The Vision: A Sustainable Restaurant

Cooking Up a Story: Stories

Creating a restaurant from the ground up is an ambitious endeavor in itself. To base the theme of such a restaurant around locally produced food, good land stewardship, and preserving social tastes is even more grand. Stu Stein, owner of Terroir (pronounced, tεʀwaʀ, in French) shares his philosophy and vision.

I was having coffee not too long ago with a friend, and she asked if I knew about the cookbook, The Sustainable Kitchen, and the guy behind it, Stu Stein. I liked the title, and what I would think would be the idea behind the title: bringing sustainable practices into an everyday kitchen. This is something I wanted to do, not just for me in my simple quest to becoming greener, but to live in a way that became natural, and second nature, to my family too. It was the way I was living back in the 70’s and 80’s, but somewhere along the way, I got further away from it. I thought this might be a way to revisit that way of cooking and preparing meals and snacks.

When I got home I researched the book and Mr. Stein; what I discovered was a man working toward bringing the sustainable way of living into everyday life. Upon checking out his website, I found he was building a restaurant, literally from the ground up. Wow. That had to be a lot of work. I’ve lived through a kitchen remodel, and that was stressful enough, but a whole building, a whole concept? That got me thinking and wondering, and, again, I wanted to know more.

I was also interested in seeing what his cookbook offered. So, between teaching classes and creating a new restaurant, he demonstrated one of his favorites, in this cooking video: Dungeness Crab and Fuji Apple Salad with Curry Mayonnaise Lots of good stuff in it, and not so hard to make. Well, I admit, I put the mixer to work when it came to making the mayonnaise. This was another one of those items I used to make all the time from scratch, but stopped years ago. The flavor of homemade mayonnaise is so different from that of the general store-bought kind. It took me back.

Enjoy the show, learn how to make a great dish, and check out the new recipes. I’ve been remodeling the site, so to speak, let me know what you think! I even got the gumption to go in front of the camera…scroll through Food News. Can you find me?

Check out the recipes from this show: Game Hen en Cocotte with Sweet Potato Bread; Dungeness Crab and Fuji Apple with Curry Mayonnaise; and Cornmeal Fried Oysters with a Salad of Organic Greens and Lemon-Caper Aioli.

—Rebecca

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