Gertrude's owner preaches organic

John Shields, the chef and owner of Gertrude's restaurant in the BMA, said that he recently took a $20 bag of groceries and calculated that it had travelled 20,000 miles.

The groceries were nothing out of the ordinary -- soy milk, a pound of pasta, juice and bread. "It's astounding that we don't realize how far our food has to travel," Shields said. "In the 1950s, when I was growing up here in Baltimore, most of the food that we ate was grown right here."

With rising energy prices, food transportation is becoming expensive. "Rebuilding the local food economies is probably the most important thing that we can do today," he said.

To continue with his mission of boosting the Chesapeake region's local food industry, Shields hosted the third annual Baltimore Green Week's "Food Day" on Monday at Gertrude's.

This year's Food Day, "Creating Connections," brought together local food producers and purchasers to work on making organic food cheaper and more available. But Shields' passion for fresh, locally grown food began long before this event. It all started with his grandmother Gertrude, he said. Growing up in Baltimore, Shields helped her prepare lunches for businessmen to raise money for their local church. "She was very excited about what types of food each season was going to bring," he said.

Shields' favorite dish was sauerbraten with potato dumplings. "I always remember the aroma of those dumplings because she put a little nutmeg in them. You could smell it all through the house."

His grandmother inspired Shields' love for food and his approach to cooking. "I like to do honest food," he said. "I don't like to overcomplicate it. It should be classic, fresh and as seasonal as possible. I think the purity of cooking, the simplicity of it, is what's important."

Although he studied business and music, Shields decided to go into the food business. He recalled his first day of cooking in a business environment. "It was a disaster," he said.

Shields was living in Cape Cod, where he was pursuing a career as a rock musician. One day, his friend, a chef at a large restaurant, broke his ankle and asked Shields to cover for him. For his first task, Shields was given a 25-pound bag of garlic and told to peel it.

"I really had no idea what to do. They gave me a paring knife and I cut myself in eight places. I was covered in Band-Aids," he said.

Shields' next assignment was to make 30 pie crusts. At a loss of what to do, he discovered a can of Crisco with a crust recipe. "Those crusts were ugly, they were horrible, but I was so proud," Shields said. "I called my boss over, and then I realized that all the Band-Aids from my fingers were gone."

Despite this inauspicious start, Shields went on to open his own restaurants, write three cookbooks and host a television cooking series. While in Berkeley in the 80s, Shields was part of the New American Food revolution, started by Alice Waters. "Alice started this whole trend toward local, organic and best-of-the-season kind of food," Shields said. "She looked at the food we grew here in America as something good and not inferior to the European foods in traditional French cooking."

"It was through that process that I became interested in specializing in regional cuisine," Shields said. He opened his first restaurant in Berkeley, and eight years ago, he moved back to Baltimore to open Gertrude's. This Monday, at the Food Day presentation, Shields stood in his restaurant, looking out over the sculpture garden in bloom.

Behind him was a painting of the Chesapeake Bay, with long brushstrokes depicting seasons melting one into the other. "This is about bringing together people who love food, who care about food, and who want to rebuild the local food economy," Shields said to the audience. "Because these are the things that keep our region healthy now, and will keep it healthy long into the future."