By Glenda Winders | SDUN Book Critic
It’s hard to imagine how Chef Jeff Rossman ever found time to write a book. He’s up at 6 a.m. everyday and at his Hillcrest restaurant, Terra, located at 3900 Vermont St., an hour later, often staying until late in the evening. Some days he visits farms or consults with school food service directors. Weekends are likely to find him at events he caters or at farmers markets. Once he gets home, he’s at the computer until the wee hours of the morning.
“There’s no typical day in the life of a chef/owner,” Rossman said, laughing. “There are always kitchen issues and things to be done; new menus to write, recipes to look at, online articles, magazines. I need to stay on top of farm-to-school issues, gardening issues at the schools, contemporary recipes, catering trends. And I do all the marketing for the restaurant on e-mail, Twitter and Facebook.”
But write a book he did.
“We decided to organize by produce so that if you have a whole bunch of onions or tomatoes or tree fruits you can go to that chapter and make something a little different,” he explained.
The chapter on “Alliums,” for example, includes recipes for chilli-marinated onion and cambazola bruschetta; spring onion ravioli; grilled cheese “toast” with mushrooms and roasted shallots; and lobster tamal with quinoa, leeks and corn. Every recipe is paired with suggestions for local wines and beers, and the text is liberally sprinkled with cooking tips and techniques.
This tasty tome is much more than a cookbook, however. Several local farms and farmers are profiled within its pages.
“I wrote the book for people all over the country to know what was happening in San Diego,” Rossman said. “I also wanted to help people understand what farmers go through.”
He explained that the conditions due to the drought, water is expensive. Also, local farmers must also deal with changing weather patterns. One of the farmers with whom Rossman deals with regularly lost his entire butternut squash crop during a recent freeze. The result: prices go up.
“People have to understand that chefs and restaurateurs who support the local farmers have to charge a little bit more money because of that,” Rossman said. “A lot of times we pay just as much for the produce as we do for the fish or the chicken or the beef.”
But for people who understand the issues and are willing to pay the price, the payoff is worth it.
“Local produce is fresh. It usually comes out of the ground that day,” he said. “Tomatoes, carrots, beets, chard and lettuces are usually picked that morning. They’re going to be healthier and tastier because they don’t have to be transported so far.”
Rossman said people are also less likely to have allergies to produce grown in their own environment. And there’s a bigger picture to consider as well. As Rossman noted, buying locally is a gentler option for the environment because it leaves a much smaller carbon footprint.
Another issue covered in the cookbook is his work with local childhood obesity initiatives and school-lunch programs. It’s a passion of Rossman’s that began several years ago with school gardens project and ensuing salad bar at Central Elementary School in City Heights. Today he is working with other chefs, restaurateurs and educators to make changes that will hopefully result in healthier students, which could translate to improved school performance. The obstacles are many, however. For one, the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides schools with commodity products that aren’t always wholesome rather than funds to buy local produce. Government reimbursement depends on participation numbers, which forces schools to resort to unhealthy but popular foods such as pizza and French fries.
Another problem is that schools don’t have the staff and equipment to make foods from scratch. That’s where the chef’s task force comes in.
“It’s a catering job,” Rossman said. “We know how to make ranch dressing or homemade hummus or whole wheat pizza crust without all of the preservatives. We can develop recipes and evaluate processes. We can show the staff how to take commodities, such as frozen chicken and marinate it and roast it so the kids have a nice healthy chicken lunch.”
Rossman and other chefs put on assemblies at schools, have after-school “Iron Chef” competitions and set up food stations at lunchtime to educate students on healthy alternatives, such as fish tacos and hamburgers.
“Kids get excited when chefs are involved,” he said. “There’s a different kind of energy on campus.”
Unfortunately, busy chefs don’t have much time to donate. One of the projects Rossman’s group is working on is finding funds to compensate chefs so they can spend the time it will take to affect real change. They’re working on establishing a nonprofit that would accept donations and serve as a clearinghouse for questions and ideas about all aspects of school and community gardening.
Not only does his cookbook advocate healthy eating, it also encourages healthy buying. Rossman uses his cookbook to guide cooks who are used to starting with a recipe and finding groceries to accommodate it to instead buy whatever fresh produce is available and then look for or create a recipe.
“It really opens up your mind and your thought process to think the other way and find different applications,” he said.
To illustrate his point, at a recent farmers market demonstration he sautéed joy choi, red onions, garlic, spinach, sweet peppers and summer squash in freshly pressed olive oil with salt and pepper and served them over grits. Asked what he would do with an abundance of kale, he responded that he’d sauté it with olive oil or blanch the leaves like cabbage and stuff them.
“You can do anything with vegetables,” he said. “It just depends on what kinds of spices and oils and vinegars you have in your pantry. Make a nice risotto or pasta with vegetables—really good and really healthy.”
“From Terra’s Table” is available from the restaurant’s website, terrasd.com; the publisher’s website, chefspress.com; all major bookstores; and amazon.com. Rossman would also like to invite interested parties who want to become involved with his school lunch crusade to e-mail him at [email protected].
