Mushrooms on Toast
I think of this as a starting place and a way to learn how to cook mushrooms. This would be great on top of steak. That being said, although simple, it’s one of my favorite things to eat. Add a sunny ...
Farm to Camera
The Very Original Photos of Adrien Broom
Farm to table eating is far more than having fresh ingredients on a restaurant table, just as artist Adrien Broom’s new project Farm-to-Camera is far more than placing a beautiful frame around a newly harvested mushroom. Her project, elegant in its simplicity, asks viewers to take another look, to see Mother Nature’s gems in a new light. With that, it is impossible to not cultivate newfound respect for earth’s bounty.
If you’re familiar with Broom’s work already, you’ll know much of it is studied, is ornate, and is extensively orchestrated. In one of her most recent, evolving projects, Holding Space: The Historic Homes of Artists and Writers, Broom immerses herself in the lives of her noteworthy subjects, and recaptures their essence through set design, photography, and video. Broom says she stumbled upon the Farm-to-Camera project because her others are so intricate and layered. One visit to a farmer’s market a few months ago drew on her senses and artist’s eye to the beautiful, yet simple vision of the best fruits and vegetables a season can offer. “It was such a great contrast to my other work, which can be so elaborate, and it’s something I could do while in New York,” Broom mentioned when we sat amongst hundreds of props recently in her New Haven studio. Despite the draw of simplicity, what viewers see in the end still absorbs countless hours of arranging and rearranging, until the composition, the frame, the produce, and the lighting hits the mark Broom wants. “It’s instinctual.”
Broom bounces from Brooklyn, where she lives, to her studio in New Haven, to her parents in Lyme and Hadlyme. She is always on the move, and her projects take her from costume shops and warehouses, to studios and now farmers markets; and, most recently to chefs’ kitchens and farms. Enter longtime friend and Mystic chef James Wayman. Wayman is known to many in the food world for his highly successful restaurants, Oyster Club, Engine Room, and his newest addition, Grass & Bone. Wayman’s success is not only due to his talents in the kitchen, which are beyond impressive, but his position as a stalwart community builder. He also has the utmost respect for what nature and local ingredients can bring.
On a recent winter visit to Stone Acres Farm, in Stonington, and Seacoast Mushrooms in Mystic, both major partners with Wayman and his establishments, Broom marveled at the harvest, despite the cold temps. “I had heard about the farm for so long, but it was first time I had actually seen it in person….after just one day there, I was already ready to head back in the summer when everything is in bloom.”
For Wayman, being so close to his restaurants, the farm, and the woods for foraging mushrooms is like having everything you’d ever need. And, from the farm to the kitchen and table, and back again Wayman admits it just makes sense to give back and really be a part of the community. “Chefs now have this weird power,” he says, “so it’s important to utilize it while we have the time to.” With that in mind, Wayman and his crew now work with the farm on the Yellow Farmhouse Education Center, to preserve and celebrate the agriculture and culinary history of the area. “Health is the word to focus on now; it’s more important than ever, since it is now environmental, political, and educational.” With the highlight on chefs over the last two decades, using that forum to bring farming and good eating to the forefront is essential.
And now, with a project like Farm-to-Camera, artists like Broom are helping everyone to see seasonal produce in a new light; they become elevated like the jewels of the earth, and yet something everyone, as Wayman projects, can be a part of. As she states on her project site www.farmtocamera.com, “Billions of years in the evolutionary making, each item I pick up at the farmer’s market is a perfect piece of art and deserves to be treated as such.”
Some of Broom’s work will be on view from May 3 - June 22 at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Larchmont, New York.
And, we couldn’t close without a taste from the amazing mushrooms that Broom and Wayman gathered on their visit together. Here is one of Wayman’s favorite all-time recipes: Mushrooms on Toast.
See more of Adrien’s beautiful work at adrienbroom.com
This story was originally published in the inaugural, Spring Fresh 2019, issue of Edible CT East.
Try this recipe from Chef James Wyman