Before the dawn of television, and long before the invention of reality TV programming, chefs were simply cooks. They innovated with never-to-be-revealed recipes, cooked great food and fed hundreds of patrons in their restaurants, banquet halls and diners.
But under the bright lights of television, chefs began to radiate as celebrities. Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet were among the first to attract loyal TV fans. Many star chefs followed in the floury footsteps of these simmering celebrities. Book contracts, endorsement deals, cameos in films, and vast social media audiences followed in quick succession. Soon celebrity chefs had their own reality shows, traveling the world to sample its immense cornucopia of foods, often while offering opinions on everything from art to politics. While it may be entertaining to know what a celebrity chef thinks about the latest kawaii fashion in Japan or omnibus bill in Congress, their impact is most powerful when they advocate for the purity of food. The ultimate achievement for these chefs is no longer a third Michelin star or a frying pan named in their honour, but rather the chance to educate, persuade and lead by example. Among this new breed is chef Bradford Heap, owner of the legendary Salt the Bistro and Colterra restaurants, south of the border in Colorado. Several years ago he and a group of his Boulder-area colleagues pledged to make their restaurants free of GMO (genetically modified organism) ingredients. The move was easier said than done. Murky supply chains sometimes made finding the true source of ingredients nearly impossible. Key substitutions forced price increases on the menu. And GMO ingredients were seemingly everywhere. “The way that the biotech companies go about creating and selling these seeds, controlling the market and promoting pesticide use, creating super-weeds and more pesticides, contributing to bee colony collapse disorder … I don’t want to support that with my restaurants,” he told Organic Connections magazine. The chef relies heavily on local suppliers to keep his ingredients pure. The partnerships he has forged get plenty of hands-on attention — literally. The chef and his staff pitch in to cultivate the crops that will ultimately appear on Salt the Bistro and Colterra plates. The chef explained that his new role has been enlightening, as well as incredibly rewarding: “There’s a deep humility to farming, to be physically out there; it’s tough. When you put a seed in the ground and nurture it, grow it, and see it to the table, that makes me feel successful. It’s so much bigger than ‘me.’ Growing foods and doing my part to raise awareness around GMOs gives me a greater purpose than just being a successful chef with several restaurants.” Does Chef Heap have an opinion on Italian cinema, or a story to tell about the time he got a tattoo in Chiang Mai? Probably not, which is a relief to anyone who loves great cooking and consuming delicious food. Instead, he is making a real difference in his own restaurants, for people that he knows by name. |
AuthorJason Hill is a respected entrepreneur and innovator who learned important lessons about life, business and success growing up in Six Nations, Ontario. Archives
January 2023
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