Nov. 14–“Eat local” may be a buzz phrase seen on countless bumper stickers, restaurant menus and websites. But in recent years, it’s been taken a step further to form relationships between Wisconsin farmers and restaurant owners in what has been called the farm-to-table movement.

In farm-to-table, chefs seek Wisconsin farmers to serve as their restaurants’ primary food supplier. This not only puts dollars back into Wisconsin’s pocket, it also brings seasonal ingredients to consumers’ dinner plates at reasonable prices.

The only thing that changes is the menu.

“Most chefs 10 years ago weren’t adjusted to the seasons,” said Jack Kaestner, an instructor at Milwaukee Area Technical College. “If you take your menu to a farmers market, it just doesn’t work,” he added.

For chefs, that means cooking with beets, cabbage, carrots and potatoes in winter; asparagus, spinach and rhubarb in spring; broccoli, cabbage, chard, eggplant, scallions and tomatoes in summer; and arugula, leeks, parsnips, rutabagas and turnips in fall, according to a seasonal availability chart provided by the Farmer Chef Connection.

Local ingredients influenced Kaestner’s menus for more than 20 years. Industry leaders call him the “grandfather” of the farm-to-table movement because he was one of the first Wisconsin chefs to vigorously source local food. At one point, he had 35 farmers supplying food for the Oconomowoc Lake Club, where he was the executive chef for 21 years.

It’s fitting that he is one of six chefs participating in a panel on farm-to-table sourcing at a special breakfast Sunday morning at Wine & Dine Wisconsin.

“As a chef, we have all this stuff available to us around the world,” Kaestner said. It’s no surprise, then, that writing a restaurant menu around seasonal ingredients is jarring for chefs who order food online from large distributors in Chile and California, for example, and are used to year-round availability of ingredients.

It’s an adjustment for clients, as well.

“Many of the good chefs are interested in the challenge of seasonality, but it’s the customers who are slow to come around to that notion,” said David Kozlowski, co-owner of Pinehold Gardens farm in Oak Creek. “That’s kind of the tough nut of the whole thing.”

La Merenda has sourced locally since opening in 2007 and has put out more than 300 different menu items since then. It’s a challenge, said chef-owner Peter Sandroni, but it keeps the restaurant from “resting back on its laurels and becoming complacent.”

But not all items have local origins; think salt, sugar and other pantry items. Chefs make exceptions, too, when purchasing saltwater seafood or exotic ingredients such as pineapple and avocados — or when customers insist on eating out-of-season produce, such as asparagus in October, Kaestner said.

Chefs typically source from multiple produce and protein farms to achieve product diversity. This also prevents overwhelming one farmer.

As a rule of thumb, farmers should match the size of their farm to the size of the restaurant they want to supply so they are not overwhelmed with the quantity of food ordered by chefs, said Deb Deacon of the Farmer Chef Connection, an online resource for small-scale farmers who want to sell to restaurants. It’s also important for chefs and farmers to be transparent with each other about their needs and wants.

“It’s like a marriage,” Deacon said. “You really want someone you are in tune with.”

Deacon worked with Kaestner 20 years ago to create a local food guide, the Farm Fresh Atlas of Southeastern Wisconsin, and now coordinates Milwaukee’s winter farmers market.

Connections with protein farmers might be stronger than with produce farmers because proteins are a more consequential part of the restaurants’ menus, said Kozlowski, whose farm earns 10% to 15% of its annual revenue from restaurant sales.

Jeff Preder of Jeff-Leen Farm said 40% to 45% of his annual beef, chicken and egg sales come from restaurants.

“It’s nice having the restaurants’ (sales) during the winter so you have outlets for products year-round,” said Preder, who co-owns the Random Lake farm with his wife, Kathleen.

When done right, farm-to-table can be personal.

At La Merenda, the cooks are so used to seeing Sandra Raduenz, Pinehold Gardens’ co-owner, in the kitchen making personal deliveries that one purchased a used car from her.

Janet Gamble of Turtle Creek Gardens asked Sandroni to cater her daughter’s wedding.

“It’s an honor,” Sandroni said. “It speaks volumes of the relationships we’ve created with people,”

Customers are invited to join the farm-to-table conversation at 9:30 a.m. Sunday during a breakfast event at Wine & Dine Wisconsin. Sandroni, Kaestner and other local chefs (including Justin Aprahamian of Sanford, Dan Van Rite of Hinterland, David Swanson of Braise, Joe Muench of Maxie’s and Blue’s Egg, and Karen Bell of Bavette) will participate in a panel, and MATC students will serve farm-fresh dishes prepared from the chefs’ recipes. A ticket to the breakfast costs $15 and also requires a general admission ticket to Wine & Dine.

The event is ideal for consumers to get their “eat local” questions answered not just from the chefs but also from several farmers who will be there. Farmers are intimately involved in their food and can explain terms such as organic, grass-fed and heirloom, Kaestner said.

“Local food has a broader connotation than people realize,” said Kaestner, who used to coordinate events at the Oconomowoc Lake Club in which farmers and diners would talk over hors d’oeuvres. It was one of the club’s most popular events, Kaestner said.

“Farmers have got to be involved, not just a picture on a wall,” Kaestner said.

And while some restaurants have been guilty of overemphasizing what is really a weak farm-to-chef connection on their menus, diners are encouraged to investigate authentic farm-to-table connections.

“Ask the waiter, waitress or staff chef if they know where this food came from,” Kozlowski said. “That is something we encourage everybody to do.”

If you go

Wine & DineWisconsin runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Wisconsin Center, 400 W. Wisconsin Ave.

Basic ticket price: $50 in advance (through midnight Friday), $70 at the door. Weekend pass (good for both days), $85. Buy tickets at wineanddinewisconsin.com. You must print out your e-ticket and bring it with you. Those without Internet access, call (414) 224-2468.

Attendees must be 21 and older.

First floor: Critic’s Choice dining area (ballroom), noon to 3 p.m. (requires extra $25 ticket). Special events (extra cost).

Second floor: Main exhibit area with vendors, samples, tasting, chefs’ demonstrations. Seminars (extra $10 ticket).

A conversation with chef & author Sandy

D’Amato: 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday,Room 101,$45 (includes a copy of his book).

Chefs farm-to-table round table & breakfast: 9:30 to 11 a.m. Sunday, Room 101, $15.

Seminars: ($10 each, Room 201A or B)

Saturday: “To Taste or Travel” (on Washington state wines), 12:30 to 1:15 p.m.; “From Bake to Brew: Local Terroir on Your Tongue,” 2 to 2:45 p.m.

Sunday: “Let’s Have Drinks,” 12:30 to 1:15 p.m.