[FMC] FW: LA Farmers Market

[Stacy Miller]

An interesting piece. Apologies for those who've received this on other
lists.


 *A food fight over the cream of the crop*

[image: Contentious palates]

Email Picture<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-market9mar09_jxa846nc,0,3538140,email.photo>

Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Chef Josiah Citrin, far left, chef at Melisse, talks with Laura Avery,
manager of the Santa Monica Farmers' Market, center, white short hair with
Quinn Hatfield, far right, chef at Hatfield's.

Santa Monica's Wednesday market began as a place for farmers to sell
directly to home cooks. Then the top chefs came to buy -- until big
distributors swarmed in, leaving them empty-handed.

By Russ Parsons, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 9, 2008

Josiah Citrin was livid. As chef-owner at Santa Monica's Mélisse -- one of
only three Michelin two-star restaurants in Southern California -- Citrin is
used to getting what he wants, particularly when it comes to sweet, fresh
English peas. But Wednesday morning, the McGrath Family Farms stand at the
Santa Monica Farmers' Market was sold out, and Citrin was on the warpath.

It wasn't a matter of the peas not being there that made him angry; he could
see boxes of them behind the table. But they had all been ordered in advance
-- mainly by produce companies that would sell them to restaurants and
markets across the country.

"The chefs who actually come to the market every week need to be supported,"
Citrin fumed to anyone who would listen -- and quickly a who's who of the
L.A. food scene gathered around: Jason and Miho Travi of Culver City's
Fraiche, considered by many the best new restaurant in Southern California;
Donato Poto of seafood temple Providence, Vicki Fan and Kazuto Matsusaka of
trendy Beacon, Mark Peel of landmark Campanile.

Quinn Hatfield, chef-owner at the tiny, highly regarded Hatfield's on
Beverly Boulevard, joined in.

"This is my last day here," he said. "I don't want to compete with the
produce companies. Look at all of these trucks. This isn't a farmers market
anymore; it's some kind of boutique wholesale operation."

It may seem like a tempest in a pea pod, but it's one more sign that the
Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers' Market, one of the most cherished food
institutions in Southern California, is undergoing profound change.

Though ordinary shoppers can still rub elbows with famous chefs while buying
just-picked fruits and vegetables from folksy farmers, there is no denying
that the market has also become an important economic engine.

Those same fruits and vegetables you buy for your family might also wind up
on tables at fancy restaurants in Las Vegas and New York, flown out by major
produce companies such as LA Specialty and FreshPoint Consolidation, a
subsidiary of restaurant supply giant Sysco Corp.

Inspired by the chefs, home cooks have adopted many of the ingredients
themselves, and now former rarities such as Meyer lemons, blood oranges and
fingerling potatoes can be found at high-end supermarkets across the
country, many of them bought at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market by
specialty produce distributors Frieda's and Melissa's.

For the small farmers who grow those items, the market is an economic
lifesaver -- a place where they can earn more than commodity prices for
growing ingredients that can't be found elsewhere or that taste better than
what the big farmers grow.

Though no hard figures are kept, some growers say that as much as half of
what they sell at the market is bought by produce companies.

As a result, what had long been a kind of informal meeting place for many of
Southern California's foodies and chefs is no longer quite so clubby. What
chefs once regarded as a combination of culinary laboratory and
kaffeeklatsch -- a place to find new ingredients and ideas and swap gossip,
sometimes seemingly in equal proportions -- is more and more a place for big
business.

"It used to be that everyone thought how great it was to be out there
picking things for ourselves; it was so exciting," said Matt Molina of the
white-hot Mozza restaurants, co-owned by star chefs Mario Batali and Nancy
Silverton. "Then all of a sudden it began to become a business, a big-money
business. Now farmers are sometimes catering to the big people, so local
restaurants are sometimes getting left behind.

"I can understand why Quinn [Hatfield] gets upset. It's turned into a very
tricky market. It's not just this little mom and pop thing anymore, the way
it was back 20 years ago."

Farmers markets started out in the late 1970s as a way to help small farmers
and bring fresh produce to home cooks. Chefs, drawn by just-picked freshness
and often hard-to-find ingredients, enthusiastically adopted them.

And gradually the markets became something more than just a place to shop.
Cooking in a restaurant, even a very fine one, can be isolating -- both
creatively and socially. Night after night, chefs churn out the same menu
items, and the only way they can meet other professionals is by driving
across town for a late drink after closing.

Surrounded by ingredients at farmers markets, chefs found that they could
let their imaginations roam free of the constraints of the menu. Many items
that we now regard as fine dining staples got their start this way. What
could you do with the green garlic some farmers brought in? Or all of those
fava beans? Or stinging nettles, for goodness' sake?

At the same time, chefs could connect with their colleagues, catch up on
family news or compare linen services and valet parking companies.

Now they say that the increasing commercialism of farmers markets is
threatening that. Today, along with shoppers and chefs, there are
representatives of big commercial produce distributors walking the market,
often trailed by workers with truck dollies to help tote away purchases.

Chefs, including Citrin and Hatfield, accuse corporate buyers of hogging the
best produce, keeping it out of the hands of hardworking, hands-on cooks
like themselves.



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-- 
-------------------------------------
Stacy M. Miller
Executive Secretary
Farmers Market Coalition
stacy at farmersmarketcoalition.org
304-685-2669
www.farmersmarketcoalition.org

"In order to create an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the
universe"
-Carl Sagan
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