Happy international women's day

We had cake again today at the butcher. It was their 2nd anniversary. Near the Healthy Butcher there are two restaurants - one named I [heart] Sushi and the other King Shwarma [heart]. I don't understand why but when the sausage joke got tired today we started saying aloud what we all "heart". We even thought about T-shirts being printed. Needless to say DDay has a new nickname... Downward Dog (DD). We were laughing so hard today, incredible after all of us confessed of being out of it or not into the tasks at hand or generally #@@%*&! things up large.

Karin buys wine sometimes by the name. Whatever strikes her fancy, it's fun and adventurous. Today we had a wine named Monsanto, a chianti. not bad, and good for a joke. Of course it spurned a dinner conversation about seed patents and farmers having to sign contracts for seeds or who are sued for genetically modified seeds that are blown into their fields unbeknownst to them.

We were introduced to a man the other day - C. Fox. His grandfather was one of the original owners of our house. He came back today to give us some pictures of the house and his grandparens circa 1909. The house predates 1900 and was essentially suburban Toronto. C. Fox is in his 60s and it was nice to share in his memories of this space. It names a spirit that the house has always had.

I like cake.

The Ruckle Farm

I had a book sent to me from Victoria this week (dear friends Tom and Jen, bless your hearts) called From Farm to Feast.
Although I have yet to sink my teeth into it, flipping through it I came across the story of Ruckle Farm on Saltspring Island. This farm will always have great significance to me being the one farm that I had that singular meal from. Here are a few quotes from the book: "In 1973 the taxes were so high on this desirable real-estate that the Ruckles could no longer afford to keep their land by farming...the Ruckle land was sold to the provincial government at a reduced cost, with the provision that part of the land remain as a working farm with the Ruckles as stewards for their lifetime." I see parallels, only we are no longer the stewards of our land in our lifetime.

Henry Ruckle "created a mixed farm with many different types of animals, an orchard with great variety of fruit several types of grain, for home and animal feed, field peas for pigs and seed sales, nut trees, hay fields and grazing fields. Here was one Irishman that would never be caught with a single crop that could succumb to blight."

It's interesting to note that over 95% of all varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains and animals that you might have found on the Ruckle farm or his neighbours are extinct or close to it. Monocultures are naturally weak. I just wish I had the chance to taste those apples and pears. I had a pear the other day that literally blew my mind. I had to wipe the walls down. The flavour was exceptional - spicy, peppery tones with grapefruit highlights. I could just imagine what grew on the Ruckle Farm. Or how about the lamb that ate the pears on the ground or that Henry gave as a treat.

Now we have lamb, pigs and cows fed on an accelerated diet of corn and antibiotics. Where are the sunshine and smiles?
You would be foolish to think that this does not translate into flavour.

Snakes

Tonight I played the world's longest game of snakes and ladders. The game entails using a spinner to advance spaces and if you land on a ladder you go up and if you land on a snake you go down. Sometimes you make it up to the end of the game and you land on that mega snake that takes you to the bottom again. I have landed on many mega snakes but I’ve also landed on many golden ladders. The beauty of tonight’s game was that it was a game played with my children.Sloane and I celebrating our birthdays at the beautiful Brown Farm. She has got hold of what is hers...my beard

Farmer Brown was sitting on a bench.
Hurt his B____ with a monkey wrench.
The wrench was hot and he burnd his B____.
P____ all over his overalls. di didi di d. di di

P.S. I made number one! oh yah

punctuation sucks

I think of all the food I have eaten of late and I feel woosie. Yesterday was DDay's Bday - we had a prime rib for lunch and soon after loaded 6 whole cows, 4 pigs, 4 lambs and probably 20 cases of chickens. I felt like the lunch might come out of my eyeballs. Then we had cake. We had cake again today for Leeanne - who knew there were so many Pisces? punctuation sucks.

whoopsie doodle

Out of habit I place my knives when not in use blade facing south above the cutting board. This habit has searved me well and has been drilled into my head through my apprenticeship. The point being is that you always know where the blade is on you work surface. Today I deviated from this training. The blade faced in beside the board. (We were working in tight quarters) I went to remove the board and ended up removing the tip of my pinky. That now throbs as I type. This poor pinky of mine has endured more damage than I can tell you. Starting with a remarkable date with Karin some 15 years ago when I traveled through the looking glass and ended up in emerg. I lost the feeling in the last knuckle and subsequently favor it tucking it away from hot objects or steely knives. Not knowing when I’ll be injured next. It has been a long time since I’ve had such a bad injury what’s that saying about habits?
This is a picture of me and Meli and the ever-popular sausage joke. We are holding summer sausage…

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. I celebrated with my good friends and neighbours - we had a lovely party. This is a picture of Sloane and Michael - the candles on the cake is a combined age of the Marks. Got in touch with Paul the leader of Toronto Slow food I want to be more involved in establishing links between farmers and chefs.

