“Sustainable” Chefs
By Cathe Olson
It wasn’t long ago that few restaurants served local, seasonal food, and the few that did were upscale and expensive. But the word is out: San Luis Obispo chefs have found that nothing beats the taste and quality of fresh, local products.
Central coast restaurants are becoming more sustainable as well by using more organic foods and environmentally-friendly practices. Although many chefs admit it’s challenging to buy locally or organically: getting the quantities they need at prices they can afford is often difficult, not to mention getting delivery. But they realize the tremendous benefits to their customers and the community and are working through these challenges to make changes happen. Sustainable cuisine can now be found in many SLO County establishments including fine-dining, family restaurants, and even senior living communities.
Manse on Marsh
475 Marsh Street
San Luis Obispo
805-541-4222
Robert Root, an active local-food advocate, began incorporating local products into his menus several years ago when he was the chef at the Inn at Morro Bay. He immediately noticed the difference in the taste, quality, and shelf life of the local produce. He also liked the relationships he built with local farmers and felt good about helping to support local families. He wanted find a way to help other chefs build a connection with local farmers, but he knew it was important to educate the public as well. He believed if customers knew how beneficial it was to eat locally, they would seek out restaurants that served local products. In 2007, he founded Pallet to Palate as a way to accomplish both of those goals. He paired chefs with farmers and invited the public to sample the delicious foods the chefs prepared using the local products. The annual event is in its third year and is bigger and better than ever.
Root is now the chef at Manse on Marsh, a senior assisted-living faculty, where he has transformed the kitchen from canned, frozen, and processed food to local produce, grass-fed beef, and sustainable wild and local seafood. To reduce his environmental footprint, he’s switched from Styrofoam to reusable plastic cups and recyclable cardboard containers.
Black Cat Bistro
1602 Main St
Cambria
805-927-1600
Deborah Scarborough grew up on a farm and cattle ranch where her family always had wonderful produce and protein foods available. When she moved away from home and had to purchase food from supermarkets, she found she didn’t recognize the flavors anymore and began to eat less healthfully.
Scarborough is excited by what is happening at Black Cat Bistro: cooking more and more as she did when growing up. The restaurant uses local fruit, vegetables, herbs, seafood, cheese, eggs, and wine, as many local products as they can find, and the percent continues to increase as items become more available and she’s become more adept at creating menus around the season. She is currently working on getting local lamb and pork. The restaurant also has many environmentally-friendly practices, such as recycling everything the county allows them to, including their oil, and using energy-efficient appliances, and light-sensors in the wine cellar, parking lot and walkways. They have a no-waste policy, which means they make sauces and stocks from trims and herb stems rather than throwing them away. They grow many of their own herbs and are looking into composting.
Novo Restaurant
726 Higuera St.
San Luis Obispo
805-543-3986
Robin Covey, owner of Novo Restaurant, has a passion for fresh produce and farmers’ markets. He’s been going to the Saturday farmers’ market in SLO for 25 years. In the late 1980s, he bought produce there for his health food store in Cambria, which quickly became popular because of its fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s a lot more challenging for him now trying to keep up with the amount of produce needed at Novo where he serves between 400 and 600 people every day during the summer months. He still frequents the farmers’ market, but the quantities he needs and the lack of refrigerator space make using all local produce difficult. He serves local fish when it’s available. In the future, Covey hopes to hire a full-time produce purveyor who will go to local farmers’ markets and actively seek and find farmers who can grow and cultivate foods for the restaurant.
Mother’s Tavern
725 Higuera St.
San Luis Obispo
805-541-8733
Mother’s Tavern has been undergoing a transformation under the vision of Chef Shaun King with a new menu just unveiled in late August. King calls the restaurant a “high-end burger bar.” The burgers are made from local grass-fed beef or free-range chicken or turkey, plus there’s a house-made vegetarian burger. In fact, King tries to make as much in-house as possible, including the sauces and jams. What he can’t make himself, he finds locally: Edna’s bakery is making their bread and burger buns. King attends the SLO farmers’ markets, Nature’s Touch, and Coast Grown to obtain local produce – and has family members growing herbs, fruit, and vegetables for him.
King comes from a fine-dining background – having been chef in restaurants like RM Seafood in Las Vegas, one of the pioneers in serving sustainably-caught seafood and organically-grown produce. But he likes the homey environment of Mother’s and plans to make it more family-friendly. He thinks customers will be pleasantly surprised to go into a tavern and discover such good-quality food and such a variety of flavors. For the future, King hopes to develop a composting system similar to the one he implemented in Las Vegas.
Pizza Fusion
3971 S. Higuera St., Suite 120
San Luis Obispo
805-781-8100
Brandon Borene, owner of Pizza Fusion, feels passionately about the importance of consuming organic food. He says chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are making Americans obese and sick, as well as polluting the environment. That’s why he’s proud that Pizza Fusion is soon to be the first organically-certified restaurant in San Luis Obispo County. About 80% of the menu is organic and what isn’t organic is of the highest quality: the meat is grass-fed, hormone-free, and certified humane. Some of the produce, like the strawberries and basil, come from central coast farms, and he has recently expanded his wine list to include local varieties.
Borene claims that Pizza Fusion is the most environmentally-friendly business on the central coast. The restaurant is powered by 100% wind energy, and just about everything in the building, including the building itself, is made from either recycled or sustainable materials. The restaurant uses energy-star appliances, composts scraps for local farmers, conserves water, and recycles to try to have as little waste as possible. All of their “to go” ware is either recyclable or biodegradable, and they use fuel-efficient delivery vehicles.
Apple Farm
Restaurant
2015 Monterey Street
San Luis Obispo
1-800-255-2040
Chef Stephen Walls at the Apple Farm Restaurant feels the benefits of using locally-grown produce are many. He says that nothing beats the flavor and quality of fresh produce, and that it benefits the environment as well. Buying local means that less gasoline is used for transportation and less packaging is needed, and he feels that “local farmers are very aware of the impact they have on the earth and employ sustainable farming practices.” Walls likes that the money he spends stays within the local community. Currently, Apple Farm uses local vegetables and greens in their salads and side dishes and local berries in their desserts. Their eggs are produced locally as are all their wines. The restaurant currently recycles everything they can. Walls hopes someday to compost the green waste from the restaurant and grow vegetables in season.
Cathe Olson is the author of Lick It! Cream Dreamy Vegan Ice Cream Your Mouth Will Love, Natural Baby Food and Vegetarian Mother’s Cookbook. Visit Cathe’s Web site at www.simplynaturalbooks.com and her blog at http://catheolson.blogspot.com.
