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Restaurant Daily News Marketplace C Saturday, May 21, 2016 CHEWING THE FAT WITH D'ARTAGNAN ABOUT EATING MEAT By Lorrie Baumann American demand for food that tastes bet- ter is helping some food animals live better lives, says D'Artagnan CEO Ariane Daguin, who credits chefs in fine dining restaurants for elevating Americans' expectations for how their food should taste. "Customers are getting more educat- ed and are asking retailers to source these good pieces of meat for them," she said. "A happy chicken makes a tasty chicken. this is what we've been doing for 30 years, making sure the animals are not stressed and they're raised humanely. It makes a better piece of meat on the table." D'Artagnan distributes high-quality meat products in the eastern, southern and midwestern United States from warehous- es and logistics facilities in Chicago, Houston and New Jersey. For much of the company's 30-year history, its primary market was fine dining restaurants, but the company's reach into the retail grocery market is growing because educated American consumers are demanding high- quality meats that have been raised humanely and without unnecessary antibi- otics, Daguin says. "Over the past 30 years, I've found a tremendous drive for education and for wanting to know what you eat and being concerned about how the animals were raised," she said. "And the proof is our success. We are now in major retail stores, even in big supermarkets. It means something. It means that consumers are aware and don't mind paying a little bit more to have the security to know they are giving the right thing to their family." D'Artagnan has been a pioneer in requiring its suppliers to raise their ani- mals humanely, and the company is now working to educate consumers to under- stand what's on the labels they see on the meat in their grocery market and on their restaurant menus. She's particularly con- cerned about widespread misunderstand- ing of what the word "natural" means when it appears on a food label. "'Natural' on a meat label means absolutely nothing – literally," she said. For instance, consumers should look past the word "natural" on chicken labels to see if there's a statement there about a percentage of retained water, which would indicate that the product was chilled with ice water, which increases the weight of the bird they're buying because some of that chilling water is retained in the animal's tissue. A better choice would be a chicken, such as D'Artagnan's Green Circle brand, that was air-chilled rather than water-chilled – it costs more per pound, but it's a better product, says Daguin. D'Artagnan is also campaigning for better understanding of how antibiotics are used in the beef industry. Ranchers are allowed to give their animals nonthera- peutic antibiotics to make them grow faster as long as they withdraw them a month before slaughter. "There is a huge difference between doing that and what we at D'Artagnan call antibiotic-free, which is a never-ever-ever program, which means that the animal has never had antibiotics," she said. "We got the attention of the USDA, and they are addressing it right now. We are going in the right direction. It just takes a long time." Over the past year or so, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture was con- sidering how to update the nation's dietary guidelines, animal rights activists and nutrition experts alike have been suggest- ing that perhaps, as a nation, we ought to rethink how much meat we include in our diets, using the argument that Americans' meat consumption is not environmentally sustainable. Daguin counters by arguing that it's factory-farming, not simply our carnivorous tastes, that's hard on the envi- ronment. "Factory farming pollutes, and pollutes big time," she said. She's an advocate of raising beef on pasture with naturally diverse vegetation and providing supplementary nutrition in the form of rich hay and silage during the winter rather than finishing beef in feed lots. "There's a sustainable way of having good meat without polluting," she said. Meat is more expensive to raise that way, and many are questioning how Americans will respond as those costs have an effect on what goes onto their plates. Restaurateurs and Slow Food advocates Dan Barber and Alice Waters have been suggesting recently that the time may have come to take meat off the center of the plate and to reduce restaurant portion size to match the amount of meat normally served for a meal in other cuisines around the world. In many other cultures around the world, meat is used more for flavoring than as the main com- ponent of a meal, Barber observed. That won't necessarily decrease the cost of the meal, since the preparation of ingredients to take the place of that meat tends to be more labor intensive, but the result would be a healthier meal, he said. Daguin agrees. "In general, our U.S. portions are too big," she said. "That's not just about meat – it's everything. Portions are too big.... We associate bigger with better. That is changing, but it is changing very slowly.... We want a full plate, and we've been raised to finish the plate, so we eat too much." She has a piece of advice for American restaurant diners: "Just realize that you have two portions instead of one, and just take half of it home in a doggie bag," she said. "It's going to be a tough uphill battle because it's so engrained in our culture in the United States that bigger is better." DOMESTIC BALSAMIC IN THE HEART OF NEW MEXICO By Micah Cheek "May third, we had a serious freeze. We lost about a quarter of the grapes," says Steve Darland of The Darland Company. "One year we had a family of bears." Darland's farm is