A CELEBRATION OF HUA MOA AND THE FIRST SNAIL OF APPROVAL

Slow Food Miami members celebrated the Hua Moa plantain at a dinner this week with chef Michael Schwartz of Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink. Our local chapter and Slow Food Hawaii are nominating the Hua Moa to the Ark of Taste, a catalog of more than 200 foods in danger of extinction.

While we had a wonderful dinner thanks to the excellent work of Michael and his team, Slow Food Miami also awarded the first South Florida Snail of Approval. The Snail of Approval recognizes contributions to quality, authenticity and sustainability of local food. And those who have followed chef Schwartz and have eaten at his restaurant would agree that he has consistently demonstrated a commitment and passion for local food, good food and fair food.

We caught him a little off guard, but here’s a what Michael had to say about the significance of the award:

“This whole sustainable, local movement has really taken the country by storm, which is fantastic. But what has happened in the wake of that, is that those words have become buzz words and they’re really easy to throw out there … and it’s not that easy to really walk the walk. What I’m really proud of at the restaurant is that my vision of actually really supporting these people and bringing in this product, which is difficult to work with … was embraced by my staff because they’re really the people that make it happen.”

See more photos of the evening here. Also check out Michael Genuine’s Food & Drink photo set documenting the entire preparation of the meal and their blog post on The Genuine Kitchen.