With , cooks are having to go beyond the grocery store. That鈥檚 why about a dozen chefs from Chicago and central Illinois recently gathered for a two-day crash course on where their food comes from 鈥� the farm.
Each year in June and September, central Illinois farmer Marty Travis hosts chefs on his farm for Chef Champ, a project of a foundation he and his wife started that promotes small, sustainable family farming. The chefs are there to learn about everything from keeping bees to butchering chickens to maintaining healthy soil.
Chicago chef John Asbaty was on Travis' farm in June for the camp. Asbaty relies heavily on local produce and meats when he is cooking.
鈥淚 actually spend all my time thinking about where the food has come from,鈥� Asbaty said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 kind of the basis and inspiration for how we cook.鈥�
Asbaty is planning to open a new restaurant by the end of the summer. He previously ran a small Italian market in the city.
鈥淪erving food, it鈥檚 kind of a very intimate relationship with people you don鈥檛 know,鈥� Asbaty said. 鈥淪o, I take pride in finding the people who care about growing and raising the food as much as we care about cooking the food. So, I think keeping that symbiotic relationship makes a lot of sense.鈥�
Travis showed Asbaty and the other campers some of what he is growing. There are wild onions, alfalfa, fava bean tops and red potatoes 鈥� a small sample of the roughly 200 varieties of crops on his farm. Running his fingers along a recently harvested potato, Travis checks it for evidence of invasive insects.
鈥淚f those white flies were starting to cause the plants to turn yellow, we鈥檇 mix some sea salt 鈥� mineralized sea salt that we would mix with water 鈥� and I鈥檇 just spray over this whole thing,鈥� Travis explained. 鈥淭hat would give more mineral content to the plant and it would also get rid of that soft shell insect.鈥�
Later on, the campers heard from an agricultural consultant who explained how to test the nutrients, sweetness and acidity of fruits and vegetables 鈥� useful when deciding whether to rely on a farmer鈥檚 produce. They also learned about some of the jargon found on meat labels, like 鈥渃age free,鈥� 鈥渇ree range,鈥� and 鈥渁ll natural.鈥�
鈥淓verybody鈥檚 all natural, it means nothing,鈥� said Donna O'Shaughnessy, who runs a certified organic farm with her husband in rural Chatsworth, Ill. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very nebulous, nebulous term.鈥�
O'Shaughnessy told the chefs that 鈥渁ll natural鈥� only applies to processing.
鈥淎ll that means is that (at) the processing point it鈥檚 done naturally without chemicals, but there鈥檚 no guarantee that they weren鈥檛 fed antibiotics or hormones while they were growing,鈥� she said.
O'Shaughnessy explained that labels only tell part of the story. She said the best way to know what you鈥檙e getting from the farm is to know the farmer.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e working with a farmer who says, 鈥楴o, I don鈥檛 allow visits,鈥� you need to be suspicious,鈥� she said. 鈥淒rop-ins are hard. They鈥檙e busy. They鈥檙e doing something. But if they don鈥檛 want to make an appointment for you to come and drop by, I鈥檇 be really suspicious about buying from that particular farmer.鈥�
The chefs also learned how to kill and butcher an animal. Wildlife Biologist Darryl Coates with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources was there with a rifle and a cage holding three rabbits. He told the campers that slaughtering an animal isn鈥檛 something he takes lightly.
鈥淭he harvest of an animal is important to me because I try to respect the animal,鈥� Coates said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 giving its life to nourish me or my guests.鈥�
For the chefs here at Chef Camp, this was not the first time they had thought about the origins of the food they prepare. Sarah McVicker-Waters, head chef at a caf茅 in Bloomington-Normal, Ill., said she is working to expand the Garlic Press鈥� local offerings.
鈥淔ood is so important, and our food system is so, so essential and the more I can do to help this sort of system work, and to show that it does work on a scale like a caf茅, then honestly, why aren鈥檛 we all doing that?鈥� she said.
That is a question farmer Marty Travis is trying to answer. , a distribution network that connects area farmers with businesses in Chicago and central Illinois. During the chef camp, the campers helped process food hub orders, packing a cooler with produce destined for restaurants, grocery stores and other customers. From planting to distribution, Travis said he hopes going through the camp helps these chefs better understand and appreciate food.
鈥淭hese chefs all have the opportunity to make us better farmers,鈥� Travis said. 鈥淭hey can go to other farmers that they work with either at the farmer鈥檚 markets or on their own and say, 鈥楬ey, have you ever thought about such and such. I was at a chef camp and I learned about this.鈥欌€�
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