Dan Barber 談我如何愛上一條魚
Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish
講者：Dan Barber
廚師Dan Barber要解決今天很多廚師都面臨的一個困境：如何保留菜單上的魚。在這個有著透徹研究，並摻著冷笑話的演講中，他詳述對一條永續發展價值魚類的追求，以及他作為一個食物熱愛者所享受的一次蜜月之旅，就從他在西班牙發現一條以革命性方式餵養、且極其美味的魚開始。
關於Dan Barber
Dan Barber是一個廚師也是一個學者—他持續不懈地追求我們生產及享用之食物背後的故事和原因。
Dan Barber是紐約及威斯特郡Stone Barns藍山餐廳的廚師，他在Stone Barns使用的是一種結合農業和土地的天然烹飪方法。就像在Chez Pim（譯者註：一個美食部落格）裏面描述的那樣：「Stone Barns離曼哈頓只有45分鐘車程，但它就像另一個完全不同的世界，那裏是一個自給自足和對環境負責的模式，是一個運作良好的農場、牧場以及米其林三星餐廳」。這是一種新的食物鏈觀點。
2009年，Barber獲得James Beard美國傑出廚師大獎，在《時代》雜誌「年度100」中名列世界最具影響力的人之一。
「Dan Barber逐漸被視為是一位廚師思想家，他宣傳一些簡單的理念，顛覆了大家對我們所吃食物的看法。」
Dan Barber的網上英文資料：
Dan Barber 談我如何愛上一條魚
哪位能把魚煮過頭之後仍然很好吃的？我就不能，但這個人可以。我們叫他Miguel吧，其實他的名字就叫Miguel。（笑聲）不，魚不是他煮的，他不是廚師，起碼以你我的理解是這樣的。他是Veta La Palma的一個生物學家。那是西班牙西南角的一個漁場，就在Guadalquivir河的一端。
那時我在想像一群企鵝。於是我看著Miguel說：「Miguel，它們飛150英里來農場，然後晚上飛150英里回去？它們回去是為了孩子嗎？」他看著我的樣子就好像我剛唱了一段Whitney Houston的歌。（笑聲）他說：「不，它們這麼做


About this talk


About Dan Barber



So, I've known a lot of fish in my life. I've loved only two. That first one, it was more like a passionate affair. It was a beautiful fish, flavorful, textured, meaty, a best-seller on the menu. What a fish. (Laughter) Even better, it was farm-raised to the supposed highest standards of sustainability. So you could feel good about selling it.

I was in a relationship with this beauty for several months. One day, the head of the company called and asked if I'd speak at an event about the farm's sustainability. "Absolutely," I said. Here was a company trying to solve what's become this unimaginable problem for our chefs. How do we keep fish on our menus?

For the past 50 years, we've been fishing the seas like we clear-cut forests. It's hard to overstate the destruction. 90 percent of large fish, the ones we love, the tunas, the halibuts, the salmons, swordfish, they've collapsed. There's almost nothing left. So, for better or for worse, aquaculture, fish farming, is going to be a part of our future. A lot of arguments against it. Fish farms pollute, most of them do anyway, and they're inefficient, take tuna. A major drawback. It's got a feed conversion ratio of 15 to one. That means it takes fifteen pounds of wild fish to get you one pound of farm tuna. Not very sustainable. Doesn't taste very good either.

So here, finally, was a company trying to do it right. I wanted to support them. The day before the event I called the head of PR for the company. Let's call him Don.

"Don," I said, "just to get the facts straight, you guys are famous for farming so far out to sea, you don't pollute."


2.5 to one, great. "2.5 to one what? What are you feeding?"

"Sustainable proteins," he said.




"Don," I said, "what are some examples of sustainable proteins?"



I said, "What percentage of your feed is chicken?" thinking, you know, two percent.

"Well, it's about 30 percent," he said.


There was a long pause on the line, and he said, "there's just too much chicken in the world." (Laughter)



Who can make a fish taste good after it's been overcooked? I can't, but this guy can. Let's call him Miguel. Actually his name is Miguel. (Laughter) And no, he didn't cook the fish, and he's not a chef. At least in the way that you and I understand it. He's a biologist at Veta La Palma. It's a fish farm in the southwestern corner of Spain. It's at the tip of the Guadalquivir river.


What did they do? They reversed the flow of water. They literally flipped the switch. Instead of pushing water out, they used the channels to pull water back in. They flooded the canals. They created a 27,000 acre fish farm -- bass, mullet, shrimp, eel -- and in the process, Miguel, and this company, completely reversed the ecological destruction. The farm's incredible. I mean, you've never seen anything like this. You stare out at a horizon that is a million miles away, and all you see are flooded canals and this thick, rich marshland.

I was there not long ago with Miguel. He's an amazing guy, three parts Charles Darwin and one part Crocodile Dundee. (Laughter) Okay? There we are slogging through the wetlands, and I'm panting and sweating, got mud up to my knees, and Miguel's calmly conducting a biology lecture. Here, he's pointing out a rare Black-Shouldered Kite. Now, he's mentioning the mineral needs of phytoplankton. And here, here he sees a grouping pattern that reminds him of the Tanzanian Giraffe.


