If the west coast (and now, the nation) looks to Chez Panisse as the spark of a food revolution, the east coast (if not the nation) looks to the Moosewood as the first place that taught many how to eat well on a sustainable vegetarian diet. When I was working on my graduate degree at Cornell University I loved to tell anyone who cared to listen that I lived one block down and around the corner from the famed restaurant. It is probably no accident that by the time I reached Berkeley, CA for further graduate study this "fried chicken and ribs Brooklyn kid" had transitioned to a diet that was 85% vegetarian (I never did give up fish and proscuitto).
Well times have changed and I am as likely to enjoy a nicely grilled pasture-raised porkchop as I am to dive into teriyaki tofu. Times have changed for the Moosewood too. After 32 years they are still in their original spot in a rapidly expanding downtown Ithaca, but they have expanded their cookbook offerings and a frozen soup line to make their food and their philosophy accessible to all. Now, it seems as if I've come full-circle: on my most recent visit to the Moosewood on Tuesday I accompanied four Syracuse University students on my leadership team on their pilgrimage to this sacred place. Ah...another generation is transformed.
Meanwhile, yesterday's New York Times had an article on the front page of the Dining In section reporting on the farm to school connection (yet another piece of the Alice Water's legacy). Most folks who know me know of my desire to change the food system on the Syracuse University campus to reflect more healthy, locally-sourced options. What a nice surprise, then, to read of successful efforts noted in the school districts of Owego and Whitney Point (just west and north of Binghamton, respectively).
Yes, we have a long way to go on some of these issues in Central New York. But signs of hope abound.
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