The Best Heirloom Tomatoes Are in Virginia
By Jason Tesauro | FoodAndWine.Com Troy Warren for CNT Hanover County is a tomato-growing paradise cherished by chefs, farmers, and even soil experts. Chef Patrick O'Connell gazed lovingly upon a flat of Hanover heirlooms at The Inn at Little Washington, his iconic three-Michelin-star restaurant. The James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award winner summoned his executive sous chef and farmer-in-residence to admire the bounty. "Something ordinary, looked at differently," he said. "We want our staff to get the best of the best of the best." O'Connell recalled an intense tomato purée he once ferried home from Italy. "Perhaps in Naples, there's something comparable." The most…