edible politics
FOOD SWAP FIASCO
When government and cuisine collide.
WRITTEN BY MELISSA SIIG
PHOTO BY JACI GOODMAN
In late October of last year, Slow Food Lake Tahoe members were getting ready to hold their fourth food swap of the year. A growing national trend among foodies, a food swap is a step above potlucks. Instead of bringing a dish to share at a party, food swap participants bring something they cooked, foraged, canned, or grew and trade it for another homemade item to bring back to their own kitchens. It’s grocery shopping made hyper-local, and with no money involved.
But SFLT members were shocked when, two days before the event, the Nevada County Department of Environmental Health called the Truckee River Winery, host of the October food swap, to warn them that the event was illegal and the winery would be held liable if it went ahead with it. The winery cancelled the food swap.
“My first reaction was, This is ridiculous,” says Polly Triplat, SFLT board leader. “We can’t even trade food we made?”
SFLT’s food swap kerfuffle is an example of the rising popularity of the local food movement, and the state and county food laws that have yet to catch up to it. When the two clash, it can result in confusion and consternation on the part of community members, and frustration on the part of local government. SFLT is taking a two-pronged approach: working with county officials to better understand the health code while fighting for its right to swap food.
Public Scrutiny
The Tahoe food swap was shut down because it was open to the public.
“It was advertised as a public event held at a public facility, which is in violation of health and safety code for retail food facilities,” says Wesley Nicks, director of Nevada County’s department of environmental health. “If you provide food to the public, it has to come from an approved source, such as a restaurant or commercial-grade kitchen.”
The health department’s reigning in of the food swap left Slow Food members questioning what other food events were illegal — bake sales, potlucks, bringing a new mother a cooked meal?
Private Affairs
According to Nicks, potlucks are legal since they are private events. Food swaps can be legal too if they are held in a private home.
“Private events are not regulated under health and safety code under the retail food code because they are not retail,” Nicks says.
Slow Food is not the only group getting into trouble with public food events. Quail Hollow Farm, located outside of Las Vegas in Moapa Valley, attracted the attention of the Southern Nevada Health District in November of last year when it advertised a farm-to-table dinner in the local paper. A health inspector showed up to the event and took issue with, among other items, the pork. The pig had been raised on the farm but sent to Utah for butchering, then to Las Vegas where a chef prepared it, then driven 50 miles back to the farm. No one — not the farm owners or the chef — could verify that the butcher was a regulated business or that the pork was maintained in certain temperatures throughout its journey. When the inspector tested the meat, it did not fall in the proper temperature range, meaning it was susceptible to harmful pathogenic organisms. The inspector barred the farm from serving the pork.
Lessons Learned
The lesson that SFLT members took away from their incident was that they need to become more familiar with state and county health codes. Triplat met with the staff of the Nevada County health department in December to get up to speed. At the same time, the organization has started circulating an online petition to allow them to hold public food swaps. Although SFLT has stopped promoting the event, the food swaps are continuing under the leadership of two Truckee residents at private homes. The food swaps are limited to 25 people; interested swappers must pre-register on the group’s website, www.Truckeetahoefoodswaps.com.
“The food swaps are no longer under the guise of Slow Food Lake Tahoe, but we would like them to be,” Triplat says. “We think it’s perfect with our mission. We want to promote our right and ability to trade healthy, local food.”
To learn more about health codes in your area, visit your department of public health website. For Nevada it’s www.Health.nv.gov and for California it’s www.Cdph.ca.gov, or visit your county health department’s website.
Melissa Siig is a freelance writer in Tahoe City, Calif., and a former Slow Food Lake Tahoe board member. She has never swapped food, but will trade chocolate chip cookies for homebrewed beer.
Potluck Mac-n-Cheese
(Courtesy of Joe Horn, co-owner of Dish Café & Catering. Serves 10 to 12 as a side dish)
1 box dried penne pasta (16 ounces)
4 cups cheese sauce (see below)
3 ounces sharp aged cheddar, grated
3 ounces Gruyere cheese or Comte, grated
¼ to ½ teaspoon chipotle chili powder
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cook pasta 1 minute less than package directions. You want noodles almost done. They will finish cooking in sauce in oven. Drain pasta and combine with cheese sauce in pot you cooked sauce in. Transfer pasta into a buttered 9 by 13 casserole dish. Sprinkle top with cheese, then add chili powder. Bake uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes, until the top has a nice golden crust.
Cheese Sauce (makes 4 cups)
¼ cup butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups whole milk
14 ounces semi-hard cheddar cheese, grated (I love Beecher’s Flagship cheddar)
3 ounces grated semi-soft cheese (I used gorgonzola)
Kosher salt to taste
½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Pick a pan that will hold pasta and sauce so you can combine them. Whisk in flour. Continue to whisk and cook for 2 minutes. You just made a roux, a substance used for thickening sauces.
Slowly add milk (which should be cold) whisking constantly so it is smooth. Cook until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Now you turned roux into a bechamel.
Remove from heat. Add cheese, chili powder, and garlic powder. Stir until cheese is melted and all ingredients are incorporated. If cheese isn’t melting completely you can put pot on low heat. Add salt to taste.
