LEO's Eats with Robin Garr
Is this town trendy or what? For foodies, I mean. I understand Louisville has the reputation as a place where the latest fashion trends arrive five years after they're oh-so dead in New York. But when it comes to food, if the National Restaurant Association's 2014 Culinary Forecast is any guide, we're not only on top of most national eats trends but we also have already seen a few of them crest, surf over the top and fall back.
The Top 20 list, based on a poll this past autumn of nearly 1,300 members of the American Culinary Federation, mostly chefs, invited them to rate 258 items as likely "hot trends," "yesterday's news" or "perennial favorites" in the coming year. "Once again," reports the ACF, "locally sourced meat, seafood and produce remain at the top of the trends ..."
Really. This is such old news in the Derby City that I feel a little embarrassed about writing it down. "Environmental sustainability" scored high with the chefs, too, no surprise to Louisville foodies, as did "children's nutrition," and there, perhaps, we've got some room to grow, although the estimable Food Literacy Project is effectively leading that charge here.
Let's take a closer look at some of ACF's top predicted menu trends for 2014. How do we fit in?
Locally sourced meats and seafood: They're kidding us, right? This has been a trend in Louisville since Lilly's opened in the mid '80s, and just about all the recent arrivals are merrily joining the chase. At El Camino, we love the Birria de Borrego with its braised local lamb. Frankly, I sometimes wonder how the handful of local farms produce enough meat to provide all these eateries and still have anything left for the farmers markets!
Locally grown produce: See above. I think they are kidding us. I'm trying hard to think of a recent arrival in NuLu, for instance, that doesn't celebrate the locavore. Who doesn't put a farm name on their broccoli and rutabagas? Harvest even posts a map with its farmer suppliers' faces and locations!
Hyper-local sourcing: I'm not sure what makes the difference between local and hyper-local, but I'm thinking the chefs at Porcini and Volare, among others, who grow their own veggies and herbs, probably qualify for "hyper." Check out the lush herb garden behind Rye. Or fork into a slab of tofu made right in the dining room at Roots/Heart & Soy.
"The fact of the matter is, locally, we have been on the forefront of local sourcing and sustainability for quite some time," Chef Dan Thomas, president of ACF's Kentucky Chapter, wrote in a LouisvilleHotBytes.com forum post. "Maybe that's why this seems like old news."
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/whats ... stuff-here
and in LEO Weekly:
http://leoweekly.com/dining/what%E2%80% ... stuff-here