Food for farmed fish---food for
thought!
Five years ago, when I first
conceived the idea behind the food that we serve at Beyond the Bull, I had no
idea how hard it would be to find the ingredients to use in preparation. For those of you who are new to Beyond the
Bull, our menu consists of real food, menu items such as braised free range North
Carolina bison, wild caught North Atlantic sea scallops, and hunted Texas wild
boar with sides, salsas and dipping sauces like roasted sweet potatoes, ratatouille,
Brussels sprouts and rapini, chimichurri, cucumber yogurt, salsa verde and
blueberry ginger sauce. It seemed to me
at the time that it should be an easy task to source ingredients that were
fresh and natural, avoiding artificial ingredients, grains and sugar. After all, shouldn’t those ingredients be
more available and cost less since they would not have the added costs or time
to reach the market associated with processing, enriching and manipulation by
humans? But, that is not the case.
In preparation of reopening at our
new location at the end of March, sourcing fresh, natural (and as local as
possible) ingredients has been one of my top priorities, from center of the
plate proteins to produce, it is becoming a challenge to find real,
unadulterated food, to be ordered and delivered consistently for preparation
for service at Beyond the Bull.
Local first
Although it should be our goal as
humans to eat only food that is locally produced, that goal is not attainable, at
least not in the commercial food service industry. In order for that to happen, all restaurants
would have to be what has come to be known as farm or fork to table. That means no standardized menus, what is
available, is what you get---no more Chipotles in Maine, no more Red Lobster in
South Carolina (which might not be a bad thing).
Since Beyond the Bull does have a
standardized menu, which is what most Americans want, it has been a challenge
to find local suppliers of protein or produce who have an efficient customer order
system, consistent delivery and pricing.
Consistent quality of local ingredients has never been an issue, but a
busy executive chef with a food budget must be able to place an order through a
text, online ordering system or by email, and receive the goods as promised, on
time and at the agreed on price. This is
the final barrier that once removed will allow local producers to compete.
Truth in labels
Where the food comes from and how it
is produced is on the label, right?
No. Even the most recognizable
purveyors of food, the well known broadliners, have misleading, incorrect and
missing labels on the food they deliver.
Venison on the label could mean elk or deer. Origin can mean where it is processed and not
raised or where it is raised and not processed such as chicken that is raised
in America, sent to China for processing and returned to the U.S. market for
consumption---or maybe not!
Market price and availability
The price of real food is higher
than that of processed food and there is less of it available. Why? The
profitability on processed food is higher, the cost is lower. Producers want to sell more processed foods
for bigger profits. More Americans
choose the cheaper form of processed food over the more expensive form which
means demand is higher for the processed food.
Since there is less demand for real food, consumers have to pay more and the supply is
limited. For example, as a restaurateur,
frozen winter squash is cheaper than fresh squash, and it is available
year round. But, frozen squash is
processed with additives, therefore, it can’t be sourced as an ingredient for
use on the menu of Beyond the Bull.
Animal proteins
Sourcing animal protein has been the
most difficult task of all. Americans
like meat and fish. In order for a restaurant
to succeed as a business, meat and fish must be included on the menu. The menu at Beyond the Bull excludes beef and
pork (the least expensive) as center of the plate protein for many reasons, one
of them being animal feed. So what does
that leave? It leaves any animal that is
fed its natural diet or is allowed to roam free---bison, grass fed
lamb, wild caught fish, cultured (in open water) shellfish and wild harvested shellfish, rabbit,
duck and quail if fed a natural diet.
You will notice that farmed fish is excluded. In my opinion, farmed fish is one of the
biggest hoaxes played on the American public and a precursor to the eventual extinction
of wild fish of any kind. Trout, salmon,
perch, tilapia, tuna, and sturgeon---all living in pens, no longer feeding, now
being fed. Fed what? They are being fed anything from animal waste
to commercial feed that includes wheat, soy, corn, and chicken by-products. They are fed meal made from smaller fish
which is depleting the ocean of herring, anchovies and the like and often need
antibiotics to rid them of disease.
You can find hundreds of articles
online that document the diseases, parasites, escapes, reduced nutritional value,
toxicity, negative impact on wild fish habitats and even suffering of farm
raised fish. But that is not what this
blog is about. Beyond the Bull has
chosen to exclude farmed fish from the menu for two reasons: First, we don’t consider farmed fish to be a
natural food if it is being raised on fish feed unless the feed consists of the
ingredients in their natural diet, which it does not.
And second, I recently tried a sample of farmed
Atlantic sturgeon to find out why one of the marketing talking points for this
farmed fish is that it is the “pork” of the sea. Well, now I know. It cooks like pork, looks like pork, smells
like pork, has the texture of pork and is tasteless like pork. You are what you eat. I think we will stick to wild caught until
there is no more!
Buon Appetito e Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB
P.S. We will be announcing the location and opening date of Beyond the Bull---Tableside soon, I promise.
The development of Beyond
the Bull, an eat smart kitchen,
took years of preparation that included a long and very detailed business plan. As part of the marketing plan to
differentiate the Bull from other
restaurants, I decided to market it as
an eat smart kitchen, a kitchen that
produced food which promotes wellness.
To me, that is eating smart.
Consequently, the kitchen at the Bull
does not look like most restaurant kitchens.
There is limited shelving for canned goods, boxes or bottles, little freezer
space for frozen foods, no storage for sugar or flour and no deep fryer or
microwave. As an eat smart kitchen, the Bull eliminates
refined grains, added sugar and bad fats, the three most harmful ingredients in
the American diet. As an eat smart kitchen, we choose our proteins from those that are hunted, harvested, caught or farmed (if fed their natural diet, not pellets of soy, corn and chicken by-products). As an
Homerus Americanus, popularly known as the Maine
“lobstuh”. Other themed dinners planned for
later this year will include an homage to the BBC Two Fat Ladies, as well as a collaboration with local farms, the
best of the best. 
