A Chef’s Life: Farm-to-Table Cooking in the Berkshires
By Michael Ballon
With a forward by Daniel Klein
Before hitting the keyboard to review Michael Ballon’s recently published book, “A Chef’s Life: Farm to Table Cooking in the Berkshires,” I grind my French roast coffee beans, listen to an NPR Marketplace feature on the mad fad for kale followed by an examination of the organic farming business.
Then, while contemplating picking blueberries this Sunday morning on Mt. Washington, I open Ballon’s book, with my coffee mug in hand. The first essay is titled “Blueberries and the Beginning of a Chef.” Next to it is a recipe for Blueberry Cobbler.
Looks like Michael Ballon is, in his own mild, unassuming way, hovering over me in my kitchen.
From endorsing eating seasonal foods to offering a bridge between local farmers and the consumer, Ballon has been at the forefront of our growing culinary awareness, appreciation and practices.
His restaurant, The Castle Street Café, founded in 1989, was one of the first South County folks like myself could count on without going too far astray. We also didn’t have to wait for another unfortunate incarnation to replace a restaurant that had sadly come and gone. The restaurant business is tough. Michael Ballon has managed to weather it all from economic downturns to slow winter seasons. Of course, the winter season has become a lot more active in the last few years thanks to the Mahaiwe Theater next door that offers cultural delights year round while Ballon features live jazz or folk music on the weekends.
In Ballon’s down-to-earth, no-nonsense and often tongue-in-cheek (no pun intended) manner, he reveals how, with a blend of foresight, imagination and hard work, one can be both a “regular” and an innovator in the culinary world.
As many of us know, he was at the forefront of the restaurant world in the Berkshires. Over the past decade or so, Great Barrington has emerged as a mini-culinary capital in New England.
“A Chef’s Life” provides an entertaining glimpse into his personal evolution as a gourmet chef. It was heartening to learn, for example, that upon abandoning an early intention of becoming a lawyer he turned instead to becoming a chef and launching a restaurant.
While working as a young man for a fast-food restaurant in Maine, he realized: “It wasn’t the restaurant that piqued my interest. No, it was the abundance of wild blueberries that grew all over the Acadia National Park, and that were yours, free for the picking.” This should come as no surprise; one of his first pleasures on a winter day is to head out to check the bird feeders.
The book’s essays, organized in thematic chapters, and highlighted by photographs and more than 30 recipes, cover a wide range of subjects. We are reminded of how the world of food continues to grow more and more complex as Ballon touches on subjects as varied as seeking sustainably grown produce to honoring cooking staff with living wages to serving an increasingly discerning clientèle.
The book is far more than a collection of recipes. Based in part on essays he wrote for Berkshire HomeStyle over the years, it reflects his own evolution in pursuing the art of both elegant and good, healthy food. His book reveals the renowned Berkshire identity that appeals to both nature lovers and culture-mongers.
I particularly enjoyed learning how, in the world of food, one can tap into trends without getting caught up with them. A delicate balance:
“Restaurants that don’t change with the times close and go out of business. Tastes and styles change, and what was once cutting edge and popular can become passé and archaic.”
Think of how many food trends we have weathered over just the past decade. From nouvelle, fusion, slow food and even the esoteric “deconstructed” cuisine I learn about here, to grass-fed, foraged and gluten-free diets, we are immersed in a constantly changing culinary landscape. For sure, it’s a challenge to run a successful restaurant that can keep up with the times without becoming self-conscious.
What makes this book such an enjoyable read is that you can open it anywhere and discover a topic that will catch your eye. And you don’t have to be a cook. As the former owner of Ganesh Café in Lenox, turned gardener, designer and writer, I particularly appreciated his connection and commitment to the local food movement.
In the chapter titled “Profiles in Farming,” Ballon includes interviews with the fascinating owners of our high quality, stalwart farms such as Equinox and Indian Line Farm as well as goat cheese makers such as Rawson Brook Farm and bakers such as Richard Bourdon who founded Berkshire Mountain Bakery 25 years ago.
Such a chapter only proves how Michael Ballon continues to be a loyal endorser of the nonprofit organization, Berkshire Grown, that has given the farm to table movement such a solid foundation.
This book is an inspiration to pick blueberries on an August day and later enjoy the cobbler you didn’t eat at his restaurant – tasty as that would be — but made in your own kitchen.
‘A Chef’s Life: Farm-to-Table Cooking in the Berkshires’ is available at the Book Loft in Great Barrington, The Bookstore in Lenox, Castle Street Cafe, the Red Lion gift shop in Stockbridge, One Mercantile on Castle Street, and last and very much least, the dreaded AMAZON.
