Last night, while scouring the Internets for an idea on what to do with a butchered chicken carcass after removing all the good meaty bits other than making stock, I stumbled upon this little bit of McDonald’s inspired awesomeness.

Perhaps, I come from the peasant school of dining, which means that every bit of an animal is sacred protein and should be eaten and not just the clean cuts you find neatly packed in plastic at the Stupidstore, so I find Mr. Oliver’s negative reaction to the kids willingness to eat his home-made chicken nuggets to be a bit strange. What’s the big deal? Replace the crappy filler and powdered binding agent with an egg, add some bread crumbs and pan fry instead of deep-fry. Some may cry foul, but I say it’s what’s for dinner. ~ PK

^ NDP Fisheries and Oceans Critic, Fin Donnelly, launches shark fin import ban petition at C Restaurant. (L to r, Claudia Li, Dr. Chris Harvey-Clark, Fin Donnelly, Rob Stewart, Cécile Yuen, Robert Clark)

Sharks are sublime creatures. For 400 million years they have survived on Earth, evolving to become the oceans’ supreme hunters and shaping the evolution of other marine species. However, surging demand for their fins for use in shark fin soup and traditional medicine is decimating global shark populations.

With up to 73 million sharks slaughtered annually, we may see the total collapse of worldwide shark species within the decade. This will significantly disrupt ocean ecosystems that a large number of people depend on for much of their protein. Already in the last 15 years shark numbers in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean have plummeted by 90%, and by 75% in the northwestern Atlantic.

Despite the potentially grave ecological consequences, it will be challenging to end shark finning. Not only is it a multi-billion dollar industry in which organized crime is involved, people’s view of sharks is very different from that of elephants, rhinoceros, and even tigers. Media sensationalism has created a deep-seated anxiety in humans that is wildly out of proportion to the actual threat posed by sharks.

^ Wedding Campaigner, Cécile Yuen, as Harry the Shark Truth mascot.

While shark protection doesn’t have the same public appeal as panda conservation, measures are starting to be taken. Shark finning at sea has already been banned in jurisdictions such as the Bahamas, Chile, Ecuador, Guam, Hawai’i, Honduras, and the US West Coast. However, without a broad international ban on the practice, backed by an effective enforcement mechanism, the shark’s future looks grim.

What can you do to help stop shark finning?

• Don’t eat shark fin soup; adopt a substitute.
• Sign the National Shark Fin Import Ban petition.
• Call or write your Member of Parliament to tell them to support Bill C-380, Fin Donnelly’s Ban on Shark Fin Importation Act.
• Host a screening of Sharkwater.

For more information on shark finning, visit:

• Shark Truth
• Sharkwater

~ RG

^ Ecological Services Initiative launches at Granville Island.

A significant flaw in our economic system is how natural capital is not assigned any direct monetary value. This means, for example, that while a wetland produces clean water and controls flooding, the only economic value is seen in converting it to agricultural or industrial use. However, the total value of benefits provided by ecosystems is actually considerable. In Natural Capital in BC’s Lower Mainland, a study produced by the David Suzuki Foundation for the Pacific Parklands Foundation, the total value of all benefits provided by the area’s natural capital was estimated at $5.4 billion annually or $2,462 per person.

When natural processes are taken into account in the formal economy, decisions and outcomes can be quite different. A landmark agreement in New York City in 1997 saw 165 stream miles in the Catskill/Delaware watershed protected to improve the quality of the city’s drinking water. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was about to mandate the City build a water treatment plant at a cost of up to $8 billion, with $250 million in annual operating expenses. However, by investing $1.5 billion in watershed protection, including paying farmers to remove sensitive lands from production, they were able to keep drinking water at a sufficient quality to avoid the need for a filtration facility.

In contrast, the smaller neighbouring Croton watershed was given up for development. Consequently, the EPA and the New York State Department of Health decreed that the City must filter this water by May 2012. Originally estimated at $800 million, the cost of the Croton Water Treatment Plant has ballooned to $3.4 billion since construction began in 2004.

Thanks to a new research consortium of farmers, ranchers, academics and conservationists, incorporating the value of natural capital in land use decisions is now being tested in BC. The Ecological Services Initiative will provide producers with financial incentives to adopt management practices that maintain or enhance the production of natural services, such as clean air and water, while growing our food. Participants will be compensated according to the land area they set aside and the loss of agricultural productivity. This will be to a maximum of $2,000 for measures such as erecting livestock fencing around sensitive areas, increasing the buffer zone between waterways and crops, planting trees to shade salmon spawning streams, or replanting native plant species to sustain indigenous wildlife.

ESI is endorsed by the BC Agriculture Council and the BC Cattlemen’s Association. It is funded by the Agriculture Environment and Wildlife Fund, BC Ministry of Agriculture, Columbia Basin Trust, Ducks Unlimited Canada, East Kootenay Conservation Fund, Sustainable Prosperity, and the University of Alberta’s Institute for Land Use Innovation. Thirteen demonstration farms and ranches, spanning a variety of different commodities and regions, are being monitored for biological and economic results. The viability of the concept will then be evaluated to see if a broader program with longer term application can be developed as a part of provincial agricultural policy.

