#ILoveLausanne III: A Good and Bad Day @GoodFestival

Mise en place for dinner tonight!

    Above you see the results of a mad dash up to the Wednesday Market before madly dashing down to the Olympic Museum. It reminds me of the blessings of good food and good friends to eat it.

     At the Good Festival, I continue to be overwhelmed with the resources available to structure businesses to do good and be profitable. Ernst and Young sent Chiari Rinaldi to talk about investor's increasing interests in "ESG:" the environmental, social and governmental impact of businesses. Phillip Mantell, of SINA, an organization that works in Uganda, spoke about the mis-fit between post-colonial education and countries where employment is difficult to find. SINA addresses this with a process that turns victims of the situation into victors, through coaching into entrepreneurship.

     I did not know that crowd funding has risen to a high art, but it has, and before you do it, you ought to avail yourself of its arcania.

    And then came the downer: Olivier Kennedy of Enigma, a marketing group. 

    I suppose I should not have been shocked. My journalist father once worked for a trade publication in the advertising business. He'd written an award winning biography of play write Eugene O'Neill and they wanted heroic profiles of the 1960s greats of the New York City agencies. In the end, he concluded they were all whores for large corporations. Hard not to make that conclusion, given the tobacco giants of the day. But you saw it all on television's "Mad Men."

     Olivier Kennedy's memo is that although the days of television and newspapers are gone, the new methods and media of the 21st Century can be used to shape belief. His group can do this for you. 

     Hello The Hidden Persuaders, it isn't nice to have you back again. 

     Oddly, he did not want to discuss the spontaneous facebook campaign, #MeToo. But politicians? Yes. I am sure that agencies in the United States are offering similar services. 

     Memo to self: 1. Quit being so naive. 2. Re-read Marchiavelli.

     Back to the good stuff: 

*Steffan Raetzer reminding us and himself to use your anger and outrage as fuel.

    

*Mary Mayenfisch, an Irish woman after my own heart, is a Human Rights lawyer who assembled and extraordinary panel who spoke about leading for change:

Caroline Puffrey of UNIL

Veerle van Wauwe, Transparence SA, who has created a clean gold supply chain.

Daniele Gostell Hauser of Amnesty International

Natalie Wilkins of Thriving Talent

     The last presenter before I headed home to rest my weary brain was Jonathan Normand of B Lab (Switzerland). B Lab has a methodology for measuring who well a corporation scores on the "ESG" goals I spoke of several paragraphs ago.

     Happy to say that today will feature techniques to help these entrepreneurs of good sustain themselves. I'm going to sustain myself tonight by cooking dinner and having a great conversation with strangers! More tomorrow!

#ILoveLausanne II: The Good Festival

Focus on Food at The Good Festival

     If you are like me, you wonder if the forces of evil aren't winning in battle for the world. I'm feeling a smidgen more hopeful today.
     Fortune smiled on me when I wrangled an invitation to the third Good Festival, at the Olympic Museum, on the shore of Lac Leman. I applied and received a call from Rajiv Srivastava, one of the founders. I explained my interest in culinary history, and in particular the reception of immigrant cuisines and immigrants. He assured me there was a great interest in food issues among participants, and indeed there is, as you can see from the flip-chart notes above. 

     A hazy autumnal morning on Lac Leman, viewed from the Olympic Museum, goes well with an espresso. I drank both in and listened to English, French, German spoken all around me. I overheard snippets of conversation about projects from Africa to Nepal.

     Then Rajiv laid out the plan for the day and days ahead. The Festival operates as a fast vehicle to #GetGoodDone. Coaches and participants describe and practice the elements that make for sustainable innovation that is a force for good. We quickly put the first steps to building diverse teams into action, clustering at points of interest like Food, Education, Arts and Culture, Environment etc. We shared our concerns and projects.

