[FMC] LA Farmers Market fmc digest..."

Mon Mar 10 22:01:51 EDT 2008

I definitely feel for the chefs... they should (always fear a line like this 
with "should")  be the priority vs. Cysco-type food distributors!

Susan Sauter
WV Farmers Mkt Assn.

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Subject: fmc Digest, Vol 2, Issue 3

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>   1. FW: LA Farmers Market (Stacy Miller)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:53:32 -0400
> From: "Stacy Miller" <stacy at farmersmarketcoalition.org>
> Subject: [FMC] FW: LA Farmers Market
> To: "FMC Listserv" <fmc at lists.farmersmarketcoalition.org>
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> <d9bd8e7a0803100653g74ce2bdew281ad5eb52f7e790 at mail.gmail.com>
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>
> 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 M?lisse -- 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.
>
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms and advice on AOL Money &
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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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