He sees his restaurant as "in the vernacular of Momofuku — urban, chef-driven," and unlike the competition, most of which he sees as "nostalgia-driven".
But places like Fish and Game are the first to bring urban chefs' ideas of farm-to-table back to the land.
Most urban chefs get Cajun food right to roughly the same degree that Hollywood actors manage to reproduce faithful Southern regional accents — which is to say, almost never.
Professionals like Ms. Hezel and Tama Matsuoka Wong, the well-respected forager who supplies the New York restaurants Daniel, Acme and Gramercy Tavern, have risen to connect urban chefs to an interesting suite of new ingredients.
About 40 urban chefs and ramp enthusiasts love them so much that this year they made their way to the Spence Farm in Fairbury, Ill., about 100 miles south of Chicago, for a ramp dig.
The "Amazon pantry" offers endless opportunities for culinary exploration, allowing urban chefs to draw attention to a part of the world that many people may never get to visit while at the same time improving livelihoods and preserving traditions among the people who know it best.
It's time for the food movement -- organic producers, rural farming communities, urban foodies, chefs, parents, policy makers, and everyone who cares about the food they eat -- to stop Dow Chemical and their "Agent Orange" crops.
Also coming are Shin-Sen-Gumi, Urban Ramen, and chef Mako Tanaka of JuJuYa, all of Los Angeles San Franciscoo's Men Oh; Kaido from Las Vegas Hawaiii's Kamitoku; and from Japan, Osaka Ramen Collabo (Osaka), Tatsunoya (Kurume), Wakamusha (Fukushima) and Kin-To-Un (Kagoshima).
On Monday February 27, tens of thousands of people -- including farmers and food workers, parents and students, urban gardeners and chefs -- will participate in a Global Day of Action to Occupy our Food Supply.
