10 Top Chefs Growing Their Own Food

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In the food service industry, the distance between the soil and the plate has been steadily dwindling. Chefs prefer locally sourced ingredients for their flavor and freshness and consumers recognize the advantage of knowing where their food came from. Farm-to-table operations are helping to repair our food system by drastically reducing food miles and creating a market for local food producers who are more likely to employ sustainable farming practices.

Food Tank recognizes ten chefs who are working to eliminate the farm-to-plate gap by growing their own food.

Ten chefs employ various farming and gardening techniques to supply their eateries with fresh, seasonal food. Photo credit: muammerokumus

1. Chef Tyler Brown

Executive chef at Capitol Grill in the historic Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Brown grows vegetables for the restaurant on his own property and on plots at nearby Glen Leven Farm. More recently the hotel purchased Double H Farms, a 250-acre cattle operation. There, Brown manages more than 100 heads of Red Poll cattle for both dairy products and grass fed beef.

2. Chef Sam Beall

Proprietor of Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee, Beall oversees this Smoky Mountains getaway where his celebrated cuisine is prepared with produce from their garden. The venue hosts weddings and other events. The garden also serves to preserve historic heirlooms and educate guests on the importance of historic crop diversity.

3. Chef Frank McClelland

The farm-to-table philosophy is second nature to McClelland, chef and proprietor of L’Espalier in Boston, Massachusetts, having grown up on his grandparents’ farm in New Hampshire. In 2009, he opened Apple Street Farm and now produces everything from herbs and vegetables to meat and honey. In addition to supplying the restaurant with these products, the farm also functions as a CSA (community supported agriculture) with produce and poultry shares available.

4. Chef Melissa Kelly

James Beard Foundation award winner, Kelly is executive chef and proprietor of Primo in Rockland, Maine. Graduating first in her class at the Culinary Institute of America, she opened Primo in 2000, which included a greenhouse, a two-acre garden, and two pigs. Now the four acres include vegetables, several poultry breeds, and nine pigs that supply the restaurant with about 80 percent of its products at the height of the season.

5. Chef Eric Skokan

Skokan and his wife opened Black Cat Farm to Table Bistro in Boulder, Colorado in 2009. Black Cat Farm is 130 acres, produces a diverse array of fruits and vegetables, and is home to hundreds of animals including sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, and turkeys. In addition to supplying Black Cat with products, the farm now also supplies Bramble and Hare, which the Skokans opened in 2012. In addition to these two locations, one can enjoy the carefully grown heirloom products of Black Cat farm through CSA shares or at Boulder Farmers’ Market.

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