Fork up the farm

Slow Food Baton Rouge Farm Tours and Dinner in the Field

Sunday, March 18

Free farm tours from approximately 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (bring a picnic lunch)

Dinner immediately following at Oakland Organics (tickets required)

This month, local chefs will team with regional farmers for an outdoor dinner at a working farm where the menu will comprise solely Louisiana produce and local foods. It’s the second such “Dinner in the Field” event, hosted by the Baton Rouge chapter of Slow Food USA, an organization that promotes fresh fare and farming in the face of culinary mass production and fast food. Organizers say the four-course menu will be cooked on site and based on what’s emerging from regional fields right now.

Chefs Jaime Hernandez of Juban’s, Jason Roland of Heirloom Cuisine, Eric Arceneaux of the City Club, Luca di Martino of Latte e Miele, Fred Heurtin and other farm-to-table disciples are donating time to cook and serve about 65 guests. The dinner will take place at the Gurley, La., produce farm, Oakland Organics, and follows afternoon tours of local farms, many of which are also Red Stick Farmers Market vendors.

Heurtin, a corporate chef and Slow Food Baton Rouge board member, says the event reveals South Louisiana’s lush supply of produce and fresh foods, which he believes remain underappreciated.

“You have ingredients here that are as good as what you have in Napa, and growers here who are as good as those in Napa and in places like the Hudson Valley—but we don’t celebrate them,” Heurtin says. “This [dinner] allows us to say, ‘Look at what we have in our backyard that’s on par with those places.’”

Farm-to-table cuisine continues to be one of the nation’s biggest food trends. While it remains a subculture in Baton Rouge, it has picked up considerable steam due to the focused growth of the Red Stick Farmers Market, school and community gardens and a handful of local chefs who now incorporate regionally farmed ingredients into their restaurant menus.

Slow Food Baton Rouge launched its inaugural Dinner in the Field last May at Oakland Organics with a four-course meal served in a candle-lit 19th-century brick kitchen. It began with a charcuterie board composed of dishes like rabbit terrine and chicken rillettes made with fowl from Yardbird Farms. A salad followed, made from just-harvested Oakland Organics arugula, goat cheese from Belle Ecorce in St. Martinville, roasted beets and preserved kumquat vinaigrette. Heurtin grew the fruit for the salad course himself.

Cochon de lait-style pork with root beer glaze and prime rib from regional purveyor Hollywood Farms came next, served with fresh kale sautéed with Herbsaint and wild mushroom risotto finished with local butter and cream from Feliciana’s Best Creamery. For dessert, Latte e Miele owner Luca di Martino served two flavors of small-batch gelato, one with Oakland Organics’ fresh rosemary and the other with Ponchatoula strawberries.

This year’s dinner will likely move from the plantation kitchen to outdoor tables under sprawling live oaks to accommodate more patrons. For ticket prices and further information, visit slowfoodbr.org.