Thursday, May 23, 2019

Lessons from Jose Andres

Listening to this while driving to Trader Joe's today
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/05/23/jose-andres-vegetables-unleashed-cookbook
made me think I ought to post a few reflections inspired by Jose Andres.

I still find myself recommending his book We Fed an Island. Yesterday I was chatting with a colleague who is involved in continuing ministry to those who suffered and were displaced by the Camp Fire. We shared stories about emergency food. I asked if she'd heard of the book; she hadn't. It's an easy read, one I wish everyone involved with emergency food would peruse. At the very least, those of us whose efforts have been frustrated by Big Relief would find a friend in this humanitarian chef.

Did you know that Andres now has a chain of plant-centered fast food restaurants? They are called Beefsteak http://beefsteakveggies.com/who-we-are/, for his favorite sandwich, with a fat juicy slice of beefsteak tomato at it's heart. In the ten minute segment today, he opines that "if we want to feed the world, vegetables are going to need to be at the center of the plate."

This made me think about "plant-based" diets, because the term is usually applied to diets that are exclusively plants (or really plants and fungi), that is, vegan. What can we call our diets when they are mostly plants, but not exclusively? Vegetarian is kind of a tired term, I think, and is based on omitting some foods from one's diet. Plant-centric seems clear, but a little technical. I'm going to start using "plant rich."

The segment ends with some political musing. And I think I've found, from Chef Jose Andres, my new tagline:
"Make America better, one plate of food at a time."


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