Super Eco

Photo credit: jslander, Flickr

On the heels of last week's Top Chef episode at Dan Barber's Blue Hill at Stone Barns farm/restaurant (were you rooting for Ariane and her struggles with the lamb?)  comes this week's culinary piece de resistance: Madrid Fusion 09, the international gastronomy summit. The 2009 conference focuses on getting back to basics, with chefs discussing not only the impact of the economic downturn on fine dining but also the value and techniques of environmentally friendly cuisine, from seasonal dishes with locally grown foods to slow food.

The summit, held in Madrid right now, serves up such fare as "Environmentally Aware Chefs," demonstrating the chef panelists' views on environmentally responsible cuisine, naturalistic trends such as gastrobotany, and restaurants with their own farms, gardens or orchards. One of the conference highlights will be a tribute by the mayor of Madrid to some of the defenders of the planet's biodiversity, from Greenpeace to the Italian slow food movement to groups concerned with defending and preserving marine species.

Another program features eco-chef Rodrigo de la Calle's demonstration of dishes prepared with produce from his vegetable garden. He calls his work "gastrobotanical," which he defines as gastronomy associated with the delicacy of the vegetable kingdom.

Despite concern over simplifying and re-evaluating business practices during tighter economic times, many haute cuisine chefs remain stand-offish to green practices. Some media-savvy chefs sink into greenwashing, embracing organic foods for show and rarely adopting greener ways behind the kitchen doors. Perhaps Madrid Fusion 09's back-to-basics philosophy will nudge more reluctant chefs toward healthier, tastier and greener cuisine.