Facing Your Food

Day 2 of our divisional chef conference at Heritage Prairie Farm focused on connections. 

Owner Bronwyn Weaver and I wanted the chefs to experience first hand how food - in this case chickens - go from peeps to appearing on plates.  Connecting with the product this way might give us a greater respect for their value in our kitchens.

Several of our chefs were raised on farms or have someone in their family who has a farm.  They already knew the value of raising chickens on all natural grains with access to green grass, fresh water and sunshine. 

The whole process went smoothly -no chickens running around without a head or blood spurting every which way. 

We carefully placed the birds upside down in a cone with an open end to expose their head. The veins on the side of their neck were cut and the chicken quickly dies. It was a surprisingly speedy and quiet process.

But for someone who has never been exposed to this process, myself included, it gives us a new respect and appreciation for the animals raised for the meat we purchase and consume.

At the end of the day, the chef teams choose their recipes and competed in an Iron Chef competition using the fresh chickens as the not so secret ingredient.  The results were spectacular.  It doesn’t get any fresher than this.