Event introduces Idaho growers to local foodservice venues

By SEAN ELLIS

Capital Press

BOISE -- Idaho farmers and local chefs connected "speed dating" style May 10 during an event designed to pair growers with restaurants.

Sponsored by the Idaho State Department of Agriculture's Idaho Preferred program, the 2011 Treasure Valley Farmer-Chef Collaborative was designed to facilitate the sourcing of fresh, local agricultural products to local foodservice venues.

"The whole idea is to get producers together with chefs so we can start using more local products in our local restaurants," said Skylar Jett, an Idaho Preferred marketing specialist.

Every few minutes, a cowbell would ring and chefs would move to a different table manned by farmers or ranchers.

It was the seventh farmer-chef event held around the state during the past three years and Idaho Preferred Program Manager Leah Clark said it's becoming a popular format.

"We're starting to build great relationships between local producers and local chefs," she said.

The Boise event, the second one held there the past three years, attracted 21 producers and 17 chefs from 13 different Treasure Valley restaurants.

Chef Vern Bauer of St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise began purchasing food from local farmers during the first event in Boise three years ago.

He already uses potatoes, onions, green garbanzo beans, wines, jellies, honey, bread and other products from the area and showed up May 10 to look for more ideas.

The 381-bed facility, Idaho's major disaster response hospital, moves about 55,000 customers through its cafeteria each month. Bauer purchases roughly 20 percent of the food needed to feed those people from local farmers during the peak summer months.

The hospital's dining facility has a farmers; market stand where the Idaho products are sold to guests or stored.

Bauer says he's a big believer in the local food movement and wants to purchase as much of the hospital's food as possible from local sources.

"I bought out one farm's potatoes," he said. "It feels good for me, as a chef, to buy food locally. Why am I going to buy (something) from Seattle when I can get it down the road?"

Dan Gianuzzi, owner of Double XL Ranch in Melba, has been selling beef, pork and eggs to restaurants in Idaho's Treasure Valley and Magic Valley areas for four years and was at the Boise event looking for more customers.

"About 50 percent of our business is to local chefs," he said. "It's a very important part of my business."

At a nearby booth, Charlotte Armstrong of Declo was looking for more restaurants interested in selling Cowboy Tom's Flapjacks, which come straight from Idaho wheat fields her family owns.

She said the farmer-chef event is a great idea because an increasing number of people are serious about eating food that is produced locally.

"More and more and more people, including the chefs, are looking for local food," she said. "They want an Idaho product that's grown locally. This collaborative is working good for the chefs, good for us and good for the people who are eating the stuff."