Category Archives: Chefs and restaurants

advocate, Chefs and restaurants, Coffs Coast, Local and regional food economies, Resilience

Local Food Film Festival 2012

Local Food Film Festival returns to the Coffs Coast

A version of this article first appeared in the Coffs Coast Advocate on Saturday, 4th August, 2012

“The reality is, if we don’t relocalize our food system over the next decade, you or your children will be lining up with your ration ticket at Coles, with your government allocation of what you can get through the centralised food system. Because that food system is going down. All of that system is extremely dependent on cheap energy, and the era of cheap energy is coming to an end.”

Food Inc - one of the seminal food politics films
Food Inc – one of the seminal food politics films

These are the words of permaculture co-founder David Holmgren, speaking in prophetic tones at the start of the challenging documentary Anima Mundi, which is one of two feature films in the 2012 Coffs Coast Local Food Film Festival. Also featuring leading thinkers and writers from Australia and abroad such as John Seed, Vandana Shiva, Stephen Harding, Noam Chomsky and Michael Ruppert, Anima Mundi shines an uncompromosing lens on our current trajectory, and then focuses on the myriad community-driven initiatives that are directly raising levels of sustainability and resilience.

Informed by the principles and practices of permaculture and Gaian philosophy, Anima Mundi tells the stories of ordinary people educating themselves, and working together to create their vision of a better and more sustainable future. At the same time, it doesn’t pretend that there are any ‘easy solutions’ to the challenges we face.

“Eating food that’s locally grown, sustainably farmed, buying it in a farmers’ market, eating it with your family and friends – this isn’t a fad. This is what people have been doing since the beginning of time. It’s about our humanity. It’s a civilising ritual, it gives meaning to life. Food is part of everybody’s experience. It’s the pause in the day, when it’s possible to reflect, and share.”

This is US chef Alice Walker speaking in the Festival’s second feature film, Ingredients. This documentary tells the story of the partnerships between chefs and farmers that, over the past three decades, have given rise to the burgeoning local food movement in the US, which, as we now know, has now spread rapidly across the English-speaking world. For those who want to know where the local food movement came from, what it’s become, and where it’s going, this is the film to watch.

Alongside these feature films, the Local Food Film Festival will also screen a selection of locally-made films from budding documentary makers on the Coffs Coast. Last year six outstanding entries were submitted, telling stories of food-based sustainability from around the Coffs Coast. The winner, The Bushman of Tamban, made by Fil Baker, narrated the recovery of knowledge of bush tucker and native foods in the Nambucca region. “This film has gone on to be shown at many venues, and is featuring at Adelaide’s From Plains to Plate’s Feast of Film this year”, festival coordinator Jocelyn Edge of the Nambucca Valley Local Food Network told me.

The Festival is now calling for entries into this year’s short film competition, along the theme of ‘local food creates healthy communities’. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Coffs Coast Growers Market, Nambucca Valley Council, Bellbottom Media and Kombu Wholefoods, a $1,000 first prize is offered for the best entry, and the top three short films will be screened at the Festival. All entries will be published online.

“Through the short film competition we are asking people to find inspiring local food stories and projects that are happening up and down the Mid North Coast, and we want to be able to bring these to a wider audience,” said Jocelyn. “We particularly encourage primary or high school students to submit entries.”

Related articles
advocate, Chefs and restaurants, Local and regional food economies

Why chefs love local and seasonal produce

GOING LOCAL – FROM LAKE COMO TO COFFS JETTY

Nick Rose

First published in the Coffs Coast Advocate, 1.1.11

When he first arrived in Coffs Harbour five years ago with his family to open Fiasco’s Restaurant and Bar, Stefano Mazzina found himself in an unfamiliar landscape. Unlike his native Lake Como in Northern Italy (north of Milan, near the Switzerland-Italian border), everything in the food and agricultural business seemed large-scale and anonymous.

Stefano Mazzina, Proprietor of Fiasco Restaurant, Coffs Harbour
Stefano Mazzina, Proprietor of Fiasco Restaurant, Coffs Harbour

This was a big change from Lake Como, where the majority of produce was local, small-scale and specialist to that region, both for the restaurants and for householders. Stefano fondly remembers a strong local cheese-making tradition from his childhood, which is still continuing today:

“Everybody had a couple of cows…and they used to bring their milk into this house where they made cheeses…your repayment for bringing in the milk, was cheese and butter – you never saw money [changing hands]. So this tradition of [local produce], that’s where I’m coming from”, he says.

Stefano also noticed a big difference in the way people related to, and understood, food, when he came to Australia. Unlike in Italy, he says, “there is not the [same] understanding of food [yet], especially in terms of vegetables.”

“People see vegetables in terms of people being meat eaters, or vegetarians, but there is not a fusion of looking at food in general”, he continues. “[For example], some of my chefs here didn’t want to try lentils, but I said, in Italy we eat everything – everything is dictated by the weather, the terrain, and the [culture of the] region. The menus vary with the seasons – they follow the seasons, what’s around – [local produce] is cheaper, it lasts longer, it has a better flavour – it just makes sense.”

He is now working hard to bring this tradition of incorporating local, seasonal produce into his menus at Fiasco. His main supplier, Phil [A & D Fruit and Vegetables] has a good percentage of local produce on his list. “That’s lettuce, mushrooms, strawberries, blueberries, cherry tomatoes, oranges, limes – soon there’s going to be zucchini, green beans, parsley, coriander, basil, – it’s good produce”, says Stefano.

There are many advantages, Stefano says, in having a menu oriented towards local, seasonal produce:

“Having more local produce makes the life a lot easier for a chef, because he’s got more to get inspired by – rather than just buying the same things – there’s no variety [in doing that]. With local produce, you don’t have to have a single menu that runs all year…you can use the seasons, and use the growers’ input, to [craft] the menu and make it more interesting and sustainable.”

In addition, because the produce is fresher, its quality and taste is better. Lower food miles means far less pollution than vegetables from the big central markets. And buying local stimulates the local economy:

“The money stays in town – [and] it comes around. The farmers knows I’m buying from them, and I keep them in business, and maybe one day they’ll come to my restaurant!”

If possible, Stefano would like to encourage more local growers to produce food especially (though not exclusively) for his restaurant. He experimented with this recently, when he provided a local grower with some purple carrot seeds.

With so much dairy in the region, Stefano believes that there is a real lack of value-adding to dairy produce, and especially cheese.

“If I could buy local cheeses, I wouldn’t buy other cheeses. We make ricotta here, from goat’s milk, I know some basic cheese-making techniques…but I’m not a cheese maker, you need an expert for that”, he says.

“In Italy, we used to make a lot of fresh and soft cheeses locally, the blue cheeses – caprini, buffalo mozzarella – [but] you need someone who has the knowledge to do it…”

So here’s a challenge for the Coffs Coast – any budding local cheese-makers out there? And if not, how can we support the establishment of a cheese-making tradition?