Meat

I finally felt the music in me today around 4pm. I might be pulling out of the hole I've been in. I made this stunning saddle of lamb. Stuffed it with chestnuts thyme and lamb forcemeat. It'll make somebody happy. If not myself.

I took some pictures of a beef loin, taking out the tenderloin. Should have taken pictures of that saddle, it'll be gone tomorrow. It was a beautiful day today all sunny, made me wish I brought a towel for the beach. This afternoon made me think of my old motorcycle and how my mechanic has it hostage in storage. Did he repair the electrical problem and the oil leak over the winter, or will I have to wait till June to get it back? I'll call him in the morning to get a status. It’s been a busy six months, I can't wait to go for a ride.


This is a beef loin. Under that fat is the tenderloin, the most prised cut of meat.


Here it's shown being teased away from the spine. You can see the New York Striploin is closest to the block if you were to do a cross section of this with the tenderloin attached it would be a T-bone towards the thick end of the tenderloin its called a porterhouse yum!


The tenderloin removed - it has a lot of tough membrane, silverskin and fat that needs to be removed.


It's all clean now.


Here it's tied and ready to be portioned.

To load or not load

Ryan passed along a flow chart today that he got off the Canadian Pork Council's web site. It was astonishing to see that there is a need to have a flow chart made for people that operate farm equipment, and potentially a PC that explains whether an animal is to sick to send to slaughter, detailing if it can't walk by its own means it should not be loaded. Makes you think what we might be eating. I like to think that animals raised for their meat deserve to be treated as more than just a commodity.
This is a photo of all our cured meats. We have prosciutto braseolas, lardo and cured duck magret. We’ll have more in a few more weeks.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello, a long day today. I walked from Lansdowne to Bathurst before a streetcar passed me. It was a brisk walk and my beard froze rock solid so I couldn't smile without a tug of pain. I took down 2 hips of beef, 1 chuck, 1 cross cut and some other stuff. It was my first high-speed tenderloin removal. Needless to say my blade is dull again, like I ran it across the curb all afternoon. I have fond memories of filing Popsicle Pete sticks like that on the curb. You can get those sticks sharp as shives like that.

The order came in today as well. Trevor the driver always has a little thing he does just before you lift something. For example, there was a gigantic chuck well over 170lbs, he says 'here is a little guy for ya' then he waits till you get your back into it before he says anything. It was my turn for a hip and he says 'that one belonged to that chuck' and then laughs as my spine compresses.

Max seems to be über sensitive lately since Rip's death. He’s ready to cry at the simplest things. I feel for him. We have talked about how we miss her and that things are different around the house now. It’s hard to lose a pet, no matter what age.

For my baby

Happy Valentine's Day. It's sort of a heart-shaped steak. Enjoy!

I love you,
Karin

No more fluffn' I promise

I got my knife sharp as a razor today and made a tonne of sausage. Took down the bregeolas that were hanging in the original posts and sampled it. Very nice. It was a cold walk home and we are expecting 20 cm of snow tonight. Tomorrow we'll smoke kielbasas and poach boudin blanc.

The kids are making Valentines Day cards and are being very cute. This will be my first Vday that I'll be home since I can't remember. When Karin was pregnant with Sloane her due-date was the 14th of February. I was worried because I would not be able to share a birthday with her. New Year's Eve, Valentine's, and Mothers Day are the busiest days in restaurants.

I don't foresee a big rush on for steaks tomorrow, although it is a perfect treat for me.

Karin and I went to see Pan's Labyrinth. We both enjoyed it. I think I liked the walk up Queen St. better, its different than at a three-year-old's pace. Sloane is going to be four this week and she says she looks and feels like 4, that is a good thing.