     In my three months here, I've read and seen much interest in food purity and security. "Bio" is a watchword in both major supermarket chains, Co-Op and Migros, as well as at the Wednesday and Saturday Markets. These were part of the issues raised by Anna DeCosterd of mysweetmoette, whose goal is to connect city dwellers with local food producers. Jason Papadopoulous has a vision for building the ability to grow food and medicine from food wastes through urban, indoor farming. Flavia and Vlad have created Foodcrafters to showcase producers who adhere to integrity in their products and business practices.

http://beta.dmafb.me/en     

     We broke off our ice-breaking conversations for rapid-fire presentations on the fundamentals of a sustainable business doing good, from people who have done so, or coached others to do so. Professors from EPFL's business school, PriceWaterhouseCooper accountants, founders; each offered nuggets of wisdom.  If I had to choose the one that resonated, it would be Don Difang's Domeafavorbuddy. This is an app that enables people to "pay it forward" in real life.

     Back to food. Anna, Jason, Flavia, Vlad and I and Flavia Spasiano, one of the coaches, coached each other, offering our thoughts on their projects. We could see the value of looking from diverse perspectives. The next step for them will be composing a short video, what I've come to call an elevator pitch, for their projects. I'm glad to help, and hope there will be some time for them to comment on my questions about immigrants and immigrant cuisines.

     And on to dinner, at the Jeunehotel. Over veal and rosti, and joined by my significant other, I spoke with a Vietnamese MBA student from Zurich. Gourmet Magazine introduced me to Tao Kim Hai, the first Vietnamese writer for Gourmet as well as the New Yorker; a perspective on France and Vietnam from 75 years ago. She is writing her dissertation on creating a clean food supply chain for the vegetables used in Vietnamese cooking. The Swiss government has found excessive pesticides in those imported from Southeast Asia. I am excited to speak further with her; the Invited Cuisine of Honor at the Dijon Gastronomic Fair is Vietnam. 

     And now I'm off to the Wednesday market and the back to the GoodFestival. Stay tuned for more!

The Great Smith Island Cake Disaster

Shock and Awe: Celtic-Roman Stonework from Neuchatel.

     It began innocently and with good intentions: food historian Michael Twitty suggested a sacrificial dish for my specific sin of over-complicating things. Making the multi-layered Smith Island Cake from Tidewater Maryland sure proved complicated for me.

     It is only a slight exaggeration to say I'd never baked a cake. The Smith Island was not the one to start, not with a strange oven with metric temperature settings, with instructions in ounces and cups, and implements in liters. Did I mention too small cake pans?

     

Still she persisted.

     If we must conduct a postmortem, the first fatal error was not measuring out the batter into ten equal portions. The second was leaving wrinkles in the parchment lining of the pans. This resulted in lovely unintended flutes around the completely uneven layers.

    On the upside, I can say that the purest darkest eating chocolate from Switzerland can be substituted for unsweetened and semi-sweetened.  

    The cake's fate should be to be fed to the fishes, helping me to dispense with my sin. Instead my husband will have a slice, and then take the rest to be shared with faculty and students at the University.

    I have only one question, and I'm afraid it suggests I'm willfully persisting in my sin. Wikipedia gives the first mention of a Smith Island Cake to an early 20th Century cookbook. Does anyone know more about it?

     

The Great Smith Island Cake Disaster.

   

Novel Food

         Novel Food, hosted by food writer and pasta master Simona Carina, is a wonderful event. You cook a food from a favorite novel.

         Les Grandes Meaulnes, the story of love lost and regained, and a mysterious chateau in the Cher region of France, has been a favorite of mine since college.

         The hero, Meaulnes, wanders into a gala wedding party and is entranced by the sister of the groom. Suddenly all the festivities end; the bride has changed her mind. Our hero resolves to find her. If you don't know the book, you should. In English, it's called The Wanderer by Alain-Fournier.

          I could not find a description of the exact food for the noces (night before the wedding) feast. I consulted sources for the period, pre-World War I France, for the upper classes. No joy.

