CHAPTE R SIX

Farm-to-Restaurant

in the mid- to late-twentieth century, we will find

many of the answers to these questions.
As we discussed in chapter 1, U.S. agricultural
policies in the latter half of the twentieth century
encouraged the centralized, separate, large-scale
production of produce and meat animals. Many
Americans, including chefs, lost connection with
the sources of their food. Farmers markets had not
yet begun their resurgence and many restaurants
relied on large-scale distributors as the sole source
of their food. At the same time, more and more
Americans traveled abroad and came home with
an increased appreciation for food, particularly
French cuisine. As restaurants catered to these
trends, food imports increased dramatically, and
imported foods added cachet to a menu. For a
time, restaurants in New York and Washington
were even flying in fresh fish from Paris on the
Concorde. Talk about a carbon footprint!
Restaurants in Vermont in the early 1980s took
a similar approach to menus. Imported food was
out-of-the-ordinary and featured in many restaurants. In addition to loving French food, Vermont

The philosophy she was promulgating with such zeal was

so commonplace in France. Fresh, local, seasonal, know
your sources. . . . It was a given, not a religious mantra.1

Jacques Pepin on his

first meeting with Alice Waters

or many, the concept of Farm-to-Table, at

least in fine dining settings, seems a given.
The above quote from Jacques Pepin
reminds us, however, that this was not always so.
Pepin, new to America, came from a tradition that
celebrated French regional specialties and ingredients and emphasized seasonality. Alice Waters,
inspired by that tradition, was trying to do the
same, but in the 1970s, America faced challenges
finding those great ingredients. How did it come
to be that seasonality, a concept at the heart of
the current Farm-to-Table movement, was seen
as something unusual that needed to be highlighted? Why is it that locally raised vegetables and
animalsthe norm for our great-grandparents
generationhad become so exotic? As we trace the
development of fine dining and of U.S. agriculture

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Figure 6.1. Alice Waters and Chez Panisse are committed to sustainably sourced, seasonal ingredients. Photo courtesy of David Sifry.

was influenced by the von Trapp family in Stowe

and the presence of many Austrian ski instructors,
and so Austrian and German food was popular on
many menus. The Common Man Restaurant near
Sugarbush advertised Its Like Dining in Europe
Without Leaving Vermont. Most of the menu
names were in French, German, or Italian, and
no Vermont ingredients or suppliers were listed.
To be fair, there were Vermont ingredients on the
menuthe original chef at the Common Man
raised his own rabbitsbut it was more important
to market the European heritage of the dish than
the local ingredients. For restaurants around the
country, Continental Cuisine was the standard for
fine dining, and imported ingredients and dishes
with foreign names were de rigueur.

As transportation of food improved around the

United States in the mid- to late-twentieth century,
many chefs no longer felt constrained by seasonality. In the drive to provide customers with more
unusual ingredients, and to attract a client base
that was able to pay more, it was not unusual to see
New Zealand raspberries, Peruvian asparagus, and
Guatemalan snow peas featured on winter menus
when those fruits and vegetables were not in season
in the United States. This still holds true today, but
fortunately things are changing.
Thankfully, as American diners became more
sophisticated, so did American chefs. As they
worked and traveled abroad, chefs noticed the
contrast in quality between the food fresh from the
source, and that of the versions imported to America.
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Figure 6.2. Fresh, delicious, and picked for ripeness. Photo by John Churchman, courtesy of NECI.

Americans discovered artisanal food traditions and

sought ways to reproduce them in America.
The 1980s brought a renewed interest in
Regional American Cuisine and what many
were calling New American Cuisine. Inspired by
the example of strong food traditions like those
of New Orleans that buoyed the phenomenal

success of Chef Paul Prudhommes Louisiana Kitchen

in 1984, American chefs began to look for other
local traditions they could draw from and the local
ingredients that were essential to those dishes. As
New York chef Peter Hoffman reflected in a recent
interview, New American cuisine was about looking at the historical, traditional dishes as well as
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sophisticated in both their growing and marketing

techniques and soon realized that restaurants were
great outlets for their products.
After years of trying to grow commodity crops
and failing to compete with large growers on price,
these producers realized that they could compete
in the areas of quality, flavor, and variety. They
found that once chefs tasted their products, they
were sold. At the same time, there were a number
of long time small producers around the country
who never followed former U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture Earl Butzs advice to farmers to get
big or get out. These producers continued plying
their crafts, producing regional favorites in the
same way that they always had, like Maytag blue
cheese, heirloom vegetables like Boothby Blonde
cucumbers, or heritage breed pigs like Tamworth.
However, now they are being rediscovered by chefs
seeking out these top-quality ingredients.
Chefs in Farm-to-Table restaurants appreciate
the work of both these groups of producers and
count on the quality and flavor of the ingredients
to excite their customers, just as they excited them.
They also find that customers appreciate variety
and will value well-prepared fingerling potatoes
or Romanesco broccoli over commodity vegetables. Some chefs also report the integrity of the
ingredients is important to their customers and
themselves. With increasing food safety scares over
everything from peanut butter to salad greens,
restaurant guests want to know where their food
comes from.

