Dan Barber: good flavor from good soil

I just love reading and hearing what’s on the mind of chef Dan Barber. One of these days I hope I get to eat at his New York restaurant. His article in the July/August 2012 Wall Street Journal magazine is a worthy read. Two excerpts below:

“. . . truly great-tasting food — that impossibly sweet tomato, the deeply flavored leg of lamb — by definition has the right environment behind it. A delicious tomato does not originate from degraded soil. Nutrient density goes hand in hand with flavor.   And generally, the food with the most flavor comes from farmers who are local or regional, or integral to a community. You can’t treat farming like a car-manufacturing plant and expect that it will produce anything great to eat.”

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“. . . true sustainability is about more than just deciding to cook with local ingredients or not allowing your child to have corn syrup. It’s about cuisine that’s evolved out of what the land is telling you it wants to grow.”

To read the whole thing: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304765304577482560684797868.html?mod=WSJ_Food_LeadStory