Bon Appétit Management Company

When farmer Brenton Johnson first started out, his “farm” was literally his backyard in Austin, TX. In less than three years, he expanded out of his backyard and grew to serve over 1,000 neighbors through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

Organized by Midwest Fellow S.K. Piper and students at Carleton, St. Olaf, and Macalester Colleges, the seven-farm bike tour and closing party was completely free for participants, funded by in-kind donations and community grants that Piper helped the student organizers secure, with the food cost being covered by the Bon Appétit teams at the three schools.

Each quarter, Bon Appétit at SAP in Palo Alto,CA, offers a complimentary cooking class led by Café Three Chef/Manager Robert Perez. Past hands on courses have included pozole, fresh salsas, aguas frescas, and Asian spring rolls.

Strong local and regional food systems can lead to strong local economies and opportunities for people who are often left behind by traditional economic development. But it takes a while to build these systems. Bon Appétit was proud to cater a recent breakfast fundraiser for the Grow a Farmer Fund at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, which raised $4,270 for Latino farmers who want to raise free-range chickens in rural Minnesota.

Americans eat a lot of seafood. We rank third in global seafood consumption, behind China and Japan, and we spend billions of dollars every year on seafood. But for most Americans, the knowledge of what we’re eating ends with what’s printed on our menu. Most people have little idea about the complex route their fish has taken from the boat to their plate. Oceana recently released a report comparing the traceability systems in the beef and produce industries in the United States to the seafood industry. So how did they stack up?

The food item that received the most attention last Tuesday was never touched by a chef’s hand at all: the kiwi berry.

At the tender ages of 12 and 14, Sam and Johnny Rosenblad are already seasoned entrepreneurs, taught well by their dad, farmer Jeff Rosenblad. They sell cucumbers from Happy Harvest Farms in Mount Angel, OR, at the local farmers’ market and to Bon Appétit at both University of Portland and Willamette University through the Farm to Fork program.

People who say that the details of sausage making are best left to the imagination have never visited an artisanal sausage factory. A few lucky Bon Appétiters got to tour Continental Sausage Company – which has been in business in Denver for 30 years producing authentic Swiss-German style sausages from the best ingredients—and they have nothing to hide.

Local Fish Week here on the BAMCO blog, in honor of our first-ever Eat Local (Fish) Challenge, is drawing to a close. This Black Cod and Succotash with Lemon Parsley Oil is the perfect dish to impress for a weekend dinner party or date night.

It’s Local Fish Week here on the BAMCO blog, in honor of our first-ever Eat Local (Fish) Challenge! This crab and scallop bake recipe from Roger Williams University Executive Chef Bob Lavoie is just the thing for a chilly fall night.