the great ingredients being grown and produced in

our region.2 Many chefs discovered, as Hoffman
did, that these local foods were better than the
fancy vegetables being brought in from California
and France . . . foods that were fresh and delicious,
picked for ripeness.3
These locally grown foods stood in marked
contrast to the commodity foods available through
large suppliers, which were selected for durability,
storage, and consistency rather than for flavor.
A classic example is the difference between the
commodity tomato and the heirloom Brandywine
tomato. Commodity tomatoes are packed in a
standard count such as 5 by 6: layers of five tomatoes on one side, six on the other, with two layers
of thirty in a twenty pound box. They are picked
under-ripe and treated with ethylene gas just before
distribution to give them their red color. They are
very durable and can survive being tossed around
on a delivery truck, and they slice evenly on a slicing
machine. In contrast, the Brandywine is large, varies in shape, and is prone to cracking under certain
conditions. Usually picked at the peak of ripeness,
it is somewhat fragile, requires careful handling,
and needs to be sliced by hand. When viewed in
terms of durability and yield, the 5 by 6 tomato
is the winner. However, in terms of taste, texture,
and moisture, the Brandywine is far superior to the
mealy, bland commodity tomato. As chefs sampled
more and more of these local, artisan, and heirloom
foods, they featured them on their menus and
looked for local producers who could supply them.
While American chefs were looking for producers of local, artisan, and heirloom foods, producers
were seeking chefs out as well. The back-to-theland and organic movements in the sixties and
seventies generated a number of new farmers
who sought to create a form of agriculture that fit
their lifestyle and was different from the industrial
model. Those that stuck with it became more

What Is a Farm-to-Table
Restaurant?
The concept of a Farm-to-Table restaurant isnt
limited to fine dining. The format can vary from
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fine dining to popular price to fast casual. Common to all Farm-to-Table restaurants are a few core
principles:

partners, but on a menu featuring Mediterranean

Cuisine. Chef Anna Sortun, one of the founding
board members of Chefs Collaborative, offers
Turkish cuisine at Oleana in Cambridge, Massachusetts, featuring produce from Siena Farms in
Sudbury, a 75-acre organic operation farmed by
her husband, Chris Kurth.
Whats common to these and many other
restaurants is the value they place on the local
farmers and producers, who they see as partners
in producing meals for their guests. To highlight
this, many Farm-to-Table restaurants feature
their collaboration with local producers on their
menus and websites. For a time, some restaurants
were so excited about this collaboration that
menu descriptions were filled with what Jacques
Pepin referred to as the provenance of each
ingredient, leading to some rather wordy menus.
Currently, most Farm-to-Table restaurants follow
the practice of listing their producer partners,
and leave it at that.
The Marketplace Restaurant and Lounge in
Asheville, North Carolina, markets its farmer-chef
connection subtly on the menu itself, noting simply, We support local farms and artisan producers
fromwithin 100 miles of Asheville.5 On its website
and marketing materials, however, Chef William
Dissent devotes a great deal of space to promoting
his farmer partners, noting there is no cuisine
without gardens or farmers.6 With all these benefits associated with Farm-to-Table dining, why
dont all restaurants adopt the concept?

a focus on fresh, wholesome, flavorful food;

a commitment to supporting local farmers and
producers;
a commitment to supporting sustainable farming and animal husbandry practices; and
an understanding of the importance of supporting the local economy.

We will also see that within the definition

of Farm-to-Table, there are certain categories
depending on how the restaurant defines local.
Food service establishments with a hyper-local
focus may commit to purchasing a certain percentage of their products from within a narrowly
defined area such as fifteen to twenty miles (see
Claires Restaurant below). Others may focus on
their states identity and purchase from within its
boundaries. Yet another option is to identify the
establishments region and purchase from within
100 to 200 miles. The USDA had the broadest definition of local: from within the state or 450 miles.
This commitment to sourcing local food is
summarized in one of the six principles espoused
by the Chefs Collaborative: Food choices that
emphasize delicious, locally grown, seasonally fresh, and whole or minimally processed
ingredients are good for us, for local farming
communities, and for the planet.4
Over the years, regional food traditions and
ingredients have continued to thrive, but a new
theme has emerged as well. As Americans continue to explore cuisines from around the world,
some chefs have adopted the concept of global
flavors using local, rather than imported foods.
Devotay Restaurant and Bar in Iowa City, Iowa,
for example, proudly promotes its local farm

