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Red Lion Inn Chef & Crew Make Outstanding in the Field Meal a Success

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STOCKBRIDGE, MASS.—On Sunday, August 31, the Outstanding in the Field bus arrived in the Berkshires for a third year on the hills of Lila’s Farm in Great Barrington, Mass. Executive Chef Brian Alberg and his crew from The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge manned the field kitchen and the celebrated long table presenting a five-course meal to 175 guests, one of the biggest dinners of Outstanding in the Field’s (OITF) season. This is the third year Brian Alberg was the selected chef for the Berkshire OITF dinner.

Ingredients for each OITF meal are almost all local, sometimes sourced within inches of the guests’ seats at the table, and generally prepared by a celebrated chef of the region. After a tour of the site, guests settled in: farmers, producers, culinary artisans and diners sharing the long table.

“Third time’s the charm! I am honored to be invited back to present the Berkshire Outstanding in the Field dinner again this year,” said Brian Alberg, Executive Chef and Food & Beverage Director at The Red Lion Inn. “Presenting the Berkshire bounty to guests from our local community as well as the dedicated followers who travel far and wide to Outstanding in the Field events, I am so lucky to be doing what I love alongside Lila Berle! Thank you to founder Jim Denevan and Outstanding in the Field for spreading the word and sharing the experience on Lila’s Farm, one of my favorite places in the Berkshires.”

Events Sell Out Quickly

Outstanding in the Field’s first visit to the Berkshires took place in 2012 at Indian Line Farm in South Egremont, the birthplace of the first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm in North America. The event sold out in four hours. In 2013, OITF presented at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield with a second dinner at Lila’s Farm in Great Barrington, which sold out in 20 minutes. This year’s event at Lila’s Farm also sold out in approximately 20 minutes.

“I’m thrilled to see so many young people come to the Berkshires to enjoy this experience and to see how their visit resonates in our region,” said Lila Berle of Lila’s Farm. “Last year’s event brought us all together and it was a powerful event. A great way to protect our land is to feed people locally and let visitors from outside the region witness what our chefs and young farmers are doing here. A new generation is beginning to find purpose in life by using the land in very careful husbandry here in the Berkshires. I [was] pleased to host Chef Brian Alberg, whose energy and creativity in the kitchen have inspired many young students. Brian buys fresh produce from young new farmers to help their chosen lifestyle be sustainable. Jim and his outstanding team have shown us the way to move together and we are thankful to them.”

In 2013, OITF produced 86 dinner events with 90 percent of tickets sold for the season. In general, many people travel for OITF events with a high percentage of repeat guests. A guest will attend a dinner in their home state and then travel to another event elsewhere and bring family and friends. Based on data provided from the previous two years’ ticket sales in the Berkshires, between 70 and 80 percent of OITF ticket buyers were from areas outside the region including New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, Boston and further afield. With a minimum of 150 seats at the table, the OITF annual dinners have a direct impact on the Berkshire economy beyond farmers, chefs and staff fees. The dinner guests stay in local lodging establishments, visit restaurants during their stay and explore the region visiting cultural institutions and retail shops along the way.

“It was amazing to see so many out-of-town guests here at Indian Line Farm,” said farmer Elizabeth Keen of Indian Line Farm. “They were all so earnest in wanting to know about our work and farming practices. I am happy to see the event continuing in the Berkshires as a way to highlight the diversity of our region’s agriculture.”

Visitors Discover Local Attraction for First Time

“Having Outstanding in the Field at Hancock Shaker Village amid lush gardens and the iconic Shaker Round Stone Barn was a dream come true,” said Linda Steigleder, President and CEO of Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield. “More than half the crowd originated outside of Berkshire County and we introduced new audiences to this authentic Shaker site. Guests were diverse—I enjoyed talking with foodies from the Hudson Valley, a group of ladies from Baltimore, and a gang of young hip design professionals from Boston. The locally sourced fare was awesome, perfectly paired with wines, each course pleasing the guests.”

According to OITF, more than 50 percent of the ticket price goes directly into local businesses. There is a site fee to the hosting farm, a chef’s fee for participating, locally sourced food costs, wine costs (with a focus on local wineries, breweries, distillers and local distributors) plus equipment rentals and staffing. With this year’s dinner ticket at $235, the 175 seats will result in a total spend back into the local economy of approximately half of $41,125 for a one-night event. Some amount of the remainder is spent by the eight- to 10-person OITF crew on accommodations, food and more during their stay.

Chefs for OITF receive a food credit in addition to a chef’s fee, which is unusual for this dinner model as most farm-to-table experiences taking place in rural areas are donation-based—from the farmers donating food to the chefs donating time. Berkshire Farm & Table, the organization which helped bring together the chefs and farmers to create the past three OITF dinners and worked pre- and post-media coverage for all events, is working on similar locally produced event models to pay farmers and chefs market value for their goods and services. The challenge is to keep ticket prices low enough to be affordable because the cost to produce these events is quite high—especially when they take place in a field.

Chef Brian Alberg from The Red Lion Inn spent about $4,700 on sourcing local food for the OITF dinner at Indian Line Farm in 2012. In 2013, he spent a bit more because of local rabbit on the menu. Overall, The Red Lion Inn spends $650,000 annually in support of local food producers and artisan foodmakers. That number has a significant impact on the agriculture of the region.

In addition to its economic impact, this nationally recognized event presents an opportunity for the Berkshires to make known its historical roots in agriculture and for Berkshire Farm & Table to promote the food culture of the region, especially the strong ties between farmers and chefs and the collaborative practice of farm-to-table values in the region.

Outstanding in the Field

Outstanding in the Field is a roving culinary adventure—literally a restaurant without walls. Since 1999, OITF has traveled around the country setting their long table in fields, gardens and vineyards, and on beaches and mountaintops. Wherever the location, the consistent theme of each dinner is to honor the people whose good work brings nourishment to the table. Their mission is to promote local food and agriculture, reconnect diners to the land and the origins of their food and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it. The organization donates to a number of farm- and food-related groups whose missions align with those of OITF.

Farm dinners are very popular in today’s culture. People are excited to get to know farmers, visit farms and celebrate real food culture. Farm dinners have caught on, and OITF now organizes as many as 90 events a year. Celebrated chefs like Dan Barber, Paul Kahan, Frank Stitt, Gabrielle Hamilton and Scott Peacock have joined the team. Some other fun facts about OITF include:

•    OITF has produced more than 400 events since 1999.
•    OITF will have visited all 50 states by the end of 2014. They visited Idaho in 2013 and will have covered North and South Dakota, West Virginia, Kansas and Nevada this year.
•    There are 81 dinner events on the books for 2014 not including OITF’s winter tour, which they plan to do again this January. (Earlier in 2014, they produced five events in Hawaii, four in Florida and one in New Orleans in January and February.)

To view event and farm details, chef bio and more, visit http://www.berkshirefarmandtable.org/outstanding-in-the-field-2014/

Also go to the Red Lion Inn.

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