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.
Chef Michael Chiarello
Supper Club chef Michael Chiarello is the tastemaker behind NapaStyle, Chiarello Family Vineyards, the Emmy winning Food Network series Easy Entertaining, and six cookbooks. Born in 1962 and raised in the central California community of Turlock, Michael followed his childhood dream of becoming a world-class chef. He began apprenticing in restaurants at age 14 and he began his professional career in Miami by opening the acclaimed restaurant Toby's. Flush with the success of his first restaurant, in 1986 he moved back to his roots in Napa Valley and opened Tra Vigne (among the vines), where he acted as Executive Chef/partner for it and seven other restaurants until creating NapaStyle in 2000. With NapaStyle, Michael has created a multi-channel lifestyle retailer inspired by his Southern Italian heritage, the Napa Valley style of life, and a passion for seasonal and sustainable living. In September 2006, Michael opened the first and flagship NapaStyle retail store in Berkeley, California's upscale and eclectic Fourth Street shopping district. During his 20-year tenure as Executive Chef of Tra Vigne and seven other restaurants, Michael was twice named Chef of the Year: in 1985 by Food and Wine Magazine while at Toby's in Miami; and in 1995 by the Culinary Institute of America. Michael has won three daytime Emmy Awards and his other television shows include NapaStyle on Fine Living, and the PBS television series, Michael Chiarello's Napa.
Guests
Marilu Henner
Supper Club guest Marilu Henner is a New York Times bestselling author who has starred on stage, in several hit TV series, films, commercials, television movies and specials, co-starring with some of Hollywood's leading men and worked with some of the best directors in Hollywood and on Broadway. She believes that with good health you can do it all. She has an incredible amount of energy, replenished constantly with good health and compatible habits. Now, the knowledge and discipline which this actress, author and full-time mom has gathered to maintain her demanding schedule is available at bookstores, in the form of Marilu Henner's Total Health Makeover, Marilu Henner's 30-Day Total Health Makeover, Healthy Life Kitchen, Healthy Kids, I Refuse To Raise A Brat, and Healthy Holidays. These books address her years of being overweight and stifled by bad health, and her journey of discovery to good health. On Supper Club, Marilu shares advice from her books and other information that she has learned from her many years of experience.
Graham Hill
Supper Club guest Graham Hill is the founder of Treehugger.com and hails from the small town of Sutton, Quebec, Canada. He has a Bachelor of Architecture with distinction from Carleton University in Ottawa and did advanced studies in Industrial Design at E.C.I.A.D, Vancouver. Past businesses include forays into fashion, web-development, viral email and plant-based air filters. In 1995, with his cousin, he started and grew the web-developer, Sitewerks, to 60 people doing work for large companies such as Microsoft. Graham loves to travel and is working on his 40th country this year. He speaks English, French, German and Spanish. He loves squash, swimming, snowboarding, mountain-biking and most other sports. His biggest goal is to help push sustainability into the mainstream.
Doug McIntyre
Supper Club guest Doug McIntyre is the morning host on Los Angeles, California talk radio station KABC radio. McIntyre identifies himself as a Republican, though his social views are less conservative than many of his talk radio colleagues. For example, he supports gay marriage and legalizing marijuana and generated national attention when he offered his listeners an on-air apology for his prior support of the G. W. Bush administration entitled, "An Apology from a Bush Voter". McIntyre, a former television scriptwriter, is known for his interest in local politics. He he has been active in addressing issues related to illegal immigration to the US, which he strenuously opposes, and private property rights, which he defends. McIntyre is married to actress Penny Peyser and is a stepfather to two sons.
Stephanie Miller
Supper Club guest Stephanie Miller is an American comedian and host of The Stephanie Miller Show, a progressive talk radio program produced in Los Angeles and syndicated nationally by Jones Radio Networks. Talkers magazine ranked her as the 36th most important radio talk show host in America for 2007. She is the daughter of former U.S. Representative William E. Miller, who was Barry Goldwater's running mate in the 1964 presidential election.
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