Challenges Facing
Farm-to-Table Restaurants
There are a number of challenges in operating a
Farm-to-Table restaurant. Among these are:
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Proving the Value of

Farm-to-Table to the
Restaurant Guest

proving the value of Farm-to-Table to the

restaurant guest;
making the farmer-chef or producer-chef
connection;
making sure your Farm-to-Table concept is
authentic;
moving beyond the world of fine dining;
sourcing ingredients and distribution;
keeping it seasonal;
putting food by;
keeping it affordable;
timing of supply and demand; and
dealing with unexpected shortages or
natural disaster.

A chef can be passionate about the sources of his or

her food and be committed to the Farm-to-Table
concept, but if guests don't recognize the value,
the restaurant will not succeed. The food has to be
artfully prepared and flavorful and the concept has
to be consistent with Farm-to-Table values.
Tom Bivins, former chef-owner of Crop Bistro
notes, The same people who are willing to pay
a higher price for local food at a farmers market
are not always as willing to pay that higher price
when the restaurant acts as a middle man.7 As
weve noted before, consumers across the globe
increasingly care about where their food comes

The final two challenges relate mostly to purchasing and we will explore them in chapter 7.

Figure 6.3. Waiting for customers. Photo by Lance Cheung, USDA.

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Claires Restaurant

Claires Restaurant in Hardwick, Vermont, is an example of a hyper-

local Farm-to-Table restaurant. It is also an example of a Farm-to-Table
restaurant that did not make it, despite rave reviews and a loyal clientele.
Claires opened in 2008 with a commitment to source 70 percent of its
products within fifteen miles of the restaurant. Maintaining a seasonal
menu in a restaurant in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont requires
a lot of creativity on the part of the chef and strong relationships with
local producers, and Claires had both. Their menu changed regularly
based on what was in season and foods that they put by after harvest.
While drawing on regional sources for seafood and other ingredients, Claires was surrounded by a number of dedicated local producers
who had all contributed to what has been dubbed the Hardwick
Phenomenon, a localized, closed-loop, self-sustaining food system.8
A wide variety of sustainable producers are located in the Hardwick
area, and Claires worked with a number of them, including Petes
Greens, Vermont Soy Company, the Cellars at Jasper Hill, and the
Vermont Highland Cattle Company. Claires carried its commitment
to local products into its bar as well. In addition to featuring a number
of Vermonts finest craft brewers, the restaurant served Vermont wines
and distilled products, highlighting the growth of artisan producers in
these areas.
Claires highlighted the authenticity of its hyper-local concept by
regularly featuring its producers on its website, blog, and Facebook
page. They also marked the change of seasons by celebrating the ingredients available and descriptions of specials featuring those ingredients
in both the dining room and the bar. The restaurant received rave
national reviews both for its food and for its hyper-local sourcing and
was a popular community gathering place.
Claires was also notable for being a community-supported restaurant, a funding model based on community-supported agriculture.
When the restaurant was founded, the partners sold shares in the
restaurant to fifty community members for $1,000 each who received
dining credits to be used over a period of four years.9 As with a CSA,
investors in this restaurant model assume some risk. In community-
supported agriculture, because members usually pay for their shares
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up front, if bad weather affects the crop yield, CSA shares are smaller.
In community-supported restaurants, if the restaurant fails before the
dining credits are redeemed, the investors lose their investment. Fortunately, for the community investors, Claires lasted longer than four
years, but it did eventually close. While the restaurant apparently broke
even, it reportedly never made a profit.10 In late 2012, the three original
partners dissolved their relationship, and the one remaining owner
eventually closed the restaurant in March 2014.
Why was Claires unable to turn a profit? It could be for a number of
reasons. Was the hyper-local sourcing too restrictive to be profitable?
Was the restaurant too small to support three partners? Was Hardwick
too remote to provide the volume needed to support the restaurant? Our
sense is it was probably a combination of the above. No matter what the
concept is, a restaurant needs to hit key operating ratios to survive.

