Odds & Ends: Ethical Meat-Eating, Fergus Henderson, and the James Beard Awards

By Irene Yadao

If you flipped through last weekend’s New York Times Magazine, you may have read this Ethicist contest-winning piece, written by a dear friend of Rebecca’s, Jay Bost.  It’s a great article entitled “Give Thanks for Meat,” and it eloquently states our feelings on the act of consuming meat.

Jay, a vegetarian-turned-meat eater, writes:

For me, eating meat is ethical when one does three things. First, you accept the biological reality that death begets life on this planet and that all life (including us!) is really just solar energy temporarily stored in an impermanent form. Second, you combine this realization with that cherished human trait of compassion and choose ethically raised food, vegetable, grain and/or meat. And third, you give thanks.

Thank you, Jay, for your sentiments.

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Speaking of meat, here’s a great article from London’s Financial Times that profiles nose-to-tail pioneer Fergus Henderson.  It’s a quietly beautiful glimpse of the chef and his wife Margo (also a chef) in their West Covent, London home.

Photo of Fergus Henderson from The Financial Times

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The esteemed James Beard Foundation held its annual James Beard Awards ceremony last night.  Among the winners was our friend Matt Dillon, owner/chef of Sitka & Spruce in Seattle.  Matt won Best Chef award for the Northwest region.  Congratulations to Matt, his talented sous chef Emily Crawford and the entire staff of Sitka & Spruce.  For a complete list of the winners, click here.

James Beard Award winner Matt Dillon of Seattle restaurant Sitka & Spruce