State-Journal.com - A new way to think about food

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Photo By Hilly Schiffer

Susan Carson Lambert, 60, prepares a chicken stew dinner for herself and her husband to eat. Susan said her favorite meal to cook is soup. She describes cooking as her passion. “Food is sensual, it’s a form of art,” she said.

Photo By Hilly Schiffer

Susan Carson Lambert

Photo By Hilly Schiffer

Susan 60, prepares a chicken stew dinner for herself and her husband. She also enjoys drinking a glass of wine and listening to music while cooking.

Photo By Hilly Schiffer

Susan Carson Lambert, 60, prepares chicken stew at her home in Lawrenceburg. Susan describes cooking as her passion. Susan is a part of the Slow Food USA organization.

"Frankfort Faces" is a series that highlights people from within the Frankfort and Franklin County community. Each feature follows one of the city's most unique personalities and includes a story, photos and video, which can be found by clicking the TV icon attached to the story online at state-journal.com.

Aromatic scents of herbs and spices waft through the air. Pleasant little clicks sound as a knife slices through garlic cloves. A stack of bright orange carrots rest on a cutting board.

These are the smells, sounds and sights filling Susan Carson Lambert's Lawrenceburg home each night.

There's no denying Susan, 60, loves to cook. She calls it her passion, right up there with her granddaughter, Emma, and poodle, Sophie.

In her kitchen are shelves tightly lined with cookbooks, whole collections from publishers chock full of inspiration. There are drawers piled with pots and pans and a pantry brimming with culinary essentials.

Helping mom and Mother Nature

Creating delicious masterpieces started when Susan was in her teens. Her mother took a job and Susan was left to her own devices for dinner.
"My mom went to work when I was a teenager so I had to get supper started," she recalled.

As a chef, Susan lacks formal training. She learns most of her technique through Internet research, books and trial and error.
"(I learn) mostly from books and a lot of screw ups, that's the only way you can do it."

Susan's professional background is in geography. She worked for state government in Geography Information Systems and helped write grants before retiring several years ago.

"When I retired from government I didn't know what I wanted to do."

Back to the kitchen

So she looked into Sullivan University's culinary school or setting up a stand at the Franklin County Farmers Market and spent eight months observing friends who own Personal Touch catering in Frankfort.

"I'm really glad I did all of those things."

But none of those was the perfect fit.

She was hired to write a grant for renewable energy and was captured by the topic " so much that she started Renewable Energy Strategies. It's a consulting company on Shelby Street that helps those interested in trying new methods of power such as ethanol.

Still, that's just her day job.

After work she goes back to the kitchen and transitions her ecologically focused goals to her home kitchen.

"Food is sensual, it's a form of art. I've always wanted to be a good cook."
Susan said food allows people to connect naturally.

Slowing down the food

Susan's cooking is both environmentally and health conscious.

She's part of the Slow Food USA organization. The group's mission is to help consumers prepare healthy meals using locally grown foods.

The Slow Food movement started in 1986, Susan said, when McDonald's tried to open a restaurant in Rome and local chefs protested the change to fast food.

"You want the best quality food you can get your hands on," Susan said, of Slow Food-minded chefs.

Getting foods close to where the Slow Food followers live helps small farmers in Kentucky and the local economy, Susan said. She buys as much as possible from producers in Kentucky.

Susan said she knows where every ingredient in her food comes from.
Being smart about purchases is key.

Susan is member of Capital City Co-op and picks up food once a month. "That's a way to get good food."

In October Susan attended Terra Madre, a biannual event abroad that brings together food communities, cooks, academics and youth delegates for four days to work toward increasing small-scale, traditional and sustainable food production.

She was chosen as a delegate from the U.S. There were 800 delegates from the U.S. including 20 from Kentucky. Susan was the only one from the Frankfort area.
The conference was in Turin, Italy. During her time overseas Susan visited Ireland, Paris, Switzerland and London trying different cuisines. The Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland where she told of her experiences was part of her itinerary.

The "snob factor'

Susan estimates few know or even care about the Slow Food movement, and admits there's a "high snob factor" when it comes to the ideology. But she says if more people adjusted their thinking on food, overall health would improve.
"People don't eat well. Someone's got to tell them for one thing, what is good for you."

Susan claims Slow Food thinking " being aware of ingredients and buying from close to home " makes meals less expensive and better tasting. She said anyone has the potential to be a better chef.

"The thing about cooking is you've got to have the right tools and you've got to have the pantry stocked."

Susan recommends certain accoutrements, including three or four good knives, a Dutch oven and cookbooks.

"If I'm going to cook something I get out four or five recipes to compare."
After reviewing she decides which recipe has the best technique and ingredients. When looking at a recipe she said she visualizes what the dish will look like.

For entertaining, which she and her husband, Hugh Archer, do quite often, Susan pulls out her "Cooking for 50" recipe guide.

"I cook for my neighbors. If I have a free afternoon I'm going to cook."

Adding personal touches

When preparing a meal, Susan starts by laying out all of the ingredients and equipment. She alters a chicken stew recipe as she goes along, by adding rosemary she cultivated.

She enjoys drinking wine while cooking and has music softly playing in the background.

She estimates preparation time around 20 minutes and actual cook time can take a couple of hours, particularly for dishes like stew.
Susan and Hugh cook dinner together regularly in their domed home on a farm in Anderson County.

The couple, married 15 years, share the kitchen, one taking lead chef role and the other assisting.

"He's a real good cook and we're different in the way we cook. He takes unlikely things and puts them together."

Preserving the delicacies

Susan cans, freezes and pickles many fruits and vegetables she grows or purchases from the Farmers Market or procures from the Co-op to use throughout the winter months.

She said some items go fast. "My husband eats all the strawberry jam immediately."

She picked up food preservation when she was a new mother. "When I was younger we froze everything because we didn't have money."

Susan also makes food especially for her three dogs providing all of the nutrients to keep them healthy. With her use of the Slow Food cooking method her largest dog, Nate, dropped 15 pounds in one month.

Her favorite dish to make is soup. When a State Journal reporter and photographer stopped by her house for an interview she was preparing a chicken stew for herself and her husband to eat for dinner.

"I've probably got five cookbooks on soup," she said.

One thing Susan picked up during her trip was an improved method for cooking stew " start the dish on the stovetop then place it in the oven.
She enjoys passing along cooking tips.

Susan has two adult children and a granddaughter. She's teaching her son-in-law to cook and buying him books to encourage his culinary growth.

On her farm she grows things like onions, potatoes, tomatoes and hot peppers. Ketchup made from her tomatoes even won first prize in a contest sponsored by Wilson's Nursery, although Susan doesn't routinely enter food competitions.

The big dining picture

Susan said her central purpose is to support the welfare of the Earth and her systems.

"One of the main reasons to eat local organic food is because growing food that way is not only good for the Earth and air and water, but it actually improves the ground your growing on if you're farming sustainably."

A tagline of Slow Food USA is "you vote with your fork three times a day."

Susan said the truth to that is obvious. Her passion for good food is also obvious.

"It's one of the ways we connect with people," she said. "We're both (she and Hugh) really good cooks and we like sharing that with our friends."