The TH Interview: Celebrity Chef Michael Chiarello
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 08.10.06
I'm what they call a "Foodie." Not only do I love to eat, cook and try new food but I also promote it on a daily basis. Whenever I travel I visit the local farmstands and delis (the Oakville Grocer in Napa happens to be a favorite), I get excited when a new restaurant opens and I watch the Food Network a lot (okay, i'll admit maybe a little obsessively). One of my favorite shows that I look forward to is “Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello.” In his show, Mr. Chiarello uses fresh and local ingredients making all of his dishes even more appetizing. He focuses on family, lifestyle, tradition and flavorful foods that can be enjoyed each season. In addition to being a chef, Mr. Chiarello also owns Chiarello Family Vineyards and has an online store called NapaStyle, which we love. Each piece, and there are approximately 1,000 pieces, on the site is personally designed, hand-picked and tested by Mr. Chiarello. NapaStyle reflects an eclectic mix of eco-friendly, hand-crafted and exclusive home goods as well as artisanal specialty foods of his creation. Recently, Mr. Chiarello announced that in September he will be opening the first and flagship NapaStyle store in Berkeley, CA. The big news: 75% of the fixtures in the store will be from salvaged materials. I’ll surely be making a visit next time I’m in Napa Valley. We were recently given the opportunity to ask Mr. Chiarello a few questions about his thoughts on food and sustainability. Here’s what he had to say:
Mr. Chiarello, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us. Napa Valley is known for its fresh produce - what does "eating locally" mean to you?
MC: Eating locally means frequenting farmers markets, seeking seasonal and local produce from your grocer (meet the produce manager, and ASK for what YOU want from their store), supporting regional artisan purveyors of cheeses, and meats, and if possible dairy products, and doing as much of your own gardening (or community gardening) as possible. Good sources of local produce are also co-ops, health food stores, and increasingly, home delivery of weekly organic produce boxes.
It also means seasonal eating, which tends to help you stay honest about local eating. Right now, summer time, I'm eating tomatoes, melons, stone fruit and cherries every day, but I'm not eating apples. If you check the apple stickers, sure enough they are coming from South America or New Zealand right now. I think if you can change 50% of your eating into seasonal eating, that goes a long way.
I think we ought to also broaden the topic from eating locally to living seasonally and sustainably, which I try to uphold in my NapaStyle line of artisan foods and hand-crafted home goods. Also, I farm 20-acres of vineyards for my Chiarello Family Vineyards wines in a sustainable fashion; we make mulch out of the grape pulp after crush, and turn vineyard prunings into ash pottery. While these pieces are farmed organically, I'm more interested in making decisions that allow the land to sustain itself naturally than in getting the USDA Organic sticker on my wine label.
Who or what inspired you to become a chef and do you use locally grown/organic produce?
MC: I was raised in a family of food purveyors; we made our own cheese, cured meats, preserved produce and made wine. When I began my own restaurants, ingredients were the key to distinguishing my style of cooking from others, so we made everything ourselves at the restaurant. And yes, I would always turn to local purveyors, often collaborating on the produce we would grow. I believe that at this point in time, buying locally from smaller producers is better and becoming more meaningful than the organic label. Consumers will want to know if a brand represents mass-farming organic or if it comes from a more sustainably farmed business.
Are the grapes for your wine grown organically and do you practice sustainable farming?
MC: I farm the vineyards myself with my vineyard manager, and yes, I do farm organically and sustainably. I will not pursue organic certification but we live on this land, and it is just as important for the health of my family as it is for my values that this land be a healthy and balanced ecosystem. Since taking it over, we've watched the layers of plant and animal life come back into existence. Its extraordinarily rewarding.
I love your show and your cookbooks - what advice do you have for food lovers like myself about eating healthy and locally?
MC: I find that the more local, artisanal, and seasonal you eat, the simpler your cooking and the higher your satisfaction. Take the time to really discover what is around your area, and plan your meals based on seasonal freshness. Youll be amazed how much more satisfying and flavorful your food will be. Also, turn to high-flavor, low fat ingredients: chilis, citrus, herbs, spice rubs, vinegars, mustard. Make vinaigrettes from roasted red peppers, tomatoes, whole lemons or other citrus, and fresh fruits. Specialize in a few things first, then once youve mastered them, use the techniques across the year on different in-season flavors. Have fun, and give your self permission to mess up, but my numer one rule of entertaining? Never test something for the first time on your dinner guests!
Photo biline: Michael Chiarello, founder of NapaStyle and Chiarello Family Vineyards, and Emmy-winning Food Network personality
MMM! My roommate used to love that show and watch it religiously. Since I wasn't a nutrition major, the most I could do is stand by and watch as his amazing creations magically put themselves together. It's nice to know his food is as healthy as it looks.
The statement that MC uses ONLY local ingredients is inaccurate. California is in a different hemisphere from Calabria and MC likes to use oils, dried and canned fruits and vegetables, cheeses, and meats from "the old country" the place from which his family hails. He is a strong supporter of local ingredients, but does not limit himself to them.
Michael Chiarello's comments come across to me sincere. As we're all in this world together at the mercy of resources limited, it is especially important we ponder the precious gifts we have and any person willing to espouse those ideals with his name and reputation on the line is worth note and respect.
I want to add for anyone reading that there is another very important non-food issue that anyone who cares about the health of our future environment should know if they don't already.
Mr. Diesel designed his engine in the 1800's to run on vegetable oil. Since then his brilliance has been bastardized but it need not be so. A simple heating of vegetable oil to the diesel engine resolves our entire world problem. Mr. Diesel people. Mr. Diesel.
