Bon Appétit Management Company

~By Carolina Fojo, East Coast Fellow for Bon Appétit Mgmt. Co. For more than 10 years now, Bon Appétit has been working closely with local farmers and artisans to supply food in our cafes. Each year we take special care to celebrate our local partners in our Eat Local Challenge. Please join us for our sixth annual Eat Local Challenge Tuesday, September 28th!   

~Written by Carolina Fojo, East Coast Fellow for Bon Appétit Mgmt. Co.    This past Friday I drove to visit Katherine and Sam Ecker of Legacy Manor Farm in Boonsboro, MD, which is about an hour north of D.C. After having been warned in an email not to dress up because “we really are free range which means plenty of poop”, I donned my rubber rain boots (the ones with the little blue whales on them), a pair of jeans, and made the trek out to the farm. And Legacy Manor Farm definitely did not disappoint me in the free range department—Katherine wasn’t kidding! In fact, on the driveway leading up to the farm, I had to stop my car—twice…once for a pair of turkeys that didn’t seem to understand  that I couldn’t move until they moved, and then once again […]

“And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.”  –Joel 2:24 Once upon a time, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon farmer families began settling on the land. In 1840, the Emersons made it across the Oregon Trail. In 1897 pregnant Grandmother Matson climbed up and over 2000 feet in elevation to her Washington homestead. With roots in Switzerland, Romania, Ukraine, Canada, and the Pacific Northwest, the extended Gross-Hofers-Walter family has been in the business of farming for 460 years. Shepherd’s Grain is the story of 33 farm families, 65,000 acres, and their transformation of the land to sustainable agriculture. Right: Shepherd’s Grain Grower, Kurt Blume from Genesee, ID It’s the end of a hot July. I stand alongside Bon Appétit Management Company chefs and managers at the edge of a Hard Red Winter Wheat field. We are surrounded by […]

by Dayna Burtness, Midwest Fellow Every time I visit a student-run farm during my travels as a Foundation Fellow, I'm always inspired by the hard-working student farmers and BAMCO chefs that support them by buying the students' ultra-local produce.  I visited two farms last week in Northfield, MN that were no exception: STOGROW Farm at St. Olaf College and the Carleton Student Farm at Carleton College. STOGROW Farm My first stop of the beautiful, HOT Minnesota day was to visit the STOGROW farmers on the outskirts of the St. Olaf campus. I love visiting all student farms, but I have a special place in my heart for STOGROW since I helped co-found it back in 2005.  Two of the four student farmers, Joey and Elizabeth, were rushing to finish harvesting heirloom tomatoes, summer squash, and eggplant before the Bon Appétit […]

Silky Sea Palms (seaweed) and California Kombu (kelp) This summer, Director of Specialty Culinary Programs Jim Dodge and longtime Bon Appétit friend and author Raghavan Iyer toured the country to help host Bon Appétit Management Company’s Vegan Chef Trainings. I joined the Northern California Training, held at eBay’s headquarters in San Jose. It was a fun and flavorful affair! It was especially exciting to see the variety of ingredients with which Bon Appétit chefs cook. Many, such as seaweed, house-made seitan, and nut butters, are less mainstream but nonetheless nutritious and delicious. In this post, I include two of my favorite recipes from the Training. Please enjoy and let us know what you think!

By Vera Chang, West Coast Fellow, Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation US Government Wildlife A few months ago, a National Vice President of the United Farm Workers Union came to Bon Appétit’s office to discuss a potential collaboration between our organizations. In our conversation, we noted challenges we both face over the question: How can we institutionalize justice for farm workers? Vice President Erik Nicholson commented, only half jokingly, “Sometimes I wish farmworkers were salmon because then people might care enough to protect them.” His comment is worrisome because he may actually be right… Click here to read the rest of my article, 'Swimming Upstream for Farm Workers' Rights' on Triple Pundit.  

From  left: Alaska Native elders cure salmon in a traditional smokehouse; In Bristol Bay, salmon is on the menu – with a side of conservation messaging. It’s the time of year when wild salmon migrate from the ocean to freshwater rivers and lakes to spawn. After seagoing journeys that span tens of thousands of miles and last several years, wild salmon use their amazing sense of smell to find the precise place where they were born. It’s here that they lay and fertilize eggs and begin a new cycle of life. Few places are left on the planet where wild salmon still thrive. But Bristol Bay, in Southwest Alaska, is one of them and that’s where Bon Appétit Management Company chef Helene Kennan is headed this week. Bristol Bay produces the world’s largest sockeye salmon population and is a carefully […]

Instead of a beef burger, try this Rosemary Chicken Burger with Sun-Dried Tomato Aïoli. Click here for the recipe. In this article about chefs reducing the carbon impact of the food they serve, the Seattle Times features the creativity and dedication of BAMCO chefs in the Pacific Northwest preparing and serving food in accordance with our Low Carbon Diet. In the words of Buzz Hofford, General Manager at Seattle University, "Everybody who comes to get a cheeseburger learns what its impact is. They can think about their choices and eat responsibly – personal health and the environmental cost."

Clockwise from top left: David and two full-time garden employees, Meyse Ztem and Meyse BeBe, in the garden; the view from the mayor of Petit Riviera's 'backyard'; David's friend and cook, Celena, prepares Sunday dinner in her kitchen with Meekail. In his last post from Haiti, David reflects on the great work he's accomplished over the past two months – both in the garden and in the greater community.  Good afternoon everyone and Komon ou ye! One final update and another thank you for all of your support for Haiti.  I’ll start by telling you that the World Cup is the talk of the town.  TV’s are rare so when you do find one, there’s a huge crowd enjoying the match.  Brasil is Haiti’s team…though I like to start an argument now and again about their weak play against the […]

In February I visited George Jones Farm in Ohio, which works closely with Bon Appétit Management Company at Oberlin College. The farm, constantly looking for new innovations, is doing a lot of cool stuff—including using brew waste (from beer) for compost, and using compost for hot showers! In this video, one of the George Jones farmers describes their exciting compost projects. ~Posted by Carolina Fojo, East Coast Fellow for Bon Appétit Mgmt. Co.