Farm-to-fork chefs feed growing ‘local’ demand
By John Lehndorff 
| September 4, 2009 | 8:01 AM
Produce fills a stall at the Boulder County Farmer's Market. (Photo by Hans Lehndorff)
For Eric Skokan, “organic” simply wasn’t good enough if it meant that the produce he used was being shipped thousands of miles.
“Local” was better, according to the chef/owner of Boulder’s Black Cat bistro, but still not perfect if he couldn’t get the heirloom vegetables he wanted.
So Skokan did the only logical thing: He capitalized on his love of gardening and started his own farm to supply the restaurant.
Other chefs may not go quite that far, but all over the state the distance between Colorado farms and diners’ forks is shrinking rapidly, much to the benefit of local taste buds, wallets and environment. Restaurants and consumers are helping preserve local independent farmers, growers and ranchers simply by increasing the demand for their products.
Chefs are taking things into their own singed and calloused hands. Englewood’s Taste of Thailand advertises its use of ingredients from the owners’ garden. Boulder’s Greenbriar Inn maintains 6,000 square feet of herbs and produce. Denver’s Potager — French for “kitchen garden” — grows some ingredients in back of the restaurant. At Niwot’s Colterra and at Denver’s Highland’s Garden Cafe, diners can enjoy the cuisine while seated in the eateries’ gardens.
The shopping list is no longer limited to Colorado’s big four produce products: Palisade peaches, Olathe corn, San Luis Valley spuds and Rocky Ford cantaloupes. It now can include Cherry Bomb peppers, cipollini onions, purple broccoli, tomatillos, lovage, rutabagas, edible flowers and much more.
Bistros and cafes such as The Kitchen in Boulder proudly post lists of the locals they buy from, along with efforts at becoming more “green.”
During a special Harvest Week event Sept. 12 to 18, numerous independent Denver restaurants will offer menus celebrating Colorado produce, meat, fish, wine, beer, cheese and other local ingredients. Participating eateries include Steuben’s, Highland’s Garden Café, Tables, Duo, Strings, Rioja, Locanda del Borgo, Opus and Mezcal.
We recently chatted with three chefs about their relationship with Colorado farmers and farmers’ markets and their use of local produce and food products.
Eric Skokan, Black Cat
Eric Skokan never set out to be a farmer. He was a well-trained chef focused on fine dining. Now, his Black Cat Organic Farm determines what he serves at Black Cat, his Boulder bistro. Farmer Eric couldn’t be more pleased with the change in direction.
“The farm has turned the restaurant upside down — a 180-degree turn. The farm now drives the menu, not me,” Skokan said. “I started growing vegetables for the love of gardening in my front yard. I doubled the size the second year and then doubled it again.”
His Niwot acres grow about 250 different crops, everything from cardoons (an artichoke relative) to yellow Indian cucumbers to a dozen varieties of potatoes. He’s growing millet, sorghum and amaranth this year to feed the ducks he’s planning on raising next year.
For Skokan, it means that he is “much more creative than I’ve been for six or seven years in the kitchen,” he said. “Whatever the farm is producing this week is what I’m serving. It means I need to come up with a lot of dishes really quickly.”
That, in turn, has dramatically transformed the public perception of Black Cat. “It has created a very deep loyalty among the customers very quickly because they share my philosophy,” he said.
“But you know it wouldn’t matter if my produce didn’t taste great. If I were a rotten cook, we wouldn’t see ‘em again.”
Now that he’s dealing with vegetables he’s grown himself, Skokan noted that he and his staff are much more careful about waste.
“We harvest the whole fennel plant and use it all: stalks, bulb, root and even fronds,” he said.
His “Dirt Dinners” on Sunday and Monday have developed something of a following, and word is spreading. One recent guest was Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
“The Dirt Dinners introduce the diners to the farm. It’s a vertical tasting — a series of dishes using produce from the farm. In season I may have up to 50 things at a time to work with,” he said.
“We’re still going to buy limes and coffee, and in the winter we have to rely more on ingredients from outside the area, but ultimately, the goal is that 80 percent of what we serve at the restaurant I’ve had a hand in producing,” Skokan said. “I think that’s achievable.”
His big challenge this fall is to figure out what to do with the extra 3,000 pounds of varietal carrots he expects to harvest by the end of the year.
Jason Cucci, Root Down
As the name might suggest, the fare at Denver’s 10-month-old Root Down stays in touch with the earth under owner/chef Jason Cucci’s feet, sometimes quite literally.
“We’re using local corn, peaches, mushrooms and beets. We’re making beet risotto with golden and red beets and Haystack chevre cheese, and organic Colorado corn salad with poblano peppers” Cucci said.