~ RG

Recently I was given a review copy of Simon Fairlie’s new book entitled Meat: A Benign Extravagance, published by Chelsea Green (2010), right around the same time I wrote what some might consider a rather controversial blog on the subject of meat here on Urban Diner. The issue of eating meat is a touchy one, especially here in Vancouver – a trend-setting city that has more than it’s share of anti-meat advocates, who inspired by films such as Forks Over Knives, have come to equate meat-eating with everything that’s bad in the world: from agricultural run-off and global warming, to cardiovascular disease and cancer.

And it is a media campaign they seem to be winning, as everywhere one looks the idea of eating meat and especially red meat is thoroughly denounced. The problem with these claims however is that when they are examined more closely, they begin to fall apart. For example: the much promulgated but nonetheless erroneous notion that saturated fat consumption is associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Refuting each one of these arguments however, often with people that have a pre-existing bias or claim the moral high ground, can be a rather tiring enterprise. How refreshing it was then to receive Mr. Fairlie’s well-researched exegesis on the subject of meat.

As a farmer passionately invested in the concept and practice of permaculture, Simon Fairlie brings a kind of holism to the subject of his inquiry that can only be borne from experience. Fortified by hundreds of references he meticulously examines the issue of meat, not from a health or ethical perspective, but by looking at the issue of environmental impact and sustainability. And in the process Fairlie invariably encounters more than a few sacred cows. For example, most people familiar with the anti-meat argument have heard that it takes at least ten times more energy to produce meat than cereals. The conventional logic is that if we switched out animal protein for vegetable protein we could feed ten times more people. Simon Fairlie shows us however that the assumptions of this 10:1 ratio are highly simplistic. For one thing, most livestock are fed otherwise inedible food crops and forage on inedible wild grasses and plants. The 10:1 ratio also doesn’t take into account factors such as the difference in nutrient bioavailability between meat and cereals, nor the economic value of non-food animal products such as manure, leather, soap, pharmaceuticals, glue and fertilizer. Contrary to what we have been told in the media, Fairlie show us that the 10:1 ratio usually cited for the conversion of edible cereals to meat is actually more like 1.4:1 (p.32) – which is a big difference. This is only one example of the many facts that Fairlie uses to undermine the assumption that livestock and meat production necessarily promotes waste and inefficiency. In Meat, Fairlie weaves a compelling argument that livestock farming actually adds value to the land, and is an integral component of sustainable agriculture. Fairlie shows us that meat production in essence is a secondary function of holistic farming: a gift of land, and is at the very worst, a “benign extravagance”.

While Fairlie tackles the most inflated arguments against meat production, his strongest critique is reserved for industrial agriculture, which leverages the use of petroleum to produce a kind of meat that is by any measure non-sustainable. Thus when Fairlie talks about meat as a “benign extravagance” this is not the kind of meat he refers to. Perhaps because he is a former vegan, in his arguments we find a nuanced and sophisticated position: someone who has truly looked at both sides of the issue. As a herbalist clinician I too appreciate the importance of a balanced perspective, seeing the value of plenty of vegetation in the diet, but also the utility of meat and animal products: in the health of children, women, during pregnancy, in the aging, and in specific health conditions such as anemia, osteoporosis, immunodeficiency and diabetes. As I discuss in my book, Food As Medicine, meat and animal products have always been a part of the human diet, and in many ways is the one food that defines us as a species. What else allowed for the evolution of our large brains, much larger than our primate cousins, if not for the high-density nutrition of animal products? Like Fairlie, I appreciate where vegans are going with some of their arguments, but I also understand that there is no eating without some sacrifice. We are born from food and we return to food. In the end, all we have in the vegan argument is the idea that eating meat is inherently wrong, which is less of a scientific or rational conclusion than something more akin to religion. For too long eating meat has been synonymous with not caring about the environment, of not being a good citizen of the earth. For those who are made to feel guilty for eating meat, Simon Fairlie’s book is a welcome and insightful resource in a debate that often suffers from too much prejudice, confusion, and outright error.

~ Todd Caldecott

ToddCaldecott.com

On Wednesday, November 2nd at 9 am there will be a rally for Food Freedom outside the New Westminster Supreme Court (651 Carnarvon Street) in support of dairy farmer Michael Schmidt who has been on a hunger strike for the past 33 days fighting contempt of court charges imposed upon him for distributing raw milk to members of his farm’s cow sharing program. He has already lost over 40 lbs in his protest, demanding to meet with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to discuss the issues, who to this point has refused to speak with him.

Here is the current state of affairs:

• In January 2010, after many years of legal wrangling, Michael Schmidt finally got his day in court where he represented himself (having lost the ability to pay the mounting legal fees over the years). After a dramatic proceeding, he was acquitted on all charges by Justice Kowarsky.

• On September 28, 2011 Justice Tetley reversed the decision against the Province of Ontario and found Michael Schmidt guilty on 15 of the 19 charges.

• Michael Schmidt also faces another contempt of court charge here in BC for his role in aiding the former Home on the Range dairy farm cooperative in Chilliwack continue their cow-share operation, which carries a fine of up to $55,000. A court date is expected to be set and confirmed for early December 2011.

Why this is Important

The ability to choose what food we consume is a fundamental right.

Michael Schmidt has fought for decades to make safe raw milk available to informed consumers. He has offered many times to work co-operatively with government agencies to develop a raw milk certification program similar to those that exist in many European countries as well as many U.S. states.

But the Ontario government and its agencies, including the milk marketing board known as Dairy Farmers of Ontario, have rebuffed all attempts at co-operation. Instead, they have declared all-out war.

