How Farm-to-Table Chefs Create Their Menus

By Sandy K. Johnson

Everybody eats. But do you know where what you eat comes from?

If you dine at Farmhaus restaurant in St. Louis, almost all the protein and produce comes from local farmers and producers. Chef Kevin Willmann created Farmhaus to reflect his passion for farm-to-table dining.

He works with nearby family farms to use locally-sourced ingredients in his cooking, often throwing a cooler in the back of his pickup truck and cruising for new sources of ingredients or foraging for mushrooms and watercress.

At a dinner for National Press Foundation journalists learning about the future of food and agriculture, Willmann showcased ingredients from Baetje Farms, Marcoot Jersey Creamery, Fournie Farms, Such & Such Farms, Double Star Farms, as well as local wineries.

One of the courses was a summer vegetable salad, a colorful cornucopia of sweet corn, beets, okra, squash, cucumber, eggplant, shishito peppers, tomatoes, and herbs – all locally grown within 15 minutes of Farmhaus.

Willmann was a 2016 James Beard finalist for best chef in the Midwest.

This program is funded by Monsanto, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Pork Board, and the Organic Trade Association. NPF is solely responsible for the content.

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