April 16-19 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. For more information, please visit scaa.org

April 16 – 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.  For more information, please call 404-467-9000 or contact 

Katie Jones at Katie@garestaurants.org or visit www.garestaurants.org

April 15-19 to be held at

Eno Restaurant.  For more information, please call 404-680-3425 or visit www.garestaurant.org

April 14 – 12:30 to 1:30. 

If you would like to attend this roundtable, please call

404.467.9000 or contact Janice Truesdale Harris at Janice@garestaurants.org. or visit www.garestaurants.org

April 13 – 7:30 am to 7:30 pm at the Defoor Center.  For more information, please visit www.garestaurants.org

Applications for the first Les Dames d’Escoffier International Legacy Awards will be accepted through May 15.  To apply, go to www.ldei.org.

Awards in three categories will be internships that will provide women, at the beginning or mid-career in their chosen culinary professions, the opportunity to learn first-hand from accomplished Dames.

The awards offer a week-long, high energy work place experience to non-Dame women in the USA and Canada. Candidates must have at least two years of experience and must be currently working in the food, beverage or hospitality industries.

“Working hand-in-hand with Dames in the three industries represented by our membership, we hope to imbue a lasting legacy of knowledge and expertise to the lucky winners so that they will continue to grow and mentor other women in culinary careers,” said Suzanne Brown, president, LDEI. “In other words, ‘a lasting legacy in perpetuity’,” added Brown.

Recipients of awards in the food, beverage and hospitality categories will travel to Washington State’s wine country, New York’s riveting catering scene or to one of Dallas’ premier hotel properties. Travel and hotel accommodation for six nights will be reimbursed for each category award winner up to US $2,000. Working beside Dames with award winning credentials, the recipients will experience intense, career-altering days and nights with extraordinary teams.

Opportunities will include: executing an event from inception to completion in one of America’s best hotels, discovering the finer points of viticulture and wine making or learning how a New York City catering powerhouse maintains both quality and quantity.

Les Dames d’Escoffier International is an invitational organization of women leaders in food, beverage and hospitality whose mission is education, advocacy and philanthropy. Presently, there are 26 chapters in the USA and Canada.

April 7 – 12:00 am to 1:00 pm.  If you would like to attend this meeting please call 404-723-5428 or contact Kelly Hornbuckle at kelly@garestaurants.org or visit www.garestaurants.org

April 6 – Monthly Meeting to be held at AI.  For more information, please visit

www.acfatlantachefs.org. 

April 2009

By Michael Wall and Natasha Mack

Sustainability is one of the hottest buzzwords in America these days. Its presence in economic rhetoric, green marketing, political speech and corporate advertising threatens to dilute its true meaning and render the word itself empty.

Georgia is full of restaurant operators who are part of this massive effort. For starters, the single largest measure a restaurant can take to be gentler on the Earth is to buy from local, sustainable sources. Here’s why: The agricultural industry is responsible for roughly one-third of all greenhouse gas pollution. That puts “farming” on par with the thousands of coal-fired power plants around the world that belch CO2 by the ton, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

But one must use the word “farming” loosely. As the recent peanut scare proved, many food operations more closely resemble industry than farming. Most of the beef, chicken and pork on the market is raised not so much on pastures, but in industrial plants. And large-scale farms on which feed and commodity crops are grown are only able to produce plants because of an arsenal of petroleum-based fertilizers.
Avoiding foods from commercial farms goes a long way toward supporting the type of sustainable society that will leave the planet healthy for future generations.

Buying locally vastly reduces the greenhouse gas emissions that are emitted by shipping conventional foods. On average, food travels 1,500 miles from farm to fork.

It’s impossible to catalog all of the statewide efforts to be greener, but some innovators are leading the restaurant industry down the path toward sustainability.

“I believe a huge part of sustainability is using local products when possible, and working with local farmers supports the local economy,” says Ron Eyester, Executive Chef and owner of Food 101 in Morningside. “I support them and they support the restaurant.”

