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The Mixing Bowl:  Farm to Chef Directory

More than half of food eaten in the US is now bought and consumed away from home.  For this reason, restaurants are important Local Food Campaign partners.

By taking the best ingredients that local farms have to offer and serving them up for the public to enjoy, restaurants create new local food fans, bring local flavors to visitors eager to get a taste of the region, help tell the story of local farms, and build relationships that can improve profits for farmer and restaurant alike. 

Sometimes chefs who want to buy from farms have trouble finding willing farmers, and farmers interested in selling to chefs have the same trouble.  Beginning with the Asheville area, ASAP has begun to gather information for a Farm to Chef directory for western North Carolina, called The Mixing Bowl. 

Want to be in the Mixing Bowl?

What is the Mixing Bowl?

What to Expect as a Chef

What to Expect as a Grower

Restaurant Listings

Farm Listings

Want to be in the Mixing Bowl? (top)

Since this is the very first edition of the Mixing Bowl, we were only able to contact a limited number of growers and restaurants. If we missed you this time, let us know - we’ll reprint the directory once more during the 2006 season and we would love to have your farm or restaurant listed.

Listings are FREE! All you need to do is fill out a Mixing Bowl form and get it back to us at ASAP.

To get a Mixing Bowl grower or chef form,

contact Peter Marks at peter@asapconnections.org or (828) 236-1282.

What is the Mixing Bowl? (top)

The Mixing Bowl is a new directory of food producers in the southern Appalachians and of restaurant chefs in the same region who are interested in buying locally-grown food. We hope that it will make it easier for growers to add diversity and stability to their farm business by forming well-chosen partnerships with restaurants. 

It will also make it more convenient for chefs to offer the freshest foods possible to their customers – by buying directly from the grower that best suits the needs of their restaurant. In these pages, chefs will find descriptions and contact details for farms close by that are interested in selling to local restaurants, and farmers will find descriptions and contact details for chefs that are interested in buying more local food. Lists of products offered by growers give chefs an idea of which growers best suit the needs of their restaurant, and lists of products requested by chefs give growers an idea of which restaurants would be the best partners for them. A cross-referencing index of farms and restaurants helps both to quickly find the growers that offer a specific product or the restaurants in a certain area. 

Other materials are meant to make the farm-to-restaurant path as smooth as possible: advice to both growers and chefs, locations of area tailgate markets, and a seasonal availability chart for our region. But the most important part of this guide is the contact information – use it to begin making some great partnerships!

What to Expect as a Chef (top)

How to make the experience a great one

1. Commit – buy what you say you will buy, and buy consistently while a product is in season. 
2. Maintain communication – taste the product and tell them what you plan to do with it. If you’re unhappy with a product, tell the producer why. Request varieties you’re interested in.
3. Buying – do expect to pay full price, and you can expect to learn why it’s worth it. Establish a predictable routine for phone calls, orders, and questions. Give as much advance notice of what you need as you can.
4. Be flexible – use what is fresh and in season. Your customers will appreciate it!
5. Delivery – establish a delivery schedule.
6. Cultivate trust – remain flexible and patient, and remember that it’s all about the relationship.
7. Billing – establish a system and follow through. Most farmers like to be paid either COD or in 7 days.
8. Education – continue to learn about products that are available. Inspire your co-workers/staff to do the same. Visit the farm if you can, or visit the tailgate markets.

What to Expect as a Grower (top)

How to make the experience a great one

1. Commit – deliver what you say you will deliver.
2. Maintain communication – tell them what’s going on at the farm, follow up on deliveries and find out what was appreciated or what can be improved. Some farmers find it’s best to call every week and update chefs on what’s available that week. It’s all about the relationship!
3. Schedule – find a delivery time that is efficient for you, but works so that the chef can have a steady stream of fresh products during the week. Know busy times and plan your visits and calls around them.
4. Sell what you can deliver – don’t “short the kitchen” – the chef is expecting a certain quantity. If your product changes, call and ask if they still want it. Look at past invoices, if you have them, so you can reliably predict what you will be able to offer through the season.
5. Sell your product – go visit personally, take free samples, give out samples at tailgate markets to lure the chefs in. Make suggestions to help chefs use your product, especially if you offer something special or unusual. Help them plan a menu around your produce.
6. Know your customers and their customers – eat at the restaurants, find out how your product is used. Ask to see a menu, or sample seasonal menus if available, and find ways to fit your products into them. (Many restaurants list menus on their website, if they have one.)
7. Be professional – be patient and diligent, be on time, be courteous, prepare invoices ahead, and call if you’ll be late.
8. Billing – it’s most efficient for everyone if you can establish an account.
9. Specialize and Diversify – make yourself unique. Talk with chefs and find out what they need in particular. Some growers find it works best to concentrate on one or two strong crops, others find it’s better to offer a variety and be able to cover most of a chef’s produce needs for a week.