Michael Ruhlman just made his BLT From Scratch Challenge Official, and I’m loving the idea. Only the super ambitious need apply.
Here’s the basic concept. Plant some tomatoes, lettuce, and even buy yourself a chicken so you can use it’s eggs to make the mayonnaise. Take a photo and submit it to Ruhlman’s Blog.
This challenge, although lots of fun, is important on a much grander level. What could be more simple than a BLT? But looking at it from the standpoint of growing everything from scratch, curing your own pork belly into bacon, and baking your own bread will cause one to pause and ponder: how much work really goes into the simple foods we consume on a daily basis?
Its amazing how things come full circle. Just a century ago people ate locally and sustainably because they had no choice; it wasn’t a political cause, and Chef’s didn’t become famous for serving local produce. If it hit the dinner table, chances are the food was grown and raised near by because there was no choice in the matter.
And while Chefs in developed nations now toot the horn of “local organic,” people in undeveloped nations are sure to ask “so what’s the big the deal?” Like us 100 years ago, they’re forced to cook and consume local produce and meat because they have no other choice. And then we wonder why ethnic cuisines, as simple as they may be, are so damn tasty.
So take a moment today to ponder on what exactly goes into the simple food you eat on a daily basis. The peperoni pizza that you had the other night; where’d the cheese come from, the tomatoes for the sauce, and the flour for the crust?
Now I must admit that I don’t use this platform for what has become a political cause for local, sustainable agriculture, but as a chef, when at all possible, I source products as locally as possible.
Is it so I can sleep better at night? Not really, my fitfull dreams of Mr. Murphey running a muck in my kitchen insures that sleep doesn’t come easily. I try my best to source locally because it simply tastes better.
The fact is, you’ve never tasted a better tomato then the one from your back yard. Sure the hard work has something to do with it, but truly vine ripe tomatoes are something of an enigma now days since most are picked and shipped green, gassed with ethylene to force ripening, and pawned off as a ripe tomato.
Now I know that we have quite a few ambitious cooks who are a part of the FCS community, so I say to you: pick up the gauntlet that Ruhlman has thrown down and run with it. Make us proud. Start a thread about it on the forum, and I’ll help anyway that I can, whether it be directions on how to cure pork belly, or a great bread recipe for your roll.
