Q&A: chef and farm-to-table advocate Dan Barbere

Dan Barber is the award-winning chef of Blue Hill, a restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, located within the nonprofit farm and education center Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in upstate New York.

Chef Barber, the author of The Third Plate (Penguin Press, $18) is an innovative and recognized leader in food and agriculture policy. I had the opportunity to do an email interview with him and learn more about some of his thoughts and philosophy on food, farm-to-table restaurants, and being a chef.

Diet Detective: I would love to know how you became interested in food.

Dan Barber: I grew up in New York City but spent my summers haying the fields at Blue Hill, my grandmother’s farm in the Berkshires. She had a sense of responsibility about preserving the landscape, and I think that eventually translated into my feelings about food, which are to some extent that there is a responsibility attached to the way we eat or the place that we eat.

D D: Can you explain the connection between Blue Hill (your restaurant) and Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture?

Barber: Our restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns is the for-profit partner (and tenant) of Stone Barns Center, an 80-acre nonprofit farm and education center. It’s a very special place, located on what used to be the Rockefeller family’s dairy back in the 1930s, but the goal is to provide a model that can be replicated anywhere.

Can we connect people to where their food comes from? Can we encourage more of a dialogue between chefs, eaters and farmers, where we can influence one another’s decisions in the field and the kitchen to maximize health, economy and flavor?

D D: In terms of farm-to-table, eating locally, you’ve said the following in The New York Times: “More than a decade into the movement, the promise has fallen short. For all its successes, farm-to-table has not, in any fundamental way, reworked the economic and political forces that dictate how our food is grown and raised.” Can you briefly explain? That was from 2014 — is it getting any better?

Barber: To say that I’m a card-carrying member of farm-to-table is an understatement; I own a restaurant in the middle of a farm. So my goal is not to discredit the farm-to-table movement, but I do think we need to do more as cooks and eaters to move it forward and create a culture around the right kind of farming. In other words, how can we adapt our diets to meet the needs of nature?

That’s going to involve some radical changes in how we eat, including moving away from the protein-centric plate of food and instead allowing grains, legumes and vegetables to take center stage. But I think we’re moving in the right direction, especially now that more chefs are celebrating those ingredients on their menus.

D D: In your 2014 book, The Third Plate, you talk about wheat being something of a main character — can you explain?

Barber: It seems to me that we don’t talk enough about wheat. Worldwide, it covers more acreage than any other crop, and it occupies an enormous part of our diets as well. But it doesn’t seem to capture our attention in the same way as, say, an heirloom tomato. As I started researching wheat for the book, I realized something else, which is that wheat is really at the heart of Western civilization.

Communities came together around these networks of farmers, millers, maltsters, bakers, and cooks. We’re suddenly seeing a revitalization of those connections, and it reminds us that the story of wheat is the story of who we are.

D D: We like to think that organic farms are being run by caring, environmentally conscientious farmers — is that really the case?

Barber: Of course, there are many trustworthy, caring, environmentally conscientious farmers out there, but we can’t rely on labels to define them. As consumers, we need to start asking questions about the way our food is grown that go beyond just where it comes from or whether or not chemicals were used.

How is the long-term health of the soil managed? What kind of diversity is there on the farm — not just specific varieties, but what rotations of vegetables, legumes, grains and livestock? Those kinds of questions usually lead to a much better understanding of a farmer’s practices, and of how the food will taste.

D D: What are some of the food, farm and food security issues that will be changed, solved, or made worse over the next 10 years?

Barber: The conversation around food waste is one that will continue to grow. Problems of this scope often feel insurmountable, but this is a case where consumers have enormous potential to make change. (After all, the average American family throws out about a quarter of the food they buy.) And the solution will invariably take the shape of more delicious food.

If we do our jobs right as food advocates and consumers, in 50 years many of the items that we now discard as “waste” will be expected parts of our everyday eating.

D D: What’s the one kitchen utensil or tool you can’t live without?

Barber: A spoon. I use the same kind of spoon for everything: flipping ingredients in the pan, tasting a sauce or plating a dish.

D D: What do you consider the world’s most perfect food?

Barber: Pasta and tomato sauce in the middle of August.

D D: Breakfast this morning?

Barber: Iced coffee and a White Moustache yogurt

D D: Your last meal would be?

Barber: Whole wheat bread, butter and a strong beer.

D D: Your worst summer job?

Barber: A particularly punishing culinary internship in Provence — which on the surface doesn’t sound that punishing, I know.

Charles Platkin is a nutrition and public health advocate and founder of DietDetective.com.

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 11:46 AM with the headline "Q&A: chef and farm-to-table advocate Dan Barbere."