Today I prepped Brageolas and hung some from a couple weeks ago. These were rubbed in a cure for a week, kryovaced and then re-rubbed for another week. After that they will hang for three more weeks. Ryan was working on summer sausage and kielbasa when an interesting question came up about the term 'emulsification'. It was brought up that in order to make an emulsion you needed an acid i.e. lemon in mayonnaise or vinegar in a salad dressing. I argued that an emulsion is purely the suspension of material within a semi-liquid state and that the acid is there solely for culinary purposes. For example, margarine is an emulsion of some weird stuff - oil and water and -oh yes- yellow. I think I'm right about this.

Here are some pictures of what has caught my eye this week.

Elk

What is amazing about Game meat is that it breaks down so easily.

The fat and membrane that connects the muscles is weak and you can easily separate them. I've worked with a lot of Caribou and red dear this was my first elk. Talked to an organic duck farmer this week about the feed and conditions for the ducks. It's all very interesting. I love eating meat. I do believe that it tastes better when the animal lives well. Happy animals living in conditions that they were intended to live in, eating food that they intended to eat (not corn). Produce better quality ingredients. For me as a chef I can handle not having a perfectly marbled steak if the flavour is there.

Other qualities arise when talking about meat such as toughness. A happy animal is not tormented finishing its life on a feedlot, crammed shoulder to shoulder to others knee deep in fecal. I believe that industrial (conventional) farming practices encourage the use of antibiotics /corn feed and god-knows-what-else-in-the-feed feed, in order to counter the stresses that feed lots produce on the cattle. Forgoing flavour. It’s a basic disassociation of cattle to meat that seems to be at the core of our problems.

Holy Crap, I'm Six

Lets keep those clickies clicking we can roll to number 5 with your help!!!!! click here

This is the head cheese in the display case.









We are in our Steve Zissou hats feeling like pirates.










DDay making light of our delivery.










Malloy posing in the back alley.











Sent off some e-mails today, both should provide some fruit. Got a chance to try Rocco's cassoulet last night, it was awesome. Saw my friend Jong at Gate 403, missed J it was getting late. Karin and I have a date Saturday sans the kids should be good.

Oh the times are a chang'n.

It was order day today. We picked up a side of grass-fed beef. I didn't know where they got the grass in January, so Trevor the driver informed me it was hydroponic. Either the loads are smaller or I'm getting stronger because I didn't feel my spine crush today. I think I am getting more efficient at taking down a hip, I can see the cuts a lot clearer. It was Chris's last day (he worked the counter) so he was played with a bit. Who knows how long he had a beef gland on his back for? I finished the head cheese, cured some duck breasts and made porcetta.

Karin called me this afternoon and said she picked up Ripley's ashes, she was crying. It's been two weeks but I think it will take a long time before we are totally healed.

On another note, I made it to number 7 on chefdb.com lets make a push to 6 yaaeeeeeeeeh!

These are not the droids you're looking for

Today I got a new jacket and toque of my own. Mario, the owner of the butcher shop, has been busy fixing things up around the place. "It's plumbing not rocket science," he said in a spare moment that we shared.

I made sausage today and finished the head cheese. I took a picture but I won't put it up till it is unmolded and finished. The sausage press (affectionately called the R2 unit) is a hydraulic cylinder. It forces the forcemeat (sausage mixture) through a tube and into the casing. For something so simple there is a lot that can go wrong (i.e. not tightening the top down correctly - if you ever have a chance to use one of these don't make this mistake, big mess). You also can control the speed of the forcemeat coming out and the density going in the casing - that’s tricky.

Saw Rocco today, always a treat. He is using a pear stilton sausage for a cassulet, adding a lamb chop and some duck confit. Yum. I love winter just for meals like that.

Also caught wind that a high profile Toronto chef may be joining the butcher ranks soon. John says "the butcher is a refuge for wayward chefs." I had to agree.

This is a pic of Dave showing Renee (a cook at OB) how we work with pork. It goes to show you that this is a lost art, and that people are interested in learning it. Cooks should be embarassed that they can't say for sure where a sirloin tip is from or how many cows it takes to get you though the weekend of ribeyes.

This is were I was going with that Tshirt reference a couple of days ago. Can you dig it? Can you count? Love that trippy beat. Gil Scott Heron. Thanks to Maloy for pointing the way.

We're #8

I've had some time off. It has been a nice weekend. Went to 7 Numbers on the Danforth with friends we haven't seen since the summer. Go clicky here and help make me #7 (currently I'm #8 which I found really funny). I also moved the TV down to the basement.

Today I made head cheese at work which was fun, had to kill production though due to unforeseen difficulties. I'll start again tomorrow.

