I’ve got to find out is there’s anyone in central Missouri participating in this. I like this idea! It’s the Bon Appetit, “Eat Local Challenge.” I will warn you that the website opens with this very pretty flash animated segment and music. Aaargh! They are the bane of a web surfer’s life. At least you can skip it. I guess web designers feel compelled to use all the tools.

Anyway, the day is September 29 and the idea is that, “On Eat Local Challenge day 150,000 diners at corporate, university, and museum restaurants from Seattle to Washington D.C. can choose to eat a 100 percent locally grown meal, made entirely of ingredients from within 150 miles of the kitchen where they are served.”

This was sent out through PR Newswire as a MultiVu VNR. You can watch the video package at this link. It’s for Windows Media Player at slow speed. They give you other options but that’s all you’re getting from me.

The release starts out talking about Yahoo’s corporate chef and how he had to ferment his own local apple cider to make a starter for his sourdough bread . Did you know Yahoo had a corporate chef? Here at ZimmComm we do and his name is Chuck Zimmerman. BTW. I try to cook “local” as much as possible. But here in Missouri you’ve got to fly in seafood so it’s not always possible. And then there’s the fact that I like Italian wine. But I also like a few good Missouri reds too.

One of the reasons this company started this is, “The average item on an American dinner plate travels 1,500-2,000 miles, leading to loss of flavor in our food, and affecting our farmers’ ability to grow a diversity of crops,” said Fedele Bauccio, CEO of Bon Appétit.” I didn’t know that.

These chefs are taking it seriously. For example one chef in Portland, OR couldn’t find locally made salt so he and his kids went to the beach and got some sea water which they boiled down to make their own.