The Community of Food

Barton: The guiding hand of natural selection in our world is quite firmly holding a fork. How we eat largely describes how this world is used. Food nourishes a lot more than just our bodies. It creates community and brings us together and it certainly nourishes our soul and brings us health. Not only does food describe to a great extent, the biology of our existence here but through food we are able to write the biography of our existence.

Barton Seaver: So, the first thing we want to start off with is just basic stories of sort of restaurant madness. Now restaurants are a difficult business. Each and every single one of us in this industry have experienced our fair share of ridiculousness. What sort of stories would you like to share with us?

Jamie Leeds: Well, actually I, when I first opened Hank's Oyster Bar in Dupont, you know, I wanted to open a restaurant that was small enough where I could do pretty much everything myself. In our first couple of weeks being open, we were very busy and my manager quit, and two of my shuckers didn't show up for work on Saturday night. I have to cook the line, I have to expedite, I'm going to have to seat people, and I am going to have to shuck. And I am thinking 'what was I thinking?’ So, fortunately, a guy named Tony walked in the door, looking for a job. Not only was he looking for a job he could start that night and he was a shucker! So, It was like a dream come true. So, you know, from one extreme to the next, and that's how the restaurant business is for me.

Michael Curtin: I think what Jamie is saying is in that business, and I think you have to be, those of you out there that are in it, know that you have to be a little crazy to get in in the first place. Right? And you work really hard to be lucky. Like Jamie felt she was that night but she had worked really hard. But I think that is something that we all share. When I had worked for a dozen years to get to a point where I was going to open up my own restaurant and I thought this was the culmination of my career and this was, it was going to be easy from here on out. Right? I refer to my four plus years now owning and operating my own restaurant as my first experience in the non-profit sector. Before I got to the kitchen but, the thing that, the recurring thought that I had everyday when I woke up was 'whose job am I going to do today? Am I going to be waiting tables? am I going to be tending bar? am I going to be cooking?' But the beauty of it was, it was all about that creating that community and that service. And so whatever job you are doing had meaning and importance and, it brought something else to other people and I think that's a common theme that we'll probably talk about a lot tonight. But certainly, we use through food, in the power of community that it creates.

Rock Harper: I remember at B. Smith's one year, busiest weekend of the year is Mother's Day weekend with Mother's Day on Sunday, of course and all the graduations. My pastry chef, her daughter, her children worked there, her husband was the food runner, her daughter-in-law was, it was like seven of them that... were in my kitchen, out of 27 people. So, that's a significant amount. Saturday morning, busiest weekend of my life, that year, they weren't there. I found out that it was because their visas had expired and what we did, I spent a quite a bit of money and time at Costco that morning and that weekend. And, I got to tell you, they got some great chocolate cake and some nice rolls. I am telling you! It was a southern restaurant and so rolls, corn bread, huge for us and, I, you know, people didn't miss a beat! I mean all those people, they had no idea. We got compliments and we kept Costco until we replaced the sous chef but I mean, you know. We did, and I got to be honest with you, Costco doesn't, we'll talk about preservatives and sustainability and GMOs, but...

They do an excellent corn bread!

Everything, they do a great corn bread! I don't know what's in it. Sorry, Barton, sorry. I know that doesn't fit in with your whole shtick, but... I am sorry. I had to do what I had to do. It takes all kinds.

Five minutes in and we are already off the rails.

That really proved something to me and my cooks at work, the people that really hung in there with me. It was, you know, I slept there that night and I opened up the next. All three nights, I slept in my office. My wife was not happy. But I did it, and I was proud of myself. I am still. I love that... I love it because I know I can do it. And if another pastry chef decides she wants to you know, her visa expires, I can do it again.

Barton: And I had one time when I was running Hook, we were really known for serving a huge diversity of seafood. We had a lot of different fishermen that we just dealt with. And, if you catch it, we'll buy it, you know. That's great. We had more Audubon guides in my kitchen than we had cookbooks because every day I had to figure out just what the hell it was that I was serving. And, one day we had 600 reservations on the books, Thursday night, I mean, we were busy. I was already stressed out, the fish didn't come. So finally the box shows up and I call up my fish purveyor and I was like, 'Michael, what exactly did you send me?' My language was of course perfectly gentlemanly, proper and prim. And he said, ‘Well, you know, we had a bad day of fishing but, you know, I didn’t want to leave you in the lurch, so, we just sent you all the left over bait. I hope you can do something with it.’

