Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern in the Union Square Greenmarket, NYC, 6/5/09
"Be the change you want to see in the world." ~Mahatma Gandhi
Inspired. Delighted. Grateful. That's how I felt after spending a Saturday afternoon with Chef Michael Anthony, courtesy of the Council on the Environment of NYC (CENYC)'s Taste and Tours Program. I ended up on the tour randomly, and it ended up being one of my top 10 experiences. Ever.
Michael is the Executive Chef of Gramercy Tavern, one of the best U.S. restaurants (awarded James Beard 2008 Outstanding Restaurant and consistently ranked by Zagats as NYC's most popular restaurant, among other honors). He is undisputedly a star chef. Yet, yet, YET, he spent an afternoon providing a tour of Union Square Greenmarket followed by an amazing lunch of locally sourced food to a motley group of 20 (including me). Accompanying him were Marcel Van Ooyen, Executive Director of CENYC and Arun Gupta, a line chef at Gramercy.
I was hooked the moment Michael started talking. This low-key chef has a clear vision of how food should fit in our lives. From the start, he had us all seeing his vision, but the surprise was that we were living it by the end. He started the tour by telling us he was going to highlight some of his favorite farmers, talk about how we could maximize the bounty we bought at market, and then finish at Gramercy Tavern to look at the kitchen and dine in the private dining room on a 4-course lunch prepared from market foods (and paired with local wines). I congratulated myself on hitting the jackpot.
The Greenmarket
Michael's passion and knowledge of responsibly farmed, local food is contagious. I learned so much that market specifics are in this post. Michael talks the talk AND he walks the walk. He walked us through the market, feeding us tidbits on the rich soil west of the Hudson River ("black gold") and the length of strawberry season, finding us garlic scapes to try, and pointing out the pasture-fed Angus farmer's son, who had recently come back from his tours in Iraq. He introduced us to farmers and had them teach us about the food they were growing.
Locally grown food is more than nourishment to him. It provides a sense of context and connection. As we looked at strawberries, he observed that out-of-season produce bought in grocery stores and imported from other areas "doesn't taste the same and doesn't feel the same." Michael spent his early time as a chef in Japan, and was deeply moved by the connection the Japanese had to their locally grown foods and the anticipation people had for the seasonal offerings. We learned that Gramercy Tavern takes meticulous daily notes on the market's offerings, and that strawberries came in 3 weeks later this year as opposed to last year when they arrived on May 2nd.
One of the issues that MindfulEats has with eating out is not knowing the provenance of the food. Well, rest assured that you can trace the lineage of your meal at Gramercy Tavern from dirt to plate, and they have put a lot of thought into their food selections. So if you like eating out, you should eat there. Or if you are in NYC, you should support one of these restaurants that buys locally.
MindfulEats has always supported organic and responsibly grown food, and Michael provided the color as to why. It can be more pricey, but if it's available to you, you should buy it and eat from restaurants that buy it too (but if it's not in your budget, don't fret - you are doing an AWESOME job if you're eating whole, unprocessed foods, regardless of origin):
- It's better for you. Eating industrialized food grown with chemical fertilizers, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics is yucky. Children are going through puberty at a much younger age these days, and one hypothesis is that they are influenced by all the growth hormones in food. Your body has enough work to do - do you really need to give it more to deal with?
- It tastes better. Produce that is responsibly grown, from nourished and rich soil tastes better. (I'm not certain that I can taste the difference, but Michael can).
- It's more humane. Animals that are raised in a humane environment are less stressed than those raised in an industrialized setting. They move about freely, eat food they are intended to eat, and are not pumped full of antibiotics. They are healthier and ultimately taste better.
- It's more environmental. Land that is properly cultivated and nourished is sustainable and environmental. Dumping pesticides and fertilizer into land is not good for the environment - we're trading shortterm gain for long-term unsustainability. Chemicals (eww!) increase initial bounty, but once you start, you need to use more and more of them since the land is not regenerating itself. It's a vicious cycle.
- It's an important cause. Local seasonal food grown responsibly (the way it should be) should be your right and the norm. But it's not - food in the US is dominated by industrial agriculture. By buying what's good for you, you are directly supporting local farmers that are doing the right thing and creating more demand for their products.
The Restaurant & The Meal
We eventually left the market, and walked up to Gramercy Tavern. On the way I learned that the restaurant buys four whole heritage pigs a week, and carves them up in-house. I had personally stopped eating meat after a trip to Tibet, where I saw how connected the people were to their food - in comparison I felt that the meat I ate was completely disconnected from the original animal. Not the case at Gramercy Tavern! They use the entire animal, and the parts that aren't used in specific cuts end up here:
We looked at the kitchen and prep areas, which I never expected to see at a top restaurant:
Then we sat down to an amazing meal in the private dining room. I have been off fancy restaurants for a while now, preferring neighborhood eateries instead. But this meal single-handedly brought me back around to the joys of fine dining. It's all about balance and mixing it up.
Michael identified the farms that each piece of food came from. Here's the menu (sorry, it has my notes on it). We didn't eat the whole menu - each person randomly got one plate from each section. Every single item was unbelievably delicious. I don't take pictures of my food in restaurants, but I knew I'd want to share it with you. CK, here you go:
This smoked trout was from Max Creek. It was ridiculously tender, and a lot like sashimi:
When the chicken came out, I heard several exclamations of "Oh my god, this is the best chicken I've EVER had!" It was from Four Story Hill Farms. I had the rack of pork from Ecofarms (first pork I've had in 20 years, but that's another post), and it was so delicious I finished it even though I was stuffed. I was the last person to finish, but I did it.
So remember when I said we ended up living Michael's vision of locally grown and sourced food? He believes it connects people and provides context. Well, at the start of the meal, we 20 strangers made stilted conversation and definitely didn't try each other's food. Then we started eating. By the second course, we were chatting animatedly, learning about each other, and sampling off each other's plates. I don't usually do that (I hardly hug my friends, for god's sake), but the food connected us. The moment was unreplicable, and it felt right.
Everyone left the restaurant happy and more educated. I saw Danny Meyer at work (owner of Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe and other restaurants), and he spoke about how he looked for hospitality in his employees since it was an unteachable quality. You have it or you don't. Michael embodies it. He donated his Saturday afternoon to teaching us, and he and Gramercy Tavern donated the food, service and wine so our tickets ended up going to CENYC's education programs. When would I ever be in the Gramercy Tavern private room otherwise? Michael has so much passion about food that the 3 hour event ended up being 4.5+ hours. (And that's without the lesson on how to use your market purchases.) You can't help but be inspired by such generosity.
What to do:
- Shop for whole, unprocessed foods. Learn more about how your food is grown, and buy from local, responsible growers if possible.
- Eat at restaurants that support responsible growers. Here's a NYC restaurant list.
Want to learn more? CENYC, ABC News on Chef Michael Anthony.
For more articles on real food, check out Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday!
For you foodies, here's one last picture - of dessert:
What I ate: green juice, 1 green tea, 2 hard boiled eggs, strawberries, brown rice, steamed broccoli + pepper + tofu + mushrooms + spinach, 1 apple, 1 mango, (party dinner): 3 baby crab cakes, 1 piece sushi, 1 smoked salmon on potato cake, 1 quiche, Mindful Mix, 1 hot chocolate, cherries
Exercise: ran 5 miles