from, how it was produced, and who produced

it. If guests can understand what is unique about
the food they are eating or feel a connection to the
farmer who produced it, their appreciation of its
value will increase.
Dan, David, and Lauren Barber, through their
establishments Blue Hill Restaurant in Greenwich
Village, New York City, and Blue Hill at Stone
Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York, do an excellent
job of promoting the value of Farm-to-Table dining.
Both restaurants show a clear commitment to local
artisan producers and local farms. Their website
features a link, Know Thy Farmer, which features
videos, pictures, and descriptions of their farms in
Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and the Stone
Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, as well as
a number of producers they work with, all within
250 miles of the restaurants.11 Guests traveling to
Blue Hill at Stone Barns get the added pleasure of
driving past fields of vegetables, pastures of grazing

animals, and rows of greenhouses, all sources of

much of the food they are about to consume. All of
these images and descriptions serve to tell the story
of the food, with the hope that once diners understand the unique qualities of the vegetable varieties
or animal breeds, and the care with which they were
raised and prepared, that they will see the value of
the food presented to them.
The Barbers are committed to advancing the
cause of sustainably raised food through education
as well as dining. The Stone Barns Center for Food
and Agriculture operates year-round as a farm
and education center with a mission that is both
understated and ambitious, to create a consciousness about the effect of everyday food choices. In
addition to raising food for the restaurants and
community, the center does research, including a
project with soil scientists from Cornell University
on the impact of soil health on nutrition and flavor in vegetables.12

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At the end of the day, the success of a restaurant comes down to the quality of its food and
its reception by the dining public. Both Blue Hill
restaurants have had continued success in those
areas as well, gaining numerous top reviews from
restaurant critics, a number of dining awards from
Food and Wine, the James Beard Foundation, and
others. Diners at Blue Hill at Stone Barns pay $238
for a multi-course Grazing, Pecking and Rooting
Menu, exclusive of beverages. The continued
success of the restaurants is a tribute to the publics
perception that its worth it.

also helped educate chefs on the variety of products

available and the seasonality of those products.
While still focused on the farmer-chef connection, over the years Chefs Collaboratives mission
has expanded to include educational programs,
publications on issues of sustainable food choices,
and annual conferences that bring chefs, producers, and educators together to discuss the future
of the food supply. Some of their recent initiatives
include:
Trash Fish Dinners that celebrate sustainable
seafood choices from lower on the food chain;
Meat Matters Events designed to celebrate
and help create demand forgood, wellraised, and appropriate portions of meat
(as well as protein-rich vegetables and
grains); and
Sockeye Salmon weekcelebrating the yearround availability and fresher than fresh
quality of flash frozen at sea Bristol Bay
Sockeye Salmon from Alaska.13

Making the Farmer-Chef or

Producer-Chef Connection
As the Farm-to-Table and sustainable food movement has grown, the challenge for both producers
and chefs has been how to connect with each other.
Small producers do not create the volume that
would attract most large food distributors. Chefs
know the producers are out there, but dont know
what products they have or when they are available.
Both professions require long hours with little time
for marketing or research. To meet this demand, a
number of groups have developed over the years.
Most organizations are featured in chapter 7, but for
historical perspective, we note a few of them below.
Chefs Collaborative, a Boston-based national
organization focused on promoting sustainable
agriculture, began in 1993 as a group of chefs trying to share information about local farmers and
their products and the importance of using local,
seasonal ingredients. The chefs met weekly at one
of their restaurants, called local farmers to find
what was available for the week, and then faxed out
a Fresh Sheet listing the products, availability,
prices, and contact information for the farms to
their members. Not only did this provide a valuable connection between farmers and chefs, but it

As we noted in the introduction, the Vermont

Fresh Network grew out of a series of food symposiums held at New England Culinary Institute
in the late 1980s to mid-1990s and was officially
launched in July of 1996 with the support of the
Vermont Agency of Agriculture.
The Vermont Fresh Network creates a mechanism for handshake agreements between farmers
and chefs where both sides agree to work with
one another and to co-market their partnerships.
Farmers and chefs visit each others operation, so
they can better understand their business. Chefs
list their producer-partners on the menus and
websites, and farmers list their partnership with
restaurants on their marketing materials. Vermont
Fresh Network signs at restaurants and farms
identify for the public that the business involved is

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Figure 6.4. The Vermont Fresh Network: Connecting

Vermonts food communities. Image courtesy of Vermont
Fresh Network.

part of the network. This has become an important

marketing tool as the public has come to value this
connection. The Vermont Fresh Network logo, a
dark-green background topped by a white dinner
plate framing a farm scene, with silverware on
either side, symbolizes the value of the farmer-chef
connection to maintain Vermonts working landscape. The network also markets both groups to
the public through its website and promotional
events. Some of these include farmer dinners,
where member restaurants celebrate their farm
partners ingredients and introduce the farmers
to their guests, and on-farm dinners, where a chef
produces an elegant meal in a scenic farm setting.
Each year, the Vermont Fresh Network hosts an
annual forum open to the public where producers
and chefs are paired together to produce a walkaround meal highlighting the collaborations
between chefs and producers and the great food
they all create.

