'The Perennial Plate' Food Documentary Series Debuts On HuffPost

Photo by Lars Swanson

After traveling to Minnesota for his 26th birthday to slaughter and cook his own pig, chef-filmmaker Daniel Klein took up residence in the North Star state and started an ambitious project. Klein, who has cooked at the restaurants of Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal and Tom Colicchio, launched an online weekly documentary series, The Perennial Plate, that offers a closer look at where our food can actually come from (but often doesn't) than anything you're likely to see on the Food Network.

Over the course of a year, Klein takes an adventurous look at purely sustainable forms of food sourcing -- documenting and personalizing the distinct experiences. From rabbit farming/slaughtering, ice-fishing and hunting, to cheese-making, pickling and wild rice harvesting, Klein embeds himself with the people behind some of our country's great food and then transforms their yield into exquisite feasts.

Photo by Kate Sommers
Photo by Kate Sommers

HuffPost Food is thrilled to welcome Daniel Klein and The Perennial Plate to its pages to present his portfolio of mini-documentaries and the recipes within them, detailing an intrepid year of sustainable sourcing, cooking and eating. There will be knives, there will be blood, there will be guts, and it will be fascinating and captivating.

For a taste of what's to come, here's an installment of The Perennial Plate featuring, among other odd sights, a gas station lot butchery session:

And The Perennial Plate trailer:

Comments

[Jesse Eustis]

11:42 AM on 02/06/2011

Great show. Can't wait to see what he does with the 2nd season!

[Alexandra Maw]

04:27 PM on 02/05/2011

What a leading edge show - I love how he does it himself and posts to his own "online channel" - he has full control of the content and that's what makes it so wonderful.

Thank you Daniel for creating such leading edge content (by bringing us back to our roots!) and for being an inspiration to get more connected to our food.

Cheers to conscious and delicious eating.

[playsindirt]

11:17 AM on 02/05/2011

My mouth is watering. And the plates look good too!

[Whitrome]

01:01 PM on 02/04/2011

Fantastic, informative, adventurous, and most definitely easy on the eyes...the food AND Daniel!

[liberal lawyer]

11:25 AM on 02/04/2011

Fantastic show! I've seen The Perennial Plate before and was excited to see that Huffington Post had picked it up. Each video is so interesting and well-executed. Everyone should know where their food is coming from (especially if, like me, you choose to eat meat). Looking forward to future episodes!

[educatedc]

05:40 AM on 02/04/2011

I love how this helps me understand what I am eating, I like this 5 min cooking show VS those long TV shows

[Amalek]

04:21 AM on 02/04/2011

Seems that venison sandwich was pretty gross by the look on his face.

[Daniel Klein]

11:16 AM on 02/04/2011

oh but it was delicious!

[Foodino]

04:12 PM on 02/04/2011

I thought it looked pretty amazing -- cant believe it was roadkill.

[Amalek]

07:05 PM on 02/04/2011

Love the series.  Watched a few more and notice you always grimace after you eat.  That is not the reaction one expects on a cooking show.

[gemzenith]

03:28 PM on 02/06/2011

I noticed the way he took the back straps of the carcass isn't usually the way venison is field dressed.The meat will be gamy if it is not field dressed properly.I'm sure the old guy was chucking to himself ' bout the crazy city feller. I'm sure he was well aware of that, but its so much fun when city slickers make fools out of themselves.

[Daniel Klein]

04:38 PM on 02/06/2011

This obviously wasn't traditional field dressing, and the "City slicker" was well aware, despite not being an expert. The "old guy" actually suggested that we remove the back straps because he had to get to the next deer, and we might as well take the best part. The gamey flavor will come from not letting the meat rest, or letting it rest for too long. Merely cutting off a piece of meat will not change the flavor. And with such a young deer, the meat was too mild, if anything.

[Chicago Foodie]

12:22 AM on 02/04/2011

That Turkey episode is what put me over the edge to becoming a vegetarian -in a good way. In all the cooking shows I have seen, I have never encountered a chef reflecting on the visceral feeling of connecting with the being he is about to butcher. Daniel's remark on his first interaction with the turkey being to hug it was so fresh and edgy. He forces people to simultaneously acknowledge the meat for what it can bring to a recipe as well as something that was once alive - which is something alot of people distance themselves from. Of all of the innovative chefs in the worldview today, his perspective is most deserving of exposure, and I am enthralled that the HuffPo chose to herald him on their shoulders! Look forward to pending installments.

[NYCFoodie]

02:22 AM on 02/04/2011

Wow. Im afraid to watch the turkey episode! But I guess anyone who eats meat should be watching.

[Jonathan England]

03:22 AM on 02/04/2011

food chain, this guy did it the right way, wasnt farmed, tortured... who cares about his feelings. id be honored to eat that bird. we need more food shows like this

[MichaelAKD]

11:21 PM on 02/03/2011

road kill memories, once years ago, christmas eve no less. myself and some friends from school had gone to a bar in laporte. for those who don't know it, it is a small town in n. colo. kinda of out of the way. thankfully i was designated driver that night, around midnight i packed all the fools up in my suburban and we headed out. except i got no more than a block from the bar and not even up to speed yet only around twenty, when out of nowhere a deer leaps out in front. i slammed on the brakes but it is too late, then came the thump, i jumped outside, the deer is lying there dead. looked at my suburban only damage, a broken headlight. i had hit her head only and colorado does have a law saying if you hit one and call it in you can keep it. so rather than waste the meat, none was ruined since it was a the head i hit, well a christmas eve to remember. we loaded her onto the back tailgate of my truck and were off. so i guess i am in the road kill eaters club, but only once, and it was my road kill, lol. i traumatized my poor little nephews though that night waking them from their sleep. for years they scowled at me and said i killed rudolph. they are in their 20's now and know i didn't kill any of santa's team.

[Vickster]

12:20 AM on 02/05/2011

I've harvested quite a few deer from the side of the road. It's all good as long it's fresh and the guts are intact.

[JScott]

06:00 PM on 02/03/2011

Yup you'd never see this on Food TV.

Or one that would be like 60 minutes in Food-investigating Big Ag, with your host Michael Pollan.

[Foodino]

05:26 PM on 02/03/2011

Very cool. That video is wild. I don't know if I'd eat road kill, but I'm happy to see others do it. thanks for sharing.

[c-tom]

07:17 PM on 02/03/2011

Like lobster road kill is not kosher.

[klbrz]

09:58 PM on 02/03/2011

It would definitely need the right sauce.

[NYCFoodie]

04:46 PM on 02/03/2011

I love this show! He is my favorite 5-10 minutes of internet tv each week.

So glad he's on Huffpo now.