Jamie: Oh my God! Oh my...

Pulled all my cooks off the line and hey! You know, flying fish! Why not, we can, we can work with this, you know, filleting fish is already an art form! Why not throw a winged bone structure to it. No problem! You know what I told my servers? I told them the absolute truth. I took that flying fish, filleted it up, little bit of tarragon, lemon zest, olive oil, rolled it up like rollmops, rosemary skewered it, two little things smoldered it over an orchard wood fire, 250 smoky, sexy, seductive degrees, put it over Vidalia onion and juniper broth into which was braised zucchini and summer squash, laid it there with a little bit of herb salad on top of it. I hope you all have had dinner already. We sold out of flying fish that night by seven o'clock. And to this day I still have people asking me 'Hey, when are you getting more flying fish?' I can't even get the fishermen to send it to us.

But the next topic that I sort of want to get on, because we are in the midst of celebrity here, is the rise of the celebrity food culture. And this has radically altered the shape and nature of our industry and I want to point out first off that Rock has really been one early adopters of this who has really been able to take advantage of it. But also then to talk about how this has changed our industry.

Rock: What it has done is given us a larger voice, so we have heroes that can work at Harvard. I mean that's pretty freaking cool. And talk about food and how it impacts the globe and how we can sort of take this thing back and really have some huge impact. And 15 years ago, you tell someone that you made something with cilantro, they were amazed. Now it’s just like, listen, I got an immersion circulator in my basement, buddy. When you come out to the table you better talk about to me some real food. People are more educated, they are informed, they are empowered. So, that's the one thing I appreciate and I am extremely grateful for, about the television aspect is that it has given us a voice. And now what we do with that voice once we get on the stage is totally up to us.

Michael: What's fascinating for us at the kitchen, is, I think, it’s very fair to say that the kitchen was really built on the back of hospitality industry, restaurants, in particular chefs. That's really how the whole thing started and if it wasn't for the incredible support of that community and the belief in what we were trying to create at that time, we would not be where we are now. And what's been incredibly rewarding for us is to see these chefs, as their celebrity has grown so too has their commitment to the community to really create good, to create change in the community in a way that I think benefits us all.

Barton: My interview process, you know, I'd ask potential cooks to cook something. Right? That's a pretty reasonable expectation. I was getting kids cooking deconstructed beef stew with sous vide beef with carrot foam and celery gelée and onions, a spectre of onions!

Jamie: Real food.

I was like 'What? What is this? Wait. Do you know how to construct beef stew?' Not that there is not value in that food but it’s sort of all based on foundation and I found that, that could be a detriment and sort of that willingness to step over some of the such fundamental processes of building beef stew before you learn how to deconstruct it. Along those same lines, chefs in the limelight really have the opportunity to create incredible influence. And I think the ultimate food hero, Alice Waters. 40 years ago, Alice Waters began to ask a simple question, what is the food that we are eating, and what is it doing to us? What is it doing to our community? And I think that's a question that has certainly influenced each and every person on this stage and I would love to ask each of you to speak to how she has influenced us and how you in your own way have sort of carried on that work.

Jamie: So, what I do is, I work very closely with my oyster farmers. We sell, we go through thousands and thousands of oysters a week and I offer six different kinds of oysters every night. We change them every night. So, I have a lot of different oyster farmers, there are a lot of local farmers, small farmers that farm just specifically for me. So, for me, she has influenced me in that way where I am really looking at the local product and trying to maintain a sustainable product and the fish, we try to always use local fish as much as we can. Abide by the Monterey Bay seafood Aquarium guidelines for sustainable fish, which I think is very important.