The Minnesota Project is a nonprofit agency that

started in the early 1980s to foster rural development
and study the impact of federal and state policies
in rural Minnesota. One of its key initiatives is the
Heartland Food Network, an organization dedicated to increasing the consumption of local foods
in Minnesota and to connecting farmers, chefs, and
consumers with one another. One of their recent
initiatives was the publication Buying Local Food
for Food Service in Minnesota.14 This guide provides
valuable information for chefs seeking to partner
with local growers, including profiles of restaurants
that purchase locally, information on the logistics of
local buying, and tips for marketing. The guide also
reviews the state food safety regulations for local
food purchases and provides additional resources
for purchasing and marketing local food.
For chefs and producers seeking to improve
their connection to each other, these three organizations can offer some insights. While faxing out
lists of products is no longer practical or necessary,
the farm and producer websites make sharing
product information much easier. Chefs can still
network with each other and share sources for great
local products. Co-marketing between producers
and chefs also allows each group more exposure.
Chefs can advertise their producer-partners on
menus, websites, blogs, and newsletters, and producers can advertise their restaurant partnerships
in their CSA (community-supported agriculture)
newsletters and other farm-related events.
As the states of Vermont and Minnesota have
recognized, there is a strong connection between
the restaurant and travel industry and state agriculture. It makes sense for both groups to work
together on marketing and promoting food events
and festivals that highlight local products and
local restaurants. Chefs looking to improve their
connections with local producers should seek
out state or county agriculture organizations for

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Figure 6.5. Harvest dinner on the farm at High Mowing Seeds. Photo by John Churchman, courtesy of NECI.

their connections to producers. Chefs can further

help by developing recipes for local specialty and
artisan producers. Chefs at New England Culinary
Institute, for example, have worked with producers over the years to develop recipes for products
as diverse as goat cheese, maple syrup, local game,
and cheddar cheese. The producers have been able
to better market their products with proven recipes, and the institute has received recognition on
product labels and recipe brochures.

Making Sure Your

Farm-to-Table Concept
Is Authentic
We have discussed the strong interest that the dining
public has in local food and the value it places on it.

At the same time, guests are ever on the lookout for

false claims. Its important to be clear, consistent, and
honest about your Farm-to-Table philosophy. Are
you hyper-local, or do you source your food from
within X miles of the restaurant? Be sure that you can
consistently meet that standard and market it well.
Are most of the ingredients in a local dish truly
local, or only some of them? Are you representing
the concept honestly? For example, is your local
salsa really local or just bottled locally? If the key
ingredients come from all across the country, then
its not sustainable or local.
Is your approach more regional, that is, supporting producers within a days drive of the restaurant?
Make sure that customers understand your goal of
supporting regional rather than just local foods
and that they see value in those regional choices.

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A number of restaurants in New York and Boston

feature Vermont products from cheeses to lamb to
fiddlehead ferns. They can do so with confidence
because Vermont products are recognized for their
quality. Similarly, since Vermont lacks a seacoast,
its not unusual to see New England seafood in Vermont Farm-to-Table restaurants (although new
efforts are underway to market Lake Champlains
fishery). However, a Vermont restaurant featuring
New York cheddar would raise some alarm.

Raising Produce
and Animals Onsite
Another way some Farm-to-Table restaurants prove
their authenticity is by growing their own crops,
raising their own animals onsite, or both. This can
range from large operations supplying much of their
needs from their own farms to smaller restaurants
that have gardens or a few animals to supplement
their usual suppliers. In addition to the Blue Hill
Restaurants mentioned above, there are a number
of operations large and small who follow this model.
The Inn at Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee,
raises its own chickens and sheep; grows a variety
of fruits, nuts, and vegetables in their orchards and
gardens; and forages for ramps, wild mushrooms,
and pawpaws. Chef Sarah Natvig of the Black Krim
Tavern in Randolph, Vermont, gets much of her
produce from her husband Chip, who operates the
Pebble Brook Farm nearby. In addition to supplying
ingredients for the restaurant, farms and gardens
help further connect these restaurants to the seasons and the production of sustainable food.

