If cooking is the way to one's heart, Daniel Boulud should be able to attribute much of his success to his understanding of food. "I think that every restaurant is the chef's soul," he says in documentary "A Certain Taste for America."

In an ongoing series entitled "Art de Vivre: The Art of Eating Today," led by the French Institute in New York City on Monday, a screening of the film (very doting on Boulud) was followed by a panel discussion reflecting upon the art of eating and, more specifically, the importance of sustainability and sourcing food.

As a world-renowned chef hailing from a small hamlet outside Lyon, Boulud has achieved his veritable empire -- 10 successful restaurants based in New York, Palm Beach, Las Vegas, Vancouver and Beijing -- by striving to keep a strict culinary focus on seasonal cooking and high-quality ingredients.

More on Boulud's rise to fame, and the panel discussion on sustainable produce, obesity in America, seasonal cooking and its debatable expenses, after the jump.

I'm trying to eat more sustainably, choosing "pastured" meats and dairy, free-range eggs, and local, organic produce from small farms; I'm also trying to virtually eliminate processed foods from my family's diet. I have three small boys and a husband who grew up on Fruit Loops and KFC. I live in the city (Portland, Oregon); I work full-time; and I'm learning to garden. This is my story.

I don't think I have an addictive personality, but it's true: I'm addicted to caffeine. Not only am I an addict, I'm something of a snob, pooh-poohing Starbucks and supermarket brands for single-estate coffee beans and PG Tips tea. It's ok: as luxuries go, my choices aren't terribly draining on family finances. At about $10 a 12-ounce bag, my coffee habit runs me less than $20 a week.

But. I'm trying to eat local, honoring as much of the spirit of the 100-mile diet and the locavores as I can (though my range is probably more like 300 miles, given how huge is my home state of Oregon).

On Monday, the New York Times printed an opinion piece entitled, "Food That Travels Well" by James E. McWilliams. In it McWilliams states that while he is a passionate member of the "eat local" cohort, to be absolutely responsible about the carbon footprint of your food, you have to take more into account that just the place where that food was grown or raised.

He offers the convincing example of research done at Lincoln University in New Zealand (done in response to Europe's push to label their food with the number of miles it traveled from field to shelf) that found that lamb raised in New Zealand and shipped 11,000 miles to England emitted three-quarters less carbon dioxide emissions per ton than the lamb raised in England.

Until the FDA starts requiring food producers to print the amount of carbon dioxide emissions along with the fat grams on that package of chicken breasts, this isn't information to which we will have easy access. Neither do I think it means that people should stop buying their food locally when it is available and affordable. But it adds another layer of consideration to the already complex situation that we all face when we open the fridge every morning.

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Yep, you read that right. There's a new "low carb" diet being touted out there, but thisone has absolutely nothing to do with your health. It has everything to do with the health of the environment.

Instead of calories of carbs, this diet has you counting carbon. That's right. The Low Carbon Diet is one in which you calculate the "carbon cost" of your food to help reduce the emissions that cause the greenhouse effect and global warming. The goal of the diet, which is actually a program that is being tested by a company called Bon Appetit, is to make people "realize that their food choices can have an effect on climate change."

What does this mean for us? It means that instead of eating a tropical fruit that took a lot of energy to transport to your grocery store, you go to your local farmers' market and buy what's been grown locally.

Hey, now that's a diet I don't mind at all!

Chef Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA, is practically the godmother of the "local" movement. Last year, the chef partnered with the Heath Ceramics, a pottery company owned by Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic, and clothing designer Christina Kim to design and create tableware that reflects their love of locally-made products. Chef Waters uses the the eight-piece setting at her restaurant, and the line is now available to the public from Heath Ceramics. The classically-styled dinnerware is distinctive and because they are all hand-crafted, have subtle differences in form and color.

The four-piece setting is $146.

Food bloggers who have been around for at least a few months know about the Eat Local Challenge, born out of the mind of Jennifer from Life Begins at 30. She has been working with Locavores to host this virtual event in which the challenge for participants is to focus on eating foods that are as local as possible - grown and produced close to your home.

When I sat for a moment to think about the foods I eat every day, I realized that my habits would have to change. Sure, I can buy produce at my local farmers' markets. But what about other things? My coffee might be roasted locally, but where are the coffee beans for my coffee grown? What about bottled water? How tightly you keep to the challenge, as well as how "local" is local, is up to each participant. It's a very good lesson.

Participants can sign up at the Locavores site.

 

Let's not go into those resolutions that everyone and their entire extended families have on their lists. Oh, alright, I'll list just a few to test myself out: lose those last x pounds, spend more time with my kids/wife/husband/dog but spend less time on the Internet, watch less tv but watch more my spending, read more books, etc.

Those are on my list, too, but in addition, I have a few that are specific to food, along with some actionable steps:

1. Drink water. I don't drink very much water because I like to taste something. I drink way too much coffee, tea, and diet sodas, so replacing at least one of my two to three cups of coffee each morning will also take care of the "Cut down on the coffee" resolution that didn't quite make this short-list.

2. Eat a little more local. Eating local was very trendy last year, but I do hope it becomes a lasting change that I too will incorporate into my lifestyle. I did well over the summer by spending quite a bit of time in local southern California farmers' markets, but that fizzled when market locations and schedules were far less convenient than the open-24-hours chain grocery on my way home from work. I hope to make it to the local farmers' market at least twice a month this year.

3. Cook at home at least twice as much as I did last year. Twice as much cooking-at-home, however, would still be less than half as much as going-out-to-eat. But with more visits to the farmers' markets for fresh produce, hopefully I'll be able to have dinner at home twice a week, every week.

4. Master the techniques and tastes of my own Korean cuisine. Especially since I am convinced that 2006 will be the year that Korean food will be the "it" cuisine. Yeah, yeah yeah, so it made its debut several years ago, and it was on the up and up last year, but this is the year that folks in Iowa will say, "Hon, you know, I'm craving bibimbahp."

5. Read more food books. As opposed to flipping through cookbooks and magazines just looking at the pictures. I have yet to finish the final chapters of Tony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour, Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires, and just got one for Christmas, The Devil's Picnic (which is more about travel than food). There are at least ten more food books I want to read, as well.