{"id":9172,"date":"2015-08-17T08:28:03","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T15:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/?p=9172"},"modified":"2015-08-17T08:28:03","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T15:28:03","slug":"farmer-chef-sacramento-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/index.php\/2015\/08\/17\/farmer-chef-sacramento-magazine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Farmer and the Chef – from Sacramento Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Marybeth Bizjak<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Kurt
\nKurt Spataro and Suzanne Peabody Ashworth at Peabody Ranch in West Sacramento. Photography by Marc Thomas Kallweit<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s 4 p.m. on a Tuesday at Formoli\u2019s Bistro in East Sacramento, and farmer Susan Hanks has just dropped off a box of produce. Tucked in with the tarragon, thyme and oregano is a surprise for chef Aimal Formoli: a few pounds of loquats, still attached to the knobby branches on which they were growing in the Rio Linda sunshine just a few hours earlier.<\/p>\n

\n

Formoli pulls one of the small, apricotlike fruits off its branch and pops it into his mouth. A smile widens across his face. \u201cWow. That\u2019s amazing,\u201d he says. \u201cSo juicy.\u201d By the time his first customers start arriving at 5:30 that evening, he\u2019s already incorporated the fruit into his nightly special: braised pork with trumpet mushrooms and loquats, served on a crispy polenta cake.<\/p>\n

Formoli and Hanks are emblematic of the relationship between today\u2019s breed of chef and farmer. It\u2019s less transactional and more collaborative. Increasingly, chefs and farmers see each other as partners in what ends up on your restaurant plate.<\/p>\n

Take Kurt Spataro and Suzanne Peabody Ashworth. As executive chef for Paragary Restaurant Group, Spataro was an early adopter of the farm-to-fork movement. But as knowledgeable as Spataro is about food, he still drives out to Peabody Ranch in West Sacramento four or five times a year to learn from the woman he considers the master.<\/p>\n

During a recent visit, Spataro follows Peabody Ashworth out into her fields to see what\u2019s growing and find out how he might use it at his restaurants. A nationally renowned seed saver, Peabody Ashworth cultivates 20 acres of amazing diversity, growing rare and unusual heirloom fruits and vegetables that few people, even most chefs, are familiar with. Pointing out coriander that\u2019s gone to seed, she pulls off some tiny green pods for Spataro to taste and tells him to think about how he might use them at Paragary\u2019s Midtown Bistro, which recently reopened after a yearlong remodel. He thinks he might be able to pickle them as an accompaniment to cured fish, but he frets about a slight bitterness. \u201cDoes that change?\u201d he asks. \u201cAs they mature, they\u2019re less bitter,\u201d Peabody Ashworth replies.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAimal\u00a0Formoli\u00a0leaves the growing decisions to farmer Susan Hanks<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

They move through the field, sampling Pakistan mulberries, radish pods, cactuslike cristalina leaves and spiky bits from an obscure English coastal grass. Spataro asks questions and listens thoughtfully to Peabody Ashworth\u2019s answers. \u201cShe\u2019s an awesome resource,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Spataro met Peabody Ashworth about 15 years ago, when she had him out to the farm for lunch. The two clicked. Since then, he\u2019s returned often, sometimes bringing employees to learn and be inspired. During one visit, Peabody Ashworth had him milk a goat just for the experience. \u201cEvery time I come, I learn something,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Antonio Garza (left) helped\u00a0chef Shannon McElroy build a garden on Federalist\u2019s rooftop<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Not all farmer-chef\u00a0relationships are one of teacher and pupil. For Antonio Garza, the farm manager at Soil Born Farms on Hurley Way, and Shannon McElroy, head chef at Federalist in midtown Sacramento, it\u2019s more like a pas de deux.<\/p>\n

They met a few years ago while working together at Feeding Crane Farms, an innovative urban farm in Natomas. Last year, as he got ready to open Federalist, a hip pizzeria housed in a series of connected steel shipping containers, McElroy asked his old pal Garza to come up with a custom salad mix that would work with McElroy\u2019s sweetish fig chili vinaigrette. \u201cI wanted greens that were less bitter, more sweet,\u201d McElroy explains.<\/p>\n