“We get some of our local produce from sustainable farmers — all our arugula is wild-grown at Abbondanza Farm, but farmers typically can’t deliver more than once a week. A lot of it comes through Growers Organic — they deliver from Colorado farmers to restaurants.”
He downsizes his carbon footprint by growing the herbs he uses in his restaurant.
“We grow all our herbs onsite in season in reused 55-gallon drums. We’ve got mint, basil and thyme and zucchini, tomatoes and summer squash,” he said.
Root Down uses a bevy of hometown producers, including Novo Coffee, local bakeries, Madhava honey, Bhakti Chai and Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey. “There’s so many that we ran out of room to list all the locals on the menu,” he said.
Cucci calls this localvore approach a “natural connection” to the way he does business. “Local saves money and energy and supports Colorado’s economy.” Cucci said, adding that the bottom line is a great dining experience. “It’s also important to not be preachy about it, “ he noted.
Antonio Laudisio, Laudisio Italian Restaurant
When Antonio Laudisio moved to Boulder in the late 1960s, he was shocked that it had no farmer’s market and few farmers directly supplying restaurants.
“I was coming in with the European idea that the touchstone for any restaurant was the market and fresh local produce,” Laudisio said as he sat at his stand at the Boulder County Farmer’s Market on a hot August Saturday. “In Italy there’s always been a symbiotic relationship between the farmer and the cook.”
Laudisio is chef and co-owner of Laudisio Italian Restaurant, which opened in Boulder 20 years ago.
“I felt it was important to get a farmer’s market started in Boulder because it builds community, healthier people and the local economy,” he said.
Now, it’s a different world. He points to the produce stalls lining 13th Street in Boulder at the Boulder County Farmer’s Market, Colorado’s largest. Laudisio sets up every Wednesday night and Saturday morning with a mobile wood-fired oven he built years ago. The menu includes pizzas, sandwiches and polenta.
He barters pizza to the farmers for almost everything he serves: eggs, Hazel Dell mushrooms, Haystack cheese, all sorts of vegetables, herbs, pork and even freshly ground flour from locally grown wheat.
“It’s like working in a garden. Now the individual farmers and the distribution coop call us or e-mail and deliver. And when the farmers deliver to the restaurant, they want to be fed,” Laudisio said with a smile.
“These are honest ingredients from our neighbors. What sense does it make to fly organic berries in from South America? Most of our garlic is now grown in China. Have we taken leave of our senses?” he said, adding that “local” is the new “organic.”
The catch, he insisted, is that good, local food is not always the cheapest, nor should it be.
“We should be willing to pay a little extra to support our community and keep our neighbors working. We’re addicted to cheap foreign food. We have to escape the tyranny of the cash register,” he said.
As Antonio Laudisio will readily tell you, he’s no spring chicken, but he’s happily on hand stretching the dough and schmoozing. “Having this outreach, this relationship with the market has drawn a lot of people to the restaurant and made it more successful,” he said.
Colorado’s local food movement still has a ways to go, he said, but “You can see the beginning of a resurgence of local food. I feel like the future is bright.”
RELATED: Harvest recipes from these Colorado chefs
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MORE INFORMATION
- Root Down: 1600 W. 33rd Ave., Denver; 303-993-4200
- Laudisio Italian Restaurant: 1710 29th St., Boulder; 303-442-1300; serving Wednesdays and Saturdays at the Boulder County Farmer’s Market.
- Black Cat: 1964 13th St., Boulder; 303-444-9110; Black Cat’s Sunday and Monday Dirt Dinners are a vertical tasting of dishes made with produce from the Black Cat Farm; $38 with complimentary bottle of wine for two. The Black Cat stand sells vegetables at the Boulder County Farmer’s Market on Saturdays.
- Harvest Week: Sponsored by The Denver Independent Network of Restaurants, the celebration of Colorado-grown ingredients takes place Sept. 12-18 at numerous local eateries.
- Colorado Harvest Dinner: Chef Hosea Rosenberg hosts a dinner Sept. 16 at Jax Fish House in Boulder with Red Wagon Farms, Munson Farms, Ela Family Farm, Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy, Hazel Dell Organic Mushrooms, Abbondanza Farms and Avery Brewing. Cost: $85; Information: 303-444-1811; jaxfishhouseboulder.com.
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John Lehndorff is the former dining critic and food writer for the Rocky Mountain News, former food editor of the Daily Camera, and author of the restaurant guide “Denver Dines” (Johnson Books). He writes a monthly dining column for Yellow Scene Magazine. Contact him at JohnLehndorff.com.
dining, farmers markets, farming, food, localvore, organic, restaurant
