About Contact Advertise Contribute
Logo
  • Browse
    • Art + Culture
    • Design
    • Fashion
    • Food + Drinks
    • Movies + Television
    • Market + Consumer
    • Tech
  • Features
  • Insights
Copyright @ 2020
Logo

Farm-to-table: “The farm-fresh beginning to fine dining!”

By
Tanu Sharma
 
FFT Staff
 
May 7, 2016
farm-to-tablefarmfreshfarmtoforkfood & drinksfresh vegetablesjunk foodorganic food
Share this
     Go Back
< Previous PostNext Post >

Farm-to-table: “The farm-fresh beginning to fine dining!”

By
Tanu Sharma
 
FFT Staff
 
May 7, 2016
farm-to-tablefarmfreshfarmtoforkfood & drinksfresh vegetablesjunk foodorganic food
Share this

Farm-to-table “The farm-fresh beginning to fine dining!”The global food industry is taking the “farms-to-table” route, a path which has transformed the way we perceive dining and food in general, with the growing focus being on healthy cooking. The world is witnessing the fast fading of junk food, with ‘organic-healthy’ food taking over the realm of food business.

The challenging, health-conscious, New Age consumers are making sure that food they eat is healthy. To ensure this, chefs and restaurants, who are keen on providing collaborative experience of raw, organic and healthy creation, have increasingly started transforming their meals, menus and decor accordingly.

The trend, which first made its appearance back in 1978, when Alice Waters listed the names of farms on her menu of Chez Panisse, to inform and educate people about the food being served, has now become an ever-growing trend, with an even shorter term — F2T — becoming much in vogue.

Although this concept was once lost, mostly owing to urbanisation and large-scale migration into cities at the turn of the century, the now-famous chefs around the world have sparked fumes to establish this farm-to-table concept in a bigger way, with innovations, tactical strategies, simultaneously ‘urbanising’ the farms.

“This phenomenon kicked off about 10 years ago in America, and since then its ‘organic’ everywhere. Farm-fresh and organic food items are widely used everywhere; it is the biggest trend now. By growing your food, you can personally guarantee it is organic,” said restaurateur Rakshay Dheriwal of PCO (Passcode Only).

Urbanising Farms: Roof-top Farms!

13

FARMS IN THE CITIES

Curbing the usual farm-produce and sourcing format, restaurants have started innovative farming, with green roofing popping up everywhere.

The New York-based Rosemary’s restaurant chose to utilise roof space to grow fresh vegetables and herbs with a soil garden, while a restaurant in Kips Bay, named River-park, designed a small farm using milk crates outside their restaurants.

Such restaurants across the world are renewing the erstwhile concept and bringing farms closer to restaurants.

Heather Tierney’s Chinatown hotspot operates on a 500-square-foot rooftop garden, which allows bartenders to spike their haute cocktails with herbs like cilantro and mint, and even heavier ingredients like figs and peppers. Then there is Bell, Book & Candle in the West Village, New York, which took a techo-deal and elected a more alternative method of farming by installing 60 “aeroponics systems” on their rooftop to grow different kinds of vegetables and herbs.

Farm-to-table “The farm-fresh beginning to fine dining!

URBAN ROOFING -FINE DINING RESTAURANTS WITH ROOF TOP FARMS

The Westin New York in Grand Central, which is almost 400 feet above the 42nd Street, on the 41st floor of The LCL, has a 1,300-square-foot rooftop garden, which is tended to by chef Brian Wieler himself. He plants and waters 11 vegetable beds and nine whiskey barrels full of herbs.

Moreover, farm-to-table has also inspired the fast food chains, with a newer concept — farm-to-counter. The fast-food chain, Dig Inn, is one such chain of fast, casual restaurants in Manhattan that has adapted the concept of farm-to-counter, serving fresh, juicy kale, sprouts and lettuce.

Farm to table fine dining – In Decor | Lifestyle | Menu

Farm-to-table “The farm-fresh beginning to fine dining

FARM-TO-TABLE DINING DECOR

Chefs are increasingly stepping outside the kitchen, strongly pressing their opinion on the world, while adopting this uncanny influence for the look-at-feel of restaurants. The rustic, raw, whimsy and seasonal highlights the ambiance and menus of farm-to-table restaurants. They send out their meals as a message of sustainability.

Keeping up with the need to serve majorly fresh, local and seasonal ingredients in the farm-to-table restaurants, this restaurant in Illinois One Eleven Main, has a Chef’s Menu Series, focusing on fresh ingredients, with seasonal cooking. They have seasonal menus with category names like Fall Harvest Menu, Spring Foraging Menu and the like, which is inclusive of well-crafted innovative recipes of every season.

Farm-to-table “The farm-fresh beginning to fine dining.