Move beyond the

World of Fine Dining
Initially, much of the Farm-to-Table movement
was led by chefs in fine dining restaurants: Alice

Waters at Chez Panisse, Patrick OConnell at Inn at

Little Washington, Peter Hoffman at Savoy in New
York, and others. Fine dining restaurants have led
the industry in championing the Farm-to-Table
movement. However, if this movement is to truly
impact the food industry, and improve both local
economies and the quality of our food supply, it has
to reach beyond the elite few. In later chapters, we
will discuss how we can impact schools, hospitals,
and corporate food service. For now, wed like to
suggest the great potential that Farm-to-Table has
in popular-price and family-restaurants. As weve
discussed, Farm-to-Table ingredients dont have to
be expensive to be sustainably produced.

Distribution and
Sourcing Ingredients
The Farm-to-Table relationship can be very rewarding in terms of providing a wider variety of more
flavorful ingredients, but how does a busy chef or
manager find the time to source food from a number of small producers and track their availability?
Well discuss this in detail in chapter 7. Some
of the solutions include aggregation, whereby a
number of small producers combine their production to meet the large demand of restaurants,
cooperative buying among restaurants, and the
use of food hubs.

Keeping It Seasonal
How do you know whats in season and when?
How can you extend the season and spread the
bounty of great ingredients across the year? Are
root vegetables the only option in winter?
Each region has its own seasonal ingredients
that are eagerly anticipated. The major players are
well known: soft-shell crab season in the Chesapeake, summer sweet corn in New England, morel

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Figure 6.6. A high tunnel greenhouse produces hardy greens for much of the winter at Bear Roots Farm in Barre
Vermont. Photo by Lyndon Virkler.

season in the Midwest and Northwest. Tracking

produce availability can be challenging, but a good
start is to consult a local chapter of Chefs Collaborative or the National Farm to School Network, or
your local university extension service for seasonal
availability charts. The Minnesota buying local
guide, for instance, contains a chart listing seasonal
products in Minnesota titled A Seasonal Look at
Fresh Produce in the Region.15

Putting Food By
Cooking seasonally and not relying on the crutch
of imported produce can be challenging. One key

to success is to plan ahead and preserve foods, putting them by for use later in the year. This requires
an investment of time, materials, and labor, but it
usually pays off in the end. Often, an ingredient
preserved at harvest time will be worth a lot more
later in the year when the only option is imported
produce. In addition, buying in quantity can reap
additional savings for those with commitment. A
mushroom forager, or wildcrafter, as many like to
be called, might be willing to offer a reduced price
to a chef who commits to buying his future harvest
of 100 to 150 pounds of chanterelles. In addition
to the immediate savings, once dried, canned, or
frozen, those mushrooms will grow in value by

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American Flatbread

American Flatbread, based in Waitsfield, Vermont, is a great model

of a moderately priced Farm-to-Table restaurant. Founder George
Schenks concept is simple: a limited menu of high-quality flatbread
pizzas, a signature salad, and a few desserts, all featuring local,
regional, and organic ingredients. The limited menu allows American Flatbread to focus on quality and to feature seasonal ingredients
in their specials. The nature of pizza and flatbread lends itself to a
moderately priced menu: proteins and other traditionally expensive ingredients are used sparingly and so, while costing more than
traditional pizzas, a meal at American Flatbread is still affordable.
The restaurant clientele is a mix of families and foodies, out-of-state
visitors and locals. The success of the restaurant is based on a number
of factors including: top-quality ingredients produced by farmers
we know personally, and the centrally located wood-fired oven
that provides both entertainment and a primal connection to the
food and the philosophy of the owner. George Schenks commitment
to sustainable agriculture and his promotion of food as a source of

Figure 6.7. George Schenk, founder and owner of American Flatbread. Photo by
Lyndon Virkler.

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life and a foundation for community is evident in the artwork and

posters around the restaurant and in his regular menu dedications.
Customers waiting for a table spend their time reading the posters,
examining the map of Vermont marked with American Flatbreads
farmer partners, and catching up with friends over a glass of wine or
local craft beer. The farm setting provides plenty of room for kids
to run around outside in the warm months or gather around a fire
pit in the winter months, as well as supplying some of the produce,
chicken, and pork for the restaurant. American Flatbread also regularly offers benefit bakes that raise money for and awareness about
various causes such as organic food for local schools, relief for victims
of Hurricane Katrina, and a local bear habitat program. In addition,
they contribute medicine wheel flatbreads to the pediatric unit of
the University of Vermont Medical Center for children undergoing
treatment there.
In addition to the original American Flatbread at Lareau Farm in
Waitsfield, there are two sister restaurants in Middlebury and Burlington. American Flatbreads Inn at Lareau Farm also has a thriving wedding
business and a traveling flatbread oven
that is booked for events around the
region. American Flatbread franchise
opportunities are available to partners
willing to commit to the use and
advocacy of local, regional and sustainably produced food and the creation
and advancement of meaningful and
respectful organization building.16
Through a partnership with the
Flatbread Company there are now a
total of fourteen Flatbread Company
restaurants around the country.
The American Flatbread restaurants
continue to be a driving force in their
respective local economies, and advocate for core values of Food Integrity
and Sustainability.17 Their continued
success shows that the marketplace will
support restaurants committed to the
Figure 6.8. How American Flatbread markets their
farm partners. Photo by Lyndon Virkler.
Farm-to-Table concept.

