2014-08-15 Register Star

FarmOn! to offer locally grown food dining event

Posted: Friday, August 15, 2014 12:00 am
By Tessa Edick 
For Columbia-Greene Media 

Moooooove over meatopia this epic unprecedented Hudson Valley event is the real deal in eating local, responsible sourcing and building community for a deliciously good cause. Food is love.

Sunday, starting at 3:30 p.m., 11 North American chefs practicing sustainability with a commitment to resilient agriculture will come together on a private working farm in Claverack NY to cook food from dozens of family farms just down the road.  "Playing with Fire" will feed us all to benefit the FarmOn! Foundation on a Sunday afternoon.

The Northern Chefs Alliance is a philanthropic, multi-disciplinary group of inspired, international chefs "hell bent on promoting good, safe, clean food and having a great time along the way," explained Founder Matt Jennings, owner and executive chef of the famed farm to table Farmstead restaurant in Rhode Island and launching Townsman in Boston this fall.

Together with host Zakary Pelaccio and his co-chefs Jori Jayne Emde and Kevin Pomplun of the Fish & Game restaurant in Hudson, to which the media refers to as the “French Laundry” of the east, they invite their contemporaries, mixologists and friends to come and cook local whole spit roasted meat, fruit, vegetables, fish and game over 5 open fires in the fields on the magical farm Patrick Milling-Smith generously donated.

We are all invited to support a day of ancient fire roasted flavors by way of asado, barrel-smoked, rotisserie, open-flame and ember cooking on a mid summer evening on the farm in Claverack near Hudson.

Certainly worthy of the all inclusive $250 ticket price — the event includes food from 5 stations cooking with open fire — each is anchored by a protein: pig, goat, lamb, chicken and fish accompanied by an abundance of grilled fruit, vegetables, greens, flat breads, salt potatoes and more. Add extraordinary desserts, mixology with local libations, fun on the farm among the chickens, bees, glorious garden and view — for a good cause too — makes the investment well spent.

With talent spanning the two coasts and two countries our Canadian friends Lee Cooper of L’Abattoir (Vancouver, BC), Jeremy Charles of Raymonds Restaurant (St.John’s, NL), Derek Dammann of Maison Publique (Montreal, QC), Matty Matheson Parts & Labour (Toronto, ON), Rob Gentile of Buca (Toronto, ON) together with their U.S. team members Jamie Bissonnette of Coppa & Toro (Boston, M.A. & NYC), April Bloomfield of the Spotted Pig (NYC) & The Breslin (NYC), Sean Brock of McCrady’s & Husk (Charleston, S.C. & Nashville, T.N.), Zakary Pelaccio of Fish & Game (Hudson) and Matt Jennings of Townsman (Boston, M.A.) will form 5 teams each comprised of one Canadian chef and one American chef to feed us all well as we graze the farm and talk about their best kept secret — the farmer.

Local Family Farms will supply all of the food at the event including whole barrel smoked pig from Climbing Tree Farm in New Lebanon, slow roasted grass-fed organic lamb from Herondale Farm in Ancramdale, asado style goat from Glynwood in Cold Springs, rotisserie organic pasture raised chicken from Yellow Bell Farm in Elizaville, Fish from the North Atlantic, ember cooked fruits and vegetables from locals including Holmquest Farms, Hawthorne Valley Farm, McEnroe Organic Farm, Bartolotta & Son Klein’s Kill Fruit Farm, Fix Brothers Fruit Farm, Blue Star Farm, Common Hands Farm, Whole Foods Market Albany, Crown Maple, farmer owned Cabot creamery and more.

Cooking over open flame would be impossible without cast iron Staub pots hanging from a tripod over open flame, Messermeister cleavers and carving tools, custom made grills and asado by Kris Perry and Adirondack Appliance. Special thanks to all of the generous sponsors for this event especially A Colarusso & Sons, Field-Goods, Saratoga Water Co, Harney & Sons Tea, Sean Nutley of Blue Cashew Kitchen Pharmacy in Rhinebeck who foraged tirelessly for slabs of wood from Mountain Breeze Farm Lumber, carving boards from JK Adams, cooking essentials from Zwilling & Henkles as well as Bambu Home providing all of the compostable Eco-friendly plates and flatware and Cantele proving the sailcloth tents!

Each of the 5 open fire cooking stations will be spread throughout the 150-acre farm for a free range grazing style feast with farm tables and a celebrated mixologist at each station featuring Zev Rovine wine selections, Chatham Brewing Co. custom Fish & Game farmstead brew and local rye, gin and even Mezcal from big names in cocktailing – Kat Dun, Paul Maloney, Lynnette Marrero, Greg Seider and Trevor Schneider.

Super sweet he is to come all the way east, Chef Francisco Migoya of Modernist Cuisine, will offer tantalizing desserts sourced from local ingredient!

Music will fill the air from John Medeski, Martin & Wood as well as Nature Films. The coolest silent auction will offer a bidding mecca with special experiences with chefs, farms, restaurants and local finds you covet.

Eating with a collective consciousness has never tasted so good. Proceeds benefit the FarmOn! Foundation, the Northern Chefs Alliance chose as a benefactor this year. FarmOn! Foundation is a 501c3 non profit organization and public charity committed to bringing awareness to your food choices and sources and inspiring youth careers in agriculture connecting rural and urban markets places for viable livelihood promoting succession on the farm. Eat up and join us for your Sunday supper to support your agricultural community and keep farmers farming! FarmOn!

To contact Tessa Edick, email tessa@104.236.34.6 or follow her on twitter at @FarmOnFarmOn.

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