Head cheese is essentially a terrine of meat from the head or trotters of hogs, simmered over a long period of time with aromatics. The cheeks and jowls are then diced put into a form and the stock that it was cooked in is reduced and poured over top. I think tomorrow I will add fine herbs, white wine maybe some mushrooms. No cheese or brain or buggers, The name head cheese is an unfortunate translation of fromage de tête (sounds better en francais). In English it sounds like something scraped out of an old sneaker. I think the Brits -clever as they are- have a different name sans any mention of cheese. Brawn is the name, and in Scotland it's potted heid. I like that as it reminds me of Mike Myers - " Heid. Pants. Now!" "He's gonna go cry on his huge pillaw."

This is a picture of some of the butchers - DDay, Malloy & Geordie. At the top of the pic is a brasoala curing, we all have extra pairs of clothing on because it's so damn cold.

Yesterday I met up with a friend for drinks and dinner at a place called Coca - it was inspiring. Very much a tapas bar but they do things right, like making their own bregoala (a cured outside round of beef). They had citrus cured olive that was very tasty and a cider braised sausage (I think they called it a chorizo but it was unlike a typical Spanish/Portuguese style). We had a cheap and cheerful bottle of plonk. Later on an old high school friend showed up at the bar (he manages the restaurant across the street) and tequila shots were in order. Needless to say, not such a good idea after a hard day's work. Fortunately I remembered this lotion that a friend recommended to us called Traumeel, so I bought it and put it on my shoulder - by God it really worked and thankfully made the day a little easier.

Today we received an elk from one farmer and a New Zealand red deer from another, both organically raised. The deer is fed winter grass (dry) and carrots. The meat was so tender I could have used a butter knife to clean it. This is the first farmed dear that I have broken down so I took a picture of it. The stripes on the back were really beautiful. I hope we can work with this product again.

I cooked a flat iron steak from the butcher the other day for me and the kids. It was dry and purple and smelled great - like you could just take a chunk out of it fresh from the butcher paper. I paired it with some leftover mashed potatoes and braised onions, and made for a scrumptious quick dinner. We don't often eat red meat so it was nice to see the kids both enjoy a steak, especially one that was so good.

It seems that the Queen streetcar is getting worse. The cars are infrequent and jammed. I was left with the option to wait or walk today so I walked, even though I was tired. Not one streetcar passed in the 30 minutes. Karin asked me to pick up chicken breast for dinner tonight, I couldn't find any - the good thing is she really wanted chicken stock. [Karin states: the Queen streetcar has been like this FOREVER and it's just Mark's first experience waiting at rush hour - trust me Mark - FOREVER!!! I've walked from University and made it to Dufferin before another streetcar passed.]

Free the sausage

This is a view of me from a sausage's point of view.
I would worry if I were that sausage.

Karin says I smell like a sausage. She's right. I do. Today I took apart a chuck as part of a yield test. It took longer than expected - it will be interesting to see how efficient I become in the upcoming months. A yield test is a measure of how much labour (time) it takes to produce (in KGs) sellable cuts, waste, trim and bone of a primal cut (i.e., the chuck). This is how you gauge pricing. I finally got how to get a blade cut out. I can see it now flat iron, brisket.

Tomorrow the meat delivery comes in. I am not ready, my shoulder is in rough shape. I can't hold the phone with my head to neck without pain. Can't imagine moving 3000 lbs. of beef, 600 lbs. of pork and 300 lbs. of lamb tomorrow.

I'm in a weird spot right now and I don't know what to make of it. I am happy the way things are working out. It seems as though I am observer in my own life watching things unfold without much control. I wish I were on a beach with my toes within reach of the waves.

This is a picture of me in the front gardens of Sooke Harbour House. We had dinner and spent the night there last summer. Max had a crab the size of my head. My highlight was the following morning talking with Sinclair Phillips, the Canadian pioneer of the slow food movement, over coffee. It was both inspiring and awakeningly tragic to find out that food sources, even there, are on decline. Looks like I'm really thinking about something here, I remember the smell of fennel pollen in the air and my kids giggling.

Here is a link I stumbled on, this guy looks like DDay, I wish I could still play like this

ABC

Today would have been uneventful, if it were not for a particular email I received.

That's not true. I woke up this morning and Karin had jury duty, so she had already gone. Maxwell was reading his Captain Underpants book aloud - it was really neat. He's had some trouble but today after I roze he said to me "I really like reading." It's the beginning.

