The beet greens were an hour out of the field, says Christopher Albrecht, executive chef of Eno Terra Restaurant in Kingston, N.J., discussing a “farm-to-table” dinner he hosted in a farmer’s field last August.
A growing number of chefs concerned with serving the freshest possible produce also are cultivating diners’ palates by holding meals at the immediate source of many of their ingredients: a farm. Their motivation, they say, is to emphasize the importance of local, just-picked ingredients while simultaneously promoting their restaurants to patrons who want to experience food at the peak of its freshness.
“The reward is the connection to the community and land,” says Albrecht, who served his field meal at Fernbrook Farm in Chesterfield, N.J., to 80 guests who paid $125 each to participate in the experience.
At the same time, it helped the new restaurant establish a reputation for using local foods among area locavores.
“It helped identify us in the market,” the chef says, noting that the dinner “was a lot of fun, but what was really great is the guests who came appreciated the energy you have to have to put on something like this.”
To arrange the field meal, Albrecht and his staff had to address many details restaurateurs often take for granted. They had to find alternate hand-washing methods, establish contingency plans for grilling in case it rained, and cart the necessary pots, pans and cooking utensils to the satellite location.
Also, he adds, “there are no tables or chairs in a field.”
Albrecht held the third annual farm field dinner at Fernbrook because “they have great produce.”
But the location was picked for more than the fruits of their labor. The proceeds from the farm-to-table meal benefited Fernbrook Educational Center, which offers programs for “underprivileged children to harvest crops, make ice cream and make a solar oven,” Albrecht says.
“We need to know that the farm cares about the community,” he says. “We need to associate with like people who care about the community and give back. As the community grows, we grow. It is a symbiotic relationship.”
“I think it’s important to complete the circle of where [food] comes from, who grows it and who buys it,” says executive chef Jay Denham of Park Place on Main in Louisville, Ky., who wood-smoked a 220-pound hog for a recent farm field dinner.
“Seeing it, being there, it’s part of the whole experience,” he says.
Jeremy Lieb, executive chef at Trois in Atlanta, favors getting diners away from a predictable restaurant setting and on to a more down-to-earth atmosphere of a farm.
“They see chefs and farmers doing what they want to do, being hardcore about it and committed to it,” Lieb says. “I want to touch people that way, and to do that. It’s got to be more than food and service.”