农业+生活方式

与名厨凯文·吉莱斯皮的农场谈话

发布于2018年3月30日12:00 AM

也许你在电视节目《十大老品牌网赌网址大全》中听说过凯文·吉莱斯皮的名字.” Or perhaps you’ve eaten at one of his two Atlanta restaurants, Gunshow and Revival. 如果你没听说过他, here’s your chance to get to know this engaging Georgia chef who’s making headlines and garnering national attention for his unique and fresh take on farm-raised, 工匠的食物.

凯文·吉莱斯皮(Kevin Gillespie)在亚特兰大南部的洛斯特格罗夫(Locust Grove)长大. 他在亚特兰大艺术学院开始他的烹饪教育, 然后在亚特兰大的餐馆工作, 波特兰也是如此, 俄勒冈州. It was during his time at Woodfire Grill in Atlanta that his career truly began to take off. 从那时起, 他入选了福布斯“30位30岁以下”榜单, and has been a James Beard Award “Rising Star Chef of the Year” semifinalist more than once.

在他的荣誉中, 吉莱斯皮一直忠于他在乔治亚州的根, and has developed a passion and notoriety for promoting farm-raised food and locally-sourced ingredients. 我们和吉莱斯皮聊了聊他的职业生涯, 农业的重要性以及佐治亚美食的独特之处.

你为什么选择在乔治亚州开始你的职业生涯?

我在亨利县的洛斯特格罗夫长大，那里现在是亚特兰大的郊区. 当我还是个孩子的时候，绝对不是. 那是一片开阔的田野，在一个偏僻的地方. 小时候, 我想更多地参与行动, 所以当我18岁的时候, I moved into Atlanta and worked there in the beginning of my career but I felt like I needed to see something else.

我的导师建议，作为一名厨师，最好的做法就是彻底放弃, 去别的地方看看和这里不一样的美食, 通过置身于环境中来学习. 所以，我搬到了俄勒冈州. 在外面待了这么多年, I found that the food I was starting to prepare had a lot of elements of the South in it, 这并没有引起人们的共鸣.

这是在南方食品大流行之前, 人们并不真正了解其中的成分, 他们并不真正理解烹饪的方法, and so I knew that the time had come for me to come back to Atlanta and try my hand at doing my own thing there. 这是我做过的最好的决定之一. 

你和农业的关系是什么?

It’s interesting because I married a woman (Valerie) whose brother and father and grandfather and whole family have always been farmers and they still farm. 他们位于密苏里州，种植玉米、大豆和小麦等作物. I’ve learned the realities of what it’s like to grow these things in massive amounts.

我生长在一个自己种菜养家糊口的家庭. 我们有100英亩土地, 基本上是一个足球场大小的花园, 我父母和叔叔阿姨们都留着, 照料和使用. 我们都住在同一条街上. So, 我从两个不同的角度来看待它:很小, 几乎精品花园, 一直到现实生活的现实, 商业化的农业. 

厨师在当地食品经济中扮演什么角色?

厨师的角色非常重要. One of the first things that people often don’t recognize is that many of the trends – from what is purchased at a grocery store or at a farmers’ market to what the consumer demands – begin their life inside restaurants. The trend for everybody wanting kale started in a restaurant; it’s not just pulled out of thin air.

Therefore, chefs have a really big piece in that puzzle of, what are people wanting to eat? 他们在寻找什么? Chefs have a responsibility to provide to their guests something that they know is available locally, 这是当季的, 这是他们可能得到的最好的版本. 我想说，这是一种相互让步的关系. 

It’s important to do your due diligence as a chef by building relationships with the places that you’re getting your food from. 理想情况下，我们喜欢直接从农场购买. 我们希望这成为可能，但这也非常困难. There are a lot of elements that go from crop in the ground to being a sellable commodity. We’ve been fortunate in Atlanta that we have folks who specialize in filling that void, who go around and pick up stuff from the local farmers and allow us to have availability of things that are hyper local and hyper seasonal.

直接从农场购买有什么好处?

