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In 10 years

From a handful of restaurants to a restaurant town
By LINDSAY STERLING  |  September 16, 2009

 

 10th_food_main

IT'S THE FARMERS They make Portland's food so very good.

It wasn't always that Portland was "America's foodiest small town." We became this officially when Bon Appetit's October 2009 issue described us this way to its audience of 1,426,992 (give or take) food lovers across the nation. Just 10 years ago, when there were a handful of "foodie" enclaves, no one could have imagined the proliferation to come. Sam Hayward and Rob Evans would each take home the James Beard Award for Best Chef Northeast. The Commissary and the Portland Public Market would come and go, but more would come: Vignola, 555, Cinque Terre, Hugo's, Salt Exchange, Grace, Farmer's Table, Bar Lola, Caiola's, Blue Spoon, Local 188, Evangeline, Bresca, Miyake . . .

More from the Portland Phoenix's 10th Anniversary:

We told you so: Ten years of being right

Portland theater’s losses and gains since 1999

The 10 most influential bands of our first 10 years

A decade gone by

Diversity times ten

Talking politics: The song remains the same

Marc Shepard: I remember when...

Portland’s art scene has changed quite a lot

Clearly we owe the explosion of great food in our town to the chefs themselves. The ones you've heard of and the ones you haven't. Courtney Loreg has logged something like 25,960 hours in the kitchens of greater Portland. That includes the culinary craftsmanship that has made us swoon at Fore Street and now Bresca, but also cleaning putrid grease traps, scrubbing the low boy, taking loads of trash out, hauling bus-tubs of potatoes, and working so fast and hard it makes the body and head hurt. It's a reality that no reality show covers, and without the lure of a cash prize of $100,000. (A line cook in fine dining might make $11 an hour.)

And where would we be without local farmers and what Sam Hayward calls Maine's "extremely fabulous raw materials"? Hundreds of farmers regularly arrive at the back doors of Portland's kitchens, farmers' markets, and CSA pick-up spots, piling up boxes of their fragrant harvest: the freshest, best-tasting ingredients in the world.

And because one organization has helped 599 farmers find affordable farmland to work with, we owe thanks to Maine Farmland Trust. Here's what they do. Imagine a Maine farm: farm house, fields, open sky. Right in front of that farm, next to the road, is a sign that says, "FOR SALE, 90 ACRES." How many young farmers do you know who are in position to make a million-dollar real estate deal? Maine Farmland Trust helps farmland get into the hands of farmers, not big box stores or housing developments. They've saved 15,000 acres so far.

Loreg remembers when Fore Street was listed in Gourmet as one of the best 50 restaurants in the nation. The bar suddenly was full of people waiting for tables, and the diners weren't getting up from theirs. In the following years, the number of new restaurants Portland could support grew wildly. If this is any indication for what will happen in the decade after Bon Appetit's story we should ask ourselves if Maine will have enough local product. "There's no shortage of fine chefs who know what to do with it," says Hayward. "Access to land will be the issue." In the next 10 years, Maine Farmland Trust estimates that 400,000 acres of farmland will go up for sale. If you'd like it to get into farmers' hands, donate what you can or become a member for $30 atwww.mainefarmland.org. Don't we owe it to them?

Lindsay Sterling can be reached at lindsay@lindsaysterling.com.

Related: A long-ago farm, Full circle, Personal touch, More more >
  Topics: Features , Culture and Lifestyle, Food and Cooking, Lindsay Sterling,  More more >
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ARTICLES BY LINDSAY STERLING
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   HEALING POWER  |  October 21, 2009
    Last Friday evening, it was like a geyser of anger exploded through the floorboards of my house.
  •   THE QUEEN OF CAMBODIAN COOKING  |  September 23, 2009
    Makara Meng, co-owner of Mittapheap World Market, welcomed me to her relative's suburban house in South Portland for an authentic Cambodian dinner.
  •   IN 10 YEARS  |  September 16, 2009
    It wasn't always that Portland was "America's foodiest small town."
  •   HOT EXOTIC ADVENTURE TONIGHT!  |  August 26, 2009
    Unless you're a vegetarian or fried-pigskin-intolerant, I have an adventure for you. It requires about three hours. It's exotic, but does not require calling the phone numbers on the next few pages. Depending on who you are, it requires little or a lot of bravery. It's called cooking.
  •   A LONG-AGO FARM  |  July 29, 2009
    Last week while you were reading here about Portland chef Krista Desjarlais's efforts at Bresca, I was cooking with her mother, Maili Kern, who lives in the West End. She taught me how to make rosolje, an incredible roast beef and root-vegetable salad from Estonia (recipe at  immigrantkitchens.blogspot.com ).

 See all articles by: LINDSAY STERLING

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