农业+生活方式

休·艾奇逊

发布于2023年8月31日上午12:00

Chef 休·艾奇逊 has made a career of sourcing locally and cooking seasonally

Long before “farm to table” became part of the common lexicon at locally-minded restaurants around the nation, Chef 休·艾奇逊 was putting its principles into action at Five & 10个在乔治亚州的雅典.

“格鲁吉亚不仅是一个农业大州, but Athens in particular has a bounty of stuff that people weren’t focusing on. 我的餐厅 & 十家公司打开了本地购买的大门. 我就是这样在食物中长大的. We bought as much locally as possible — venison and cheese, greens in season — and so I wanted to translate that same idea to Georgia and Athens,他说.

艾奇逊在加拿大渥太华出生并长大. 

“I come from a very academic family, and I’m the black sheep. At 16 I started cooking in restaurants, then dropped out of college and continued cooking. It was the place where I felt I belonged,” said the now 51-year-old.

His culinary journey includes working under Chef Rob MacDonald in Ottawa where he learned stylized French cuisine, 酒与礼仪. Acheson moved to Athens with his then-wife in 1996 so that she could complete graduate work at the University of Georgia. 在那之后, he spent time in San Francisco as the chef de cuisine with Chef Mike Fennelly at Mecca, and later worked as opening sous chef with famed Chef Gary Danko at his namesake restaurant.

In 2000 he found himself back in Athens, opening Five & Ten, which became renown for cooking seasonally and sourcing ingredients locally. Both of those themes have continued to dominate Acheson’s work.

“Cooking with the seasons brightens and enhances life and makes it less staid. You have to be enraptured with the idea of following the cadence of the season, 要知道如果你这么做了, 你实际上是在支持农民,他说.

期待秋天, for Acheson that means translating summer’s crops into preserves and pickles and opening the door to squash, 菜花, 西兰花和苦蔬菜.

“Every season has its bounty — even winter in Georgia has a lot to offer — but fall is a beautiful season,他说. “If you’re not eating North Georgia apples in October, then you’re missing out.”

随着他事业的发展, Acheson opened The National with fellow chef Peter Dale in 2007, Atlanta restaurant Empire State South in 2010 and coffee shop Spiller Park Coffee in 2015. In 2021, in partnership with Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Miramar Beach, 佛罗里达, Acheson and his team created and curated all menus for the resort’s restaurant, Ovide.

只有奥维德和五家餐厅 & 10个仍在运作, 艾奇逊有更多的时间用于烹饪, writing cookbooks and helping his staff connect more deeply with food and local farms.

他的员工经常去酿酒厂和有机农场, 养猪场和牛肉生产设施, 举几个例子.

“I want the staff to understand where the food we serve comes from and the people behind it. 看看农场运作及其运作方式, our staff can create a narrative when talking to customers. Our cooks and chefs understand that this food didn’t just appear, 有人把它从地上捡起来了. 如果他们理解背后的劳动和支持, 然后他们会更加珍惜它, 并且知道他们不想浪费太多的时间,艾奇逊说. “加, 我希望它们投资于本地采购, especially when you understand that farmers are involved in the economic cycle. Buying from local farmers supports local schools and local employment.”

He credits his passionate staff as the reason patrons have kept coming back to places like Five & 十多年了.

“我们有惊人的, supportive clientele and a core staff with great value systems in hospitality and authenticity,他说. “我们提供特别的饮料和食物，真的, really good and sourced in all the right ways — ethical, integral to our community and constantly trying to get better. If we prove that to our repeat client base, they’ll come every week. 我们知道我们不是最便宜的餐厅, 但是善待员工的成本, supporting the local economy and working in this beautiful space is not a cheap endeavor.”

One thing Acheson stressed is that supporting local farmers isn’t as expensive as many people think, and most farmers markets in Georgia will double Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) dollars for low-income families. SNAP is a USDA program that provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food.

“There’s a false narrative of food at farmers markets being expensive. Doubling SNAP dollars puts market prices into a competitive realm with what grocery stores will sell you. 这是战略性的和明智的. When you buy at a big box store, you may never really know where the food is coming from. Big chicken and huge produce companies will show pictures of great farms, but we in Georgia also have real woodland gardens and bucolic places that need to be supported because they are doing the right thing. 我们应该在这方面进行投资。.

最重要的是, he encourages people to experience locally-sourced food for themselves — whether it’s at one of his two restaurants or on their own.

“When driving around Georgia, people need to open up their eyes and see what’s growing. You’d be amazed at what’s coming out of our local fields, and we need to support that,他说. “When you go shopping, look at the tags that say where things come from. If you have choices of four brands of blueberries, pick the Georgia blueberries every time. 你不会后悔的.”

With his children now grown and living in Canada for college, Acheson admitted he didn’t know where life might take him. But he is sure of one thing: “I’ll always have very strong ties to Georgia, 不管我在不在这里. This place has meant a ton to me in my career and in my life.”