直接购买对双方都有很多好处. 显然，这其中有经济因素. 从理论上讲，它可以节省我们的钱. 当付诸实践时, I don’t know if that’s actually the case because we always go for the best we can possibly get, 所以我们真的把钱的部分从等式中去掉了一点. 但我们真正关心的部分, 从经济角度来看, 我们是在把钱直接投入到本地经济中吗. 所以与其把钱寄到远方, 也许不知道它会发生什么, 我喜欢从别人那里买东西的想法.

我也想到了另一方面, 为了农场, is that being able to see directly what is wanted by the people who are going to use their product instills a bit of that market economy idea mentality. 所以，这有助于他们了解他们可以卖什么. I remember years ago having a very young start-up farmer who I wanted to be successful but who had a little bit of naivety to it. 他心想, 我想种什么就种什么, rather than thinking about where the product eventually will go and how it will be used.

I think in the perfect scenario, when you’re buying direct from a farmer, it is a conversation. People tell you what they like to grow and what they grow well; you tell them what you like to use and what you like to prepare, 希望两者之间存在某种共生关系. 

我们必须调整自己，让自己认为季节性农产品是特殊的. 对它不是一直可用这一事实感到兴奋, rather than seeing it the other way where you’re just annoyed that you can’t get a great tomato in the middle of winter. 这就是夏季番茄的特别之处.

With the trend of fewer farmers and a growing population, how can chefs play a role?

I think there’s several things that chefs can do because it’s a very real concern that the desire to be a farmer is disappearing. 我从两方面都听到了. 我是从当地种植蔬菜的农民那里听说的, and I hear it from my brother-in-law and father-in-law who point out all the time that it’s real hard to be a farmer these days. It’s never been easy to be a farmer, but it’s definitely getting harder and harder.

我认为必须要做的事来纠正这条船, 在某种程度上, 是否必须在几个层面上做出承诺. Here’s an idea about what chefs can do, and what we’ve tried to do with some of our farms. 有时有效，有时无效. 我认为人们对这个想法仍然有些犹豫, but if restaurants made commitments to buy everything that a farm can grow and said, 看, 只要你种些有用的东西, 我会买下你全部的收成. 如果是1000英镑，那很好! 如果是100磅，也没关系! 并且知道东西不会被浪费, 这种劳动有一个最终的结果, 我认为这是很大的一部分.

I think that the other thing they can do is what we’ve always done, which I’ve alluded to before. 对你餐厅的客人来说，这是一个教育的组成部分. 让他们渴望某些食物, but give them food that their direct outlet to satisfying that craving is to go to their local farmers’ market and buy the stuff from those farmers. It’s not helpful to get your guests hooked on asparagus from Peru when we need more farmers in the United States growing produce. 它是对我们的气候和经济的认识，并与之合作.

是什么让乔治亚州的美食与南方其他地区区别开来呢?

Georgia is very interesting from a cuisine standpoint because we have two very distinctive versions of Southern food that coalesce in this state. 我们有较低的海岸, 我称之为“种植园美食”,“那看起来更像光, 当代欧洲美食比南方美食更受欢迎. 然后是阿巴拉契亚烹饪, 这就是大多数人认为的乡村烹饪和南方美食吗. 在亚特兰大，由于这座城市的历史，这两件事发生了碰撞, 和这些菜系共用一份菜单并不奇怪.

再加上乔治亚州的地理位置非常好, 尤其是亚特兰大地区, 因为它方便农场和农民. There really is no reason you can’t get the vast majority of everything you need from right here. 我们的气候相当温和，当然会变冷, sure it gets hot – but we have access that goes above many other areas in this country. 我只是觉得这意味着我们的菜应该以蔬菜为主. 尽管大家都知道我是肉男, 那个做很多肉的人, 我在食物里放了很多蔬菜.

I also think that we should be able to take elements of those two different styles of Southern cuisine and blend them with what I consider to be Atlanta cuisine, 世界上其他地方的菜肴是什么. Atlanta is a city of trade in business and it’s largely populated by people who are not from here. 所以, 吸收这些影响，形成一个真正有趣的大熔炉, 对我来说，这就是我们的菜与众不同的地方. 

*为了篇幅和清晰度，采访经过编辑.

Chef Kevin Gillespie and staff prep for dinner service at his Atlanta restaurant, Gunshow.