He said, "Fish? I didn't know anything about fish. I'm an expert in relationships." And then he's off launching into more talk about rare birds and algaes and strange aquatic plants.


He pointed at the algae.

"I know, dude, the algae, the phytoplankton, the relationships, it's amazing. But what are your fish eating? What's the feed conversion ratio?"

Well, he goes on to tell me it's such a rich system, that the fish are eating what they'd be eating in the wild. The plant biomass, the phytoplankton, the zooplankton, it's what feeds the fish. The system is so healthy, it's totally self-renewing. There is no feed. Ever heard of a farm that doesn't feed its animals?

Later that day, I was driving around this property with Miguel, and I asked him, I said, "For a place that seems so natural," unlike like any farm I'd ever been at, "how do you measure success?"

At that moment, it was as if a film director called for a set change. And we rounded the corner and saw the most amazing sight, thousands and thousands of pink flamingos, a literal pink carpet for as far as you could see.

"That's success," he said. "Look at their bellies, pink. They're feasting." Feasting? I was totally confused.






I was imagining a march of the penguins thing, so I looked at Miguel. I said, "Miguel, do they fly 150 miles to the farm, and then do they fly 150 miles back at night? Do they do that for the children?"

He looked at me like I had just quoted a Whitney Houston song. (Laughter) He said, "No. They do it because the food's better." (Laughter)

I didn't mention the skin of my beloved fish, which was delicious, and I don't like fish skin. I don't like it seared. I don't like it crispy. It's that acrid, tar-like flavor. I almost never cook with it. Yet, when I tasted it at that restaurant in southern Spain, it tasted not at all like fish skin. It tasted sweet and clean like you were taking a bite of the ocean. I mentioned that to Miguel, and he nodded. He said, "The skin acts like a sponge. It's the last defense before anything enters the body. It evolved to soak up impurities." And then he added, "But our water has no impurities."

Okay. A farm that doesn't feed its fish. A farm that measures its success by the success of its predators. And then I realized when he says, a farm that has no impurities, he made a big understatement, because the water that flows through that farm comes in from the Guadalquivir river. It's a river that carries with it all the things that rivers tend to carry these days, chemical contaminants, pesticide runoff. And when it works its way through the system and leaves, the water is cleaner than when it entered. The system is so healthy, it purifies the water. So, not just a farm that doesn't feed its animals, not just a farm that measures its success by the health of its predators, but a farm that's literally a water purification plant, and not just for those fish, but for you and me as well. Because when that water leaves, it dumps out into the Atlantic. A drop in the ocean, I know, but I'll take it, and so should you, because this love story, however romantic, is also instructive. You might say it's a recipe for the future of good food, whether we're talking about bass or beef cattle.

What we need now is a radically new conception of agriculture, one in which the food actually tastes good. (Laughter) (Applause) But for a lot people, that's a bit too radical. We're not realists, us foodies. We're lovers. We love farmers' markets. We love small family farms. We talk about local food. We eat organic. And when you suggest these are the things that will insure the future of good food, someone somewhere stands up and says, "Hey guy, I love pink flamingos, but how are you going to feed the world? How are you going to feed the world?"


Feed grain to herbivores, pesticides to monocultures, chemicals to soil, chicken to fish, and all along agribusiness has simply asked, "If we're feeding more people more cheaply, how terrible could that be?" That's been the motivation. It's been the justification. It's been the business plan of American agriculture. We should call it what it is, a business in liquidation, a business that's quickly eroding ecological capital that makes that very production possible. That's not a business, and it isn't agriculture.

Our bread basket is threatened today, not because of diminishing supply, but because of diminishing resources, not by the latest combine and tractor invention, but by fertile land, not by pumps, but by fresh water, not by chainsaws, but by forests, and not by fishing boats and nets, but by fish in the sea.

Want to feed the world? Let's start by asking: How are we going to feed ourselves? Or better, How can we create conditions that enable every community to feed itself? (Applause) To do that, don't look at the agribusiness model for the future. It's really old, and it's tired. It's high on capital, chemistry, and machines, and it's never produced anything really good to eat. Instead, let's look to the ecological model. That's the one that relies on two billion years of on-the-job experience.

Look to Miguel, farmers like Miguel, farms that aren't worlds unto themselves, farms that restore instead of deplete, farms that farm extensively instead of just intensively, farmers that are not just producers, but experts in relationships, because they're the ones that are experts in flavor too. And if I'm going to be really honest, they're a better chef than I'll ever be. You know, I'm okay with that, because if that's the future of good food, it's going to be delicious.

Thank you. (Applause)



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Anonymous, 2015-01-21 23:46:19
Anonymous, 2015-01-21 23:46:19
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workonet, 2010-09-30 12:29:59