Rock: At one point in my career it was just like, listen, people want steak, they want steak, they want beef, they want chicken, they don't care where it’s coming from. I don't want to hear that. Then, I am like, 'whoa, Monsanto is nuts.' I am not serving any of that and I have done a lot of stuff with the, Pew Charitable Trust, antibiotic free and organic and so I teetered. And now, right now, where I am now, I was speaking about buying organic. I was in a greater Southeast Hospital and speaking to people that you know, food stamps are being cut and talking about health week, I was promoting my book, and talking about healthy cooking for kids. They bought a bunch of my books and I went to, because I was out of butternut squash, I went to the 'yes organic' or one of the organic, right on Pennsylvania Avenue, east of the river and butternut squash was like $8 for four ounces. And I went back to this demo and I'm just like, 'you know what, you know, ok, we got to relax for a moment here.' Local, local, local, it’s great, awesome, but we can have strawberries, California strawberries because of advances in transportation and refrigeration and things of that nature and it’s not a horrible thing. I know it can you know, carbon footprint, I get all of that jazz. But we have made probably scientists are like hey, you know, we changed the world. So I'm sort of, we have to do it responsibly. And I know I'm, you know, you're probably like, Barton's over there like, 'I am going to beat this guy up when we get back to the green room But I think that, I am saying, you know, I feel like we got to feed a bunch of people. And Americans, or people in general need to eat, like to eat at the kitchen. Being the director of the kitchen operations for a little bit am I going to say, you know, 'no thank you' to 5000 pounds of ground beef from a beef grower in Texas that had an overrun? No. Because we got 5000 people to feed. I wish I could serve organic beef and chicken all the time but you all aren't paying $42 for a chicken sandwich at my restaurant.

Michael: So, I think Rock is right that it it’s all about balance. We started a couple of years ago a program where we're putting local, alright not local but fresh fruits and vegetables, whole vegetables, value-added cut products into corner stores in the city's food deserts. We are servicing 64 corner stores now mostly in wards seven and eight east of the river. And sales are increasing every month in these stores, where people thought that would not happen. You know, people would say, 'those people won't buy fresh fruits and vegetables'. Well, if they are not on the shelves, they will be right 100 percent of the time. No one will buy that no one will buy what's not there. And I was so excited to tell Alice about this when I saw her last January. I just thought she would be thrilled that this was happening. And without missing a beat she turns around and says, 'And now we have to make it all organic.' You are killing me! It’s that, that is It's an admirable goal to be, to go towards but a lot of what we're buying locally isn't organic. And we certainly want to create opportunities not only here in the urban community but extend that to the rural communities that we are supporting through this local purchasing program. So, again I think its balance and really figuring out your impact in the community.

Barton: When I was just starting off I was, you know, passionate young man, I loved food, I was travelling all over the world and you know, just loved food. I mean, it was fun. And then I was presented the opportunity to take-- go run Café Saint-Ex over on 14th street. So, I got on the phone, 'send me striped bass, send me blue fish, I want oysters, I want blue crab, woo-hoo! This is going to be fabulous and the guy on the other line said, 'Kid, what are you talking about? We ate all those. What else do you want?' I realized right then and there the guiding hand of natural selection in our world is quite firmly holding a fork. And the way that we eat largely describes how this world is used. And so I set off in my career to really think about how I as a chef, as an individual buying one case of organic chicken, buying one fish that was new and different and interesting, that flying fish whatever it was, how we could have an impact on our community. How I could have an impact directly on the oceans. But also just in terms of revitalization of neighborhoods. We are not just talking about the environments that sustains us, but also the neighborhoods in which we live. The neighborhoods that sustain us. You know this really is almost the redemption of neighborhoods. I am sure there's issues with gentrification and other political issues as well but there's really a huge opportunity here and that's what I want to close on.

When I was First Chef at Café Saint-Ex, a man named Robert Egger walked into my restaurant, introduced himself. And he said, 'Hey! We are neighbors. And wanted to meet you.' He was the founder of DC Central Kitchen. In the course of 20 minutes he convinced me that a chef is more than just the sum of the ingredients that he or she puts on the table. That a chef can be more, the chef can be part of a community. A chef can be uplifting, revitalizing and can bring opportunity to those people everywhere around us, not just those we serve. And that's what got me introduced to DC Central Kitchen.

I've went as far as taking everything from my family. I've held people up at gun point. But you know, I had decided in my life that I didn't want to live like that anymore. I was just tired. 44 years old, I had been doing drugs for 32 years, I smoked crack for 23. I've had two heart attacks. I just decided that, you know, enough was enough. In other words this is like a second chance for me to get my life back and I will do so. First day of every class, you look out at the men and women who are coming in. And they can look as hard as nails. You know, but it's just a mask, they're terrified of what's ahead. Hey, welcome everybody this is going to be the 21st anniversary of the kitchen this week. So much of what we do in America in charity is about the redemption of the giver not the liberation of the receiver. We wanted to turn it around so that everybody got liberated. And that's what the kitchen is about every day. Everybody who comes in here gets served. Everybody! Woman: This is the first time in my life that I actually came and done something with myself. I am a changed person. And this little bit of time, my family they love me. But they welcome me now! And all blessings are coming to me that I cannot believe: People, places, things for me, for me.

