughly engaging panel discussion among several leading chefs, food writers, retailers, producers, restaurateurs and yours truly. The discussions focused on the unique characteristics of Italy’s authentic foods and wines, as well as their role in the overall culinary landscape of Italy, and increasingly in America; and the balancing act going on today between the environmental imperative of relying on local and sustainable production and the cultural demand for authentic regional products.

As most people in the food business today know, the great food and wine products of Italy are being continually imitated throughout the world — usually with far inferior results. Efforts on the part of the Italian government and individual producers will hopefully convey the real and significant difference between products produced in accordance with time-honored techniques in Italy and their imitations. The True Italian campaign is spearheaded by Buonitalia SpA, in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry to provide the Italian food system with a control mechanism that reinforces Italy’s competitive capacities in the global marketplace.

At the heart of this summit was a panel-in-the-round discussion expertly moderated by restaurant consultant and author Clark Wolf, who noted, “This summit starts the conversation about a new mix, a new way of using the most modern technology and the most ancient wisdom to build a truly sustainable construct for good food — first in North America’s abundance, and then the world.”

Full article here

American cheese expert holds book signing

 

The United States has not been noted as a foremost producer of quality and diverse cheeses in the past. Clark Wolf says that has changed.

Following a lifelong love affair with cheese, Wolf has written his first book, “American Cheeses: The Best Regional, Artisan, and Farmhouse Cheeses, Who Makes Them, and Where to Find Them.”

Wolf’s love affair with cheese began 30 years ago when he managed a cheese shop in San Francisco.

“In those days there basically was just industrial-type cheese, like cheddar, and that was about it,” said Wolf. “But over the years we began to make many other cheeses after 200 years of settlers bringing cheeses from their countries here. We now have come into our own in cheese.”

A decade ago, Wolf began visiting cheesemakers around the country and collecting recipes at every stop. The recipes appear by region in the back of his book.

“There is a macaroni and cheese recipe from every region,” said Wolf proudly.

Full article here

Time's up. Food is the most important thing in the world.

From the blog: Food, Farms, and Community: Rural America's Local Food Renaissance at Sterling College:

With dimming light and cooling air, we listened to the soulful strains of Mayfly outside of one of Sterling's residence halls and reflected on a very full day of events. I am honestly awed by the energy of our 50 or so participants and the interactions and conversations among us all.

Some highlights this afternoon and evening (other than the delicious Local Foods Banquet!):

From a session on Saint Lawrence University's blossoming farm program, in response to concerns about farmers resorting to food stamps--and not eating the food they produce themselves--Saint Lawrence's Sustainability Coordinator, Louise Gava, said, "Sometimes I think we should pay farmers more than they are asking" in order to maintain and support vibrant local economic and food networks.

In a talk on religion's influence on food choices, Kate Holbrook, a Ph.D. candidate at BU, offered that "People have been going back to the land since before they left it."

Ulla Kjarval and Annie Connolle highlighted strategies for farmers to use social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs to communicate, collaborate and monetize their operations with little to no overhead (except time). I'd have to agree with Annie's candid assertion that, well, "blogging is awesome!"

Some key moments from Clark Wolf's keynote:

"Time's up. Food is the most important thing in the world."

"I don't believe in training. I believe in education."

"Calling food 'conventionally grown' is lying -- it's industrially grown."

Growing quality healthy food "is not brain surgery. It's common sense."

"It takes a village. It takes a zucchini. It takes a third grade class. It takes dirt."

"All Earth is public trust."

"It's great for food to be a metaphor. It's more important for it to be lunch."

"Men and women in their early 20s want to *do* something. I suggest farming."

There are no "producers" and "consumers" in a healthy food system. There are just people in a relationship with one another.

Visit their blog here

Sustainably Faklempt in Vermont

Ok, so I was rescued by circus folk and referred to as "foodie crack". It was a lovely couple of days in Northern Vermont.

I was there, at Sterling College - perhaps the nation's only Liberal Arts four year with specialties in Sustainable Agriculture, Ecological Studies and Permaculture Studies. (look it up) - to speak at their Second Annual Rural Heritage Institute. 

My general topic was how restaurants and other food businesses connect with farms, food makers and farmers, and how the communities and press are now and likely to be viewing these things, foods and folks in the coming months and years.

I had an hour to rat ta tat tat a chunk of my hit list of related topics about which I'm intensely passionate: little things like how food is the most important thing in the world, how anyone who teaches about and or works with the earth, air, water is dealing with a public trust, how  I asked my big question. What do you think is impossible? It's what I always want to know. And there are always amazing answers to share.   

It could have been a whole conference of it's own except for the silo of other powerful, relevant, critical, moving and fascinating topics also being explored, examined and shared that week. But I guess they found the talk as stimulating as I had. A young woman perched on a rope swing outside the hall gave me a big smile and said "Mister, you're foodie crack..."

I will not be sharing that with Whitney Houston. 

After a stellar meal in the school's dining hall we re-gathered and I got to have a public conversation with some well connected - rurally speaking - popular locals: A restaurateur and a couple of chefs.

It was extraordinary and wonderful to hear the clarity of their thinking and the simple honesty of their words. We all learned a lot we'd thought we already knew. I used to say that I like to work with chefs in their "post-jerk phase..." but these three seem to have totally avoided the messes of that mud puddle in toto.

And speaking of mud, and toto too, I suppose I may as well admit that I'd decided to use Google Maps to find the most 'local' country back-way road from Glover, where we stayed, to Craftsbury and the College.

Pavement turned to gravel turned to dirt and then, after a begin puddle or two, what looked to be a wet patch I found unthreatening. Oooops. Rental car stuck in the mud in the middle of a cell phone tower free zone.

We abandoned the taupe Kia (clearly, a poor choice of transport) and, after dunking my Prada shoes down in and up above to my Prada jeans we explored the pleasures of a sunny country walk. Oy. Where's a cab or a cop when you need 'em??

Cut to a borrowed phone and a call to the College and advice from a local to hitch a ride in any "safe looking car or truck" and we were soon ensconced in the tiny back of a tiny green car zipping down a tiny country lane.

"The only thing better would have been if we'd been rescued by circus clowns" I joked.

"Well", said the boy up front, "as it happens..." Yup, the driver was a trapeze artist in town to teach at Circus Camp and his fellow traveler the Camp chef!!!

Circus and Cookery Folk, a winning combination if ever there was one.

We saw a huge moose in the road, went to Parker's Pies and had other adventures too many to recount. Imagine if we'd stayed a third day!

Why I lovermont

Why do I love Hardwick, Vermont so much? Visibly, it's little more than a crossroads, where the quick blip from 15 (the roads have these clever names) to 14 leads to 16, which we take into Glover, where we stay.

It's a sweet, tight community that works together and gathers for good reason. I'm here to do an event - actually several - to promote my book, American Cheeses - to support a wonderful independent book store - Galaxy Bookstore - and a CSR - that's Community Supported Restaurant - called Claire's.

Tasting first of some really stellar Vermont cheeses (and a few California faves) then a talk at the store followed by our total inability to contain ourselves at the sight of the local/regionally/seasonally based menu. It reads fine but the taste! I'm still full.

Today we go to Sterling College - a four year school for Sustainable Agriculture, Environmental Studies and Circumpolar (look it up) Studies.

I'm going to talk about how farms actually do or can or might connect with restaurants and other folks and moderate a panel of local chefs on how it works for them.

This thoughtful farming for good food in ways best for the world thing is really catching on!