The government has unlimited resources—provided by you, the taxpayer — to continue prosecuting Michael through the courts. We don’t know yet how many levels of court they will drag him through before the case is finally resolved.

Hundreds of millions around the world have been drinking raw milk for thousands of years, yet today, it is illegal to sell it in Canada. However, raw milk is legal to sell in every other G8 country as they have a second set of dairy production standards of sufficiently high caliber to ensure the raw milk comes from healthy animals and is safe to consume.

Pasteurization was instituted in the 1900’s to combat various diseases caused by the unsanitary production of milk. How can the milk be safe to drink if the cows are sick, covered in manure, and fed anything but their natural diet of grass? Pasteurization is indeed necessary for unhealthy animals. But milk from healthy animals can be consumed in its natural state as it has been done for millenia.

Raw milk is legal in many places around the world. Canadians should have the same right to choose their food.

~ PK

(Full disclosure: the author is a member of the Chilliwack cooperative and a supporter of Food Freedom)

(Images by: Mette-Marie Hansen)

Our climate is changing. This might not be shocking news to you over your morning coffee, but as a coffee buyer, I get to meet farmers and producers who are facing the difficulties of a changing climate year round.

It is the small business’ job to rant about the big guys, but this week, I am praising Starbucks and an initiative they’re a part of – a business coalition that has been trying to push Congress and the Obama administration to act on climate change. The coalition, including companies like Starbucks and Gap, are launching a new campaign for awareness about climate changes next month, ahead of the release of a UN report addressing these issues.

This Friday, one of Starbucks directors of sustainability, Jim Hanna, is traveling to Washington to brief members of Congress on climate change threatening the world’s coffee supply. Coffee thrives only around the equatorial line, in a very specific range of temperatures. One of the most important changes in the climate is that it is getting warmer – warmer temperatures bringing heavier rainfalls, unpredictable seasons overall and extremes like hurricanes, mudslides and erosion. Just the increased average temperature and humidity is bringing problems like coffee rust, a fungus attacking the leaves of the coffee tree. As a plant getting it’s nutrition mainly through the leaves, this causes severe crop loss in many places – and for the small coffee farmer a loss in crop means severe poverty.

In addition, pests attacking coffee flowers or cherry is increasingly common, and too high temperatures and insufficient differences between seasons also commonly causes starflowers – sterile coffee flowers where pollination can not take place.

As carbon emissions are commonly linked to climate changes, we need to look at the long term perspective of lost crops – we already have coffee processing mills like Helsar in Costa Rica, who are zero emission certified. A good wake up call for all coffee drinkers to live a more eco-friendly life.

~ Mette-Marie Hansen

If you missed the premiere of “Prohibition”, the three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed, there is a fantastic website click here that will allow you to watch it in short 10 minutes segments.

The story of Prohibition’s rise and fall is a compelling saga that goes far beyond the oft-told tales of gangsters, rum runners, flappers, and speakeasies, to reveal a complicated and divided nation in the throes of momentous transformation. The film raises vital questions that are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago – about means and ends, individual rights and responsibilities, and the proper role of government…

I suggest watching it while imbibing in your favourite alcoholic beverage; it really will taste better. ~ PK

Is Sechelt going to be the caviar capital of Canada? The Sunshine Coast’s Target Marine Hatcheries, the producers of Northern Divine caviar think so, and have invested over $5 million dollars over the last 11 years to prove it.

The idea to raise farmed sturgeon in Canada (also see Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar from NB) started in some ways as a reaction to the fall of the USSR in 1991 and their loss of control over the Black and Caspian Seas, home to wild Beluga sturgeon, the producers of the world’s finest caviar. With renewed competition for the precious roe from freshly independent republics of the former Soviet Union, the world’s most delicate and prized food, known to fetch up to $10,000 per kilo, was suddenly in turmoil.

Not surprisingly, all the caviar producing countries failed to properly manage the fishery and it went into serious decline, leading to an eventual ban in the US in 2005 followed by an international ban in 2006.

Over a decade ago, Target Marine, a closed containment aquaculture operation that made its business producing salmon smolts for fish farms, saw the opportunity and decided to explore the idea of farming sturgeon. Located on a 60 acre property just north of Sechelt next to Tillicum Bay Marina on the Salish Sea, general manager, Justin Henry, took some time out of his busy day to give Urban Diner an in-depth tour of the facility and their quest to produce the world’s first Fraser River sturgeon caviar.

^ General manager of Target Marine, Justin Henry

The original fish stock was received from Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo where sturgeon research has been on-going since the 1980’s. The recent opening of a $5.25-million International Centre for Sturgeon Studies on campus will ensure further and more in-depth studies, as still very little is known of the life cycle of this mysterious pre-historic fish (read more here).

The Fraser River sturgeon (a white sturgeon) is the largest freshwater fish in North America and can grow up to six meters in length, weigh of over 600 kilograms, and live for over 150 years.

According to the Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society, the white sturgeon population of the lower Fraser River plummeted in the early 1900’s to near-extinction levels as a result of unchecked intensive commercial fisheries and the population has been slow to recover ever since.

Researchers at the university claim that sturgeon are more robust than salmon and deal better living within the closed containment system. The pens at Target Marine are high-tech fish tanks. The fresh creek water that flows-through these giant vats is constantly monitored, aerated and scrubbed of excess CO2 with the solid wastes being removed into a septic tank, eventually ending up as composted fish fertilizer.

