Learn Farming FOOD Dining Hall Uses Smallholder Ingredients to Rediscover the Original Taste of Food
As food safety incidents keep flaring up one after another, the restaurants under Xue Xue Institute Foundation hope to keep track of where their ingredients come from. Last year they began working with the 248 Farmers' Market team to turn an existing restaurant into "Xue Nong FOOD Dining Hall." Although the restaurant kept its original kitchen team and equipment and only brought in locally sourced ingredients, the seasonal changing menus and the avoidance of using too many sauces to boost flavor pose a major challenge to the chefs' cooking process, and they are also working hard to steer consumers' palates back on track.
Xue Nong FOOD Dining Hall: Small Farmers' Ingredients Showcase Their Flavors
In the past, customers were used to the taste of additives. When first encountering whole foods, some found them too bland. Chen Yingjie gives an example: some customers particularly love the taste of chicken powder, but they do not know that this flavor does not come from natural sources. After eating it for a long time, they instead find food without chicken powder unpalatable.
Ye Xingzhen also said that a customer once complained that the tomato scrambled eggs were too bland. At such times they would step in to explain the flavor of whole foods, or ask the chef to take on the challenge of enhancing the flavor without adding seasonings the next time they cooked.
For dishes made with such labor-intensive effort and strict quality control, the ingredient cost alone exceeds 40 percent of the total, not even including the cooking cost, yet the price is about the same as a set meal at an ordinary restaurant. Yang Rumen said, "We want simple prices so that everyone can afford to eat."
Although "Xue Nong FOOD Dining Hall" has just gotten started and is still seeking stability and working out the kinks, Ye Xingzhen said that Xue Xue and the 248 Farmers' Market have always emphasized continuous learning. In the future they hope to work with more small farmers, let customers understand the difference between good ingredients and ordinary ingredients, help customers adjust their sense of taste, rediscover the flavors of whole foods, and indirectly come to know small farmers, food, the land and the environment.
Xue Nong FOOD Dining Hall website: http://www.xuenongfoodery.com.tw
(This article was funded by the Jianzhen Environmental Education Foundation for personnel expenses, but it had no influence whatsoever on news topic selection or interview writing, ensuring journalistic independence.)