Another great part of my job (aside from getting to meet local farmers)? Getting to meet local chefs and then taking pictures of them making delicious food (and trying it!). These photos were taken at L’etoile in Charlottesville for a feature I wrote for PEC’s upcoming Buy Fresh Buy Local guide. I haven’t gotten to eat at L’etoile yet, but after the interview and sampling some of their delicious food… It’s on my schedule. As in, I’m going there next week.
My favorite part about it is the owner made it very clear that, while he uses the “Country French” style of cooking, he does not run a French restaurant. L’etoile, according to him, is a Virginian restaurant with a French flair. When you see all of the locally grown food on his menu, you know what he means. L’etoile does not go out looking for products to meet the demands of a French menu. They buy fresh, local food and then use French techniques to enhance the local flavor.
AND, when I say they use local food, I don’t just mean local farms. They work with a number of farms, but they also encourage local residents to bring in some of their home-grown goods and L’etoile will cook ‘em up for you! Not to mention that the restaurant has it’s own garden out back, and the Chef is known to forage for things such as fiddleheads. Not sayin’, just sayin.
This is L'etoile's Beet Salad with Pistachio Encrusted Goat Cheese. Micro greens from a local farm, radishes from L'etoile's garden, slivered asparagus from a local resident's home garden... need I say more?
L'etoile's Spring Salad -- featuring local greens and veggies wrapped in a cucumber bowl. And the Fiddleheads you see there? Foraged by the chef.
The Chef (artist?) Ian Redshaw sprinkles some house made chive reduction sauce (or something like that... I forgot) on the plate for the finishing touches on his Spring Greens Salad.