In addition to cooking with local and organic foods, Pizza Fusion in Buckhead uses hybrid cars for pizza delivery, buys wind energy offsets and offers classes on organic food for children. The restaurant is in a LEED-certified space and is designed to be extremely efficient and environmentally friendly.

Watershed’s Executive Chef, Scott Peacock, is one of a handful of chefs who have taken the race for sustainability to a new level by giving his used fryer grease to a nonprofit that turns it into biodiesel, a fuel that can power any diesel-burning car with little to no greenhouse gas emissions. The operation that converts the grease to fuel, a nonprofit venture called Refuel Biodiesel, also collects grease from Emory University’s cafeterias for free, and in turn supplies the university with biodiesel for its shuttle buses.

“Restaurants may not know it, but they hold the key to fuel sustainability because their used grease is perfect for making a clean-burning alternative fuel,” says Rob Del Bueno, founder of Refuel Biodiesel.

Billy and Kristin Allin, the chef and owner of Cakes and Ale in Decatur, have gone so far as to plant their own 1/2-acre vegetable and herb garden. They are extraordinarily thorough about recycling, and convert another waste stream, leftover food scraps, into a rich fertilizer for their garden, utilizing worms for faster composting. “It’s really about planning, planning to use everything we get out of the garden and using our compost to put the food trash to use on making rich, fertile soil,” Billy says.

Dynamic Dish, operated by David Sweeney, in the Sweet Auburn-Martin Luther King, Jr. historic area of Atlanta, is also in a LEED-certified building. Sweeney drives to farms and farmer’s markets to buy the fresh, local produce he serves, and he returns his compost back to the farmers from whom he buys his food. Each day, he writes the menu on a blackboard, reducing paper waste.

His motivations, like those of other thoughtful Georgia chefs, are linked to seeing beyond today, beyond the shortsightedness that causes industry to pillage the planet and deny the next generation access to a healthy, thriving environment.

Sweeney says, “It sounds strange, but it’s actually possible for you to eat for a better way of life. It’s possible to eat in a way that’s healthier for you and healthier for the natural environment.”

Georgia Organics is a member-supported nonprofit organization working to integrate healthy, sustainable and locally grown food into the lives of all Georgians.

April 2009

Design – Décor – Food

By Christy Simo

For Reed Dulany III, local is everything. He feels so strongly about the movement, it’s even part of his Savannah restaurant’s name: Local 11 Ten.

“Using these local goods is something our patrons recognize, not something that’s obscure that we flew in from somewhere,” Dulany says. “It’s supportive of the community and of our region. The name of the restaurant is Local 11 Ten, so it’s really the center of the vision of our restaurant.

Located in historic Savannah, just south of Forsyth Park, Local 11 Ten offers southern food with a European flair. He and his wife, Meredith, opened the restaurant in September 2007 after noticing a lack of area restaurants using local produce.

“I’m from Savannah, and I’ve lamented the fact that there wasn’t, in my view, a contemporary, local-based restaurant here that someone put a lot of thought and detail into the design of the restaurant itself, and the food and just the whole experience.”

So, Dulany, who also owns Savannah-based Dulany Industries Inc., opened one himself.
The restaurant, located at the corner of Duffy and Bull streets, sits in a rehabilitated 1950s-era Savannah Bank building — atypical for a town that features many of its restaurants in historic houses.

The design, which was created by Savannah-based ReThink Design Studio’s Joel Snayd, along with Meredith, incorporated the old bank vault into the design. Cream-colored exposed brick walls and natural woods mixed with steel-front doors, a dark concrete floor and beadboard ceiling inject the new into the old — which is just what Dulany set out to do with his restaurant.

The local vibe stretches to the walls, which feature portraits from Savannah artist Troy Wandzel. A custom wood community table sits in the middle of the dining room, and a semiprivate table that seats six is in the old bank vault, which now features cork walls and an antique brass chandelier.

“The look of it is really fantastic and is really different than anything else in Savannah by a long shot,” he notes. “It’s meant to be a real communal, relaxing, neighborhood sort of place.