When the fish reach a juvenile stage (around 7 kg) their sex is determined, either by ultrasound or by biopsy and they are then separated; the males are processed for meat while the females are further matured to produce eggs, which can be 11 or more years in the making. Extracting the eggs is a delicate operation and requires a sterile environment. First the ovaries are removed, and rubbed on a screen to release the eggs. They are then rinsed, drained and then pure dry salt is added to the mix. Left to rest for approximately 1 hour, they are then graded by size, texture and colour. Right now there are 2 grades (small and large) with plans to increase the grades when the harvest grows each coming year.

The caviar is sold in tins of 30 gram ($99), 50 gram ($155), 100 gram ($304), 250 gram ($744) 500 gram ($1459) and 1 kg ($2860), easily making it the most expensive food product in Canada.

Wondering what this unique culinary product looks like on a plate? The first sales of Northern Divine caviar, which is Oceanwise certified, fittingly went to ocean conservation pioneer Harry Kambolis’s C Restaurant.

Here’s a look at Chef Lee Humphries exclusive Northern Divine caviar menu featured at ‘C’ for $235 per person:

(Images courtesy of Hamid Attie)

^ Kumamoto Oyster and cucumber with Northern Divine Caviar

^ Scrambled Egg smoked hawkshaw salmon, Northern Divine Caviar, brioche

^ Pan Seared Sablefish with Pomme Fondant creamed leeks, caviar-lobster hollandaise

^ Northern Divine Caviar with Potato Blini traditional garnish

With positive reports from the restaurant describing it as a hit with visiting tourists during its first run on the menu this last summer, Sechelt may just have become the ‘Caviar Capital of Canada’.

~ PK

For more information and to purchase Northern Divine caviar, visit: northerndivine.com

EDITOR’S NOTE: Target Marine Hatcheries has applied to the District of Sechelt for rezoning amendment that would allow them to process sturgeon for caviar on the premises. The request has met with some controversy with local residents who have complained about the noise coming from the site and have concerns about the requested changes, citing the open-ended amendment that would allow the operation to increase the size and footprint on the existing site.

In an article in the local paper in January 2011, Target Marine’s Justin Henry responds to the concerns assuring locals that the company does not plan to increase its size and just wants to complete it’s whole operation intact.

“If there’s a way we can word our zoning to limit the size, then that’s what we’ll do. We’re happy to do that.”

“We are asking for the right to add the last half hour to 11 years of sturgeon culture and we are asking the community to support this initiative to leave no doubt in Sechelt council’s minds that this is what the community wants. Sechelt can become the caviar capital of Canada,” Henry said.

The application will be decided by referendum in the next municipal election taking place on November 19th of this year.

Most wine articles are confined to the back pages of the newspaper, or published in trade or tourist focused publications. They tend to focus on how great we are, where to go and what to do, rarely do articles get published on the business of wine. When Gordon Hamilton wrote an article on changing buying habits of consumers in the August 30th edition of the Vancouver Sun, I took notice. (read the article here)

I chuckled when I read that Cedar Creek has gone from three bottling’s of Merlot (Platinum, Estate and Entry level) to two bottlings, they combined the Estate and entry level into one bottling at around $20.00 and kept the Platinum at $40.

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen wineries take the eyes out of a great bottle of entry level wine, only to realize when the economy tanks they have to retrench and offer better value, meaning a better wine, at the $17-$20 range.

What disturbed me the most about the article was the one million dollar interest-free loan Andrew Peller received for purchasing state of the art bag-in-the-box technology for its Kelowna and Grimsby, Ont. Wineries, wow! Let’s face facts, British Columbia will never be a low cost producer of wines, climatic factors, geography and competition with land developers and recreational land developers will always keep land prices high, consequently the resulting wine prices are also high.

The wine business is a long term multi-generational endeavor, we must think where and what we want to be in 50-75 years and should we hang our hats on the latest bag-in-the-box technology or rather follow in the footsteps of the worlds most famous small wine region – Burgundy.

Instead of giving a multi million-dollar corporation an interest free loan I would rather see the BC wine industry undertake the following:

• Detailed soil analysis, what grows best where and make that available to the trade and public, making sure no retirement homes, hotels or swimming pools are built on them.

• Undertake a serious look towards creating and formalizing an appellation and sub-appellation system; if your winery is one region of the Okanagan your grapes come from another it has to say it on the label.

• Research trips for winemakers to France, Italy, Spain and benchmark themselves against the best the world has to offer. Who are the best Riesling producers? Take them to Alsace and visit Zind Humbrecht, Albert Mann, Domaine Weinbach and others, a trip to Burgundy to visit Nicolas Rossignoal and Anne Claude Lefalive.

• Seminars on Bio-Dynamic farming and winemaking with Philippe Armeinier, he is dying to come up for a visit. Offer a trip to Bordeaux to taste and visit with some of the world’s greatest estates for inspiration. Why can’t we be as good as they are? It will take time, but the seed and culture must be planted now.

• The direction must be set by visionary political leaders, I know this is hard to come by if not impossible these days, but we as consumers should demand nothing less. The wineries, to ensure their long term viability must demand it, so 100 years from now BC is mentioned within the pantheon of great wine producing regions not just an anecdotal foot note in the Oxford Companion for wines.

