Nation's Restaurant News
The veal deal: visit to farm dispels well-heard but untrue bovine legends.
October 6, 2003
SECTION: No. 40, Vol. 37; Pg. 24; ISSN: 0028-0518
BYLINE: Thorn, Bret
Do you ever watch South Park, that very rude cartoon on Comedy Central about four 9-year-old boys and their antics in a world gone awry? It's not for everyone, but I think it's the funniest show on television.
In one episode the boys and their classmates toured a veal farm. Appalled that they had been eating "baby cows," the boys became eco-terrorists, holding the little cattle hostage until their demands were met, which included renaming veal something like "little tortured baby cows."
Only fat Eric Cartman, the 9-year-old so mean that he once tricked an enemy into eating chili made out of his own parents, rejoiced at the sight of the doe-eyed young cattle the size of cocker spaniels and declared that they looked delicious.
I think my hosts on the tour I took recently of a veal farm and processing plant were irritated that I kept mentioning the episode.
Of course, South Park is meant to entertain and offend; it doesn't claim to be accurate. But it's not just cartoon makers who have it wrong when it comes to veal. Somehow the American public got it into its collective head that veal are, in fact, little tortured baby cows.
Actually, they're not little, tortured, babies or even cows.
A cow by definition is a female. Veal canes are surplus members of the dairy world: They're bulls, generally Holsteins, who are the wrong breed to be raised as beef and the wrong sex to give milk.
They're sold to real farmers for about $ 140 apiece when they're three days old and weigh about 100 pounds. At 100 pounds they hardly resemble cocker spaniels, even less so by the time they go to market, 18 weeks later, when they weigh around 450 pounds.
At 450 pounds, they're not little.
Are they babies? At 18 weeks they're not adults, but they are about the same age as much of the young domestic lamb we eat. And all lamb is less than a year old; otherwise, it's mutton. Pigs are slaughtered at about six months, or 26 weeks. Most chickens make it to just seven weeks. Only beef cattle, of all the mainstream animals we eat, live for more than a year.
Then there's the issue of torture. When I mention "veal," people start reciting urban legends of anemic animals kept in the dark and either suspended in midair or with their feet nailed to the floorboards.
"Have you ever been to a real farm?" I've wanted to ask them, but I hadn't either, so I was stuck.
Now I have been to a veal farm, one of about 75 that supply the country's largest veal-processing plant, which has a capacity of about only 1,800 veal a week.
I visited a farm in Fredericksburg, Pa., with folks from the New Jersey and Pennsylvania departments of agriculture and assorted chefs, instructors and meat merchants. It was run by a Mennonite couple and their nine kids.
Their real canes spend their whole lives tethered to a clean, well-ventilated and lighted stall, eating twice a day.
That's not the most fascinating of 18-week lives, but I think remembering how their wild cousins live helps keep things in perspective.
Cattle were domesticated thousands of years ago, but their closest relatives, animals such as deer and antelope, don't exactly live carefree lives, playing at home on the range. The moment they're born they have to be able to run. They live in fear, searching for food, and as soon as they lose their edge, they generally become a meal for their local predator.
As for accusations that veal are kept anemic, I'm told that that's impossible. Anemic animals don't grow, and real are expected to gain nearly 3 pounds a day. So they're given an iron shot early on and then are fed food that, like the canes themselves, is largely surplus from the dairy industry: milk solids, mostly from whey left over from cheese makers, augmented by vegetable fat and animal fat, including some beef tallow. That is mixed with warm water to 103 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of their mothers' milk.
LIDO VEAL & LAMB
Makes EveryDay Exciting
Dalai Lama digs into veal, pheasant
Posted: May 15, 2007
Nancy Stohs
It's a question most chefs never get the privilege of pondering:
What to serve the Dalai Lama?
In Milwaukee chef Sandy D'Amato's case, the answer was veal.
Veal?
Despite expectations that a vegetarian feast would be in order, the team of chefs assembled to cook for His Holiness on his recent visit to Madison was given no such instruction, said Catherine McKiernan, executive chef at the Madison Club, where the elaborate luncheon was held.
The Dalai Lama got a wonderful meal; the chefs, including Sanford D'Amato (third from right, next to Dalai Lama), got the chance to meet one of the world's renowned religious leaders.
'Sandy' D'Amato Sanford "Sandy" D'Amato, chef/co-owner of Sanford Restaurant, 1547 N. Jackson St., Coquette Cafe, 316 N. Milwaukee St., and Harlequin Bakery, is a James Beard Award winner. For more information, visit www.sanfordrestaurant.com.
The Dalai Lama is, it turns out, a meat lover.
And so the five-course menu, served to about 60 people on May 3, including the guest of honor, his entourage and assorted citizens, included a stuffed pheasant breast, D'Amato's slow-cooked veal roast with scalded morels and escarole, and an asparagus soup with a chicken stock base.
A cured fish appetizer, mixed green salad, eggplant-and-chickpea entrée, and three full-size chocolate desserts completed the menu.
Created and coordinated by Jim Walsh, a Wisconsin native who attended UW-Madison, the luncheon cost $500 to $1,000a head and was a fund-raiser for the Deer Park Buddhist Center and Monastery near Madison.
Walsh is the founder and CEO of Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate, a premium chocolate whose trees were blessed by the Dalai Lama and whose chocolate was the first ever eaten by the spiritual leader.
Fittingly, his latest product, Intentional Chocolate, is a dark chocolate that's engineered to promote "an increased sense of energy, vigor and well-being" in those who consume it.
Walsh told D'Amato he picked him to be on the chef team after eating at Sanford Restaurant in Milwaukee.
