Here’s an interview with Wil Wilbur, a culinary student of Collin:

• How did you become a student at our program?
  • I was visiting with a class from high school and heard about the culinary program deciding to join Collin College!
• Name three things you enjoy most in life.
  • Sleeping, Hanging out, Rock Climbing
• Who is your hero?
  • Ben Pentecost
• Where do you get food when you are hungry?
  • Anywhere, I’m not a picky (sp?) eater, if I’m hungry I’ll stop and grab something wherever I am.
• Last movie you saw.
  • Righteous Kill
• If you have a good sum of money what will you buy?
  • Gifts for my girlfriend, more knives for my knife kit, climbing gear.
• What qualities you look for in making new friends?
  • Honest, relaxed, cool people who are just themselves.
• Tell us your favorite subject/class at Collin.
  • Anything in the kitchen. I love cooking, and working/learning in the kitchen isn’t a job or work, its fun.
• What’s in your MP3 player?
  • A whole lot of random, but quite a bit of classic rock.
• Where will you be and what will you be doing in five years?
  • Hopefully I will be working in a large scale kitchen, planning how I’m going to open my own restaurant.
• What we don’t know about you?
  • Well this would defeat the purpose of not knowing now wouldn’t it?

Book Review from www.cheftalk.com:
A Collection of fine Baking, the recipes of Young Mo Kim

By: Chef Michelle Brown

Over the years the term “fusion” in culinary terms, has meant heretofore unimagined delights; a blend of cultures through savory meats, spices, vegetables and starches, exotic noodles with homey spices. Not so much fusing of the Candied Chestnuts with the humble Green Tea Muffin, Yule logs and Stolen from South Korea or a Green Tea Chiffon Cake.
Let me explain, when Pastry Chef Young Mo Kim was a boy in South Korea, the price of flour was very high and western style desserts were meant only for the very wealthy.  At the age of 17 when he decided to work with desserts and touched the flour for the first time he knew, this was his destiny.  It was in a small bakery in Seoul, hearing the praise of the customers for his beautiful work, Kim dedicated his life to the pursuit of learning, mastering and teaching the art of pastry. He now has the designation of being the president of the Korean Bakers Association, lauded as one of the most successful and artistic bakers in Korea.  He has four bakeries and a café, is a celebrity television chef in Korea and with this, his third baking cookery book is the first in English.

As a teacher of both professional bakers and home bakers Chef Kim has transformed many of his prized formulas for the small batch baker, the home baker.  Rather than being intimidating, his book shows the true mark of a great teacher with over 1000 pictures and step by step instructions and cool clear formulas. For the fans of Anime, there are sweet characters from the bakery “Navie” to enchant younger bakers while stating helpful hints for the first time baker.

Chef Kim’s training in Tokyo, France and Germany influence his formulas. Light, clean Asian flavors and alternative ingredients pair up with the lush richness of European desserts and breads. A Collection of Fine Baking is divided into sections, if followed will ease the novice baker into a sure footed expert baker! In the hands of a professional or accomplished home baker, the combinations and subtleties will expand the repertoire with impressive results.

“Simple Delights” opens the book with formulas for cookies, brownies and something I have not seen in many years, the lovely Petite Four, Honey Financier.  Moving on to the next selection “A World of Breads” in which you will find a Basic Croissant with excellent step by step explanation of Lamination and the proper sizing and rolling for the perfect Croissant;  followed by Anything but “basic” Muffins, Bagels, Bread, Brioche and even Gugelhuph.

For desserts “Fantastic Desserts” brings the baker into the finer things in life; Choux Paste to Soufflé with Peppermint Pudding in the mix. Now what I love about the layout of the book is that you get the basic American Pie dough and Mille-feuille in the same chapter. You can see the relationship between basic and advance dough’s, batters and techniques.

“Cakes for Special Occasions” again builds upon the basics, the Genoise method of sponge cake blossoms into a masterpiece with sumptuous creams, fruits and meringues. “Valentine’s Day” and “Holiday Treats” round out the book with Pave, Chocolate Tempering and the most adorable winter holiday treats. The decorations on the Special Occasion Cakes were more sophisticated than those of the Holiday Treats, perhaps to encourage family activity during a special time of year!

Whether you are a hands-on learner or inspired by visuals or just love to follow a solid formula, Chef Kim has shared his knowledge in a most thorough manner.  A Collection of Fine Baking, the recipes of Young Mo Kim, is a wonderful book that anyone with a desire to bake will find indispensible!

It’s Time to Get Back to the (Sustainable) Garden
By Chef Cheryl Lewis

If you choose to eat mass-produced fast food, you are supporting a network of supply and demand that is destroying local communities and traditional ways of life all over the world – a system that replaces self-sufficiency with dependence.  And you are supporting a method of agriculture that is ecologically unsound – that depletes the soil, and leaves harmful chemical residues in our food – Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse

The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service defines sustainable agriculture as “… one that produces abundant food without depleting the earth’s resources or polluting its environment”.  Sustainable farmers look to nature as their guide to raise crops and livestock that are naturally sustainable.  “Sustainable agriculture is also the agriculture of social values, one whose success is indistinguishable from vibrant rural communities, rich lives for families on the farm, and wholesome food for everyone”. While pre-Columbian Native Americans viewed the earth as belonging to everyone - to be respected and certainly to be grateful for, European colonists were content to be greedy.  The Dust Bowl, depicted in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, is the best example of how settlers overused the soil, resulting in unusable land that blew away in the wind – creating economic and social devastation.  In this article, we will look at what I call “the WalMart growers”, who treat farming as a manufacturing business, and at businesses like Lundberg Farms, who worship the land and soil – and the social environment.

