A Local Chef Takes Matters Into His Own Hands and Out of Our Mouths. And We Thank Him For It.

The North Park neighborhood of San Diego is home to some of our city's finest restaurants and some of our most forward-looking chefs. Plenty of glitz and an over reliance on Chilean sea bass may be found downtown in the Gaslamp, and the wine lists may be better stocked in La Jolla. But it's the neighborhoods ringing Balboa Park that seem to have attracted a like-minded group of chefs determined to create menus focusing on local ingredients, grown in sustainable fashion, and showcasing seasonal harvests. And time and again, these individuals have been fighting valiantly against the forces of corporate agribusiness - the mega-farms and Monsanto companies that dominate American diets. These days, in order to fully take the attack to corporate farming, one must do more than simply eschew genetically modified vegetables and look for the "organic" sticker of approval. Fighting Monsanto-think requires changing one's entire approach to choosing and consuming food.

Urban Solace, a local dining establishment with a devotion to "gourmet comfort food," has long received raves for Chef Matt Gordon's rich, tasty variations on nostalgia. Meals tend to open with an order of warm cheese biscuits served alongside orange-honey butter, and I don't think I've made it out of the place without ever ordering up a side of their amazing sweet potato fries wi/ Maytag blue cheese-buttermilk dressing. Their cocktails are varied and creative (stuff like Cuke Gimlits, Pink Salty Dogs and a "Coriander Concoction" made of a lemon vodka-gin blend, raw cilantro, and lemon-lime juice). And the entrees - Maple Whiskey Chicken, a meatloaf of lamb, pine nuts and feta, Braised Beef Cheeks with mustard/garlic jus, and the legendary Duckaroni, a duck confit/blue cheese/baked macaroni slab of tear-inducing flavor.

As the above descriptions may suggest, Urban Solace may not be a place to frequent for those attempting diets or meals low in natural fats. And yet, through their attention to things like portion size and food quality, I suspect even the richest of their menu offerings have less bad stuff inside them than nearly any "healthy choice" food item located in your local grocery store's frozen bin. And Chef Gordon has taken another bold and wise step this past month, with the announcement that Urban Solace has banned any and all forms of high-fructose corn syrup from the menu - both food and drink.

If you've spent any time in the aisles of a supermarket examining the backs of food items for a full listing of ingredients, you'll know that trying to avoid high-fructose corn syrup can prove a formidable challenge. Simply put, that crap is in almost everything. Michael Pollan has pointed out that over a quarter of the 45,000 items in an average American supermarket contain corn. And while a freshly roasted ear of corn sprinkled with salt is a true delight, mass-produced liters of soda, tubs of ice cream, jars of applesauce and cans of tomato sauce are not where we should be getting our weekly (daily?) corn intake. If you think the chatter about this additive is mere alarmism, consider this sobering statistic - American consumption of high-fructose corn syrup has increased 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990.

I'm proud to say that a brief glance through our pantry and kitchen cabinets just now yielded no food items boasting the presence of any high-fructose corn syrup (save from a half-filled and forgotten Hunt's Ketchup squeezebottle). I say this not to boast, but to point out that one can have a well-stocked kitchen that avoids needless additives and preservatives, and I should add that our kitchen wasn't always this corn-free. It took a concerted effort to begin perusing labels and food descriptors to begin sorting out the corn-laden from the corn-free. It involved relying more on local purveyors and farmer's markets, less on mass-produced items, and the near-total abandonment of pre-made and/or frozen foods, in which the high-fructose beast is nearly impossible to avoid (outside of Trader Joe's, that is - keep up the good fight, fellas!). One needn't even give up sodas, if such a thought ever crossed your caffeine and sugar besotted mind - Mexican Coca Cola and Boylan's craft sodas remain blissfully corn free. Because honestly, if I want to drink corn, I'll have my Peruvian friend make me chicha morada.

Given the fact that almost the entirety of Urban Solace's meals are made from scratch on the premises, cutting out high-fructose corn syrup may not have been too difficult for Chef Gordon. In a recent interview for The San Diego Union-Tribune, he highlighted the vodka-based Herbacious Cooler cocktail that would now feature Boylan’s Cane Sugar Lemon-Lime Soda, and the HFCS-free Worcestershire sauce served alongside rich beef cheek daube. In other words, the decision to ban HFCS at Urban Solace won't change the way the food tastes and won't really be noticeable to most patrons.

However, the announcement has proved notable to the likes of the Corn Refiners Association, a Washington, DC-based industry trade group representing the interests of the corn refining industry. This organization has been battling the growing fight against high-fructose corn syrup, launching a PR campaign in 2008 that tossed aside USFDA and Center For Science in the Public Interest concerns about HFCS. The Corn Refiners Association has continued to insist, with seemingly straight faces, that high-fructose corn syrup is 'made from corn, has no artificial ingredients, has the same calories as sugar and is okay to eat in moderation'. They have repeatedly lobbied of behalf of the "natural" status of HFCS, despite the fact that, as Michael Jacobson has described, the ingredient "starts out as cornstarch, which is chemically or enzymatically degraded to glucose and some short polymers of glucose....[while a]nother enzyme is then used to convert varying fractions of glucose into fructose". They have also created several unintentionally hilarious commercials trumpeting the virtues of high-fructose corn syrup - videos which also paint those suspicious of HFCS as dangerously unbalanced and misinformed zealots.

Little surprise, then, that the Corn Refiners Association got wind of Urban Solace's decision to start making cocktails with non-HFCS-based Boylan's sodas, and responded by firing off an official letter of disapproval to Chef Gordon. In it, the association is at some pains to stress the "significant body of scientific information concerning the safety of high-fructose corn syrup" and highlighting the damage caused to the corn refinement industry by a neighborhood restaurant in San Diego opting out of their product of interest.

Somehow, I suspect Urban Solace is going to find this accusatory letter from such a transparently absurd organization to be a badge of honor. Perhaps even frame-worthy? After all, it's hard to take something seriously if it comes from the same minds that created this television spot. Seriously, check it out. And if you're in the area, stop by Urban Solace for a drink or a bite. These things start small.