Garza created a proprietary mix that included oak leaf, curly red leaf, mizuna, curly red mustard and deer tongue. \u201cHe nailed it,\u201d says McElroy. \u201cI tasted it and said, \u2018This is what I\u2019m looking for.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, Garza leads and McElroy follows. For Federalist\u2019s arugula salad, McElroy tailored the dressing to suit Garza\u2019s assertive greens. \u201cHis arugula is the best in town,\u201d McElroy explains. \u201cIt\u2019s spicier and nuttier than anybody else\u2019s.\u201d So McElroy backed off on the pepper in the lemon wholegrain mustard vinaigrette. He also uses Garza\u2019s arugula to make pesto for the Neapolitan-style pizzas and sandwiches.<\/p>\n

Garza has more than a passing interest in cooking; he follows chefs on Facebook and pays attention to what\u2019s happening in the food world. Out in the field, he thinks like a chef. He picks produce at what he calls \u201cthe right size\u201d for its intended dish, selects leaves for loft and texture, and uses shade cloth to grow lettuces with just the right combination of tenderness and crunch. \u201cAntonio understands cooking,\u201d says McElroy. \u201cI can show him my menu, say I need this eggplant or those onions, and he knows exactly what I\u2019m looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

At their scrappy urban farm and scrappy shipping-container restaurant, the two share an up-by-their-bootstraps, DIY ethos. As one grows and prospers, so does the other. In May, Garza helped McElroy build a garden on Federalist\u2019s roof so the chef can harvest herbs and tomatoes this summer. Garza hopes to buy some land and start his own farm in the next year or so. McElroy promises to follow. \u201cI\u2019ll use Antonio as long as I\u2019m a chef in town,\u201d he says<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nSturgeon farmer Michael Passmore (left) and Kelly McCown on a pond at Passmore Ranch<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When Sloughhouse\u00a0sturgeon farmer\u00a0Michael Passmore first tried marketing his fish to local restaurants, he was, by his own admission, naive. Randall Selland, owner of The Kitchen, had discovered Passmore selling live sturgeon at the Sunday farmers market under the freeway downtown and bought the fish for his high-end demonstration-dinner restaurant. \u201cI thought all chefs would be like Randall,\u201d Passmore recalls.<\/p>\n

Instead, they recoiled from the prehistoric-looking fish. One day, discouraged after a string of unsuccessful sales calls, Passmore slumped in a chair at Selland\u2019s downtown restaurant, Ella. Head chef Kelly McCown joined him for a beer.<\/p>\n

McCown, who\u2019d earlier made a name for himself at Martini House in St. Helena, advised Passmore to set his sights beyond Sacramento and gave him a list of chefs in Napa. Passmore ended up selling his sturgeon to Meadowood\u2019s Christopher Kostow, a James Beard Award winner with three Michelin stars under his belt. With Kostow\u2019s stamp of approval, says McCown, \u201cMichael was in the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within a few years, Passmore Ranch sturgeon was being served in some of the country\u2019s finest restaurants, many of them Michelin-starred: The French Laundry (Napa), Benu and SPQR (San Francisco), Nico and The Publican (Chicago), Rick Moonen\u2019s RM Seafood (Las Vegas). Meanwhile, top Sacramento chefs like Kru\u2019s Billy Ngo also started sourcing sturgeon from Passmore.<\/p>\n

In the process, Passmore and McCown became great friends. They discovered shared interests and a similar way of looking at the world. McCown began holding experimental dinners at Passmore Ranch, using it as an incubator where he could try out \u201cwackadoodle\u201d ideas that wouldn\u2019t fly in any restaurant. For one event, the two men spit-roasted a 100-pound sturgeon, MacGyvering a rotisserie in Passmore\u2019s garage. For another dinner, they created an edible tableau resembling a riverbed teeming with whole roasted sturgeon, blanched bass and fried carp. The two now are such good friends that when McCown moved back to town recently to help open Randall Selland\u2019s upcoming Italian restaurant OBO, he bunked at Passmore Ranch.<\/p>\n

McCown may have pointed his friend in the right direction, but he gives all the credit to Passmore. \u201cMichael built his business,\u201d he says. \u201cI take pleasure in the fruits of his labors.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to getting produce\u00a0from farmer Susan Hanks, chef Aimal Formoli doesn\u2019t want much input. \u201cI\u2019ve begged him to tell me what he wants,\u201d says Hanks, owner of Hanks Hens and All Things Good in Rio Linda. He refuses. He\u2019s happy to receive a surprise delivery like those loquats. \u201cDon\u2019t tell me,\u201d he says to her. \u201cJust do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanks runs what she calls a \u201cwhole farm\u201d on 2 acres, raising egg-laying chickens and growing tomatoes, beets, peppers, squash, sunchokes, herbs, mandarins, nectarines, pears and more. She\u2019s known for her pristine produce, which she harvests and delivers the same day to Formoli\u2019s Bistro and other local restaurants.<\/p>\n