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midwinter when only imported options are available. At the same time, the restaurant needs to
have the capital available to invest over a thousand
dollars in anticipation of future sales.
Food preservation requires a number of considerations, including food safety and the regulations
of your local authorities, food quality, secure storage, capital, and utilization.
Food safety is always a concern for restaurateurs,
especially in the current climate where food-borne
illness outbreaks dominate the news on a regular
basis. For those who havent grown up in a household used to preserving their own food, there is the
added stress of learning unfamiliar techniques and
legitimate concern over things like botulism. For
people new to food preservation, there are a number of valuable resources available, from university
extension websites and publications, to the Ball
company publications, to Sandor Katzs excellent
book, The Art of Fermentation. In addition, many
local culinary schools and colleges offer courses in
food preservation.
Regulations concerning the serving of preserved
foods depend on local regulatory agencies such as
the department of health. In many jurisdictions,
house-produced items sold in-house are less
strictly regulated than items produced for sale
outside the restaurant or food operation. Meat
items that are cured with additives like nitrates may
require an approved hazard analysis critical control
point plan (HACCP), while a different curing
method may not. In any event, it is best to check
with your local health authority. For those wishing
to preserve food on a large scale, it might be worth
considering working with a licensed food production facility to preserve or store your food items.
As you consider preserving foods, it is also
important to start with top-quality food items.
As a general rule, most preservation techniques
especially for vegetablesdo not improve quality,

and many methods like freezing and canning can

impact texture and color. It is therefore important
to start with top-quality ingredients and process as
close to harvest as possible.
Storage is also an important consideration in
preserving foods for later use. Do you have the
shelf space or freezer or walk-in space for the
products you will be producing? Will your storage
area maintain the quality of the preserved foods;
for instance, a cool, dark space for storing canned
items? If you are relying on refrigerators or freezers
to store your food products, do you have a backup
generator in case of extended power outages?
Having the funds to invest in food preservation
and storage is also critical. In addition to the cost
of the initial purchase, there can be storage costs
including energy for refrigerators or freezers.
Cured meats can take weeks or months before
they are ready, and because of evaporation and
shrinkage, their cost goes up. Can you tie up capital for that length of time? Will your clientele be
willing to pay the price you need to charge to be
profitable? Ideally the quality of the final product
and the variety of preserved items can add to your
menu make it worthwhile, but it is important to
review those cost implications.
Restaurants that dont have enough freezer
space of their own might consider contracting
with a cooperative. Homegrown Wisconsin is a
cooperative of specialty growers that trade with
more than forty restaurants in Chicago, Madison,
and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The cooperative has a
large industrial freezer and freezes about 20,000
pounds of ripe tomatoes from a number of producers each summer and sells them to the restaurants
throughout the winter. The farmers arent paid
until the restaurants take delivery, but they do
receive a steady income from the sales over time.
Customers include Chef Rick Bayless of Frontera
Grill and Topolobampo, who slowly braises them

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Figure 6.9. House-made sauerkraut. Photo by Lyndon Virkler.

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to concentrate their flavor before using them in

many of his signature salsas and entrees. Bayless
alone purchases over 600 pounds every year.
The final consideration in preserving foods is
making sure there is a use for them on the menu. It
might be tempting to freeze 300 pounds of fiddlehead ferns, but if half of them are still unused after
six months, you havent planned well. As with any
menu item, its a good practice to have multiple uses
for the food product or assure sales by featuring it
as a signature menu item. By planning for multiple
uses, you improve profitability and ensure quality
by using the product during its peak of quality.
Food preservation, whether done in-house or by
outside producers, is a key strategy for most Farmto-Table restaurants. In addition to extending the
season for many quality local ingredients, it is a
way to connect to age-old culinary traditions and
to distinguish the restaurant not just in its style of
food, but also in the quality of its food.