Also, here is the insidious consequence of continuing to foster bottled in BC wines. Three of the largest British Columbia wineries also have import companies; they have the larger sales teams and better distribution and listing opportunities. When a small independent wine importer finds a wine from a small quality producer more often than not the wine is relegated to a speculative listing, those in the industry all know that is essentially solitary confinement for wine, in which restaurants have to order by the case and delivery can take weeks from Annacis Island, whereas bottled in BC wines can be direct delivered to restaurants and wine shops winery.

Is the consumer getting the best bottle of wine possible for $13-$15 versus a domaine bottled of imported wine which has been carefully made by a family? Unlikely.

The problem is the imported wine is marked up 123% so these wines usually retail on our shelves for $18-$19 when the market is asking for $13-$15. Since imports have an impossible time at landing at that price the bottled in BC wines take up that sweet spot, who suffers? Ultimately, the consumer and the small business owner. The consumer for not getting the best value wine possible and the small business owner for not being able to penetrate the market.

~ John Clerides

“Is Your Coffee Fair Trade and Sustainable and Organic?”

I just got this question from a concerned consumer, and she was raising valid questions about well known certifications and buzz-words. The question is simple, and doesn’t require more than a yes-or-no, but as much as I love coffee, I love the opportunity to discuss and explore the perspectives. These days, coffee certified as Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance and many others, is everywhere. It has become mainstream, making its way from mass merchandisers to college dining halls, high-end restaurants and almost every place in between. British Columbians account for 13% of the Canadian population, but is buying a majority of the organic food products sold in the country.

Coffee thrives in a narrow belt around the equatorial line, meaning for the most part growing in less economically developed countries. Most coffee farmers in the specialty coffee niche are small holder farmers. Going through the process of becoming certified – Organic, Rainforest Alliance, Utz and many others – is expensive and out of reach for many of these farmers, not only because of the intensified labor required, but also because they actually have to buy the certificate.

For small holder farmers trying to achieve a substantial premium by producing high quality coffees, Fair Trade is out of the question because only cooperatives can be certified. Even if the premium recently went from $0.10 to $0.20 cents per pound above the commodity market prices, it is a very small premium compared to the premiums paid for specialty coffee, which can be well above $1 per pound. The commodity market for coffee has more than doubled since June 2010, but coffee is still the most affordable luxury, taken how labour intensive producing it is.

On the farm where the coffee is growing, organic practices are making a big difference for the people working with the product. It is better for the soil, for the people picking it and for the waste from coffee processing. Even though the certification has been criticized for not taking quality into the equation, some organic certified coffee farmers are performing state-of-the-art farming techniques, resulting in some of the best coffees in the market. The expenses are still there, though, and often farms produce with no chemical inputs, simply because they can’t afford any sort of treatment for soil or plants.

As much as it is clearly a wise choice to choose organic, there’s another piece missing in the equation – the relationship and distance between producer and consumer. And not necessarily distance measured in kilometers – also proximity in the chain of custody and the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge about the product for those who wishes to seek these answers. Investigate what sustainable means, and how producers have attempted to do what they do in a best possible way. I would argue, that even if all kinds of certifications are good for some things, you really need to look into the overall picture – how, where and when was it produced? When you count stickers or distance in kilometers, you tweak the focus and end up loosing sight of what truly is the most exciting part of your consumer power and the art of eating and drinking.

~ Mette-Marie Hansen

(Read “Selling Out – Part 1“)

I walked away from the orientation sessions with a comprehensive knowledge of three things: the benefits packages, breakfast pastries, and the peripheral interests of several people I would never speak to again. At the outset I understood that I was signing up for a culture shock, but the environmental contrast between restaurant and hotel had my own personal Jiminy Cricket chirping loudly. My conscience, it seemed, was completely unmoved by the possibility of earning more in four 8 hour shifts than I would have earned in five shifts pulling much longer hours in restaurants. Since I had already trimmed my respectable playoff beard into a Gillette-style business beard, I decided to put a muzzle on Mr. Cricket and venture further into the bizarre abyss of hotel cooking.

Each day provided more incentive to leave. My first schedule featured a shift in the banquet hall, some time working the breakfast buffet, and culminated with a couple of graveyard shifts. Out of the 70 some odd line cooks working in that hotel, I was chosen to be one of two guys left to rot overnight cooking room service for entitled and inebriated folks who prefer to do their eating during vampire hours. The torture of cooking 100 liters of borderline inedible tomato sauce in a tremendous vat paled in comparison to the agony of starting work at 10pm, trying to function confidently in the eye of a hurricane of cooks trying their hardest to get the fuck out of dodge. The menu featured just about everything you’d expect at a 12 year olds birthday party. Nachos, hot dogs, chicken fingers, pizzas, burgers and the like. I had recently departed a restaurant that prided itself in making almost everything in-house, and I had apparently landed in a place where that’s just silly; macaroni and cheese, of all things, was brought in frozen and microwaved when needed. There is some relief, however, to finally work in a kitchen that validated the idiotic line of questioning on the Red Seal final exam. Cooking that kind of food is akin to being punched in the nuts. And since it was all happening at 3AM, it was like being punched in the nuts in your sleep; a rude awakening, so to speak. The whole thing reeked of injustice. The food, for one, deserved better. As did the customers, who were paying hefty sums for food that was bogus all the way through. I always knew that this kind of shit went on, but having my fingerprints on it was brand new and unpalatable. I was getting paid great money to do awful things to food, which made me painfully aware of the fact that the previous arrangement of getting paid smaller sums to produce great plates was simply better for my heart. And so, with only one week in the bank, I made the decision to leave.

