The Farm to Table Movement
And How it Inspires the Full-Inclusion Flour Movement
As a leader in the full-inclusion flour movement, I take inspiration from many big foodie movements of the past. The most influential one to me, of course, is the one that started at Chez Panisse. The humble-seeming restaurant in Berkely, California was responsible for the development and emergence of a little food movement we like to call “farm to table.” Under the direction of founder and chef Alice Waters, Chez Panisse turned away from the Big Ag system which had become the status quo, favoring the freshest local ingredients and prioritizing seasonality. While Chez Panisse was and still is a physical representation of the farm to table movement, its biggest accomplishment isn’t tied to the restaurant itself. Rather, how Chez Panisse really left its mark was by training and inspiring a new generation of chefs who carried the farm to table movement into the 21st century.
One such chef is Claire Ptak, the founder and owner of Violet Bakery in London, England. I had the pleasure of visiting Violet Bakery a few years ago, and it was an incredible experience. To me, what makes an excellent bakery is the ability to balance simplicity with complexity, a key tenant of the farm to table movement. In order for a simple dish or baked good to be excellent, each ingredient must be the best it can be. There’s nowhere to hide an underripe, out of season fruit or veggie. From perfect simplicity, complexity can be a conscious choice, not a cop-out. Some of the recipes at Violet Bakery are effortlessly simple, yet perfect. Others are more complex, using unique ingredients at the peak of freshness. This shows real skill, the kind of skill I would expect from one of Alice Water’s proteges.
A key question that determines the success of any movement, especially a food movement, is scalability. Most people will never have the opportunity to visit Chez Panisse or Violet Bakery, (although if you’re ever in Berkely or London, I highly recommend trying your best to do so) but everyone can be inspired by the values these places uphold. Some people, such as myself, use that inspiration to create their own bakery. Others, especially those who value time off and a good sleep schedule, are inspired to bring elements of the farm to table philosophy to their home baking and cooking.
Part of why the farm to table movement has been scalable is that there are many resources available that teach the fundamentals of farm to table baking and cooking. There are a number of Chez Panisse cookbooks that are fabulous resources, my favorite of which is Chez Panisse Fruit. Clair Ptak has also written several books, and my favorite of hers is (of course) The Violet Bakery Cookbook. Other Chez Panisse alums include Samin Nosrat who wrote Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and Dan Barber who wrote The Third Plate. These books are excellent resources, and they allow the farm to table movement to transcend the physical limitations of what a single brick and mortar space can accommodate.
As the full-inclusion flour movement emerges, I believe we can all be inspired by the success of the farm to table movement. Success, though, is not just measured by how much store-bought white flour we replace with locally milled whole grains. It’s also measured by the degree to which we inspire the next generation of bakers to bring their own ideas and techniques to further the movement in ways we could never even imagine. Writing, reading, baking, and eating are all essential parts of this work, and what could be more fun?
