As sustainability continues to be a hot topic, chefs are embracing it in their foods. Famed chef, Emeril Lagasse, has been a proponent for using fresh, local ingredients in his restaurants for years, and is now bringing that same commitment to your kitchen.
His cookbook, Farm to Fork (HarperCollins, 2010) is broken down, not by courses, but by foods: herbs, milk and dairy, leafy greens, etc., using proteins as supporting actors to the locally found produce in some recipes, while letting freshly caught fish and locally raised beef shine in others.
His recipe difficulty varies, but would probably not appeal to a beginning chef. But for someone who can find their way around a kitchen without too many problems, most of them are feasible.
Because the recipes are meant to be used with locally grown produce, you may have to use the book in a seasonal sense, saving certain recipes for when their main ingredients are in-season.
Lagasse’s book is not just full of recipes, but also instructs cooks how to do everything from make their own mozzarella cheese, preserving, pickling and the importance of his slogan, “buy fresh, buy local.”
You can purchase Farm to Fork, at Amazon.com or Emerils.com for $24.99.