FARM TO TABLE INSPIRED MENU’S

Cibo Trattoria, located in the heart of downtown Vancouver, specialises in rustic Italian cuisine, where they use only fresh ingredients with heavy emphasis on organic ingredients. While Chef Casey Lane, a culinary expert from El Paso, bases his authentic farm-to-table concept restaurants on the Venice beach, 90-year-old olive trees accent the modern-rustic interiors, with a mix of exposed brick and towering glass forming the decor, with seasonal vegetables, cheese and braised meats strongly representing the concept.

Alden & Harlow, a Cambridge restaurant, features whimsical line drawings of mushrooms and onions in the menu, in what appears to be a deliberate farm-to-table branding.

Chef Kevin Gillespie of Woodfire Grill, who has long been a supporter of organic food, has picked up a local theme to create the decor for his restaurant. Fellow Atlanta-based craftsman Tracy Hartley made some of the tables and wood paneling for the Grill.

Artichoke Café & Bar offers a deviant mix of Middle Eastern recipes, which does not conform with the norms of communal platters they serve, which are inspired by Greek, Moroccan and Turkish cultures, with soothing music playing in the background.

Online Farm Food-in’:

foodiefriday-americas-5-best-farm-to-table-restaurants-6

Moving forward, the farm-fresh route has even taken meals to the mobile apps and websites, in order to keep their farm-fresh fans engaged.

In addition to more than hundreds of websites that help connect consumers to farmers and real food sources, more and more smart-phone apps are helping shorten the distance between farm and table. Rawleaf, organic leaf, farmers web, healthychefcreations.com, amys.com are some such options available to the consumers these days. Many have been investing in this business to bring farm-fresh food closer to the customers, with phone apps providing recipes, using fresh produce, videos, a national farm-to-table dining guide and ‘farm finder’ or farms to visit, a food for health section, a comprehensive food guide on 200+ food items.

There are also some mobile apps like Real Food, Farm Star living, HarvestMark, Locavore, Buycott where customers can get suggestions on major places to go for farm-fresh, organic meals.

The modern day Farm-to-Table movement is not much different than Alice Waters’ philosophy. But we see an improved version of it, with innovative expansions to technology-driven roof-top farms, fresh produce, and organic meal delivery services, along with organic, raw-theme restaurants and existence of organic food bars and cafes.

 

Facebook  Comments

Newsletter

More From farm-to-table

  • Heinz red puzzle
    Heinz releases the eccentric Red puzzle
  • Calorie Brands: For Fit Body!
More Food + Drinks
Spray

Spices that you can spray!

Food + Drinks Insights

Cooking has become one of the most popular pastimes during quarantine. For amateurs, it can be difficult to gauge and 

Heinz red puzzle

Heinz releases the eccentric Red puzzle

Food + Drinks Insights

After a tremendous response to the teaser, Heinz has released the Red puzzle into the markets. The intriguing person requires 

anti-tech-dinners

Anti-Tech Dinners Urge You to Disconnect to Reconnect!

Food + Drinks Influencers

Disconnecting with technology and celebrating reality is the new age concept that has taken many – especially the millennials – 

apple-thumb

Forecast Influencer: Ugly Food Deserves Your Love Too! – Save The #Wonkyvegetables

Food + Drinks Influencers

With realism, eventually taking centre stage, the definition of real beauty has changed drastically! People across the world are celebrating 

kfc-min

KFC’s Chic’ken Scented Sunscreen is the Next Skincare Product in Cue!

Food + Drinks Insights

“Harmful ultraviolet rays bounce off your skin while the lovely fragrance penetrates it to give you a healthy chicken aroma,” 

indianmega1-min

Chronicles of Indian Megakitchens is uncovered by National Geographic Channel in a new Series!

Food + Drinks Insights

The new season of National Geography series uncovers and chronicles various stories behind Indian mega kitchens. India, which is famous 

Drink

More is Less at Mumbai’s Bar Bar!

Food + Drinks Insights

For Mumbai, a city that never sleeps to have a wholesale bar is probably the best thing ever! The bar 

ice-creammuseum-min

All for The Love of Ice-Cream!

Food + Drinks Insights

It’s a beautiful idea that will take people straight back to their childhood! A museum called ‘Museum of Ice Cream’ 

You may also like
Varanasi3-min

Varanasi a Weaver’s Tale

Fashion Features

Banaras is the Beginning of Everything, both Life and Death. The mighty Ganga, ever-present, becomes a metaphor for the space...

fotor

Power Of Women Celebrated Through Art

Art + Culture Features

[caption id="attachment_22453" align="aligncenter" width="599"] Portrait of Dora Maar by Pablo Picasso, (1937)[/caption] Art translates from vision, perspective and thoughts, and...

Newslatter_8_Mar

COLOUR INSPIRATION – A/W ’16-17 – “BLACK MAGIC”

Fashion Features

The 90’s influence seeped into collections, this fall, with New York designers going for a gothic look and London designers...

Come here often? Let's make this easier.

Get our weekly newsletter.