Please go to my favorite people and inquire www.vegpoweredsystems.com and www.michigan.gov/gov - specifically the Governor and First Gentleman of Michigan Jennifer Granholm and David Mulhern. These are great people in powereful places.
Happy to have discovered like-minded people.
Here's to the future and to loving and nurturing one another. We must be vigilant and smart and understand the meaning of sacrifice for the benefit of the whole.
XOXO
Susan
Thanks a million for your kind words and the bio push on the back side. I am in the process of converting my farm to 100% bio diesel now. Its amazing how many folks ask me about it when they hear I went bio. Such a simple decision really...we resently had bio D added to our fuel choices in Napa. Also of note is water usage in farming..we either dry farm or seriosuly deficite irrigate (in the more dense planted sections of my vineyard that can not be farmed dry). Not only do I use less water (about 20,000 gallons a year less) but my fruit and wine quality have risen as well.
Keep it up
M. Chiarello
M Chiarello,
How wonderful that you are forward thinking and have ingenuity. It's what made us and it is what will preserve us.
I identify with this website because I was raised as a child on organically grown vegetables and other food sources in a beautiful valley; and so I endeavor to preserve a similar eco-environment for our future.
I love this website and the people who visit it, pro or con.
(The Arctic is melting in summer)
Love to all who have taken the time,
XOXO
From Susan,
The Arctic is melting in the WINTER I meant to say. Not the summer as I said in my previous email.
Mr. Michael,
Isn't ironic that organic, water-deprived, natural conditions produce the best grape?
You know it's not ironic at all. It's a truth.
And to any and all reading, the best fruit of life is naturally stressed.
Naturally, not unnaturally.
Michael Chiarello's Berkeley NapaStyle flagship store is sheer genious. What better place than Berkeley for the introduction of an alternative, eco-environmental, culinary retail home. And fun!
My Finnish Grandfather was the founder of the Berkeley Consumer Food Cooperatives - the Coops -and I spent my childhood walking to them to Shattuck Avenue in the 60's buying food in bulk knowing we, the consumer, were going to get back as owners what we put in.
It was alternative. It was healthy. It was good.
I approve of NapaStyle's choice of my childhood hometown for their wonderful concept.
Thank you...
That there was once a woman, a human being, who would live in a tree, at her peril throughout a winter, to save the venerable living thing, because it was ancient and precious, is testimony to the good and collective awareness we all share.
That last email was not written by Julia Butterfly.
It was written by an admirer.
Merry Christmas
My Valley Just Got Greener...
Sonoma Biofuels, Sonoma Valley's first biodiesel supply source, has arrived. Our wonderful old and well-established local paper, The Sonoma -Index Tribune, this week featured our newly- arrived entrepreneurs and visionaries - Joe Baratta and Matt Coddington - on the front page in a highly informative and lengthy article about their class-act venture.
Now, the Vineyard Managers and large diesel equipment operators in Sonoma (and Napa) County can placate their concerns and satisfy their desire to reduce pollution easily by filling-up on the stuff -
no diesel engine conversions or haphazard trips to restaurants for unfiltered oil. Just a simple phone call, and it will be delivered.
www.sonomabiofuels.com
Revolutions are always earmarked by people and events such as this and the rest.
Dear World,
I saw today for the first time Al Gore's documentary.
Then I was thinking...
First off, Al is a great human being with a solid grasp. I love that he exists. I mean really. He was introduced to the science of carbon dioxide as a young man in school. And, his father cultivated tobacco...
And then I went to the store and there was a San Francisco Chronicle headline on the front-page about how to compensate in our individual lives for our contribution to the malaise by doing what we can in the immediate to negate our contribution.
Then...I was thinking about how I myself approach this most immediate human challenge and I resolved that I would conscientiously live my life as a negative contribution to the earth's destruction. Without shame.
So I plan to do odd things. Like live without hot water from the tap. OOO...what a weirdo...
But I like. It's fun to be weird if it's good.
Susan Green
I am fan of Michael and his life style. Perhaps I especially relate to him because of his Calabrese roots. My husband's family is also from there. Does anyone know the town that his family came from?
I hope he runs for office. We need more thinkers like him.
Candis Carbone
Candis,
I happen to know that both maternal and fraternal sides of his family came from mountain villages a valley away from one another in the Castel Salano region; and they immigrated in the early part of the 20th century to regions in California.
As to his running for office, I think Arnold's doing just fine for now. But who knows...
Cheers!
Hi Candise,
I want to correct myself, as I tend to do on this site - I made a minor error in my last comment by using the term fraternal instead of paternal. ..Since these things matter and are read, I take the time to correct my mistakes.
I am happy to read from a sensitive person.
It's a critical time and the most important thing is collective compassion... and as always, the simplest of things, love...
Chin, chin
Please delete all but my first message left
PLEASE
You'll improve your advertising revenue.
And for God's sake, DO NOT POST THIS
Here's to the fight!
Susan Green
Repeat. Micael Chiarello should name his restaurant his namesake
Michael's.
I can already picture the graphics.
iI have no way of telling he and his wife this so I'm using this website as a conduit.
Persistance
I was reminded of its virtue daily at a time in my life when I needed it and well-spelled out and it's served me well,
Persistance serves. I'm benefiting from it now.
I've never forgotten it. And the fruits of my persistant labor have come to fruition.
And so should all of us with the leadership of Barack Obama.
Thank You Michael and Eileen Chiarello