At this point I hadn’t been paid for a while, so rolling up my knives and saying “Fuck it” wasn’t an option. I first needed to find work, the good kind. Meanwhile, I tried really hard to get pulled off of the graveyard shift, first by expressing displeasure to as many of the higher ups as I could find. The best I could get was a loose promise that it would only be that way for “a few months” and that the situation would be reconciled then. This did little to pacify my urge to leave. Something about pulling those sorts of hours for a few days a week really messes with every fabric of your being. I, like most folks, prefer the standard arrangement of existing when the sun is up, and signing out when it goes down. Everything was upside down and inside out, and with no solution on the way, I did the right thing and started growing my beard back. The way I saw it, nobody wanted my job, and that meant that I had enough leverage to grow some hair on my face. There just wasn’t any way in hell that some Executive Sous Chef was going to spend the night in my stead. That was phase one of my petty retaliation for being leveraged into a shitty position that I simply wouldn’t have accepted had their plans for me been disclosed in the first place. You’re reading phase two right now.

It’s a weak plan, I know. Growing a beard and vaguely describing a professional atrocity won’t exactly bring ol’ Goliath to his knees, will it? And that’s not what I was trying to do, I just needed to exhibit some defiance while I hunted for a more appropriate job while doing my best to ignore the aspects of the job that hurt my soul. Unfortunately it didn’t make me feel any better when I would have to throw out incredible amounts of food on a daily basis, or when I would be asked to cook tremendous quantities of the lowest quality breakfast sausages on the planet. It was astonishing, and heartbreaking, to be in the presence of so many young cooks, and have to see so much food enter the building already prepared. A certain canape, for example, required the meat from Chinese BBQ Duck. One would assume that with all of that equipment, and all of those cooks, that someone could cook up a couple of ducks. Alas, this wasn’t the case, and the ducks came in a box, already cooked, and ready to be served. To know that these sorts of things are normal and unremarkable in that setting is why I had no choice but to leave. It was nice to make good money for once, but I couldn’t for the life of me understand why I, or anyone else there, was being paid so well. I was finally underworked and overpaid, and instead of being pleased with the arrangement, I felt guilty. I felt like I was selling out.

When I found a better job that wouldn’t be mine until a month later, I immediately gave two weeks notice. I couldn’t handle it for any longer than I had to. It was at this point that the powers decided to acknowledge my gripes and were kind enough to try and get me to stick around, promising me my choice of departments. When I brought to their attention that my problems extended beyond having to work the graveyard shift, that I took an exception to the amount of food that they wasted on a daily basis, I found, unsurprisingly, that they were unwilling to change, just like me.

It isn’t enough to walk away from that situation and keep my mouth shut. The experience was conflicting in terms of creativity, individuality, professional ethics, and sustainability. I have to believe both as a cook and a concerned individual, that a restaurant should strive not to dispose of enough food to feed 50 hungry bellies on daily basis. And that’s just for breakfast in of the many food outlets in the building. The issue isn’t whether the food is paid for, because those customers pay dearly for their shitty sausages and hours old pancakes, this issue is waste. It’s a waste of an animal, a waste of labour, and a waste of time. It was at the hotel that I learned just how much efficiency and thoughtfulness matter to me as a cook, and how there isn’t enough money to make me feel good about ignoring such things. I can’t be among those who are unwilling to challenge themselves, those who are unwilling to question a broken system, in order to make things better. This is the perfect example of what is wrong with affluent society. Beyond the facade of marvelous architecture and flawlessly groomed and strictly regimented staff lies a massive pile of bullshit. It’s disgusting.

~ Jacob Galbraith

eatapeachforhours.com

(Image by Banksy)

Human evolution has been a gradual process over millions of years, from our earliest ancestors that diverged from other primates over four to seven million years ago, to the modern Homo sapiens of today.  We first begin to bear some semblance to the modern human as Homo habilis and H. erectus 2-3 million years ago, with rudimentary technology that characterize distinctly human behaviors such as hunting and gathering, using spears and stone tools, as well as the control and use of fire. The first anatomically modern humans known as Homo sapiens made their appearance as far back as 400,000 years ago in Africa, and over this time gradually developed technology and society until they began to undergo a radical transformation about 10,000 years ago. Collectively this period of time in archaeology, from the advent of Homo habilis to the agricultural revolution, is called the Paleolithic period, and represents more than 99.9% of human evolution.

As our primate ancestors evolved, the nature of our diet gradually shifted from eating plants and insects as tree-dwellers, to becoming the fur-wearing big game hunters that come to mind when we think of the archetypal ‘cave man’.  Out of necessity our diet was as diverse as possible, our ancestors maintaining a vast knowledge of local foods including plants, animals, fungi, and minerals in order to survive.  Depending on factors such as geography and climate, how much of each type of food we might eat at any given time varied considerably.  Researchers at the University of Colorado suggest that whenever possible our early ancestors preferred animal foods as their primary source of nutrition, comprising between 45-65% of their total energy intake, supplementing the remaining percentage with plant foods. These findings corroborate evidence that suggests early humans preferred animal foods for its high calorie impact, a crucial evolutionary feature that allowed for the development of the characteristically large human brain.