Two weeks ago the TV went off for good-ish. (It spent a week on the deck after too much '24'.) We will have one day a week featuring a movie of our choice, and one hour with Max's friends playing a Star Wars Lego Playstation game - that is it. I think it has been harder for me than the kids. It was getting to be too much - too much crap. The important stuff like reading was being pushed aside for all of us, learning to talk to each other kindly, playing games, sharing, family stuff. Good stuff was missing and in my life and as a cook I don't get much good time. We seem to be pressed into a McNugget mold of what we need in our lives, I'm beginning to realize that's not the case. I remember a friend's T-shirt that read " The revolution will not be televised" and I laughed. Who would record it? Let alone TELEVISE it.

Wow I'm tired and need a rotator cuff massage.
check this out.

Last night I worked at the Silver Spoon. It was fun to be around good friends making good food. It was like riding a bike.

Rocco and Kara are coming over for dinner tonight, I picked up a well-aged brisket. It's braising away and the house smells great. I picked up some long underwear today because the butcher shop is so damn cold. I don't know why I was compelled to write that down but whatever.

I came across a picture of me and my son Maxwell on a fishing trip we took off Salt Spring Island last year. That was when I had the idea of food coming from one quality farm.

My fishing guide (Silver Spoon fishing excursions) turned out to be an organic farmer that raised cattle, lamb and had a few gardens. Who better to be stuck on a boat for four hours with? We talked about the industrialized farm system, oil, fair market price of food, corn/soy beans. We also caught five sockeyes. I couldn't possibly have eaten them all so I traded three for a leg of lamb, some veg, and some prawns he had caught earlier that month. It occurred to me that this may be the only time in my life that I will have eaten an entire 3 course meal procured by one man. This thought made me somewhat sad for my children who may not know any better. The meal had vitality - I believe because the ingredients were not only fresh but cared for by this man. The sheep seemed to laugh, Tom the turkey giggled, the bull - intimidating as it was - seemed not to care about our presence but snorted his approval.

Our dinner was simply prepared at my Uncle Rico's house. Our families relished each others company licking our plates clean. Mike and Jay even ate the fish! It was my second favourite meal ever.

It is my observation that BC has a more developed farm-to-table infrastructure. Roadside farmer stands are the norm and "organic" seems to be everywhere. Also people are more in tune with a holistic approach to eating.

Food doesn't have to come in plastic/polystyrene. Meat doesn't need a "diaper".

That brisket is driving me mad. Food is good.

What a crazy week. Went to dinner last night on Balwin St. I didn't expect much and that's exactly what I got. There was a carved tomato on my plate topped with grated parmesan. One server was polishing cutlery and slamming it into a bin while complaining how he needed to get laid. Is this what Toronto diners experience? Where is the pride and work ethic? I feel another rant coming on.

This week I learned how to take down a hip of beef into the inside/outside rounds & eye of round. The picture of DDay with his gaping maw is the start of one hip. This first cut is cool – as it hangs a hip weighs about 120 lbs. so when you make this cut the lower section releases as if it will crash to the floor, exposing the shank meat or osso bucco. The second coolest thing was once you get to the final stages of cutting you are left with a 100 lb. piece held on by one small tendon. Ryan said the tendon could support two men.

There is a lot I am learning, not just cutting but the entire process of meat production. For example, in pork production hogs are castrated. Didn't know that. Apparently the meat develops a muskiness and the flavour is undesirable by today's standards. Also, after slaughter they are 'blanched' in a tank which is maintained at 160F - not to cook but to release the hair follicles. DDay said after this they are put though a hair removal machine to paddle off the hair.

Yesterday I got into the production of sausage making. There are lots jokes in all areas of the kitchen but you have to have a real sense of humour when you make sausage. This is an area of butchery that I think I could excel at and I'm hoping to do some traditional charcuterie. My grandfather's chorizo perhaps? I'm getting hungry again.

RIP Ripley

Last night Ripley suffered a stroke and lost control of her rear legs and bowels. She was in a lot of pain. Thanks to our good friends Jim and April, Karin and I were able to take her to the vet where he sedated her, she was able to die in our arms peacefully. We cried all night long. So so sad.

It was a hard day today. I kind of kept to myself. I had so much to write about yesterday. I'll save it for another day.

D Day

This is D Day and he is as big as his name. D Day has been teaching me the ropes at the Healthy Butcher. It's good to talk to him because he comes from an agricultural background from Guelph U. He shared thoughts about the difficulty of being a farmer in Ontario.

