WASHINGTON 鈥� On Monday night, more than 100 men and women flooded the bar of Bluejacket Brewery for a speed-dating event. Only, they weren鈥檛 looking for love. They were looking for chefs.
鈥淲e wanted to improve the ability of farmers to sell to chefs,鈥� explained Pamela Hess, the executive director of and the matchmaker-in-chief at the Farmer-Chef Summit. 聽
Arcadia started the summit five years ago with closer to 40 participants after noticing how quickly business deals get done when the two parties, who often keep opposite schedules, are in the same room at the same time.
鈥淥ne of the top trends nationwide is local sourcing. People want to eat food grown by farmers in their immediate area,鈥� Hess said. 鈥淲hat we鈥檝e found is that if a farmer and a chef can meet, share a beer, shake some hands and talk about their mutual interests, sourcing becomes much easier.鈥�
For new business owners Jordon Masters and Matt Pefferman, the event was a chance to introduce their West Virginia to D.C.鈥檚 restaurant community. The two operate a 5,400-square-foot greenhouse in Morgantown, where they grow a collection of specialty shoots, greens and flowers for restaurants and resorts.
Having just launched in November, Masters said finding time to break away from the greenhouse to market their products is a challenge.
鈥淲e work quite a bit, so it is hard to get away to do things like this. So today we鈥檙e here just to see what we can do as far as make sales,鈥� he said.
Michael Histon and his wife, Colleen, of , attended the summit for the fourth time. Thanks to past events, they鈥檝e partnered up with restaurants such as The Inn at Little Washington and Zaytinya.
鈥淵ou get straight to the people who appreciate your products and that know how to use them,鈥� Histon said.
It鈥檚 saved them time from making cold calls to area restaurants, and it鈥檚 helped them narrow down their list of potential clients.
鈥淐heeses and dairy items are extremely complicated to make and the taste variations are all over the map, so you鈥檝e cut down the exposure time of trying to find a certain niche market at a high-end restaurant where the patrons at that restaurant would appreciate a high-quality product,鈥� Histon added.
If there鈥檚 one thing Daniel Liberson of appreciates about the occasion, it鈥檚 that he and other producers get to avoid the logistical nightmare of driving into the city and making the rounds at each restaurant 鈥� an undertaking that often involves a few parking tickets.
鈥淚f you take a look at the expenditure that most small businesses have in terms of trying to build wholesale clients first, it鈥檚 a lot in terms of just travel and physical labor,鈥� said Liberson, whose vinegars are used in restaurants such as Minibar and Pineapple and Pearls.
鈥淎nd then just think about that from a traffic perspective. People who live in D.C. do not like having to drive from Northwest to Northeast and then hit all of the restaurants in between.鈥�
Of course, the Farmer-Chef Summit isn鈥檛 just a win for farmers. At a previous event, Red Apron Butcher鈥檚 Nathan Anda met Alec Bradford of Leaping Waters Farm in Southwest Virginia.
Last week, Anda opened his new Dupont Circle eatery, , where he sells Bradford鈥檚 Ancient White Park grass-fed, grass-finished beef.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been an awesome way to meet farmers that aren鈥檛 usually at a farmers market or just easy to come by,鈥� Anda said.
