Bon Appétit Management Company

Recently I met two very different Farm to Fork suppliers for Bon Appétit accounts in North Carolina — about as different as you’d expect a fish distributor and a beef rancher to be. Yet they had one key thing in common that made partnerships with our teams work.

Since I moved to Seattle a year and a half ago, there’s no farm whose name has come up more than Quillisascut, located in the foothills of the Huckleberry Mountains in Rice, WA. And since I visit farms as Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation’s West Coast Fellow, I have lots of conversations about food and farming. Quillisascut is a cheese company, selling what they call “traditional farmstead cheese from the pampered pets of Pleasant Valley,” but it’s also a school for the domestic arts. After completing a five-day “Introduction to Farming” workshop at Quillisascut recently, nicely documented by Farmgirl Gourmet, I understand why this farm school is so beloved by food service professionals, healthcare students, farmers and aspiring farmers, vacationers, and other “co-producers” (as Slow Food and the farm’s cookbook, Chefs on the Farm refer to us “eaters”). Attendees from […]

At Bon Appétit, we love local food — just ask the thousand-plus small farmers, fishers, and artisans who supply us through our Farm to Fork program. Inspired by them, teams at many of our corporate accounts have started growing some of their own food. These “kitchen gardens” not only provide ultra-fresh herbs and other produce, but also give us the opportunity to educate our guests about importance of local and sustainable food — and the hard work that goes into growing it. Here’s a look at “what’s growing on” at eBay, Target, and SAP!

The question is: How do you connect large volume needs of the University with the very small volume output of most Midwestern family farms? Bon Appétit at Washington University recently hosted a farmer’s meeting, inviting over 35 farmers from Illinois and Missouri, to tackle exactly this question.

This month’s Well Being Challenge encourages you to choose a healthy meal that also meets a low carbon principle for at least one meal each day this month. To get started, try the below recipe that meets the seasonal and regional low carbon principle. To learn more about the nutrition principles of a low carbon diet, visit cafebonappetit.com

The student-run campus farm at Duke University in Durham, NC, had a successful first year. Students got involved to plant and harvest and the at Bon Appétit has enjoyed watching and cheering the progress of the farm — and of course, loved cooking with the beautiful produce — but one thing was clear to everyone at the end of the first year: a longer growing season would be wonderful.

Bon Appétit is proud to offer our congratulations to our Farm to Fork partners Melissa and Aaron Miller of Miller Livestock on being the first Food Alliance certified livestock farm in Ohio. The Millers raise grassfed beef and lamb, pastured pork, chickens and turkeys, and laying hens on 168 acres in Kinsman, Ohio — about 70 miles from Cleveland. Bon Appétit Dining Services at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland has long been buying the Millers’ pork, and the past year bought half of their hogs. On February 21, Bon Appétit announced a groundbreaking commitment to improving animal welfare practices. Part of that promise is to buy even more humanely raised meat from folks like the Millers who have taken the trouble to have their practices verified by a third party. That’s why our team at Case Western has encouraged the Millers […]

A few decades ago, when the majority of hogs lived outdoors and were able to eat whatever they wanted, pork was deliciously fatty and juicy. As industrial agriculture grew, pork became known as “the other white meat.”Director of Culinary Operations Bernie Laskowski from the Art Institute of Chicago would like to do something about this state of porky affairs.

Fresh herbs are an important part of Bon Appétit’s daily menus, finding their way into marinara sauces, condiments, sandwiches, salads, and side dishes. They also have a short shelf life, adding to kitchen waste and expense. The Bon Appétit team at Oracle- Broomfield in Broomfield, CO, is testing a way to grow all the herbs they need year round, using a small amount of indoor space — and hydroponics.

Writer Jessica Battilana spent a day trying to keep up with Bon Appétit CEO Fedele Bauccio for this in-depth profile that 7×7 Magazine published in its February food issue.