Cristeta Comerford, head chef at the White House at a dinner in an Amish barn where raw milk was served. Photo by Richard Hertzler, Lancaster Online.
Health Impact News Editor Comments:
The Club des Chefs des Chefs, known as the world’s most exclusive gastronomic society, recently gathered in an Amish barn in Pennsylvania. In attendance were some of the world’s most renowned chefs including: the queen of England’s chef, chef to His Highness Prince Albert II, of Monaco, two chefs who serve Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano, and President Obama’s chef, Cristeta Comerford.
Among the local organic food that was served to these distinguished chefs by Amish farmer Leroy Miller, was raw milk. Lancaster Online has a great video of the event. Did any of these chefs refuse the Amish raw milk? We don’t know, but I doubt it. These were chefs, not politicians. Unfortunately, however, locally-produced farm food has become a huge political issue in recent times.
Back in 2011, the Obama administration decided the FDA should prosecute Amish raw milk farmer Dan Allgyer in Pennsylvania, carrying out a sting operation against him and putting him out of business. His crime was supplying raw milk to a private food club just a few miles away, but across the Pennsylvania state border. The incident prompted a demonstration in Washington D.C.
Besides the politics surrounding the health benefits/risks of raw milk, many chefs and “foodies,” particularly in other cultures outside the U.S., are very familiar with using raw milk as an integral part of high-quality cuisine. What few people in the U.S. understand, is that raw milk is not simply “raw” (e.g. not pasteurized), but it is a “whole food” – an unadulterated food. Most Americans, who have been fooled into thinking that “fat is bad” for generations now, think that “whole milk” is something in the grocery store that is distinguished from “skim milk” or “2% milk.” The “whole milk” in most grocery stores is typically 4% fat, but it is not an unadulterated product. The milk has been processed, and the fat added back in (along with some other things such as synthetic vitamin D.)
Right now, as I sit here typing out my comments, I have a gallon of pure Jersey (100% grass-fed) raw milk that I obtained directly from a farm two days ago (our family has consumed most of the first gallon already!), and the cream separation in that gallon is about 25 to 30% of the jug. That is REAL “whole milk”! And well-educated chefs fully know the difference! I am fortunate to currently be in Texas, a state that allows one to drive to the farm and purchase raw milk.
Raw milk from grass-fed Jersey cows.
In California, raw milk is actually legal to sell in retail locations, if one meets all the requirements. In 2011, we visited Claravale, a small licensed raw milk dairy operated by Ron Garthwaite. Ron originally got started in the raw milk business to supply the demand in northern California among what is known as “The Bay Area” or “Berkeley Crowd,” that are primarily made up of “foodies.” Ron himself does not get caught up in all the politics surrounding raw milk, but is motivated primarily to simply supply a quality raw milk product from his Jersey cows to top chefs and foodies, mostly in the Bay area, but also distributed throughout California. He believes in doing things the “old fashioned” way, so his dairy herd is small, and he still bottles in glass jars. It is by far the best milk available in California!
Will the major players in the industrial mass-produced and heavily subsidized food system that runs America allow direct access to farm-fresh food? The movement towards community sustainable agriculture and local foods is definitely an economic threat to the current system. But, for at least one day, the chefs of the politicians who often protect the Industrial Food system gathered together in an Amish barn to enjoy REAL food!
See Also: Both Romney and Obama Eat Organic While Pushing GMOs for Others
Top chefs from around the world dine in Amish barn in Bird-in-Hand
By CINDY STAUFFER
Lancasteronline.com
Excerpts:
Yes, they partake of cocktails and a gala dinner at the tony Union Club on Park Avenue in New York, and lunch at the United Nations and the White House during their visit. But on a recent fresh summer day, the chefs of the heads of state from all over the globe gather for chicken croquettes, succotash, whoopie pies and other local dishes at an Amish barn in East Lampeter Township.
Little Amish girls in plain dresses giggle and peek from behind the pillars at the chefs in their crisp white coats, the collars decorated with flags from a panoply of nations: Sri Lanka, China, Poland, Germany, Denmark, France.
The group is The Club des Chefs des Chefs, known as the world’s most exclusive gastronomic society.
The queen of England’s chef is in this barn, as is the chef to His Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco. President Obama’s chef, her collar bearing the stars and stripes, sits across from two chefs wearing the tricolor green, white and red flag of Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
Their host, Amish farmer Leroy Miller, begins the lunch the way his people do, with a blessing, and the group falls silent, under the spell of this moment and this day — a breeze ruffling the simple white tablecloths and wafting a homey smell of pot roast and gravy. What follows is a meal of simple food, grown and produced organically by a local Amish cooperative, and served family-style by folks who include a gray-bearded man balancing a pig-tailed toddler on one hip. The international chefs are, quite simply, undone.
Miller, the host and dairy manager at Oasis, says he sees a shift back to a society where food is a foundation, locally produced and consumed. “The culture in this community is switching back to our roots,” he says.
It’s happening around the world as well.