          The novelist George Sand did describe the wedding customs for the region, including the tradition of hanging a cabbage from the highest rafter. In China, it's customary to hang a lettuce within leaping distance of the lion-dragon. I decided to pursue a cabbage recipe.  Everything at today's Wednesday Market, and sweet-sour that I love!

         

Cabbage with Apples, Walnuts and Goat Cheese

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons canola oil

2 small red onions, thinly sliced

1/4 cup walnuts

1 clove garlic, minced

1 small head red cabbage, shredded (about 4 cups)

2 Tablespoons balsamic

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh oregano

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 apple (Mcintosh style) cut in 1/2 inch pieces

2 1/2 ounces or more crumbled goat cheese

Heat the oil over medium heat. Add onion, walnuts, garlic. Soften the onions, toast the walnuts. (5-7 minutes)

Add the cabbage, balsamic and oregano. Cover. Stir. (12- 15 minutes)

Salt, pepper.

Remove from heat and toss with the apples and goat cheese. 

Cabbage for Noces, Le Grand Meaulnes peasant style.

It's not that hard to find MFK Fisher, if you walk.

The Railroad Station at Chexbres, Canton Vaud, Switzerland

     Walking up the hills of Lausanne rewards me when I get to the Mon Repos swimming pool. What if, I thought to myself, I walked up through the vineyards above Saint-Saphorin. We see them from the train along the lake. I had read that M.F.K. Fisher's home below Chexbres Village and Saint-Saphorin no longer existed. Someone wrote a long post about their unsuccessful attempt.

I found a photograph of it, but wasn't at sure of the date. 

     Replicating my father's photographs of the Hudson River taught me a few things about finding the location from which a shot was taken. First, buildings, as rectangles whose lines are converging in the distance, can be captured in a simple sketch. Particular features of the landscape, such as unusual trees, sometimes outlast buildings. And finally, road signs and mile markers, which are maintained by local authorities, will remain.

Le Paquis, date unknown.

I'm on the right track.

Checking the view.

The Canton maintains road signs.

With those clues, on foot, my climb was rewarded. M.F.K. Fisher means little to the Swiss, but I wonder if the owners know that something other than grapes grew here.

Le Paquis, 2017; window treatment remains.

Le Tour de Tout Cochon or the pork from head to tail...

     Sundays in Lausanne are a limited menu. Museums are closed, cafés close early. It's still quite warm. We decided to head up into the mountains. School is in session, autumn is at hand, tourists are fewer. An hour of fast train got us to Martigny, on the Rhone, above Lac Leman. Another hour, first on a Swiss funicular, and then on a French one, got us to Chamonix-Mont Blanc.

     The scenery is the sort that makes you laugh with delight. Pure verticality everywhere you look: Slopes stripped in shades of green below mountain tops lapped in permanent ice and snow, sunlight playing on clouds as they play with the peaks.

     Chamonix in summer is like any ski town in summer. The streets are lined with postcard shops, and stores selling clothing with labels like Sun Valley. By now it was hours since breakfast. We ambled off to a side street. Eventually we saw a sign for a restaurant with local specialties---this is France, Savoie region, in particular. Examining the Maison Carrier menu, we noted two things. The restaurant had been awarded Michelin's Bib Gourmand category---googd value, worth a detour. More importantly the price for a three or four course meal was about half than an ordinary restaurant in Lausanne. 

     A table was available at noon. We waited in the garden, drinking kir royales and citron pressé and reading the menu. Once choice was Tout Cochon - the whole pig, including the trotter, something I'd heard a lot about, but never eaten.

If not here, where?

     Even before the terrine arrived, we were presented with an enormous pat of butter, bread, dried charcuterie, mustard and a crab paste. Somewhere I read a plaintive explanation of American bar-b-que: when you cannot dry meat easily, you must smoke it, and serve it with a sauce to replenish some of what's lost in the heat of the smoker. Well, I come down on the side of smoking, and this region comes down on drying. Ah, well, they make up for this fault with their cheese.