located in Monticello, New Mexico, a former ghost town just north of Truth Or Consequences. This arid environment, though sometimes unforgiving, is an ideal place to age balsamic vinegar. Darland personally inspects and prunes his grapevines throughout the growing season. Every grape counts; it will take 200 pounds of fruit and at least 12 years to make each bottle of Traditional Organic Balsamic of Monticello. Grapes that make it to harvest are crushed and heated over a wood fire. After being reduced and fermented, the grape must is poured off into handmade barrels. These casks are crafted by Francesco Renzi, whose family has been making them in the same building for 500 years, long before balsamic vinegar was considered a viable mass market product. The grape will spend 12 years circulating through casks made of oak, chestnut, cherry, juniper, acacia and ash, drawing volatile compounds from each to develop its snappy, resinous flavor. Darland says, "Periods of intense work are followed by long periods of time where grapes are grow- ing or vinegar is aging in its casks." Monticello is a hub for organic farmers, despite the spring frosts and animals. They all meet in Truth Or Consequences for a farmer's market, which the Darlands helped start after their first grape harvest. The revenue for their first batch of balsamic was over a decade away, so other sources of income came from the farm. "A great way to fill the time is to grow unique, but potentially popular, healthy, deli- cious organic crops which thrive in this environment," says Darland. The farm produced shishito peppers, pomegran- ates, and other organic products. "My wife, Jane, became the Johnny Appleseed of Sierra County by helping other growers choose, then order and plant the right fruit trees to survive and thrive in our climate – thousands of trees," he adds. The more you learn about Darland's process, the farther removed it is from the balsamic vinegars readily available on shelves. These products, known as industrial vinegars, are gen- erally aged for as little as hours or days before being thickened with sugar, molasses or mosto cotto, a sweet grape syrup. This thick and sweet vinegar is made to mimic the traditional balsamic flavor, because demand for the product has long ago outstripped supply. This demand has fueled a massive market for the sweetened balsamic. "It may be a polite fake, but with an estimated quarter billion dollars of annual US sales, it is a much, much better busi- ness than it is a gourmet food item," says Darland. For him, these products do not even fit into the category of real balsamic vinegar. "The key thing for people to learn: when you read the ingredient list on the label and it has more than one, it is industrial balsamic. Like it or not." The Darlands devote their down time to travel. They conduct tastings at stores and restaurants to highlight the differences between their balsamic and the less expensive industrial alterna- tives. "We take nearly every opportuni- ty to visit islands of foodies, wherever we can sample and talk about the real thing, since ours is the only American commercial balsamic and probably the only organic version in the world," says Darland. Surprisingly, one of the most difficult groups to convince is chefs. "Chefs are challenged with being fashionable, and making a profit. In culinary school or other training, chefs are shown how to make faux bal- samic," says Darland. Many chefs will cook down inexpensive industrial vine- gars with sugar to make a facsimile of a rich, aged balsamic to use for plate presentation. They end up with a sweet product that clings to the tongue, but has had all the subtle flavors and volatile compounds cooked out of it. "It's a hoax on the menu. It makes everyone the fool – the wait help, the kitchen staff, the chef and the diner all get the wrong lesson without ever tast- ing balsamic." says Darland. "There's a cruel humor in it." While cost-conscious chefs are ret- icent to pick up a bottle of Monticello vinegar, Darland has had to turn away many retailers trying purchase his product. Producing a maximum of 1000 bottles per year makes relation- ships with retailers a delicate balancing act. Each new retailer thins out the number of bottles that go to all the rest. "We sell online and through very spe- cial retailers, and have to be judicious with supply. We sold everything we bottled last year, and we were down to just two bottles when the year ended," says Darland. "So, we want retail allies with smart retail staff who we can rely on for sales. In turn they can rely on us for supply." In addition to the 1000 4.5-ounce bottles, limited batches of one ounce bottles are released, as well as a condiment balsamic version made from the same grape must, but aged for less than 12 years. When asked how he is planning on expanding, Darland states, "I'm not." While some nationwide retailers have tried to bring Traditional Organic Balsamic of Monticello to their shelves, Darland doesn't have enough stock, and more importantly, doesn't like the way they do business. "If we had done that, we would have done it 23 years ago," says Darland. "The retailers we have are really smart and really know what they've got." Though making organic and artisan products is more involved, Darland steadfastly believes that small production of quali- ty ingredients has a growing place in the market. "These days, everything is monetized. But with true balsamic, there is no short term fiscal shortcut. Rather than repeating the classics, peo- ple have settled for fakes. Still, there is room for real, and things made with great care," says Darland. "Handcrafted, organic, small produc- tion is a lively segment for balsamic and many gourmet products."