Farmers markets and sweet Providence memories

The big story in food this year may well be the emerging culture of “farm to table.” The movement to bring, or more accurately, bring back the relationship between growers and chefs and home cooks alike as well has matured.
The ingredient or the main dish that a meal is built around is as likely to have come directly from the farm or the farmers market. And it is happening in New England year-round as 12-month farmers markets are opening and growers are forcing early crops in greenhouses.
Chef Barbara Lynch of Menton in Boston was cooking at Ocean House for an international convention of hotel and restaurant owners in April. She had a simmering pot of a seafood stew brimming with clams, lobster and fish.
But the star of the soup was an artisan butter in which the seafood was cooking. She brought the butter from a farm in Vermont where she keeps cows and the farmer makes the butter for her and famed chef Thomas Keller. Chefs at local restaurants and those of us who love to cook but can’t make a living at it alike have access to ingredients like this year-round. Unlike a few years ago when there were no farmers markets from November to April, now there are seven indoor farmers markets open in Rhode Island. The markets are located statewide, from the Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket to a church hall in Newport and rehabbed mill buildings in North Kingstown. These markets have become an integral part of the everyday food chain hereabouts, so much so that chefs and home cooks who I talk to casually mention stopping off at the farmers market along with the dry cleaner and the supermarket on their daily to-do list.
Al Forno alumni
I was interviewing a cookbook author on the radio recently who has a national following. Hollis Wilder is a past winner of the Food Network program, “Cupcake Wars.” She has a book out with a clever idea to help home cooks prepare portion-controlled meals. She has developed a book full of recipes for family-favorite foods that can be made in cupcake tins.
Wilder knows her cupcakes and is keeping what could have been just another passing fad at the forefront of food thought and enjoyment. The interview went along pleasantly. She gave some recipes for crowd-pleasing dishes such as pulled pork BBQ tucked into cornbread and lasagna that could be done in ordinary cupcake pans. As we neared the end of our chat, Wilder mentioned that Providence held some special memories for her. It turned out that not only had she attended Rhode Island School of Design – working her way through as a model for artists – but she spent time as a sous chef at Al Forno. She worked for George Germon and Johanne Killeen at their former location before the restaurant moved to its present home on the waterfront.
Wilder’s recollection attracted not only my attention but that of chef Jaime D’Oliveira. The renowned Providence chef is now making new friends at the new Olive Tap olive oil and balsamic shop and tasting bar in Wayland Square.
D’Oliveira had been executive chef of Al Forno for five years in the 1980s, before he went on to found his own spot, Angel’s. This was in the infancy of the restaurant boom – those two spots may well have started it – and well before the Food Network was even thought of.
I had met the Olive Tap owners recently and brought them on to my radio show. I was broadcasting from the store the day Wilder was scheduled to be interviewed by phone from California. At the mention of his former home, D’Oliveira rushed upstairs from his preparation area on the lower level of the former restaurant to listen more closely. As it turned out, Wilder and the chef were not at Al Forno at the same time. But D’Oliveira recalled other chefs who had cooked on his line who also went on to food fame. He immediately mentioned Suzanne Goin, who was part of the brigade while she attended Brown University.
Goin is now one of the stars of the restaurant world as chef and restaurateur of four Los Angeles eateries. She is one of the finalists for this year’s James Beard awards as Outstanding Chef. And her flagship restaurant, Lucques, is a James Beard nominee as well. Goin is well-known to followers of cooking reality TV shows such as “Top Chef.” •


Bruce Newbury’s “Dining Out” food and wine talk-radio show is heard Saturdays and Sundays on WPRV-AM 790. He can be reached by email at bruce@brucenewbury.com.

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