About 10,000 years ago something revolutionary began to happen to humanity. Quite suddenly we began to experiment with the domestication of animals and plants, gathering together in settled communities to forgo our hunter-gather ways. The first wave of this happened in discrete areas in different parts of the globe: in Africa, the Middle East, India, China, Meso-America and Northern Europe.  Whether caused by climate change, population pressures or some convergent mechanism of human evolution, our ancient ancestors began to leverage local resources to their advantage.  Although animals such as the dog, pig and cow were among the first species to be domesticated, humans soon began to experiment with a diverse array of plant species, selecting and planting only the choicest specimens generation after generation, weeding out undesirable characteristics such as bitterness and fiber.  The most outstanding feature of the agrarian revolution was the production and reliance upon cereal grains and legumes.  Gathering, crushing, soaking, fermenting and cooking the seeds of various grasses including millet, emmer, einkorn, barley and maize yielded a surprisingly energy-rich food, while dried and boiled pulses such as lentil and pea provided a good source of protein. In the relatively stable global climate of this period, peoples that had already settled found that the reliable seasonal cycle of crop production yielded greater food security than the luck of the hunt, and slowly the foundations of human culture began to change.  Gradually the diversity of foods in the diet began to decline as our Neolithic ancestors labored from dawn until dusk, limiting themselves to a few high-yielding species such as wheat and rice.  Stored food became a valuable commodity in early human society, and used to advantage by a select few, helped to produce the social stratification we still see to this day, with an underclass of laborers and an elite that directs society by controlling food and its means of production.  Since this time, although empires have risen and fallen, the diet of this toiling underclass has changed very little, at least up until very recently.

For your average peasant, poor hygiene, malnutrition and a lifetime of hard physical labor took its toll, but there was little evidence that they suffered from the chronic degenerative disease that is the hallmark of Western culture.  In contrast, wealthy nobles that could afford the luxury of refined and processed foods, and were spared the labor and toil of an “honest” living, often suffered from chronic diseases such as gout and diabetes. This stratification between the diseases of wealth and poverty continued more or less up until the “green revolution” of the 20th century.  During this time industrial-farming practices dramatically increased food production, relying upon machinery, synthetic fertilizers and petroleum-based pesticides and herbicides to increase crop yield.  Governments and corporations invested heavily in the development of new technologies to enhance the shelf life, flavor and preservation of food, altering the ratio of key nutrients in our diet and exposing us to a plethora of additives that we had previously never consumed.  Within a few generations humble communities that at one time survived on subsistence diets were now eating refined foods formerly the preserve of kings and nobles.  The impact of this change was observed by researchers such as Dr. Weston A. Price, meticulously documented in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, confirmed later by researchers such as Trowell and Burkitt. Less than a hundred years after Dr. Price published his observations, developing countries such as India and China that wish to model the economic success of the Western world have become afflicted with characteristically “Western” diseases, and now have the highest prevalence of diabetes in the world.

Taken from Food As Medicine: The Theory and Practice of Food, p. 93-95

~ Todd Caldecott

ToddCaldecott.com

A video was recently posted of David Walsh talking about the possibility of wet grinding coffee to prevent some of the limiting factors that modern grinders present us with. David is one of the minds at Marco that helped to create the Über Grinder and the Über Boiler, which are two devices in an elite category of brewing equipment. So why would someone who makes a living selling two great pieces of brewing equipment try to render their own creations inferior? I imagine that David and his colleagues have found a great amount of potential in wet grinding and what it can do to improve the quality of the coffee.

Watch the video: click here

I especially enjoyed the part of the presentation that highlighted the problems with modern day grinders. All modern day brew charts are based on the inherit problems that all grinders have due to the production of fine particles, and inconsistency caused by heat. If wet-grinding does indeed solve some of these problems it could change years of research that have gone into creating modern brew charts. Although the aesthetic of grinding coffee with a hand drill while manually pouring water over the grinds may seem amateurish, the idea behind it is brilliant. All the wonderful smells that are given off when you grind coffee will be trapped inside your cup and (doing my best Martha Stewart impression) that’s a good thing.

~ Colter Jones

I’m a large doses kind of guy, which isn’t always good. I’m lucking that hard drugs never found their way into my bloodstream, because I’d be the dead kind of drug addict, for sure. I either do something exclusively for years, like obsess over pop punk as an angsty middle class teenager, or pour myself into something entirely for a month or two, like the last few months when I tried my hand at selling the fuck out.

The last time you heard from this voice I was surrendering to an internal dialogue that was initially voiced by someone stern and trustworthy, like Peter Mansbridge, but eventually morphed into something manic and irate, like Gilbert Gottfried. I was at the end of a 6 month decline, a line cook in distress, wounded, bitter, and suffering from third degree burnout. I couldn’t think about professional cooking without imploding, so writing about the joys and perils of it just wasn’t an option. I went from full time hardcore to part time softcore, but the change of pace and scenery didn’t solve much at all. I was really lost for a while, but I’m now somewhere new where there’s a certain familiarity that reminds me of a sweeter time when I wasn’t at my wit’s end with food and cooking. That said, I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t been where I was a little over a month ago. Somewhere, as legend has it, that cooks go to die. Restaurant cooks, anyway. I took a job at a hotel.

