Eric Lewandowski
It’s been more than 40 years since Odessa Piper founded L’Etoile and more than a decade since she moved away from Madison. But the pioneering farm-to-table chef still finds plenty of reasons to return to the Midwest. Beyond having two sisters in the area and a host of friends in the local food scene, Piper remains involved with the network of Madison-area organizations that promote local eating and sustainable agriculture — many of which exist thanks to her early work launching the movement.
“I grew some very, very deep roots here,” says Piper, who now lives in her native New England. “And my heart just bursts with pride every time I come back.”
Piper will be in Madison this week for a trio of food-focused events. On Oct. 27, she’s preparing dinner for a gala benefitting Taliesin Preservation Inc., the group restoring architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Spring Green property. On Oct. 28, she will host a chef’s table at L’Etoile, and on Nov. 1 she will speak at a Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin (CHEW) meeting about the modern back-to-the-land movement.
Piper’s connection to Taliesin dates back to the 1970s, when she tried to create a “school of organic arts” at the property, which is home to Wright’s architecture school as well as acres of farmland and orchards. “I was fascinated by Taliesin and the mission of organic architecture,” says Piper, referring to Wright’s signature style and philosophy of building structures that integrate with the natural surroundings. “I kind of intuitively saw that the farmland and cropland would be a natural connection, and I wanted to see what they were growing — and what they were cooking.”
With help from a group of partners including Richard DeWilde of Harmony Valley Farms, Piper put together a proposal for a school of cooking and farming at Taliesin. “The notion was that culinary-track students would work out in the field like master farmers to learn about the ingredients, and farming-track students would come into the kitchen and work with the chefs and learn how labors translated to the plate,” Piper says.
Eric Lewandowski
Piper: “If we can’t sustain restaurants, how are we going to be there for the farmers?”
The idea proved a bit too ambitious for Taliesin at the time, but elements of Piper’s vision were implemented over the years — most notably in 2001, when Gary Zimmer, founder of Midwestern BioAg and Otter Creek Organic Farm, took over farming operations at the site and began transitioning from conventional to organic crops. Now, Taliesin regularly hosts farm-to-table dinners that feature seasonal produce prepared by guest chefs from around the region. “This is just a nice way to repatriate the idea of cooks and farmers working together under the wonderful, welcoming roof of Frank Lloyd Wright’s home,” Piper says.
For her Oct. 27 dinner, Piper is collaborating with chef Evan Dannells of Lucille and Merchant to create a menu highlighting flavors of fall in Wisconsin — salad with sunflower brittle, gougère with Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese, curried squash soup with local pumpkin seed oil, galantine of chicken with wild crabapples, baked trout with romanesco, gem marigolds and local butter. Tickets are $225 per person.
The next evening at L’Etoile, Piper won’t be cooking. Instead, she’ll talk about the roots of the iconic restaurant and the evolution of the local food scene. “Back in the day, it was very important to pay small farms the price they needed to cover the cost of farming that way,” she says. “L’Etoile, being a lovely, fine dining, white tablecloth price point, made it possible to do that.”
These days, farm-to-table culture is almost standard in Madison, with restaurants big and small embracing local sourcing and seasonal cooking. Piper says the next step is creating sustainable workplaces. “Right now, there’s a big demand for line cooks, but not really the training and matriculation,” she says. “So there’s a lot of robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Piper stresses the importance of things like health insurance, time off and a living wage for restaurant employees — from chefs to waitstaff to dishwashers. She’s interested in abolishing the tipping system, but says a shift to a more egalitarian compensation model can’t happen unless consumers can be educated on the “true cost” that goes into their dinner.
“This is what the restaurant community is talking about,” she says. “Because if we can’t sustain restaurants, how are we going to be there for the farmers?”
