Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Calling all chefs

Chef-to-Farm Experience
Monday, August 18th 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Feed Your Soul Buffalo is a culinary tourism initiative showcasing exciting Western New York gastronomic adventures that feature the bounty that is our region’s legacy.

Feed Your Soul has just added a tour of area farms to its roster—designed for Buffalo-area chefs with inquisitive minds and a passion for fresh, sustainably farmed produce, dairy products and heritage breed meat.

Feed Your Soul’s owners, Sandy Starks and Christa Glennie Seychew, have seen the demand for locally grown products increase ten-fold over the last year. Their regular conversations with local chefs have led them to believe that a meeting of the minds between our area’s top chefs and most progressive farmers was needed. Together they have developed Feed Your Soul’s Chef-to-Farm Experience.

Feed Your Soul has worked hard to make this event affordable ($45) for chefs and eager restaurant staff stationed at every level of the cooking industry, from sous to saucier, from bus boy to commis. Starks and Seychew will receive no profit from this event. Rather they see it as something that must happen to help re-build Western New York’s broken food chain. Starks and Seychew are both very involved in the International Slow Food Movement and sit on the board of Slow Food Buffalo.

Personal invitations are being sent out to some of the area’s best chefs for this event, but Starks and Seychew hope to see students, diligent home cooks and restaurant owners on board for this affordable and enlightening all-day adventure.

Chef-to-Farm Experience, Monday, August 18th Join fellow chefs for a personal tour of some of Erie County's best farms. Participants will meet in the morning, board a bus perfectly sized for our small group and travel to Alden to visit Oles' Farm, a family-run CSA. From there we’ll venture on to Dayton, NY to Blossom Hill, a family farm that raises heritage breed cows and hogs. After a tour, a delicious picnic lunch with a focus on local foods will be served to us by Blossom Hill’s own Jo’el Drajem. Next we’ll stop in East Otto to visit Patrick Lango of White Cow Dairy whose award-winning yogurt and cheese products have graced the pages of major food magazines and newspapers. Finally, we’ll wind up our adventure at Native Offerings, one of the area's most progressive farms and a popular CSA with weekly drops in the city.

Chef-to-Farm is designed to allow passionate Buffalo-area chefs the opportunity to learn about current farming practices, experience WNY's unique agricultural landscape and to engage in one-on-one dialogue with the producers of some of WNY’s finest products. Plus, chefs will return to their kitchens with samples of the fantastic products and produce from some of our region's best farmers.

Feed Your Soul has many other exciting culinary adventures on the roster and in the works. All of our events are truly unique and have limited seating, so making reservations quickly is important! To learn more about Feed Your Soul Buffalo log onto www.FeedYourSoulBuffalo.com or call Christa Seychew at 716-812-1615.

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