Chef Lynae Gurnsey and the Slow Food Movement
June 10, 2011
•Le Cordon Bleu
•General, Le Cordon Bleu, Orlando
• 0 Comments
Recently, Chef Lynae Gurnsey has partnered with Slow Food Orlando and the Homegrown Co-op in support of the Slow Food Movement. On Thursday, April 21, Chef Gurnsey hosted the first of many monthly events supporting the local Slow Food Movement. During the first event, four varieties of local seafood from Wild Ocean Seafood market were prepared, and they planted tomatoes, boxwood basil, lemon balm, Texas tarragon, Greek oregano, Japanese eggplant, rosemary and Provencal lavender in the donated Jack Daniels barrels from Lynchburg. The Slow Food Movement is becoming a popular trend among top chefs who are concerned about supporting local farmers and sustainability. More about the Slow Food story is mentioned below.
Slow Food USA envisions a future food system that is based on the principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability, and social justice – in essence, a food system founded upon stewardship that is good, clean and fair.
Slow Food USA is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to supporting and celebrating the food traditions of North America through programs and activities dedicated to Taste Education, Defending Biodiversity and Building Food Communities. Slow Food USA believes that pleasure and quality in everyday life can be achieved by slowing down, respecting the convivial traditions of the table and celebrating the diversity of the earth's bounty.
These foods, and the communities that produce and depend on them, are constantly at risk of succumbing to the effects of the fast life, which manifests itself through the industrialization and standardization of our food supply and degradation of our farmland.
Slow Food U.S.A. oversees Slow Food activities in North America, including the support and promotion of the activities of 170 local chapters, each called a "convivium," that carry out the Slow Food mission on a local level. Each convivium offers educational events and public outreach that promote taste education, that advocate sustainability and biodiversity and that connect producers and “co-producers.”
Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work, and that all people should have access to this good and clean food.
We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process. The beauty of Slow Food is that it provides a welcome home for the food lover, the health seeker, and the environmentalist.
In 1986, the founding father of the Slow Food Movement, Carlo Petrini recognized that the industrialization of food was standardizing taste and leading to the annihilation of thousands of food varieties and flavors.
In the U.S., our 15,000 members are organized in 170 convivia (consumers), or local chapters. Our convivia are led by committees of volunteer leaders who plan events, programs and initiatives in their communities. Through marketing, production, and technical assistance each of our presidia (food producers) projects develop regional economies and communities.
Source: www.slowfoodorlando.org
