{"id":17091,"date":"2010-11-03T10:20:40","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T14:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/?p=17091"},"modified":"2019-06-25T07:35:21","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T11:35:21","slug":"how-to-eat-sustainably","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/17091\/how-to-eat-sustainably\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Learned from Dan Barber and Tom Colicchio About How to Eat Sustainably"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have never thought of myself as a foodie. Yet for the past 170 days, my life has revolved around eatables in a big way. It began with a charity event I launched called Feed Your Soul, for which 10 eco-friendly restaurants in New York City united on a Sunday to donate 10% of their proceeds to the Food Bank For NY. Soon the matter turned to what to serve foodie guests at my summer wedding. Then at Keens Steakhouse, under a ceiling of very old pipes during the NYC Wine & Food Festival’s event entitled, \u201cHas the Word \u2018Local\u2019 Lost All Meaning?\u201d Dan Barber made eye contact with me and declared, \u201cFoodies will rule the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

The Side Dish
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Three Food Books
\nby New Yorkers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for a mouth-watering read, one that\u2019ll turn your taste buds on, educate you, and get you pumped to help the planet from your kitchen (and especially if you’re thinking Amanda Hesser\u2019s new 900-paged New York Times Cookbook<\/em> is a tad intimidating and\/or too big to fit in your apartment) consider these three deliciously good books below.<\/p>\n

\"food

You will find yourself exploring Brooklyn a lot more than you ever imagined. From tips on local cook-offs and culinary landmarks to sustainable hot spots and restaurant recipes like One Girl Cookies’<\/a> Fresh Apricot Cake, Sherri Eisenberg packs a satisfying punch into 284 pages. We thank her for reviewing 15-30 places in a weekend in order to bring us the best of Brooklyn throughout 17 delectably diverse neighborhoods. ($14.95)<\/p>\n

\"Diet

This is the smartest food book out there at the moment for its ability to elucidate and tackle the oft-muddled or forgotten connection between food and climate change. Lapp\u00e9 lays out seven principles for a planet-friendly diet and instills a sense of fervency about fighting the good food fight before it\u2019s too late. ($24.00)<\/p>\n

\"Sarabeth's

Don’t spend $1,295 on the CIA’s Dessert Boot Camp, and buy Sarabeth’s Bakery book instead. Between the big glossy photos of Hazelnut-Espresso Roulade, Current Scones, and Raspberry Bread Pudding and the James Beard award-winning chef’s easy-to-follow recipes, you will quickly feel inspired to do things like drizzle Frangelico liqueur and create rosettes on a cake topped with eatable flowers. Don’t forget to turn to Chapter 10: Spreadable Fruits. ($39.95)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So now I want to think of myself as a foodie. Only I don\u2019t devour a dish in a restaurant like a judge critiquing flavor, texture, and artistic execution. I stare at the food in the plate and wonder if the ingredients are all from a virtuous source.<\/p>\n

\"Stone

“When you buy from a company that\u2019s not multi-national, that\u2019s how I define local,\u201d said Tom Colicchio at the festival panel discussion in October. Patrick Martins, a panelist and founder of Slow Food USA sat taller on the stool and said, “We need state-wide projects that pay farmers more so we don\u2019t continue to lose farms. There were once 400 farms upstate. Now there are 20.”<\/p>\n

A quiet room got even quieter that afternoon. Okay, so what does this all mean, I thought to myself. How can this gathering of gourmands insert the kind of significant change into their hectic, Foursquaring lives that can proliferate and permanently effect the way we all view food in terms of “How can dinner for my family tonight help mitigate carbon emissions?” Then Dan Barber spoke up, as if reading my mind and perhaps the minds of those in the audience. “Yes, you can feed the world this way. Local isn\u2019t dying. . .there is a lasting weight and purity to the word local. It\u2019s just beginning.”<\/p>\n

8 Easy Ways <\/strong>to Eat Sustainably
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\n

1. <\/strong> Shop at the greenmarkets as much as possible. (There are over 50 locations in NYC<\/a>; the Union Square greenmarket operates year-round)<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong> Buy only<\/span> what foods are in season. (Tom: “Don’t create a demand for strawberries in winter!”)<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Eschew processed foods. (Tom: “Wage war with the supermarket.”)<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> Eat what has been produced within 100 miles of where you live or vacation. (Dan: “You\u2019re in pursuit of flavor. Go directly to the source.”)<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> Take yourself and your children to be educated at a nearby farm, be it Stone Barns Center<\/a>, Queens County Farm<\/a> or another.<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> Support environmentally-conscious restaurants<\/a>, and subsequently the farms they work with.<\/p>\n

7. <\/strong> The ultimate sustainable experience: Attend a farm-to-table feast in the middle of a farm. Good sources: Outstanding in the Field<\/a> or Sustenance on the Farm<\/a><\/p>\n

8.<\/strong> Find sustainable reminders: Pick up a copy of Edible<\/em> magazine and read it, cover to cover.<\/p>\n

(9<\/strong>. Repeat steps 1-8 and tell a friend to do the same.)<\/p>\n

How to get to <\/strong><\/em>Dan Barber’s Blue Hill Restaurant at the Stone Barns Center<\/strong><\/em>:<\/strong> T<\/em>ake the Metro North Hudson line to Tarrytown. For scheduling and train information, visit mta.info<\/a>.\u00a0Taxis should be available at the station, which is a quick ride away from the center. <\/em>(Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, 630 Bedford Road, Pocantico Hills, Westchester, NY, 914.366.620, stonebarnscenter.org<\/a>) <\/em><\/p>\n

How to get to Tom Colicchio’s restaurant Riverpark<\/strong>: <\/em><\/em>Take the 4 or 6 subway to 28th St. and walk east towards the water. <\/em><\/em>The menu is highlighted by<\/em><\/em> seasonal farmers market ingredients<\/em>, and will soon have an accompanying rooftop vegetable garden and educational food center. <\/em><\/em>(<\/em><\/em>450 E 29th St. New York, NY, 212.729.9790, riverparknyc.com)<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo: Stone Barns Center For Food & Agriculture
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have never thought of myself as a foodie. Yet for the past 170 days, my life has revolved around eatables in a big way. It began with a charity event I launched called Feed Your Soul, for which 10 eco-friendly restaurants in New York City united on a Sunday to donate 10% of their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[314,325,271],"tags":[509,233,2081,306,524,125,299,421],"class_list":{"0":"post-17091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dining-nightlife","8":"category-new-york","9":"category-news","10":"tag-agriculture","11":"tag-books","12":"tag-earth-day-2018","13":"tag-farm","14":"tag-farm-to-table","15":"tag-food","16":"tag-locally-sourced","17":"tag-sustainable"},"acf":[],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":60146,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Eating-Locally-e1523068551800-350x197.jpeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}