Slow food is a thing, and these locals do it right
The snail has spoken. And the snail approves.
The little animal known for its lack of speed is the appropriate symbol for the Slow Food movement, and the namesake for its Snail of Approval awards. The Cincinnati chapter of the international organization has honored 10 local restaurants, farms, artisans and organizations or people with the local awards. They'll be recognized at a dinner and ceremony on Oct. 24.
If you don't know what Slow Food is, the easiest way to understand it is as the opposite of fast food. It's the traditional, the artisanal, the local, the sustainable, and importantly, the delicious.
So the awards evening will be an occasion to celebrate the existence in Greater Cincinnati of a new attitude toward food that considers everything that goes into producing it, all the impacts it has on people, the environment and local producers and their passion for honest delicious eating.
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Megan Gambrill, chair of the board of the local chapter, said the three words that define the awards are good (delicious, nutritious), clean (sustainable), and fair (to the people who produce it). Those ideals put it at odds with the current food system, which puts cheap, subsidized food at the center.
"You know, when you go to the grocery store, that food is cheap because your tax dollars have made it cheap through farm subsidies," she said. "The food at a farmers market seems expensive, but it's the real price of the food."
So the Snail of Approval designees are making a special effort to operate counter to that system, to do things differently, take a risk and take into account the impacts of what they do.
Any restaurant, producer or farmer who meets a set of criteria based on the food, clean, fair standards can earn a designation.
"We want to bring attention to these businesses because we think the most effective way we can make changes are with our purse," said Gambrill. "By going to places making the choices I want to see in the world, I'm allowing those businesses to thrive and make a difference."
This year, they've also named a couple of local luminaries who've addressed a key problem in the food system and have come up with effective ways to address it.
These are the 2016 award winners:
Restaurants:
Maribelle's Eat + Drink
This restaurant in Oakley uses local ingredients and prepares them in an open kitchen for complete transparency. They also promote community within the food scene with events like their "Food Fights" with local chefs.
Red Feather Kitchen
Also in Oakley, Red Feather serves an American bistro menu, with no processed food and lots of local sources.
The Rookwood
In Mount Adams, The Rookwood preserves a historic Cincinnati building where famous Rookwood pottery was made and brings a similar hand-made, Cincinnati ethos to its food.
Salazar
A bistro in Over-the-Rhine with a farm-inspired, seasonally-changing menu.
Farms
Finn Meadows Farm
Started in Montgomery, this farm raises cattle and chicken and hogs as well as produce with a holistic approach aims to be a closed circle, with few inputs from outside the farm. It is now the centerpiece of an agricommunity in Warren County.
Running Creek Farm
A farm in Mount Healthy that grows beautiful produce and 12 kinds of garlic on about an acre, using innovative techniques. They sell at Northside and Hyde Park markets.
Food Artisans
Blue Oven Bakery
Using an oven that burns wood from their farm, with natural yeast sponges and some grain they grow themselves, this bread bakery turns out a wide variety of delicious, traditionally-made bread.
FAB Ferments
This tiny company is committed to traditional fermentation techniques. When they make kombucha the "right" way, it can sometimes go above .5 percent alcohol, so they got a brewer's license rather than change their methods. Their kombucha, pickles, sauerkraut and kvass are now certified organic.
Local luminaries
Suzy DeYoung - La Soupe
De Young has taken on the huge problem of food waste by collecting slightly less than perfect produce and turning it into delicious soup, much donated to soup kitchens and food pantries.
Rachel DesRochers - Northern Kentucky Incubator Kitchen
She has created a space for budding food entrepreneurs to get their businesses off the ground. She also serves as a mentor and advisor.
If you go
Snail of Approval awards and dinner by the bite with food from some of the winners and from members of the Incubator Kitchen and "rescued" soup from La Soupe
When: 6-9 p.m., Oct. 24
Where: Rhinegeist Brewery's event space, 1910 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine
Price: $30 members; $40 non-members, $300 table for 10
Purchase/information: www.slowfoodcincinnati.org