Digg this
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay says British restaurants should be fined if they serve fruit and vegetables which are not in season.
He told the BBC that fruit and vegetables should be locally-sourced and only on menus when in season.
Mr Ramsay said he had already spoken to Prime Minister Gordon Brown about outlawing out-of-season produce.
For serious foodies, this strikes a big nerve. The latest fashion among culinary snobs is the conceit of believing you’re a better person if everything you eat was grown less than 100 miles from your dinner table. (Tell that to the impoverished farmers in East Africa who depend on shipping veggies non grata to Europe. And the same goes for South Americans exporting produce to the United States.)
But back to my point. And I do have one. Provided nicely by The Independent today:
By making his comments, the chef, author and television presenter was laying down a marker of his personal food philosophy. But he also risked accusations of hypocrisy because he fails quite brazenly to practise what he preaches in his own restaurants, which serve food from thousands of miles away.
Yep. One eponymous Gordon Ramsay restaurant in New York City offers:
- roasted Scottish langoustines and manilla clams [from the U.S. West coast]
- Fillet of Wisconsin veal
- braised Kobe short rib [from Japan]
And Gordo’s UK restaurant at Claridge’s serves Pacific halibut. Got a map?
Yes, yes, I know — Ramsay is talking mostly about produce, not protein. Well, another of his NYC eateries is currently cooking with avocados, limes, cucumbers, artichokes, asparagus, English peas, green beans, white radishes, granny smith apples, beetroots, lettuce, golden raisins, cauliflower, pears, tomatoes, olives, chickpeas, fava beans, black barley, porcini mushrooms, morel mushrooms, baby shiitake mushrooms, onions, almonds, Swiss chard, and celery root.
I’d bet a year’s salary that at least some of these items aren’t in season within a day’s drive of New York City. I have no idea which ones. And you know what? I don’t care. I like being able to eat a diversity of stuff no matter what month it is. It doesn’t bother me that an airplane flies my broccoli in from somewhere else. That plane was probably carrying FedEx packages for someone else anyway.
