Story Published:
Nov 19, 2009 at 5:50 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Nov 19, 2009 at 8:29 PM EDT
Many people are trying to eat locally and get their food just down the road at farms. Now restaurants are taking the locavore movement a step further. Chefs know that freshly picked produce can taste quite different and are using the fresh ingredients to bring in diners.
Daniel Martinez, the chef and owner at Bistro Les Gras in Northampton, is making a vegetable tian to serve to his customers.
Daniel and Elizabeth Martinez opened their restaurant a year and half ago to reflect their passions: locally grown food.
Elizabeth Martinez says, "There's wonderful farms in the area and real cornucopia. There's no reason not to use it."
Their other passion: French food.
Elizabeth Martinez says,"A lot of people think French food is fairly fatty, heavy or rich and while it can be there's also a style that can be light or fresh."
Their menu changes monthly to reflect what ingredients are found locally even in November.
Daniel Martinez, "It's utilizing a smaller amount of food in more ways so we're taking potatoes and you'll see them on the menu four of 5 ways."
Elizabeth Martinez says, "A lot of our customers will ask where the different ingredients come from and you know we're always excited when we can them they came from just down the road."
Bistro Les Gras buys some of their produce from the Kitchen Garden in Sunderland. Tim Wilcox and wife, Caroline, started the farm 4 years ago.
Tim Wilcox says, "We do it because we love food and we love to bring high quality products to the market."
They sell to 10 local restaurants.
Wilcox says, "In restaurants, you sort of take a gamble that you're going to grow stuff they want so for us being food lovers we feel we have a little bit more of a handle on that."
Wilcox likes to show the produce and explain how to cook it up.
Wilcox says, "We sell all of our products within 24 hours of when it's harvested it makes our job really easy."
And Daniel Martinez's job too.
Daniel Martinez says, "It's extremely fresh and you can taste that we don't have to mess with it too much."
For more information:
http://www.bistrolesgras.com/
The restaurant is open Tuesday - Sunday.
http://kitchengardenfarm.com/
The Kitchen Garden comes to Farmers Markets in Springfield at the X and in Greenfield starting in May.
Also, you can purchase a share of the farm's harvest through their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). All the information is on their website, along with recipes.
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