The sage of sustainability

Last month, Chefs Collaborative named chef Peter Davis of Henrietta's Table (The Charles Hotel, One Bennett Street, Cambridge, 617.661.5005) its "Sustainer of the Year." Accepting the award under a tent in the semi-rain at Allandale Farm, Davis said simply, "Thank you," and shuffled to the edge of the podium. No Academy Award speech, no "Thank you, Mom" - just "Thank you," with a quick stroke of his beard and a fast wipe of his hands on his apron. It may have been his longest public speech ever. Davis is short on PR skills but has been committed to food that's fresh and local long before those terms became buzzwords. He is one of the founding and guiding lights of the "know your farmer" movement, and not just here in Boston. Yet, like many "hotel chefs," he gets overshadowed by more chatty chef-owners. It's about time to shine a little daylight on Davis.

Davis grew up with a mother who cooked and a backyard full of chickens and rows of vegetables in Nahant. While in the eighth grade, Davis informed his father, a high school English teacher, that he wasn't planning on going to college. Nope. He'd go to a vocational school and train for a life in the trades. Davis senior thought 14 was a little young to make a momentous decision, and somehow the future chef was coaxed into graduating from high school. Fifteen months later (he worked straight through with no vacations), Davis graduated from cooking school. He was hired into the Hyatt Hotels in Asia, and for seven years he cooked in Singapore, Bali, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and China. "In Asia, I got a real appreciation of fresh," Davis says. "You buy today's food today, tomorrow's food tomorrow - fresh fish six days a week." Davis became more culinarily adventurous. So did his family. "At four years old, my son could snatch the eyeballs out of a fresh fish," Davis recalls.

In Asia, fresh and local became Davis's mantra. "Most food doesn't travel distances well. The Chinese saying is ‘The closer from the ground to the wok, and the wok to your mouth, the better the food.' " In Asia, Davis explains, it's commonplace for chefs to work hand in hoe with farmers. "We served Western guests who wanted familiar vegetables that didn't exist in Asian cuisine - simple things like carrots, lettuces, onions, and fresh herbs. We bought the seeds and told the farmers, ‘If you grow it, we will buy it.' " Right then, Davis's professional path was set: his career would be about "working with farmers, treating them fairly, investing in their training, creating and supporting a marketplace that rewards their effort."

Davis's next stop was California, where he became a believer in the idea that you can approximate Asian freshness in the United States. And then he brought that gospel to Boston: 17 years ago, as executive chef at the Charles Hotel, he began to court local farmers, much as he had in Asia, working from the "Green Book," a state-by-state compendium of fresh food production. He visited "every cheese maker, jam maker, farmer, honey producer, [and] animal rancher" in New England to build his pantry. Thank him for being one of the people whose day-in, day-out support allowed local farmers to "brand" themselves on your menu. "I try to think of three things I can do every day to make the world just a little better," Davis says without irony or attitude. It's a statement that's fresh and honest - just like his food. We are proud that Chefs Collaborative's national membership gave the nod to this quiet local force.

Louisa Kasdon can be reached at louisa@louisakasdon.com.