He was looking for restaurants that had a zen-like feel, where the service and food and ambience "all made sense together." Sanford measured up, as a place where "nothing seemed forced," and it seemed as though "everything was meant to be there." D'Amato may not have put "zen" and "Sanford" in the same sentence before, but he was duly flattered.
The other chefs were Shawn McClain from Chicago's Spring Restaurant, Green Zebra and Custom House and John Gadau and Phillip Hurley, co-owners and chefs of Sardine and Marigold Kitchen restaurants in Madison. They weren't operating completely in the dark about their honored guest. They knew the Dalai Lama eats only breakfast and lunch, and that his vows prohibit him from eating anything after 1 p.m.
"Everything had to be seasonal and local and Wisconsin-themed, as it were," McKiernan said, noting the presence on the menu of pea shoots, pheasant and "a lot of asparagus."
For security reasons, the chefs didn't know exactly when the exiled leader would show up. They were told it could be 11:15 or 11:45 a.m., 12:15 or 12:30 p.m. The chefs also had been briefed on Dalai Lama protocol: Never turn your back on him. Don't touch him. Don't speak to him unless he speaks to you. Right around noon, D'Amato was heading downstairs to the kitchen, one level below the dining area, to check on his food. Halfway down, he met His Holiness heading up the stairs. "So I did kind of a little moonwalk backward all the way up and smiled," D'Amato said.
The chefs had hoped it would be possible to get a photograph with him but were not planning to press the issue. When the Dalai Lama saw them all standing behind the table of food, the Dalai Lama said, "Oh, the cooks! Picture! Picture!" D'Amato recalled.
"He grabbed my hand and another other fellow's . . . " and the proof is printed in this newspaper.
And how did His Radiance like the food? With all due respect, "he chowed down," D'Amato said.
In addition to the veal dish and a Warm Bittersweet Intentional Chocolate Tart with Coffee Ice Cream, D'Amato brought bread for the meal from his Harlequin Bakery. "He ate nine pieces of bread," the chef said. The Dalai Lama commented later that everything was really delicious, D'Amato said, asking how this dish and that were made. And, he noted approvingly, "it's good quantity."
Ashley Walsh of Los Angeles, Jim Walsh's daughter and co-coordinator of the luncheon, sat at the Dalai Lama's table. "He pretty much lapped up every single plate that he had put in front of him," she recalled. "He loves food; he likes good food."
Before this, the biggest luminary D'Amato had cooked for was Julia Child, on her 80th birthday. For McKiernan, it was Al Gore.
By comparison, McKiernan said, "This was much more intense. It was nerve-wracking. There was more security here for the Dalai Lama than there was for Al Gore."
"This was the biggest thing I've ever been involved in," D'Amato echoed. "It was really exciting when he came in.
"You listen to him speak . . . he just transcends politics and religion. What he's saying is . . . all about compassion and love and getting rid of your anger. And everything that is bad in the world was created by man, so man can fix it all."
D'Amato had brought along a copy of the Dalai Lama's latest book, "How to See Yourself As You Really Are," hoping to get the author's signature. The Dalai Lama obliged - but first he referenced the title and laughed. "He has this real infectious giggle," D'Amato said. "He said, 'Look, there's no "self" in Buddhism, and this is my book.' "
Nevertheless, he signed it, addressing D'Amato and his wife, Angie, with a message in Tibetan. He translated it as: "I hope the two of you have wonderful success and wonderful happiness in all of your lifetimes." Yes, that last word is plural.
D'Amato said he's always believed he'd come back in his next life as a food. "Maybe a hot dog."
RECIPES
You can eat like the Dalai Lama by making this recipe served to the spiritual leader on his recent visit to Madison.
Sandy D'Amato adapted his slow-cooked veal recipe for faster home preparation.
Veal with Morels, Escarole and Rhubarb Essence
Makes 4 servings
Rhubarb essence (see recipe)
Marinated potatoes (see recipe)
2 tablespoons clarified butter
¼ pound fresh morels, cleaned and cut in half
1 large shallot, finely diced (about 2 tablespoons)
1 head escarole, cleaned and cut into 1-inch pieces, washed and dried
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil for sautéing
4 medallions (6 ounces each) veal loin or veal strip loin (I prefer Strauss Veal)
Half-dried rhubarb slivers to garnish (see note)
Prepare rhubarb essence and marinated potatoes. Set aside.
Place a large sauté pan over high heat. When hot, add clarified butter. When butter is hot, add morels and sauté about 2 minutes. Add shallot and escarole that has been tossed with the extra-virgin olive oil. Cook 1½ minutes until escarole is wilted. Season with salt and pepper and immediately remove from heat.
To finish: Place a non-stick sauté pan over high heat. Add olive oil and season veal medallions with salt and pepper. When oil is hot, add meat and sauté about 2 minutes per side or until lightly golden. Remove from pan.
To assemble: Divide escarole, morels and marinated potatoes among 4 plates. Top each with a veal medallion and garnish with rhubarb essence and half-dried rhubarb slivers, if desired.
Note: To make half-dried rhubarb slivers, cut thin slices of rhubarb and toss with sugar. Bake in preheated 225-degree oven until-half dried.
Rhubarb essence:
2 cups rhubarb juice from juiced fresh rhubarb, cooked until reduced to ¼ cup
1/3 cup grape seed oil
2 teaspoons sugar or to taste
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Mix together all ingredients.
Marinated potatoes:
1½ cups water
½ cup vinegar
Salt to taste
2 Idaho potatoes, peeled and diced small
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
20 grinds of black pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
In saucepan, bring water, vinegar and salt to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender. Drain well and place in a bowl. Sprinkle parsley over top of potatoes. In small skillet, heat oil with red pepper, black pepper and garlic until garlic turns light brown. Pour over potatoes and mix.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=605615
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