June 2009

Local farms offer chefs flavorful ingredients

By Kathy Dixon

Local flavor is the key ingredient in many of chef Billie Raper’s dishes.

From a caprese salad with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella, to lamb kabobs, to local eggs for breakfast, Raper is putting as many fresh, local products on the menu as he possibly can.

The tomatoes are from Good Food-Good People, a Floyd County cooperative that represents about 30 farms. The lamb is from Border Springs Farm in Patrick County, and the fresh eggs are from Tender Grass Farm in Franklin County.

Raper, executive chef at The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center and an American Culinary Federation-certified executive chef, believes in supporting local farmers and has been purchasing produce and meats from local farms for the past six years. He’s trying to buy products within a 50-mile radius of Roanoke to eliminate transportation costs and the amount of time food sits on a truck.

Raper said he used to walk to the Roanoke farmers’ market to buy fresh ingredients that sometimes inspired his evening meals. One day he bought plums that were at the peak of freshness. That night he prepared a fresh plum sauce to accompany a pork dish.

“It makes everything better if the ingredients are fresh,” Raper said. “It’s just a much better flavor.”

But the quality of food served at the hotel’s Regency Room restaurant is not his only reason for purchasing local ingredients. He wants to support the local economy and area farmers as well.

“One thing we can never do without is farms,” agreed Josef Koefer, the hotel’s food and beverage director.

“I think the relationship is second in importance to the food itself,” said Tenley Weaver, co-owner of Good Food-Good People, which supplies Raper with fresh produce weekly. “I feel like friendships are created with the chefs, and I know what they’re making with our products so I can try to tailor the offerings for them.

“It’s a lot different than someone calling a large produce supplier and saying they want a case of item number 1-7-8-9,” Weaver said. “This is face-to-face communication.”
Even though Good Food e-mails or faxes a list of available products to restaurants and other businesses that purchase from the co-op each week, Weaver accepts only personal orders from her customers. The interaction allows her to determine exactly what they need and gives her an opportunity to explain why a product might not be available at a certain time. Once the order is placed, the supplying farms wait until delivery day to pick the products.

“Fresh is what’s important,” Weaver said. “They harvest to order. What you see on
the dock today was harvested today.”

Dishes featuring local foods are advertised as such in The Regency Room restaurant. “The customers always compliment the restaurant and our seasonal menu,” said Nazim Khan, executive sous chef. “We try to do something different every day.”

That night he was preparing food for a wine-tasting dinner that included moussaka, a Greek dish using fresh lamb delivered that afternoon, as well as fresh eggplant.

“I can’t overstate how rewarding it is to have chefs make something unique and tasty with my sheep,” said Craig Rogers, owner of Border Springs Farm which provided the lamb.

The accompanying salad was a colorful mixture of fresh yellow and red tomatoes, basil, celery, onions and croutons with a light vinegar and lemon dressing. The tomatoes and basil had been delivered that day from Good Food-Good People.

“The fresher the ingredients, the less you have to add to them, because the flavor is that good,” Khan said.