Courtesy of Michael Chiarello
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Challenging yourself to eat entirely locally can seem pretty intimidating. But, as world renowned chef Michael Chiarello explains on Supper Club with Tom Bergeron, making your diet totally local is really a lifestyle change. On the show, Chiarello puts together a simple meal made from ingredients found within a 100 mile radius of his home in Napa Valley. As his meal comes together, the proposition of being able to create your own local menu seems a little more realistic.
While there's little difficulty getting your hands on local wines in Napa Valley, Chiarello goes a step further by serving up fantastic wines from his own all organic vineyard, Chiarello Family Vineyards. The historic 95 year old vines make for a rich and earthy Cabernet Sauvignon, Old Vine Petite Sirah, and Old Vine Zinfandel.
His simple antipasti consists of locally grown fennel, tomato, zucchini, and mozzarella. Even self-proclaimed fast food addict Doug McIntyre enjoyed the broccoli rabe and penne pasta cooked in Chiarello's own Zinfandel. The wheat in the pasta was grown locally and the pasta maker came from just outside the 100 mile radius. It's a labor of love for Chiarello, who ended the meal with an olive oil cake made with organic olive oil grown right on the property.
Chiarello reduces his carbon footprint by eating less processed local cuisine. He also presses that message in his other venture, Napa Style, a lifestyle company devoted to all things Napa. The company emphasizes high quality vinegars, olive oils, kitchen goods, and furniture made with repurposed materials. The sustainable furniture is made from items like barn wood and discarded wine barrels.
Here are some other easy ways Chiarello lives environmentally responsibly:
- Use everything. From using day old bread in his antipasti to sprinkling pasta water on his garden, Chiarello lets nothing go to waste.
- Don't trust unnatural foods. Chiarello uses gray salt to season his food, because salt is naturally gray before it is processed into white salt. Another example is broccoli, which once looked like broccoli rabe before it was reshaped into the more familiar broccoli mold we know today. The healthiest and most environmentally responsible foods are always the most natural.
- Enjoy the benefits of organic farming. At first, certifying a farm as organic may seem expensive. But over time Chiarello found that the money he saved by not using pesticides and chemicals was significant and that the pesticide hiatus allowed his farm to maintain its nutrient rich soil. The best part, however, was that ecosystem biodiversity returned to Chiarello's once lifeless farm. Birds, rabbits, and other animals now roam freely on the farm again.
Read more about Eating Local on Treehugger.
If you haven't already, take the 100-Mile Diet Challenge. Spring is the perfect time!
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