     In any case, the terrine was, to employ that overused word, unctuous. The chicken liver added some oomph.

Homemade terrine with chicken liver,
onions candied in the balsamic and mushrooms in vinegar.

                

     Next came the black pudding. So rich, so delicate. I'm used to it having a sausage casing and being a bit dry, this was not in the least. The bacon, pear and onions with the sautéed potatoes, just the sort of sweet and sour to cut through the richness.
   





So there she blows, the pig's trotter. A lovely crust. I'm ignorant of how to proceed, and pretty sure I went about it all wrong. Fork in left hand, steak knife in the right, all I seemed to do was produce bones, with no meat adhering to them at all. A great deal of work to extract a few morsels of deliciousness. There really was no need for the gravy boat of Béarnaise, do you think? 

Grilled pig's trotter with béarnaise sauce

    The main course was a very nice piece of pork, which had been cooked in the manner of a daube, and then scorched a little. The tomatoes and olives again added some sour to the dish. However, as good as the accompanying gravy was, I will go for some pulled pork bar-b-que, if you care to send some to this realm of air-dried-sliced-shoe-leather.

Slow cooking pork filet mignon with olives and tomatoes,

mashed charlotte potatoes with virgin oil.

Where Street Food is Food Truck Food

     Friday morning early, I charged up the hills outside our apartment to the Park called Mon Repos. Famous in Lausanne as the place where the philosopher Voltaire stayed when he visited, its also home to one of the city's pools. As my summer swimming hole by Lac Leman will close in a month or so, I wanted to investigate this indoor pool.
     Uphill I can do with the hips. Downhill, with the knees, is the killer.
     I checked out the pool. It's just 25 meters.
     Wandering across the street, I chanced upon Les Loges De Gout, which is the brain-child of Julien Lerouxel. He is a chef who conducts cooking classes and trains chefs. The operation reminded me of Joi Chevalier in Austin and her Cook's Nook, so I stopped to chat.
     Turned out that all were frantically preparing for Neuchatel's three day Street Food Festival. Julien was putting together the sign for their offering:

This seemed like too delicious an opportunity to miss; after all Neuchatel has been named Switzerland's City of Taste for 2017.

     So bright and early Saturday morning we hopped a train to Neuchatel, about an hour north of Lausanne. The Festival was held in the plaza opposite the yachting basin.

     It was about 11:15, and things were just getting underway. We made a bee-line for MIAM BAO, and sampled.

Delicious!

Interesting to see the contents of the mise-en-place. What I took to be tamarind, turned out to be fig chutney. Perfection in the vegetarian bao, with the fresh goat's cheese. Fusion, but a perfect match to Switzerland's dairy products.

     Fortified, we made a tour. By now, the plaza was filling up: couples with children in strollers or on push bikes, dogs, teenagers. There must have been two dozen food trucks, arranged in three rows. Tents provided shade for tables and chairs in between the rows. 

     Many of the food trucks were converted Airstream trailers.  

     

   The converted ski-lift gondola stood out, as did its hand-pies:

          The most unusual offering was salmon, smoked on the spot:

The health department in San Francisco will never know.

     As for variety: Japanese, offering Hiroshima style chicken; Korean, offering chicken lollipops; Thai-Chinese, which is a common combination for brick and mortar restaurants here; Indian; Middle Eastern; Peruvian, offering ceviche; Two Mexican, offering tacos and churros; Vietnamese, offering what appeared to be banh mi:

Fusion Sandwich: Swiss beef on its bed of salad, with a revisited Nuoc-Mam sauce, coriander, mints and peanuts. And note the swiss potatoes to make the belgian fries.

And, of course, four trucks selling hamburgers. 

     You are probably wondering who was doing the cooking? Suffice it to say some chefs were persons of color and non-Europeans. The eaters were locals. And the food was good.