Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/599676
3 0 | t h e c l e v e r r o o t "What I love about this dish is its simplicity," Terlato says. "In owning vine- yards, our work really revolves around farming. Everything we do is about what comes from the soil – all along the way, farming for the highest levels of qual- ity, flavor and intensity. And when we're cooking and sharing meals with people, the logic is very much the same. If you start with high-quality ingredients, you don't have to do too much." Finding some of those high quality ingredients has recently become a lot easier at Tangley Oaks. Last summer, the company converted a beautiful but not-much-used courtyard into a community garden in collaboration with influential community gardening activist LaManda Joy. "The community garden provides us with an opportunity to grow our our own fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs to be used here in our kitchen," Terlato explains. Additionally, the goal is to share the bounty. "We're planting it, we're tending it, but we also want to share with the community. So hopefully, our neighbors will be able to come by and pick fruits and vegetables from the garden and enjoy them as we do." Terlato's appreciation of food was ingrained in him from an early age. "Food was a regular part of the vignettes of life in our home," he says. "It was very natural that my brother and I would be in the kitchen cooking together with our parents and others, learning different recipes, many coming from my mother and grandmothers." And of course they both picked up a thing or two from their father (and Terlato Wines chairman), Anthony Terlato, one of this country's most indefatigable promoters of food and wine pairing, who used his dinner table to build relationships that helped him become a phenomenally successful importer, marketer, and producer of fine wines. John and his wife have imparted their love of food to their three children through regular food tastings in their home. Bratwurst, bacon, even cheeseburgers are subjected to rigorous scrutiny. "I'll use different meat blends, and I'll cook them differently—one on the griddle, another one on the barbecue— and I'll ask them to try to articulate what they taste, and which The newly opened Tangley Oaks Community Workplace Food Garden is the collaboration between Tangley Oaks Wines and Illinois Master Gardener LaManda Joy, with the aim to educate employees on success- ful gardening principles so their efforts cultivate a valuable source of fresh produce.