Once a professional photographer, Hanks turned to farming in midlife, but she still sees herself as an artist. To get a sense of what Formoli might want for his restaurant, she periodically eats at his bistro, sitting at the counter so she can watch the cooks at work. Once, she delighted in watching them roll out sheets of pasta dough studded with whole sage leaves she\u2019d supplied. This summer she\u2019s growing dent corn, which she\u2019ll later grind into polenta for Formoli. (\u201cPolenta works with his palate,\u201d she notes.)<\/p>\n

Formoli is happy to leave the growing decisions to Hanks. \u201cWhatever she decides to bring,\u201d he says, \u201cwe\u2019ll take. She\u2019s the expert.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

All summer long, Heidi Watanabe delivers tomatoes to Michael Thiemann at Mother.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

At her tomato farm in West Sac, Heidi Watanabe maintains an open-door policy for chefs. She works with a lot of them, supplying produce to just about every notable restaurant in Sacramento. Ella. Kru. Grange. Esquire Grill. Mulvaney\u2019s B&L. The Firehouse. Lucca. Biba. The Waterboy.<\/p>\n

And Mother, Michael Thiemann\u2019s vegetarian tour de force on K Street. Thiemann likes knowing he can go out to the farm whenever he wants. He doesn\u2019t buy only tomatoes from Watanabe Farms. (Watanabe and her husband Clark grow more than 40 varieties on 7 acres.) He\u2019ll take anything she\u2019s got, even the wild stuff growing with abandon on the property\u2019s edges: miner\u2019s lettuce, chickweed, wild radish and arugula, wild blackberries.<\/p>\n

Thiemann worked with Watanabe years ago as a sous chef at Mason\u2019s and later as executive chef at Ella. She supplied the tomatoes for his wedding. Over time, their relationship deepened and evolved. In the early days, Thiemann says, \u201cIt was more about what I wanted. I was trying to dictate. I\u2019d say I want a vegetable that\u2019s 4 inches long. Bullshit like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watanabe sat him down with a seed catalog and broke down the economics of farming. Chefs, she told him, can\u2019t skim off the cream and leave the rest for the farmer to eat. He got it. Now, he buys whatever she grows. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot harder on their end,\u201d he explains. \u201cFarming is no joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

She personally delivers to restaurants, driving the truck herself and often working until 10 or 11 p.m. Thiemann loves when she brings her products in through Mother\u2019s front door and unloads them in front of his diners. \u201cLooks cool, huh?\u201d she once said to Thiemann with a grin.<\/p>\n

If basil will be ready for picking in a week, Watanabe gives Thiemann a heads-up so he can start thinking about ways to use it. He gets excited at the prospect of anything new. When Watanabe had a bumper crop of squash, he used it promiscuously\u2014in an avocado-and-squash salad, squash-and-potato latkes, battered squash blossoms, a fried squash sandwich. \u201cThe nice thing about Mike is, he never complains,\u201d says Watanabe.<\/p>\n

That openness makes her more than willing to collaborate. Last year, Thiemann asked her to grow Jimmy Nardello peppers. She did. This year, she tripled her planting of the peppers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not a customer,\u201d Watanabe says of Thiemann. \u201cHe\u2019s more than a customer. I don\u2019t know a good word. He definitely has input.\u201d<\/p>\n

Link to article<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Marybeth Bizjak Kurt Spataro and Suzanne Peabody Ashworth at Peabody Ranch in West Sacramento. Photography by Marc Thomas Kallweit   It\u2019s 4 p.m. on a Tuesday at Formoli\u2019s Bistro in East Sacramento, and farmer Susan Hanks has just dropped … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\r\nThe Farmer and the Chef - from Sacramento Magazine - CDFA's Planting Seeds Blog<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/index.php\/2015\/08\/17\/farmer-chef-sacramento-magazine\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Farmer and the Chef - from Sacramento Magazine - CDFA's Planting Seeds Blog\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Marybeth Bizjak Kurt Spataro and Suzanne Peabody Ashworth at Peabody Ranch in West Sacramento. 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