Lunch with Stonyfield Yogurt CE-Yo, Gary Hirshberg @ EVOO [Cambridge]

By: Finance Foodie

A few days ago, Stonyfield Yogurt’s CE-“Yo” Gary Hirshberg breezed into Boston for a lunch with a group of Boston bloggies to talk about restoring balance in what we eat by looking at how foods are produced. The lunch was held at EVOO in Cambridge – a restaurant know to source locally for the ingredients in its dishes and a highly appropriate choice of venue for this event.

The lunch started off with all the bloggers introducing themselves to Gary (who was looking quite sun-kissed and bronzy. I wondered for a brief second if the tan was a spray-on, but I realized obviously it wasn’t cause the man lives and works on a farm and is all about organic living. Duh. Then I scolded myself for even thinking about such things during such a serious luncheon.)

For my starter, I had a salad made of asparagus, peas, fiddleheads, radishes, and blue cheese, topped with an herbed yogurt dressing. I don’t usually like rabbit food salad, but this was a truly exceptional (in a good way) dish! The fiddleheads (a funny name for a seriously healthy veggie) provided an exciting texture to the dish and the herbed yogurt dressing gave a nice but non-aggressive pat of flavor to the overall pile of leaves.

I ordered the chicken breast with parsnip manicotti, shaved fennel, orange segments, and hazelnut crunch, drizzled with garlicky chicken jus for my main course. The parsnip filled manicotti tasted oddly sweet to me but the chicken was divine – tender, juicy, and marinated with flavor.

The dessert was a yogurt tart (made with Stonyfield Yogurt duh – what did you think they were going to use? Yoplait?) covered with basil glazed strawberries. A sweet ending to a sweet meal!

During lunch, CE-“Yo” (I wonder if it says that on his business cards) Gary chatted away about the benefits of eating organic - both from a health and an environmental perspective. He stressed that you don’t have to live a 100% organic lifestyle – but that every organic purchase counts in making a difference – not only in our lives, but in the lives of the farmers that produce these products and animals on these farms. Gary also took questions and comments from all the bloggers in attendance (and in true CEO fashion, committed everyone’s name to his memory after our introductions).

I must commend Gary for his genuine passion for his product and his tireless effort in promoting the organic movement. I do see how everyone wins with organic, but the realistic (or maybe the pessimistic) part of me wonders if we will truly ever reach that utopia (cause organic is pricey and ummm…there is that pesky recession to think about). In the meantime, I will do my part and try to buy organic whenever I can (and readers – you should too!).

A thought provoking (and delicious) lunch for sure.

EVOO
350 3rd Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
(617) 661-3866