Serving up food ethics that are easily digestible
Local chefs share resources, set aside competition to help work toward greater good
Chef Guy Rawlings doesn’t look or act much like a food activist.
At his restaurant, Montgomery’s, he sources every ingredient from local farmers and foragers. The rest he makes himself. He knows where each item comes from: who grew it, slaughtered it, found it or made it. But he’s not preachy about it.
“Guy and I have always said that we didn’t want to preach about our val- ues and shove food ethics down people’s throats,” says manager Kim Montgomery Rawlings.
The Rawlings are part of a growing coterie of young Toronto chef-restaurateurs keen on sustainability. Last week, they participated in Trashed and Wasted, a public tasting of rescued and reclaimed food that brought together chefs, brewers and distillers.
“Ethics aren’t exactly sexy, and that’s not what people really want to think about when they go out to eat. But it isn’t hard for us spread the news about some amazing projects. Despite being a competitive market, I am happy to introduce producers to other restaurants and chefs who might also be interested in working together.”
This co-operative mentality has really taken off over the past decade or so.
“Pre-2005, even if a chef did have a good local food supply, they wouldn’t share it,” says Arlene Stein, founder of the Terroir Food Symposium, a forum for the industry. “But when the Slow Food movement started to galvanize the city — when we launched Terroir, and when the Greenbelt launched efforts to support local farmers — that’s when chefs became advocates of the local food system. It started because they were supporting local farmers and creating economic outlets that were broader than their own personal interests.”
Since launching the restaurant last year, Kim Montgomery Rawlings has joined a variety of committees and groups, such as the Toronto Food Policy Council and Sustain Ontario.
“It’s exciting to see so many active players all pushing to make change,” she says. “I feel like we are at a pivotal moment in Canada’s food landscape, and there is great potential for us to shift thinking and practice to make it a much more efficient and fair model.”