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  • From: John Ferree <john AT seldomseenfarm.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Advice for meeting with chefs?
  • Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:52:00 -0500

Here's my experience. . .

I have worked with a number of restaurants over the years.  At the farm's peak we were delivering to about 12 restaurants twice weekly.  The season that we peaked I was doing cold calls  like mad with samples of produce for chefs to use.  By the end of that season we were down to about 6-8 accounts that worked out.  Now we only work with a small number of rests.  We served Marion Cty, IN.  We have one of the highest rates for corporate owned restaurants in the nation.  Most places that buy local are in small pockets.  Most of those places are small.   One of the main goals for the farm over the past three years has been growth.  Combine that goal with a bunch of small/medium restaurant accounts and the end result is frustration.  We did get pigeon holed into being the 'salad people' and some accounts only ordered mix.  Since salad is one of our most expensive things to produce I wasn't too thrilled when salad mix was most of what they ordered. 

There are two types of restaurants that want local produce; owner managed and owner mandated.  The former works out well, but the latter is a disaster waiting to happen.  Restaurants have high turnover even of executive chefs, and in the owner mandated situation you may get stuck breaking in a chef every 6 months.  Most chefs have no experience dealing with one or multiple local producers- producers that may all have different delivery days, packaging, and products.  A good restaurant can handle this, but many cannot in my experience.  Just remember that despite a higher quality product, you are competing against the convenience of a produce company with voice-mail ordering - Midnight cutoff for next day delivery - 7 days a week.   There is a third situation that I have rarely found. . . Chef mandated accounts; where the chef is ordering a more expensive product from you without owner knowledge.  Those don't last long : )

That said, there are some great accounts out there.  A chef friend emigrated to Birmingham, AL where he works for one of three restaurants within the same local company.  He's at the very high end of the spectrum, and they use 30+ local purveyors and do it well. 

Also consider that restaurants have taken a hammering and are much more cost conscious.  
Holidays in the main season will lead to poor restaurant sales, but the reverse is true in the winter. 
They will be much less tolerant of bugs than market customers.
They will demand the best stuff you have on a regular basis.

In the end, we mainly use restaurants from Nov 1 - Christmas for storage and greenhouse crops.  It is worth our while then when product is expensive and labor is cheap (no hired help).  In the main season we have tried to combine deliveries with markets, CSA days, etc.  IMHO If your farm is working towards an economy of scale, you cannot afford to deliver less than $1k/1 full pickup truck load each trip, or combine it in the truck with a load for another market.  I would rather sell more CSA shares than muck around with restaurants.   If you're smaller or very close to them. . . go for it.  I've made some great friends doing it--though I never see them because they work in restaurants.

John

On 12/19/2010 5:37 PM, Road's End Farm wrote:
496B5CC3-FC2B-4411-A10D-6724D04314FE AT frontiernet.net" type="cite">

On Dec 19, 2010, at 4:50 PM, saladg AT aol.com wrote:

One of thing's that they need to understand is using fresh produce is not the same as ordering from their wholesaler/broker.  I had a chef call on Thursday wanting Micro Greens for a party on Saturday, like all I have to do is shake my wand and it is instantly growing on a tree in December,

Yes. The idea that if you want to buy it in August, you may need to talk to me about it the previous January as I may need to order seed and start plants by March takes a certain amount of education. As does the idea that it's necessary to check both what's in season usually at a given time of year, and how the particular year's weather is behaving, before promising to cook a specific item for a shindig on a particular day. 

Of course, there's also the possibility that the restaurant which sat down with the farmer for a long conversation in midwinter and said they wanted to buy all sorts of stuff may not want it at all by the time it's ready.

I would also be interested in seeing advice on selling to chefs/restaurants. I'm not very good at it.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale
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--
Seldom Seen Farm
Danville, IN
317.509.7828



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