Larger issues motivate sustainable agriculture – the world economy, energy reserves, and the security of our domestic food, but it’s the small farmers, environmentalists, and agricultural scientists and engineers who are facilitating the task.  It’s these “little people” that witnessed the devastation that late 20th-Century farming was causing to the very means of agricultural production – the land and the soil. This group of dedicated people know that we must take a more pantheistic view of our land – that is, not try to overproduce the land, using an industrial approach.  Rather, we must employ methods based on the ecology, also called natural, organic, low-input, alternative, regenerative, holistic, biodynamic, biointensive, and biological farming systems.

The “WalMart approach” stresses high production; degrading soil and water, reducing the biodiversity that is a key element to food security, and increases our dependence on imported oil.  It also drives more and more acres of land into the hands of fewer and fewer real farmers, crippling rural communities.  Huge corporations should not have the right to destroy lives. California has a lot to lose; in that it supplies the US, almost exclusively, with so many produce items – lettuce, artichokes, garlic, and broccoli – the list goes on and on. 

The small farmers of California are taking a stand, in the local markets, often selling directly to consumers.  As the smaller farms are becoming more successful in creating alternatives to industrial agriculture, “creating and serving new markets remains one of the key challenges for sustainable agriculture”, according to the NSAIS.  Marketing and distribution really is the key.  Consumers need to be trained to scorn Wal-Mart and other large corporations, as they don’t represent the best interests of the consumer anyway.

The Lundberg family, of Lundberg Family Farms, found out for themselves the devastating effects of over-farming the soil – they were victims of the Dust Bowl in Nebraska, during the 1930’s.  Because they had to watch their soil literally blow away, the Lundbergs have always had great respect for soil, and the importance of preserving it.  They grow organic products, but even their non-organic products now carry the “Eco-Farmed” label, to relay to the consumer their dedication to farming in a way that is beneficial to the living environment.  From their website (www.lundberg.com), “Eco-Farmed products preserve and protect natural resources by utilizing a combination of modern and heritage farming techniques designed to reduce agriculture’s environmental impact”.  Their methods protect wildlife and the environment, and maintain soil fertility.  According to Homer Lundberg (on the website), the Eco-Farmed program includes the following innovative environmental measures:

• Returning the rice straw to the fields (as opposed to burning it), with enriches the soil and improves air quality.
• Rotating nitrogen-fixing crops into the fields to improve soil fertility.
• Using the least amount of chemical pest controls, and only when strictly necessary, to help preserve water and air quality, and to help maintain soil fertility.
• The use of green power in Lundberg’s offices and processing facility lessen the environmental footprint.

Green Power is environmentally friendly, renewable energy.  According to their website, Lundberg Family Farms “offsets 100 percent of its energy use through the purchase of wind energy certificates.  They rank among the first in the state of California in renewable energy purchases, and number one in the rice industry.
Lundberg Family Farms gets its water from the Feather River.  They pay less for the water because it doesn’t have to travel far, and they are dedicated to keeping their water source pure. The Lundberg’s are already living the lessons of the School of Agro-Ecology at UC Santa Cruz - that the primary ecological concern for all growers is the water supply, which can be so easily contaminated.

Next month, we will take a look at the 14-acre organic farm at UC Santa Cruz, along with organic farms right here in Texas.  As we close here, please take a look at “The Farmer’s Pledge”, created by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York – to help consumers identify the farms that they want to support:
The Farmer’s Pledge (NOFA-NY)

• Reject the use of synthetic insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers;
• Reject the use of GMOs, chemically treated seeds, synthetic toxic materials, irradiation, and sewage sludge;
• Treat livestock humanely by providing pasture for ruminants, access to outdoors and fresh air for all livestock, banning cruel alterations, and using no hormones or antibiotics in feed;
• Support agricultural markets and infrastructures that enable small farms to survive;
• Maintain and build healthy soils by farming practices that include rotating crops annually, using compost, cover crops, green manures, and reducing tillage;
• Conserve natural resources by reducing erosion and pollution of air, soil and water through responsible farming practices;
• Maximize the nutritional value of food and feed by practicing careful post harvest handling;
• Practice minimal processing for all food products to preserve the natural nutritional value of food: NO use of irradiation, ultra-pasteurization, excessive heat, synthetic preservatives, or GMO processing agents or additives;
• Reduce the ecological footprint of farms and homes by limiting energy use and converting to renewable sources of energy;
• Reduce food miles by selling produce locally and regionally;
• Create beneficial habitat for wildlife and encourage biodiversity;
• Help preserve farmland and farming know-how;
• Ensure food safety by using potable water for washing crops;
• Handle raw manure and soil amendments with care;
• Use ethical business practices;
• Pay a living wage to all farm workers and acknowledge their freedom of association and their right to collective bargaining;
• Treat family members and farm workers with respect, and ensure their safety on the farm;
• Work in cooperation with other farmers and with the neighboring community to create a more sustainable way of life;
• Sustain the land in healthy condition for future generations