Sunday, February 8, 2015

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.