“We wanted a place that you felt comfortable coming in a coat and tie, or you felt comfortable coming in jeans and a T-shirt. It’s a stylish, casual elegance. The food, of course, reflects that.”

Southern With a Twist
Chef John Rodgers, who hails from Asheville, NC, and was previously the restaurant’s sous chef, bases the menu on local produce, unique pairings and bold flavors.

“He’s just a phenomenal guy. He had the vision and the background of a southern— but a new southern — take on things,” Dulany says. “He adds more of the casual, elegant flair to it. He grew into the role, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with him.”

Many dishes incorporate day-boat seafood caught daily from Georgia’s coast as well as vegetables and herbs from neighboring farmers.

The restaurant uses local food whenever it can, such as day-boat soft-shell crab, and figs and loquats grown just down the road. Some of the local producers and growers they work with include Thomasville-based Sweet Grass Dairy, Savannah-based Back in the Day Bakery and bacon from Benton’s Smoky Mountain County Hams in Tennessee.

“The food comes from local purveyors as much as possible,” he says. “It makes you feel good to support local vendors. It makes you feel confident in the goods that you’re getting because they are from someone you’ve talked to, that you relate to, and it’s not some nameless truck delivering things.”

The menu reflects the use of local produces, rotating seasonally so as to use what’s fresh during different parts of the year. It also keeps local patrons coming back for more.

“We also want the menu to change at least four times a year so it’s seasonal. That’s something that’s very important to me and to the locals,” he says. “There are restaurants here that I took my date to when I was 16 that have the exact same menu today. They’re good, but you can’t do that with what we’re trying to do. We wanted it to move with the seasons. If you’re going to have a dish with heirloom tomatoes, you’re going to have it when it’s in season.”

Arty Schronce, the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Director of Public Affairs, agrees.
“What a lot of the chefs and restaurateurs are finding is that people want what is in season. People know the product is better, and they understand the environmental aspect,” he notes. “People want to know where their food comes from, reduce their carbon footprint and support the local economy.”

Daron “Farmer D” Joffe is just one of the farmers from which Local 11 Ten gets its fresh produce. Joffe also collaborates with Chef Rodgers to plan four seasonal “farm-to-table” dinners each year.

“In between courses, the chef and I talk to the diners about what’s in the dish and a little bit about growing it, its nutritional value and its connection to the rest of the farm,” Joffe says. “It gives them a sense of connection to the food. It’s very educational. It’s cool to learn while you eat and eat with the seasons.”
The local produce doesn’t stop at the menu, but stretches back behind the bar. The cocktail list varies depending on what’s in season and what local farmers are growing. One such drink is the Scarlet O’Hara’s Secret, which is a combination of South Carolina’s Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, Lapsang souchong tea and peach schnapps.

“As much as we can, from the bread, to as many of the vegetables, to obviously the fish, some of the meat, particularly the charcuterie — anything we can, we get local,” he says. “And we’re going to increase that. We’d love to be 100% local, but it’s hard to do.”

While many of the local vendors that work with the restaurant have been there since it first opened, Chef Rodgers is currently meeting with and developing relationships with more purveyors of local goods.

“We love supporting local businesses and sharing those local businesses with our customers,” Dulany says.
That sentiment extends past the restaurant as well. Eventually, Dulany wants to work with local farmers to start a small organic farm to supply produce to his restaurant, and eventually other area restaurants and families who would be interested in a community-supported agriculture arrangement.

“I have one child and another on the way, and it’s something that I’d like to do for my family,” he says. “We believe in the organic movement — I believe in it personally. It’s not a 100% driver of the restaurant, but it certainly is something we want to support as much as we can. It’s tied very closely into the local fare. So, as much as we can get local, we are.”

For now, Dulany is satisfied with just bringing locally grown fare to Savannah.

“You’re getting fresher things, you’re getting them faster and you’re supporting a great deal of business in the state,” he says. “It’s something that we should put some efforts into — buying locally. It’s an overused sort of word, but there is meaning behind it and a tremendous amount of value.”