The
sixties saw the rise of the farm-to-fork movement when Americans shelved canned
goods and embraced locally sourced produce. Famous chefs like Alain Chapel and
Michel Guérard led the revolution, but Alain
Ducasse is said to have invented farm-to-table even before it became popular.
While most restaurants saw veggies as a side dish, the menu at Le Louis XV
featured fresh pea soup, eggplants and artichokes back in 1987. Together, they
took over the age of Nouvelle Cuisine — a
French approach to food presentation characterized by lighter, more
delicate dishes that promised to keep their natural flavors intact.
The
first official farm-to-fork restaurant was set up in 1971 by Alice Louis
Waters. To move away from frozen foods and use more native ingredients, she
started Chez Panisse in the heart of Berkeley, California. After promoting
regional produce for years, she finally succeeded in teaching chefs the
importance of seasonality and cooking with locally available goods
rather than imported substitutes.
Vegetarian cuisine was always a hit in India! Yet
only a few fine-dining restaurants serve fresh farm-to-table dishes. ‘Farmlore’ by Mythrayie Iyer, in the outskirts
of Bengaluru, is such a space and caters to only ten covers per meal. Last
year, I was lucky enough to reserve a table at Farmlore and went home with one
of the most wholesome meals I’ve
ever eaten.
While
farm-to-fork doesn’t
always imply plant-based food, it certainly revolutionized the vegan dining scene.
‘Tendril,’ a “mostly” vegan kitchen run by Chef Rishim Sachdeva in London,
offers clean, innovative, yet familiar food. Its dynamic menus allow him
to get creative with recipes and add a twist to traditional dishes. What
started as a pop-up meal subscription during the pandemic garnered enough
crowdfunding to become a restaurant. Here you’ll find “Jerusalem
artichoke served on a cracker, topped with chives and wakame” and “shakshuka with black bean fritters and a side of fregola
tabbouleh.”
Another
famous eatery in Europe is the Michelin-star Restaurant de Kas. Built at the
center of an Amsterdam conservatory, it’s
one with nature and offers an immersive experience to all its customers. Chefs
pick their produce right before preparation to keep it as fresh as possible --
a feat many cannot claim to achieve.
So,
what’s
the way forward? As we move towards holistic cooking and eating, we
must understand that change only comes from increasing awareness of food and
its origins. At École
Ducasse India, we learn about much more than simple, sustainable cuisines. On
the experiential farm at Karma Lakelands, we learn to grow, harvest and cook
with organic produce, treat the soil and respect the Earth in every way
possible!
By
Raagini Poddar,
B.A.
(Hons.) in Culinary Arts, 2nd year