Dan Barber, the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill in Manhattan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Tarrytown, New York, has been at the forefront of the sustainable food movement in the United States for the better part of a decade. Though his restaurants are experienced by a lucky few, he freely shares the philosophies that he’s developed around local eating, whether it’s in the opinion section of The New York Times, in culinary documentaries like Chef’s Table, or in The Third Plate, the farm-to-table manifesto that he himself authored. Barber has raised awareness about food waste with his pop-up restaurant, wastED, where he fashioned gourmet meals from scraps and leftovers, and recently, he launched Row 7 Seed Company, a company that breeds seeds for flavor. Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery Associate Editor Gabriella Gershenson caught up with Barber to learn more about the unique intersection of fine dining and good farming that manifests in his kitchen.

Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery: How would you describe Stone Barns and Blue Hill to someone who has never been?

Dan Barber: We don't have menus, and every table gets a different meal. That is part of the philosophy. You know that expression, eating nose to tail? This is about eating the whole farm, including all parts of the animal, and all parts of the rotations that are necessary to have good soil health, good fertility and a healthy, diverse landscape, which is the key to any organic system. The key for us as eaters is to support that, and the way to do that is to eat all these families of vegetables that are planted at all times of the year. It promotes the healthiest landscape, and we end up enjoying it and supporting it through our diets. That's the key to the experience.

TL&CC: Blue Hill at Stone Barns is located on farm. Are you able to supply both of your restaurants with the food that you grow there?

DB: No, but our suppliers also include Blue Hill Farm, a family dairy where animals, vegetables and grains are raised, and other farms that we're contracted with, where we take what they offer every week. It's more of a CSA subscription than it is using farmers like a supermarket, which is where you get to pick exactly what you want.

Blue Hill at Stone Barns, image: Ira Lippke

TL&CC: How do you connect your menu to greater ideas about sustainability that can be applied beyond the dining room?

DB: Our menu gives you the sense that you're actively participating in good agriculture through eating. We have to get that point across without being didactic or missionary about it. I'd rather be a merchant of happiness than an army of virtue. We are forced into having no menus. So, that's just a reality. How we go about dealing with it is the real opportunity. Do we sit there and lecture that you're not going to have what your neighbor has, even if you want it, or, do we talk about the opportunity and the excitement that this provides? If you're nimble, it's the best way to support the kind of agriculture that we want.

TL&CC: What is your definition of a sustainable restaurant?

DB: I think there's a wide open definition. I don't think everyone needs to be Stone Barns. We're doing what we do for the lower Hudson Valley at this moment. Our menu going into this week is very different from what we had the week before. And it will be very different the week after. If Stone Barns were to open in Topeka, Kansas, it would look very different. I think that the truly sustainable restaurant responds to the region, and to what the region needs to grow. That's first and foremost, because the food will always be better. That's one definition. Sustainability is deliciousness.

Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Image: Jade Nina Sarkhel

TL&CC: How have restaurants changed since sustainability became a priority for serious chefs?

DB: Now, restaurants are not one-size-fit-all. You don't go to a restaurant expecting the same dishes, the same kind of service, the same kind of ingredients, like lobster, caviar, and foie gras. In New York, San Francisco, southern cities, and everywhere, you had to serve those ingredients and others to be considered a serious restaurant. Today, all that is being turned on its head. In fact, it’s the opposite. Those things seem tired. What is exciting and new, and I guess virtuous, but also really delicious, is the stuff that is particular to a place. The kind of thing you cannot get somewhere else. And that's what's changed in the restaurant landscape in general. It's forced a real look at local conditions.

TL&CC: For you, were cooking and farming always intertwined, or was there a moment when the two became inextricable?

DB: I partly grew up on Blue Hill Farm. But there wasn't a moment when I said, "Huh, now I'm going to merge the two". It’s more this idea that my cooking style is really unplugged. It's super simple. And if you're going to do that and be successful, the food you're cooking had better taste good. This drove me to be aware of how the food my restaurant used was grown. Once you do that, you start to say “Well, hold on a second. You know those peas, that always are consistently super sweet from this one guy?” Then you start asking "Well, what kind of pea is he growing?" and "What are the soil conditions?" And then you look for that kind of soil type from other farmers, and it starts to get really interesting. Flavor is the driver. It's not environmental efficacy of it all. It just so happens that pleasure, hedonism and deliciousness are linked to environmental stewardship, health and sustainability.