I suppose I should let you all in on how that happened. My girlfriend, or in line cook terms, “breadwinner”, is in the middle of climbing a corporate ladder, and it turns out that further advancement meant we’d be packing up her nice things and my DVD collection to set up shop in Vancouver. A few weeks prior to our arrival, I met a guy who worked at one of the swankiest hotels in the city, who took advantage of my intoxicated state and threw a hell of a sales pitch. The kind, I’m assuming, that a lot of restaurant cooks have bit hard on before me. He told me about the money, which is as close to a grown up wage as I’ve ever seen, and also of the other perks: health benefits, discounts at other hotels, a kind-hearted and talented chef, and an 8 hour work day complete with lunch breaks. I asked about the food, and I remember hearing something to the effect of “It’s better than everybody says it is”. In this case, “everybody” represents restaurant cooks, who are notorious for slandering hotel cooks. We exchanged numbers and names, he called himself “Hotel Guy”, shook hands and parted ways. I woke up the next day, and instead of feeling dirty and ashamed like I should have, I thought about “the future”.

What followed was a bizarre courtship that involved a really limited “stage”, or tryout, that required me to stand around and do little else but peel carrots and trim other vegetables. The tour was terrifying. There were more cooks spread across 2 floors of kitchen than I’d worked with in my entire 7 year career, which is approximately 70, or 65 more names than I can be counted on to remember. I eventually met Chef who lived up to his reputation. He’s a decorated cook and a very kind man, so I filed that away in a very empty “pros” list; the “cons” list was heaving. I left baffled by what I had seen, but not enough to tarnish the idea of a big fat paycheck. I declared my intention to work there and heard back from them the next day, at which point I was asked to fill out a wholly redundant and vaguely insulting questionnaire. This is where the whole hiring process truly deviated from what I had grown accustomed to, which was essentially a handshake/introduction/10 hours of chaos and constant observation, a handshake, maybe a beer, and an offer of a meagre wage and quality experience.

Apparently that strangeness wasn’t enough to grant me employment. I was then required to sit through a handful of interviews with a variety of professionally appropriate personalities. I did what I could to cover up any evidence of previous damage, and deftly avoided touching upon my recent hard times. Somehow I managed to say enough of the “right things” to merit an offer for the position of “PT First Cook” at a starting wage of “More than you’ve ever made before.”, on the condition that I keep my beard tidy, which was a pretty difficult concession to make given that the Canucks were balls deep in a playoff run of epic proportions. I signed, went home, and took the clippers to my face, crying on the inside while humming “Taps”.

Before I’d get to set foot in any one of the many kitchens they had, I first had to endure 16 hours of company ordered orientation, for which this little line cook was required to dress business casual. This experience was the cherry on top of the strange fucking sundae. Complete with combed hair and tidy beard, I sat amongst a wide variety of hotel employees (a couple cooks, servers, bellmen, doormen, valets, engineers, etc.), ate the free pastries, and drank the Kool Aid. I counted down the hours until I would be freed from the forced and awkward interaction, and paid the minimum required amount of attention, which was slightly higher than I expected thanks to a cunning HR personality obsessed with administering the corporate dope via extensive audience participation. We watched numerous videos starring employees from across the globe, who all spoke the company tongue. They seemed truly happy to work for the company, but I didn’t trust their wide eyes and perfect smiles for a second; they were obviously Cylons. It took an awful lot of will power to keep my independent spirit at bay, because the whole thing felt exactly like a brainwashing session, and I wanted absolutely no part of it. Hotel Guy contacted me afterwards and said, “Remember, you’ll still be in a kitchen after this.”, meaning that I should be far more comfortable in my whites instead of business casual. He was wrong.

Check back in a few days for the thrilling conclusion.

~ Jacob Galbraith

eatapeachforhours.com

After all the chit chat about all the great artisanal sandwiches in Vancouver, it seems like the world’s two most powerful fast food chains have been listening. And their response has not been warm and fuzzy. It’s been Unleash Hell!

In the battle for anti-sandwich supremacy, KFC and McDonalds have both sent out their most fearsome warriors. In one corner, we have the universally reviled and hated KFC Double Down; in the other we have the nightmare-from-your-childhood McRib sandwich. Which one will reign supreme?

First off, kudos to KFC for dropping all references to “chicken” in their corporate name. There is no pretense here. You are eating mega industrial vat produced food like product, make peace with it, or get the hell out of the emergency room.

I was all ready to hate this evil mutation of laboratory engineering. When you bite in, the first thing you taste is SALT. I mean, opening-pack-of-ramen-instant-noodle-soup-and-pour-straight-into-mouth MSG hit kind of salt. And here’s the shameful part, I like ramen soup MSG! The double down is not nearly as awful as I thought it would be. In fact, if LA restaurant Animal made a version of this, I would gladly order two or three. With a super cold Arnold Palmer (I love how a John Daly is the alcoholic version of the drink) and a side of watermelon pickle, I could convince myself that this was some sort of Edna Lewis Olde Southern recipe. I am left shaken and confused.

The McRib is much easier to get a fix on. Don’t let the fancy red onion garnish fool you. This is a re-purposed breakfast sausage patty, re- extruded with fake rib bone protrusions, doused with sweetened ketchup. The underlying taste is unmistakably McDonald’s. What that actually means though, I am not sure. It’s almost a universal sixth taste, perhaps it’s their proprietary recipe of ground unicorn, dried baby panda, and powdered rainforest. It like running into a soft squishy childhood friend, someone familiar but who has also grown a little weird. You want to stay friends, but you are not sure. So you take another bite…

Thankfully, these two offerings are available only for a short time. In any case, I’ll be heading to Refuel for some of their truly outstanding fried chicken and reacquaint myself with what real food tastes like. I suggest you do the same.

~ Canucklehead