With an offset spatula, he spreads a thin schmear of butter onto thick slices of soft bread, making sure the butter goes all the way to the edges. He places each slice on the griddle, toasting them on both sides to golden perfection, peeking at the undersides now and then until the precise moment.
The B, the L, and the T
Next, he lightly dresses a bowl of lettuce, massaging the greens lightly with his hands to ensure that every leaf gets in on the party.
He saws thick slices of just-picked green, yellow, and red tomatoes, arranging the rounds like traffic lights on his cutting board.
Thick slices of candied bacon, sweetened with brown sugar and baked until they infuse the whole kitchen with an intoxicating aroma, are warming in the oven.
Building Blocks
Finally, Chef Matt composes the sandwich as gingerly as if he’s building a house of cards.
First, tomatillo and jalapeno jam go onto the toasted bread. Next, a tangle of dressed lettuces. Then the chef balances the thick fresh tomato slices atop the greens, salts and peppers them, and ceremoniously tops them off with two rashers of glistening sugary bacon, followed by the top slice of toast.
The sandwich is a full five inches high, so Chef Matt pierces each side with wooden picks to hold everything together before slicing it diagonally.
Abracadabra
Then comes the big reveal. He spins the two halves around to display the insides, and it’s like a magic trick, exposing perfect striations of gold, green, red, yellow, and deep chestnut.
If all that seems like a lot of hyperbole about a simple sandwich, you’re right. In reality, it is a pure, almost religious display of a chef’s reverence for perfect ingredients. It is also the culmination of Chef Matt’s day-long visit to The Chef’s Garden, where he witnessed firsthand exactly where his farm-fresh tomatoes grow.
The Chosen One
The Chef’s Garden’s tomatoes will be highlighted in an upcoming “Chef Recommendation” menu at the prestigious Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurants. The restaurant hosts such events yearly to celebrate a specific in-season ingredient. As you might have guessed, August’s event is all about fresh tomatoes.
“Veggiecation”
As chef in a “scratch kitchen,” Chef Matt said he appreciates “the care and time it takes” to not only prepare superior food but also grow superior food. He received a one-on-one education on that with Farmer Lee Jones as his professor.
In the greenhouse, Chef Matt sampled tomatoes (leaning over to bite into them like a juicy peach, juice running down his hands, arms, and chin) while Farmer Lee narrated. He explained how tomato plants capture energy and why growers train tomato vines to climb upwards, like grapes on vines, reaching high above the chef’s head.
The plant rows eerily resembled the high walls of a hedge maze, and as Chef Matt peered down one of the rows, he stopped short. “This is like Harry Potter!” he said, delighted at the fruit surrounding him. “Look at that little guy!”
Soil Show and Tell
Chef Matt was a quick study, especially after an in-field show and tell in the field where The Chef’s Garden is growing specific tomatoes exclusively for Cooper’s Hawk. The lesson began, of course, with the soil.
Farmer Lee knelt on the ground and eased back the black covering at the base of a plant. Then, he dug down and brought up a handful of soft, loose soil with the appearance and texture of chocolate cake mix. He invited Chef Matt to do the same.
Filtering the soil through his fingers, the chef said the soil was “very similar to wine country.”
“Oh, this feels so good. And does that smell good!” he said. Then he hollered to the three other men from his team. “You guys should smell this soil! It smells like vegetables. You’ve eaten worse things than this!”
The Root of it All
Chef Matt’s worm-eye view of how and where his farm-fresh tomatoes grow further deepened his understanding and appreciation of nature and farmer working in harmony. He witnessed for himself the truth behind The Chef’s Garden’s backbone philosophy of “growing vegetables slowly and gently in full accord with nature.”
“Three-quarters of the fields lay fallow,” he observed. “They’re being cared for − for the seasons to come. Micronutrients in the soil, that really starts it off.”
It Isn’t Bragging if it’s True
Throughout the field trip, Farmer Lee did what he does best – boasted about tomatoes like a grandpa does about his grandkids.
He explained how tomato varieties are differentiated by their foliage. He talked about weeds and how they’re an aesthetic tradeoff to chemicals. He discussed pollination, heat, and innovative problem-solving. He explained why the farm irrigates with city water. Even though it is legal to use lake or pond water, he’s adamant about not introducing contaminants from an unfiltered source that could upset the microbial balance of the soil.
City Mouse and Country Mouse
Being on the farm brought out the country boy in Chef Matt. Like recess after “tomato school,” he and his team elbowed and jockeyed to be first to scramble onto the seat of a vintage 1940s John Deere tractor. They posed for selfies with Farmer Lee. The chef even tapped his inner hayseed and slid a stalk of long, dry grass between his teeth.
With the stalk still in place, the chef strolled through the packing facility and saw another layer of how his tomatoes will be cared for, remarking of his team, “See how pristine they do it here?”
Final Results
And maybe that’s why Chef Matt’s BLT was so tall: It contained a whole lot more than bacon, fresh lettuce, and fresh tomatoes. It was also chock-full of wonder, appreciation, and knowledge.
“We’re going to continue to be blessed and thankful to be here and capture what they’ve been doing here for years,” he said. “Our guests have choices. We have to maintain the quality of the product that we use. It a commitment to the quality of the food. People always remember how a dish makes them feel. And it all comes back to the ingredients.”