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SPRING 2001 Chefs Cooking Class
We’ll be teaching classes on a regular basis, and the next one will take place at our Raleigh Lucky 32 on April 26 at 6:00pm We’ll feature some springtime favorites from Lucky 32’s Pacific Northwest Menu. Tuition is $38 and includes dinner and wine as well as a recipe box and a Quaintance-Weaver apron. For more information call Sara Sherman at 800-965-8529 or 336-370-0966. From the Farm to the Table So, we decided to collaborate with our local farming community to develop
a model for getting fresh food from the farm to the table. As we develop
this model we’re finding solutions to the problems we face bringing
food to the table. Hopefully, this is a model that can be applied to
the broader restaurant/retail community and to the farming community.
This is the key to sustainability for local, family farms and the key
to bringing better food to the table.
We’d love to tell you all about each of our partner farmers –
these folks have rich and wonderful stories to tell, but we simply don’t
have the space. Fortunately, you can still learn about some of them,
firsthand, during the Farm Tours organized by CFSA that will
take place in April and May. More information about these fun and educational
tours follows this article. Here is a list of some of the farmers with
whom we’ve begun working: During the July Farmers Market Menu, at each of our Lucky 32 restaurants,
we’ll profile our partner farmers and describe what they are supplying
to the restaurants. This will give us the opportunity to share the farmers’
stories with you, and we’ll talk more about how they are bringing
food from their farms to your table.
We’ll let you know how this community project progresses, and be sure to check out our Farmers Market menu in July to sample some of the fruits of our labors.
©2002 Quaintance-Weaver |
Earlier
this Spring Nancy King Quaintance, Bart Ortiz (our Vice-President of
Flavor and Consistency) and Billy Seay (Green Valley Grill’s Chef),
taught a cooking class featuring recipes made with some of our favorite
locally produced and locally grown food. 
Nancy
prepared a simple, delicious Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Salad, divulging
the secret ingredient that makes all the flavors pop – a balsamic
vinegar reduction sauce. The Mozzarella for this salad was provided
by Giacomo, of Giacomo’s Italian Market (336-547-2888)
in Greensboro. Giacomo makes fresh Mozzarella cheese every day in his
shop, and the class sampled some of his cheeses and handmade salamis.
Greens for the salad came from Uwharrie Farm (336-857-2775),
which is located at the base of the Uwharrie Mountains and is owned
and operated by Larry and Judy McPherson. The McPhersons have provided
us with some of our most beautiful fresh produce. 
Next,
Billy and Bart gave ideas for preparing grits and polenta, including
Green Valley Grill’s Expensive Mushrooms Over Fancy Grits. This
dish featured Giacomo’s fragrant Italian sausage and grits from
the Old Mill of Guilford (336-643-4738), an historic mill
in Oak Ridge, NC that has been in operation, off and on, for over 200
years. The demonstration ended with two versatile desserts, a Mixed
Berry Tart and Chocolate Goat’s Cheese Truffles, made with award-winning
Fromage from the Goat Lady Dairy (336-824-2163), located
just down the road in Climax, NC. Following the class, guests enjoyed
a lunch that included each of the dishes prepared by our culinary team.
Using
locally grown produce in our restaurants is a great way to bring the
most flavorful food to our tables, and it’s great to support sustainable
agriculture within our communities, but it is not always the most practical
thing to do in our restaurants. Traditionally, a restaurateur could
plan the day’s menu based on produce harvested that very morning.
Local farmers would load their fruits and vegetables onto pickup trucks,
then go from restaurant to restaurant offering their selections. But,
it’s not quite so simple anymore. There are far more restaurants
and small, local farmers face stiff competition from other suppliers.
Also, restaurants like ours don’t always have the flexibility to
change the menu daily. Indeed, we begin planning our featured menus
months in advance.
As
a result of our alliance with local farmers in the Triad and the Triangle,
we’ll bring fresh vegetables and fruits to our Lucky 32
restaurants for the July Farmers Market menu. We’ve enlisted
the help of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA),
a non-profit, member organization that works with North and South Carolina
Farmers, gardeners, and consumers to develop healthful, sustainable
agriculture. Their volunteers have spent hours talking on the phone
and visiting with farmers from across the state who are now in the planning
and planting stages of growing the fruits and vegetables we will use
for the Farmers Market menu. 
This
project of collaborating with local farmers could be the beginning of
some major changes in the ways local restaurants and grocers purchase
their produce. We’re looking into ways to use our experiences as
a model for other businesses because we’ve noticed that we’re
not the only ones who would like to use and sell more locally grown
produce. Hopefully, our discoveries can be used by others, so more people
can benefit from North Carolina’s rich abundance.
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