Monday, March 31, 2008

Philosophy Part I - Go to the Source, Learn It From the Bottom Up, Respect the Product

NOTE: IF YOU PASSED OUT IN 7TH GRADE BIOLOGY CLASS WHEN YOU HAD TO DISSECT A FROG OR YOU PREFER TO THINK THAT THE FOOD YOU BUY STARTED ITS LIFE IN A 'READY TO COOK' PLASTIC BAG....PLEASE SKIP THIS VIDEO.

OK, on to the good stuff. I've been getting quite a bit of new hits lately(thank you, Michael Ruhlman) and since folks all over the country are looking at the blog, I've started thinking what I could do to better get across the ideas and philosophy that we employ on a daily basis at the restaurant and entice folks to make the trip to little ol' Hanover. So, I decided to write a little bit about my philosophy regarding food. As you can see from previous posts, I really dig getting in touch with our farmers and their products. I think it is really important for folks to know as much about the food they are eating or in lieu of that go to restaurants that take special care to provide you with amazing foodstuffs that have amazing stories. A huge joy for me is crafting a dining experience that has soul, has a story and is entertaining. I have been very fortunate since I moved back to Hanover to enter into great relationships with farmers and artisans who are super willing to let me take part in whatever part of the process I want.(Special Teaser: Our milk-fed chickens should be finished soon and I'll be participating in the butchering with Beau. Awesome.) Well, the video below shows a great example of this 'go to the source, learn it from the bottom up, respect the product' part of our restaurant philosophy. Last summer, I was invited to the Sheppard's lake and Mr. Sheppard took me out turtling(is that a word? Def. The act of hunting for turtles..How about this.....turtlin') The first photo shows him demonstrating the proper baiting technique. The video below shows him patiently demonstrating how to clean the turtle. If you notice at the end of the video, he is already finished with his and it looks a lot cleaner than mine! I vow to get much better at the cleaning process if he'll have me back this summer! The turtles yield an amazingly sweet and delicate meat, which I made soup out of after we were finished cleaning. What an incredible experience!!! When you take so much time and pride in every step of the process your food will taste better and the experience of eating will mean more. So...'Go to the source, learn it from the bottom up, respect the product'



2 comments:

Jennifer said...

Congrats on getting a boost from Micheal Ruhlman! He seems super nice. Ummmm wow...that is some turtle.

Jim said...

That was the best turtle soup I've ever had. Think it might be on the new spring menu?