If you are a true food lover there are a number of names that you might be called; some of these names you might be familiar with but others might be new to you.

Locavore

A locavore is someone who eats food grown or produced locally. The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to produce their own food, with some arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better.

Locally grown food is an environmentally friendly means of obtaining food, since supermarkets that import their food use more fossil fuels and non-renewable resources. “Locavore” was coined by Jessica Prentice from the San Francisco Bay Area on the occasion of the 2005 World Environment Day to describe and promote the practice of eating a diet consisting of food harvested from within an area most commonly bound by a 100-mile (160 km) radius. The New Oxford American Dictionary chose the word “locavore” as its word of the year in 2007.

Farm to Table Dinner

Chef Sara Mair has been evangelising the use of local food and promoting the local farmer since her return to Jamaica a few years ago. Sara and DeVine Wine Services hosted the first in a series of Farm to Fork dinners which aim to feature a local farmer and their products for each dinner. The featured farmer for the first event that was held at Spanish Court recently was Longville Park Farms’ Donnie Bunting. The intimate dinner in the elegantly designed Marbella room catered for 22 guests and was fully booked in short order.

Great Brown-Forman Wines

While the food was 100 per cent Jamaica grown, produced and prepared, the idea was to host a wine dinner with a difference. The guests were greeted with a lively, refreshing glass of Korbel Brut Sparkling wines. This went well with the starters of Indian Spiced Falafels with Nikkis Yoghurt and Smoked Tilapia Pate. As guests were seated the 2007 Sonoma Cutrer Chardonnay was poured with the Talapia Three Ways, a rather nice tropical Chardonnay that was in great demand. The first red wine for the evening, the delicate Five Rivers Pinot Noir, was served with the lamb ravioli salad, which some voted their favourite dish of the night. The 2005 Sanctuary Cabernet Sauvignon was the preferred red wine of the event. It accompanied the main course of Lamb Coffee Braised with Lentils. A Nicole Shirley-created Mango Yogurt Parfait had everyone guessing the type of mango used at the top and bottom of the parfait. The spicy, off dry 2005 Fetzer Gewürztraminer went well to close the night off.

What is a foodie?

There is healthy debate in the food world on the use of this word. One major online source, Wikipedia, defines thus: “Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. The word was coined in 1981 by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, who used it in the title of their 1984 book The Official Foodie Handbook”. FINDYOURINNERFOODIE.COM has this definition “A foodie very simply is someone who is passionate about food. They love to eat great food as well as learn about it. Foodies enjoy talking about food, making food, even watching food on TV. Foodie is a relatively new word and some folks are still not sure they want to be called a foodie. Some think that it means you are snobby or only eat gourmet food. This is far from the truth. True foodies can be just as satisfied eating authentic incredibly delicious street food as they can be eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant. It’s about the experience that the food brings.”

Gourmets and Gourmands

Wikipedia goes further to make some differentiation with other terms such as Gourmets and Gourmands: “A gourmand is a person who takes great pleasure in food. The word has different connotations from the similar word gourmet, which emphasises an individual with a highly refined discerning palate, but in practice the two terms are closely linked, as both imply the enjoyment of good food.”

Brian Lumley, chef de cuisine at The Embassy of France and Jamaica Observer Food Awards Chef of the Year nominee, and his sister Stephanie Lumley staged the first in a series of food parties called Foodies Lyme recently at The Guilt Trip. Accompanying the range of Pasta dishes that Brian and his chefs prepared for us was the full range of Ruffino wines.

Each pasta was different so it made sense to have a few choices of great wines on hand to properly introduce these young, upcoming foodies to the world of wine and food pairings. Two white wines were presented for patrons to enjoy; the Ruffino Orvieto Classico — a very versatile, pleasant and refreshing wine, great for most occasions; the Ruffino Lumina Pinot Grigio is very fragrant, elegant, and well-structured.

This wine is characterised by pleasant fruity notes and a long lasting aromatic finish which recalls hints of sage and crumb of bread. The main red wine for the night was the medium-bodied, pleasantly fruity Ruffino Chianti, this young Sangiovese can be perfectly matched with a wide variety of traditional Italian dishes.

This was most persons’ favourite except for the few who managed to taste the very limited Tuscan classic and the top Ruffino wine available in Jamaica the Ruffino Chainti Classico ‘Riserva Ducale’.

This wine was paired with the surprise dish of oxtail ravioli. The 2005 Riserva Ducale is characterised by particularly fragrant, fruity notes typical of this vintage. Sweet cherries and red berry fruits meet with delicately spicy hints of cigar box and white pepper grains and elegant scents of red roses and flint. Very Good Stuff indeed.

Brian Lumley, chef de cuisine at The Embassy of France and Jamaica Observer Food Awards Chef of the Year nominee, and his sister Stephanie Lumley staged the first in a series of food parties called Foodies Lyme recently at The Guilt Trip. Accompanying the range of Pasta dishes that Brian and his chefs prepared for us was the full range of Ruffino wines.

Each pasta was different so it made sense to have a few choices of great wines on hand to properly introduce these young, upcoming foodies to the world of wine and food pairings.

Two white wines were presented for patrons to enjoy; the Ruffino Orvieto Classico — a very versatile, pleasant and refreshing wine, great for most occasions; the Ruffino Lumina Pinot Grigio is very fragrant, elegant, and well-structured.

This wine is characterised by pleasant fruity notes and a long lasting aromatic finish which recalls hints of sage and crumb of bread. The main red wine for the night was the medium-bodied, pleasantly fruity Ruffino Chianti, this young Sangiovese can be perfectly matched with a wide variety of traditional Italian dishes.

This was most persons’ favourite except for the few who managed to taste the very limited Tuscan classic and the top Ruffino wine available in Jamaica the Ruffino Chainti Classico ‘Riserva Ducale’.

This wine was paired with the surprise dish of oxtail ravioli. The 2005 Riserva Ducale is characterised by particularly fragrant, fruity notes typical of this vintage. Sweet cherries and red berry fruits meet with delicately spicy hints of cigar box and white pepper grains and elegant scents of red roses and flint. Very Good Stuff indeed.

A great 4th of July weekend was had by all that managed to attend all these events.

Chris Reckord is an entrepreneur and wine enthusiast. Please send your questions and comments to creckord@gmail.com . Follow him on twitter.com/DeVineWines

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