Biodynamic risotto: West Restaurant + Bar launches spring menu with holistically grown products

Biodynamic farming was one of the first organic-food movements

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      West Restaurant + Bar is celebrating spring with a new seasonal prix-fixe menu. One of the choices is a silken biodynamic risotto with porcini mushroom purée, fava beans, and peppercress.

      What exactly is "biodynamic" anyway, aside from one more term to decipher on certain food labels?

      Although biodynamic farming is nothing new, biodynamic products are starting to show up more and more at farmers markets, on grocery-store shelves, and on restaurant menus.

      The name refers to specific crop growing methods that were first developed in the early 1920s by Rudolph Steiner, a scientist and philosopher. One of the first organic movements, biodynamic farming strives to create its own diverse eco-system.

      Here's how the Biodynamic Association explains it: "Many conventional and organic farms only grow crops or only raise livestock, which may be more efficient by some measures, but creates imbalances such as nutrient deficiency (if only growing plants) or pollution from excess manure (if only raising animals). Biodynamic farms and gardens work to bring plants, animals, and soil together through living, conscious relationships, so that they each support and balance the whole."

      Biodynamic farmers "favour open-pollinated, heirloom, and non-GMO seeds and heritage breeds of animals", according to the association. To foster the growth of beneficial bacteria and fungi, biodynamic compost is enhanced through the use of specific herbal preparations made from yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion, and valerian.

      Besides biodynamic risotto, executive chef Bobby Milheron’s three-course prix-fixe spring menu at West--which is $39 and runs Sundays through Thursdays until the end of May--also includes such choices as: asparagus salad with wild garlic, focaccia, grana Padano, and white balsamic; wild salmon with potato gnocchi, kale, and preserved lemon; and grilled AAA beef flat-iron with roasted spring onion, sunchokes, sunflower, and peppercorn jus.

      Pastry chef Maxime Sander, meanwhile, has created mascarpone bavarois with hibiscus-poached rhubarb and rhubarb sorbet, a Guanaja chocolate soufflé with vanilla crème anglaise, and assorted petits fours.

      Places to go nearby

      Approx. 15 minutes away

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