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Interview: Ask Ben Starr About the Future of Food
samzenpus (5) writes "Ben Starr is a chef, travel writer, reality TV star, wine and beer brewer, cheesemaker, and ultimate food geek. Ben traveled all 7 continents in his early 20s, staying with local families and learning to cook the cuisines of the world in home kitchens and local markets. FRANK, his underground Dallas restaurant, has a waitlist of 3,000 and reservations are selected by random lottery. He is a passionate local and sustainable food advocate. Ben is a flag waver for the new generation of chefs who embrace modern technology, and his Camp Potluck feeds hundreds of hungry Burning Man attendees every year. Ben has agreed to put down his chef's knife and answer your questions. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post."
his underground Dallas restaurant, has a waitlist of 3,000
Do you get one of those buzzing alarm thingies while you are waiting?
Gordon Ramsay is?
"his underground Dallas restaurant, has a waitlist of 3,000"
Food that you have to wait that long to eat is not worth eating.
What knives do you recommend? I use Chicago Cutlery, but I have been told that Wusthof is worth the money.
Which wine, red or white?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Eating food is really just putting a bunch of chemicals into our body and that's about it.
As the population continues to increase, while arable land continues to decrease, do you think we will ever end up in a world where eating healthy is as simple as popping a pill (scifi cliche, I know), while taste/flavour itself becomes a luxury item?
it's about being there and being a special snowflake.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
With the advent of tablets, global cooking communities and digitally-controlled tools (induction stoves, ovens, sous vide boilers, infrared thermometers, etc.) the world is rapidly becoming a place where anyone, anywhere has access to the sum total of all food knowledge and, absent the experience of cooking, programmable devices that do the cooking for them. Do you see this as a threat to the traditional restaurant concept?
From the standpoint of sustainable living, I've been distancing myself more and more from the supermarkets and started growing a lot of my own vegetables at home. Fortunately I have a room to dedicate to my hydro farm that allows me to eat fresh all year around. I am wondering if you are seeing more people starting to do this, or am I just alone and crazy when it comes to this? I think as food prices go up and food gets stuffed with more crap many people will start to grow their own, but on the other hand most Americans are too fat and lazy to dedicate time and energy to nutrition, I see many houses with an abundance of land with only decorative plants. It's hard to believe that people are not growing their own food. What do you think?
I live in San Francisco, and live near a number of Asian grocery stores. We get all sorts of interesting fruits and vegetables year round that are hard to find anywhere else, and these stores often import them from Asia, often from China, the Phillippines, Thailand, etc....
Do you have any information on the status of the US relaxing additional import restrictions on fruits and veggies from SE Asia and other parts of the world? For example, now that Burma is supposedly a bit more democratic, can we expect to see that country exporting more and more produce to the US?
Please tell me that douch-bag phrase is on the way out
It says you went to all 7 continents "staying with local families and learning to cook the cuisines of the world"
Wouldn't Antarctica just be canned food. As the locals are only there temporary. Or is there a really good Penguin Soup?
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
[snark]We already know the future of food; it's going to be eaten :P [/snark]
What's your take on the whole "vertical farming" and "hydroponics" thing?
As a chef that embraces modern technology, do you think that the 3D printed food technology is something you will have in your kitchen some day or is it just a fad?
Dissenter
"There is no knowledge that is not power."
World Hunger is trending towards going away, and a catalyst for eliminating it is for individuals to work hard and donate to the poor.
What are some strategies you have for elimination of World Hunger?
God spoke to me
What do you think of replacing the stereotypical front yard with some type of garden and some home raising of animals (chickens come to mind)? I'm nowhere near a farmer, but having the ability to have food available a few feet away seems like a wise idea, especially with food prices skyrocketing.
I know I am feeding the troll, but I need a break from work.
The Republicans are not Anti-Science, they are food "Good News" Science, say GMO Foods, and new technologies, stuff they can say look how much money science is making us.
What they don't like is Bad news science, where it means a company will need to change their production and loose money. As well if a particular science seems to clash with a religion of a voter base.
That said, If say the Evangelicals started to vote Democrat, you will see a new set of democrats fighting against putting evolution in schools.
Politicians are not for and against science. They are just going to have a position that gets them their most votes.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
How can mass farming of cattle be made sustainable?
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
What do you think of local greenhouses and hydroponic bays making food fresh for peoples in cities and higher latitudes?
What is the most efficient, and ordered, way to assemble a world-class kitchen?
Many of us don't have the budget (especially when coming out of college) to buy all the crazy-awesome tools that make for a world class kitchen in one go, so we have to slowly purchase items as our budget allows and/or old cheaper items get used up. Do you have a recommended order, from a batchelor/ette's first egg pan to elaborate computerized sous-vide, in which someone can build their own world-class kitchen over several years?
This signature can save you $400 on your car insurance!
How do you feel about products like Soylent and the community building around such products? Do you think this is something that could catch on?
Other interesting article: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2013/08/20/soylent/
I've got a question regarding food and the world's obesity epidemic.
