Bon Appétit Management Company

“Which is better for the environment and the economy — a tomato grown nearby or one from the supermarket?” That’s how USA Today starts off a recent piece titled “Local food is trendy, but is it really more eco-friendly?,” discussing two new books that claim to debunk the idea that it is. This argument is a pretty moldy one — it’s been floating around since we launched the Eat Local Challenge, back in 2005 — and it surprises me that anyone still likes to take a bite of it.

Although farmers planted corn in record numbers this year — the most acres since 1937 — the current drought affecting the Midwest means yields are predicted to be well below last year’s. However, very little of the corn planted in the Midwest is edible: most of it goes to feed animals or for fuel. But there are farmers who grow against the grain, so to speak. Last year, when Bon Appétit District Manager Sam Currie discovered Hutterian Brethren Farms had a surplus of the sweetest corn he’d ever had, he jumped at the opportunity to find a way for our accounts to use it.

Summer is almost here and that means one thing: it’s time to move cooking outdoors. Grilling is a great way to infuse flavor into food while keeping your house cool. Burgers are the iconic grill food, but some of our local Bay Area chefs are getting much more creative and grilling everything from fruit to lettuce!

On a visit to Colorado College, I was sitting in the student center, working on some things while enjoying the atmosphere of being on a college campus, when Executive Sous Chef John E. Faulkner sat down next to me. John has been with Bon Appétit for more than 15 years. I wish I’d had a video camera running. Instead, these notes will have to try to convey the spirit of the man who claimed “I am Bon Appétit!”

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.

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.

As soon as we arrived at Country Roots Farm in Pueblo, CO, I knew this was going to be an interesting visit. Lying around were so many creative gadgets and yard decorations made from repurposed materials that I half expected Doc from Back to the Future to appear in Carhartts wielding a pitchfork.

Once a way to preserve meat without refrigeration, charcuterie – the branch of cooking devoted to preparing bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit – has become an art within the culinary world. It’s also a popular cooking technique among devotees of sustainable food, because it utilizes parts of the animal that would otherwise be discarded. Making charcuterie isn’t easy, but Bon Appétit chefs across the country are embracing the challenge!

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 […]

Students at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, are already well-versed about the importance of sourcing food locally, but it’s not often they get to actually visit one of the farms that supplies the café and see first-hand what it means to run a family farm.