Keeping It Affordable
Many products from small- or medium-scale local
producers cost more than those from large-scale
commercial producers, at least on the surface.
There are a number of strategies that Farm-to-
Table restaurants employ to maintain their profitability. Some of these include rethinking the center
of the plate, engineering the menu for a profitable
sales mix, and total utilization of ingredients.
Rethinking the center of the plate involves
reassessing the role and size of proteins in menu
items. In The Third Plate, Dan Barber charts the
evolution of American restaurant dining from a
first plate dominated by a large portion of an
industrially raised protein like steak or chicken,
with commodity vegetables and starches playing
a side role, to a second plate where the steak or
chicken will most likely be grass-fed, the portion

smaller, but still dominant and supported by local

and organic vegetables, grains, and starches. He
imagines a time in the future where we will dine on
a third plate centered on something like a carrot
steak with complementary vegetables, legumes,
and starches, supported by a meat based sauce.18
This echoes the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson,
who, while not a vegetarian, nevertheless noted, I
have lived temperately, eating little animal food,
and that, not as an aliment so much as a condiment
for the vegetables, which constitute my principal
diet.19 Nutritionists tell us that we will all be
healthier if we eat more of a plant-based diet, and a
third plate or an all vegetarian plate is generally
more profitable than a protein-centered plate.
Many customers will enjoy that plate if it provides
reasonable portions of interesting, sustainable,
local vegetables such as rainbow chard, golden
beets, lacinato kale, fingerling potatoes, and some
interesting grains or legumes.
For those who cant give up their protein,
another low-cost approach is to feature dishes,
using a smaller portion of protein in a stir-fry,
jambalaya-type dish, or stew where the rice, pasta,
or vegetables provide volume and act as a flavor
vehicle for the protein pieces. Another strategy
for moderating the cost of proteins on the plate
involves combinations or duos. On these plates, a
small portion of a more expensive cut of protein
is paired with a less expensive cut: a piece of beef
tenderloin paired with braised short rib, a slice
of lamb loin with a lamb sausage, or a large sea
scallop paired with less-expensive fish. In addition
to keeping the overall plate cost lower, these pairs
add variety and interest for the customer and an
opportunity for the chef to show creativity with an
additional sauce or garnish.
Most profitable restaurants rely on a diverse sales
mix to improve profitability. There are always highfood-cost items like steak and lobster that can only

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be priced so high if they are going to sell (its better

to sell ten steaks at a 40 percent food cost than two
at a 33 percent food cost). These high-food-cost
items are usually balanced by other items on the
menu with low food costs, and ideally the sales mix
is profitable. Savvy restaurateurs improve this profitability by engineering their menu to feature the
high-profit items in prominent places and promoting them as signature dishes. A related strategy is
the promotion of healthy food options. These items
are traditionally lower in portion size, fat, butter,
and cream, and also lower in cost to produce.
Like sales mix, total utilization of product is
not unique to Farm-to-Table restaurants, but it is
an essential concept. Many of us are used to the
concept of producing broccoli soup from stems of

broccoli and paying for the case of broccoli from

the resulting profit before selling even a single
floret. When the broccoli is fresh, local broccoli
moister than the commodity vegetable and full
of vibrant colorthere are even more options:
julienne broccoli stems in salads, stir-fries, and
vegetable medleys, as well as soup options. More
options to sell result in more profits.
The results of total utilization are even more
dramatic when applied to proteins. Many chefs
seek to lower costs and increase quality by purchasing sustainably raised local heritage animal breeds
in whole carcass form. At a seminar sponsored by
Chefs Collaborative in 2008, Chef Michael Touhy
noted that while the price he used to pay in Atlanta
for locally raised Berkshire pigs was substantially

Figure 6.10. Interesting varieties add value to a vegetarian plate. Photo by John Churchman, courtesy of NECI.

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higher than the price at the time for whole commodity hogs ($3.00 versus $0.80 per pound), he was
still able to generate a profit. In addition to the use
of usual primal and sub-primal cuts, by creating a
variety of charcuterie and cured products and using
all the fat, scraps, and bones, he was able to generate
$3,000 worth of revenue from a $600 pig.20
The key to all of these strategies is the perception
of value by the customer. If the vegetables, legumes,
and starches on the plate are not valued, then a
smaller protein portion will be viewed negatively.
If both parts of the duo are not flavorful and well

prepared, the whole will be less than the sum of the

parts. If the additional products produced through
total utilization cannot be sold, there will be no
profit. A key to the customers perception of value is
telling the story of the ingredients and the producers
who provided them. This involves proper marketing
and staff training, which we will discuss in chapter
11. It also involves creating relationships with sustainable producers, whose ingredients are the star of
the show in a Farm-to-Table restaurant. In the next
chapter, we will discuss how to create and maintain
successful relationships with those producers.

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