While many people will agree that a shift to more sedentary lifestyles is a major component of the world's obesity epidemic, there is also the food side of the problem as well: many processed foods contain tons of high-fructose corn syrup and other empty calories, and fewer people are buying the raw ingredients for food and cooking it.
So here is my question: What changes can we expect to see to supermarkets and restaurants in the coming years to try and stave off the obesity problem, and what can someone who does not know how to cook do now (in terms of what books to read, etc) in order to secure themselves better food?
Instead of using a random lottery to select your customers, wouldn't it make more sense to simply raise your prices until demand falls to meet supply? Or, alternatively, add some space for more tables, so supply rises to meet demand?
Mr. Starr, thanks for taking questions.
My question: When will we see a scalable local/organic logistics solution for delivering food to a large metro area? Ex: The size of Denver...we see stories of "innovative tech solutions" all the time here on /., but usually they are limited to one "green" building, one research team's "urban farm" concept, one restaurant chef applying these in one restaurant in Brooklyn... I'm asking when will we see one of those solutions applied at scale? I ask because in my mind that is the threshold or 'tipping point' in the industrial food situation.
Thank you Dave Raggett
...then I take it you support using GMO food to continue feeding the world's hungry?
Do you agree with the following statement, and would you comment?
Industrial livestock production and the high meat consumption diet of the industrialized world are unsustainable and are causing great damage to the Earths ecosystems,
and that the only real solution being that the amount of meat being consumed must drop considerably.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
What will space food be like?
I'm thinking of the first orbital hotels in space-stations in Earth orbit for very rich space tourists. Presumably there will be a need for exciting, high-quality novel cuisine in this environment? And cooking facilities?
Then will come the tourist trips to the Moon and eventually Mars.
What ideas do you have?
Stick Men
a company will need to change their production and loose money.
Why would a company want money that isn't tight? I've heard you Republicans use that term before, but I still don't know what it means. What were you trying to say?
What are some of the most interesting and promising recent innovations available to the home brewer?
Love sees no species.
Does that make him:
A) Yet another very rich nerd trying desperately to be remembered for something - ANYTHING - else other than being yet another very rich nerd.
B) An extremely evil nerd trying desperately to be remembered for something - ANYTHING - else other than being an extremely evil nerd.
C) All of the above.
#DeleteChrome
... and what's this here evolution thing y'all are talkin' bout?
So... what does Antarctic cuisine look like?
Current society focuses more and more on technology to make cooking easier, quicker, make prepared foods more readily accessible, etc. One area we have not really changed is butchering, except to say that there are far fewer butchers today than a generation ago. There could be no quality cuts of meat without them.
Do you think butchers are a dying breed, or will we see a resurgence within that profession?
What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
and you would see a lot of former democrat start voting republican.
Hardly the first time the parties changed.
"Politicians are not for and against science. They are just going to have a position that gets them their most votes."
Republican have been lying about science in order to get money from industry while keeping there masses from braying too much.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
In the order of importance (for a residential setting):
1) good range or rangetop. The burners better be open style and capable of at least 15kBTU (22k and up to do wokking right)
2) good rangehood. At least 600-700CFM, baffle filters.
3) good oven, either in a range or stand-alone. Size is important, but evenness of baking is much more so. Steam capability optional.
4) good set of utensils. Many competing schools of thought regarding pans (I personally prefer cast iron in almost any situation), just avoid the non-stick coated thin aluminum junk. Good knives and even better knife sharpener.
Everything else is secondary, maybe the fridge/freezer are sitting on a distant #5.
Oh, and sous-vide is, i.m.o., overrated.
Why should I care about what some random guy/pseudo celebrity has to say about the future of food?
I've been watching some documentaries lately, along the lines of Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead & Food Matters (both worth watching).
The common theme (which I have heard for many years now) is to eat raw and stay away from processed foods: the reason being; most chronic disease is caused by the lack of avaiable micronutients. You may be getting energy from processed foods, but all the complex biomechanics for healty cell life is being starved, causing heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, etc etc.
From your experience with food around the world, what do you think is the optimum daily diet.
46137
there masses
Where masses?
I keep hearing this nonsense about "sustainable" food. All of our current food is sustainable, otherwise our grocery stores would be empty.
Isn't what you really mean about "sustainable" food is that it's food for the poor people while REAL food like meats and cheeses and fresh vegetables are for the elite while we poor people should be relegated to the processed junk food and imitation soybean meats along with the GMO's?
- A Frog in a pond utters an azure cry. -
Not to say anything agains Ben Starr, but did that introduction include Antarctica?
How would you cook if all of humanity's food(/sugar/fuel) production had to be algae plus 3d printing because of environmental concerns and space requirements?
I live in Japan. There are sushi shops with secret menus full of ethically questionable delicacies. As both a culinary artist and an advocate for sustainable food, have you ever faced a moral dilemma that required you to compensate between broadening your palette and upholding your principles?