Barton: So with that I would like Michael to talk about what DC Central Kitchen is and some of the opportunities it presents.

Michael: Well, thank you Barton, again for allowing the kitchen to be part of this. I think we are so incredibly blessed again to be part of this community. We are serving close to 12,000 meals a day, in this city. But we could be serving 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 thousand meals a day. And people will still be hungry tomorrow. What the kitchen is about and what we are using food as a catalyst for is to create opportunity. To put people in a place to break this incredibly destructive generational cycle of violence, addiction, incarceration, hunger, homelessness, and ultimately poverty. And we just started our 98th culinary job training class. Since the recession hit in 2008, we've graduated over 600 men and women, formally unemployed and homeless who are now employed in the city's restaurants, hotels, catering operations, institutional food systems. You go to the museum downtown, you are going to see one of our graduates. We have graduates working at the NIH, in law firms around town, in schools. Now, they are part of this community in a very powerful and economic way. Many of these men and women that you saw in that video cost this city millions and millions of dollars in incarceration costs, halfway house visits stays, shelter stays and what we are trying to show is that with just a small investment, not charity, investment in this community using food as that tool we can create economic opportunity and economic growth and inclusion, inclusion for a vast majority of the men and women that want to be part of this community.

Barton: It costs $44,000 a year to incarcerate someone in DC. It costs $12,000 to train them once. At which point they become contributing members of the tax-base. They will take themselves out of the welfare net of the city and actually begin to contribute to it. For a $12,000 investment, you get all of that, in return. And that's the redemption story but there's also the opportunity to prevent that and that's what Central Kitchen has really moved on to and that's what this video is about here.

Good morning. Welcome to Shenandoah Valley produce auction. Good morning gentlemen, how's everybody? Good! I never thought in my wildest dreams that I'd be doing what I am doing right now. Transformation from destroying lives to helping lives. In 2007, I was on the streets, selling drugs. Two of my friends had just got killed and I escaped death. So I wanted another chance at life. I seeked help with DC Central Kitchen. I graduated from their Culinary Art program. I'm here now at a school called Washington Jesuit Academy. I am the sous-chef, making beautiful meals for kids. This is something that I always wanted to do, work with kids. The auction this year has roughly 450 registered growers and on the buyer side we're probably up in the eight hundreds. DC Central Kitchen is very important to the auction here because they are one of our largest purchasers. I believe in what we do because it's just providing a good product, that's healthful and fresh, it's not harvested too far ahead of time We feel very grateful that DC Central Kitchen wants to be a part of the produce auction and buy the fresh local produce from us. If we can change somebody's life in the city, we are pleased to be a part of that. Look at what we do. We feed kids healthy meals everyday. 3500 DC public school kids. Some of these kids, man, when they go home, they're not getting meals. At least they know when they come to school they're going to receive a good meal. Food here is always healthy and is always good. I always have a salad, vegetables. I always have something like calcium, protein. How do you feel about it, Cameron? I feel great. I love the fruit, because every time we get a fruit with every meal. Mmm, I love my apple! I like to have a good meal before I go to class, so I can be on task, I can be ready to start my day. How do you like the vegetables and the fruit? the collard greens are a little spicy and the pear's good. Their food is good, right? My, man. What's going on, Slim? DC Central Kitchen has changed my life and in the process I am changing these kids’ lives. My name is Howard Thomas and I am a graduate of DC Central Kitchen. My name is Dennis Showalter and I am the manager here at the auction. But only a small part of the picture. DC Central Kitchen is... Is the bomb! It is though. DC Central Kitchen is the bomb.

Barton: In restaurants, food preparation is... it's an honorable pursuit. It's a pursuit... It's a human pursuit. Not only does food describe to a great extent the biology of our existence here but through food we are able to write the biography of our existence, here as individuals and as a community. It's an honor to serve you in restaurants. It's an honor to create community through restaurants. And especially it's been an honor to share an evening with you here tonight. So thank you all very much. Appreciate it.