I'm sorry an event is happening got to go...

REO Speedwagon

This is me earlier today taking apart a beef loin. The tenderloin is completely buried in fat and layers of silverskin and age.

What's fascinating is that when most restaurants recieve a tenderloin, it is kryovaced and dripping in blood. All a cook needs to do is remove the final layer of silverskin, tie and portion. Today it took maybe 18-20 minutes to get to this stage. At the Healthy Butcher the beef is hung for 3-4 weeks, so it air dries...ages. I guess what is so different is the lack of blood – plus the smell emanating from the board is sweet not septic, like a skunky sock which sometimes happens in the vac-pac "aging". Being around so much meat just makes me hungry.

In my education as chef I was told that when beef is processed it's turned into the desired cuts and kryovaced or vacpacked to age. This does not make sense to me now. To age meat it has to be exposed to air/bacteria under controlled temperature and humidity. This does two things - it evaporates moisture "concentrating flavours", and it gives the meat a certain -as the french would say- "I don't know what", a hum, or sweetness, or just plain flavour. Conventional methods of meat production go against traditional methods (I'm going to use the term 'conventional' to describe today's current nomal food production technique). Mostly its ethnic butcher shops that still provide this kind of aging but for the large part it is a dying trade in North America. So pretty much every piece of meat you eat is covered in plastic "kryo-aged",

This brings me to start talking of HOMOGINIZATION. I am no hippy, I just think that when food starts to become a mediocre normality something is wrong. Is it all about consistency even if consistency = crap?

Can you remember that summer sweet corn you had 20 years ago? The way the breeze hit you the colour of the sky, the smiles of the company you kept? This may not be a memory for our children. GMO's, farmed salmon, Nickleback.

Just kidding about Nickleback and subsidiaries (I believe they are absolutely fantastic frikin MTVcribbinlisious). I better stop I feel a rant coming on.

Homoginization.

Ham

Managed to lift the 165Lbs side of Berkshire off the rail today without a hitch. I figured the trick was to grab it a little lower in a bear hug hoist up with the knees and ehhh voila and Ta dah. I basically made hams today, I will be curing them tomorow as well as curing brisket for pastrami. I am really looking forward to doing prosciutto this week. I've been listening to the Verb remix Nina Simone "Sinnerman" although a sin to put a clap trap to, it is fun in a Hooked on Classics kind of way.

I had to talk to the kids today about the condition of our beloved dog Ripy. She is dying. I explained that she would have a much better time in doggy heaven (than her current state). My daughter said (she is three) "she doesn't want to die". I replied that, of course she wants to be with us forever but she is old and has reached her time. My daughter turned to me and said "Okay lets get another dog and call her Ripy."

Ripy has been a companion, friend, family member for 11 years – we have done a lot together. It's hard to watch a friend pass, especially when they can't talk. The worst is that I would morbidly joke about turning her hams into prosciutto. That just feels sick now.

Change is good

I resigned as the executive chef of Globe Bistro on January 3, 2007.

For more than a year, I collaborated with Globe Bistro’s owner Ed Ho to create a spectacular restaurant. I will always be grateful for the opportunities that this experience gave me. Not only did I learn a tremendous amount about constructing a restaurant from the ground up, this experience enabled me to bring all my capabilities and skills as a chef to build a kitchen and create a menu that fills me with pride.

The menu item I created for Globe that I’m most proud of is the Farmers Plate. Last summer I began searching for local farmers who raise their animals and grow their vegetables without pesticides, hormones and chemical fertilizers. (I carried Joel Salatin’s pastoral vision, from Omnivore’s Dilemna, with me throughout my quest.) It was not easy to find Ontario farmers that followed this half-a-century old technique – we don’t support this infrastructure anymore – but I eventually found two farms that could supply Globe both produce and proteins from the same few acres of land. Every Farmers Plate I created was prepared with respect and integrity from the soil up.

Because of the passion I have for local, fresh and seasonal ingredients, I’ve decided to learn more about sustainability and farm-to-table practices. I am currently honing my skills as a butcher at the Healthy Butcher on Queen St. West under the direction of head butcher Ryan Donovan (who I met at the Stratford Chefs School). Working with like-minded people is thoroughly gratifying.

With my experiences from Globe and the skills I acquire from Healthy Butcher, I intend to open my own small restaurant this year.

For more information contact me at mcutrara@yahoo.ca.

Truly stupid

wow this ---- is bananas