From newworld@el-dorado.ca.usWed May 1 22:36:24 1996 Date: Tue, 30 Apr 96 19:51 PDT From: Eric Gibson To: Susan Phinney , sanet Subject: Re: chef interviews I feel that the Bay Area and Northern Calif. in particular have achieved great success in connectein local growers with high end restaurants. And the best way to do this is with a Tasting! The Tasting of the Summer Produce held annually at the Oakland Museum some years eventually ceased because it had achieved its goal: creating an avenue of commerce between Bay Area growers and many of the high end restaurants in the area. Talk to David Visher at the Small Farm Center in Davis, CA--he's very knowledge about the grower-chef relationship. Also see the chapter in my book, Sell What You Sow! on selling to restaurants. Eric Gibson/New World Publishing/3085 Sheridan St./Placerville, CA 95667 (916) 622-2248 e-mail newworld@innercite.com Sell What You Sow! The Grower's Guide To Successful Produce Marketing, Farmers Markets '96, Wild Herbs In Your Backyard plus dozens of other agricultural, gardening and herb books and reports. Send for FREE CATALOG, "The Farmers' & Gardeners' Resource Catalog" or visit our web site at http://www.innercite.com/~newworld. From sphinney@emerald.tufts.eduWed May 1 22:39:01 1996 Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 12:27:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Susan Phinney To: sanet-mg@amani.ces.ncsu.edu Subject: chef interviews I will be interviewing chefs and restaurant owners in a resort area in New England and I want to be sure I am asking the right types of questions aimed at matching local vegetable producers with restaurant markets. Has anyone conducted this kind of survey and if so, what lessons were learned that would make the process better? I intend to ask the chefs about: extend of volume that could be supplied locally, their flexibility in altering their menu if locally shortages are experienced, what affect they perceive using locally grown products could have on increasing patrons, and their timeframe for using local products (ie: if they would only buy locally during off-peak season or full season realizing that the growing season and the peak resort season are approximately the same). A survey of local growers in the area has been conducted and one of the finding is that expanding into local markets is a challenge. Any help in the best/most useful approach to talk with chefs would be greatly appreciated. Susan Phinney student at Tufts sphinney@emerald.tufts.edu