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Clever Root Winter 2018

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w i n t e r 2 0 1 8 | 4 1 AT THE CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York, procuring enough produce to sustain five full-service restaurants, 80 daily classes, and nearly 3,000 undergraduates is no small-potatoes task. The man at the helm of that unrelenting assignment is Manager of Food Purchasing Anthony DiBenedetto, himself a CIA alumnus and a veritable expert on all things locally- produced in the Hudson Valley region. The agricultural powerhouse, known for its tourist- friendly apple orchards and vineyards, yields a significant portion of the everyday staples CIA faculty and students consume as they maneu- ver through their coursework in any of the col- lege's seven programs. DiBenedetto estimates that the school purchases a "good 90 percent" of its produce from farms and growers within a 35-mile radius: "We try to grow it by 5 to 10 percent a year based on the previous year, and we've been consistently able to do that." As the sun rises over the Hudson Valley, DiBenedetto and his three-person team (sepa- rate managers oversee the meat and seafood de- partments) can be found in the CIA storeroom checking in the produce shipments that arrive Monday through Friday. They carefully inspect every box that arrives each morning before fill- ing orders placed by chefs and instructors in the college's online procurement system. And while these immediate tasks demand constant attention, DiBenedetto and his colleagues also spend about a third of their time "forecasting" what crops are projected to thrive or falter during any given season. As weather conditions have grown increas- ingly unpredictable—Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and this winter's frigid temperatures serve as recent examples—placing more emphasis on "year-round sustainability" through local grains, proteins, cheeses, and berries estab- lishes a more reliable alternative, DiBenedetto says. "Produce is really weather-driven, so it's tough for us to grow it if we have a bad year," he adds. "We're just trying to move as much product as we can in more sustainable and ef- ficient areas as possible." New Ways to Connect . . . and Profit As vendor spaces like farmers markets grow more competitive and producers seek new methods to sell their products, constant com- munication is critical when it comes to seeking high-quality, locally-sourced produce and other food items, DiBenedetto says. "The trends have changed quite a bit from when I started at the CIA six years ago to now, so we're con- stantly evolving our methods here and how we go about getting our product," he explains. Part of that evolution has come through the college's willingness to utilize new technologies like Farms2Tables, an app that directly con- nects farmers and producers with wholesale buyers like the CIA. Farms2Tables Co-Founder Patricia Wind, once a CIA student herself, says she was inspired to launch the app with her boyfriend after talking to farmers seeking an alternative sales platform "that didn't cost a fortune, was easy, and didn't have some big upfront cost to it like buying their own trucks." On Farms2Tables, participating producers can list their products (anything from produce to livestock to maple syrup), upload photos and pricing, apply labels like Biodynamic and Certified Organic, and maintain their inventory; the buyers, meanwhile, can "browse and buy from more than 100 farms in one place," Wind says. Once their order is placed, the producer fills it, a Farms2Tables refrigerated truck picks it up, and the desired items (often freshly-har- vested in the case of produce) are delivered in roughly 36 hours or less. And thanks to lower service fees, Wind says producers make about 35 cents on the dollar more with Farms2Tables than similar services. The CIA has worked with Farms2Tables since it launched three years ago, buying items both in bulk and small quantities as needed. It seems the rest of the state has caught on, as well: Wind says they have roughly 70 farms on a waiting list. "I haven't done any farm out- reach since 2015," she adds. "The farmers need this, and the buyers need it, too!" Upholding a Legacy Farms2Tables might be a newcomer to the Hudson Valley, but the concept behind its name has deep roots here. At the American Bounty Restaurant, one of the CIA's full-service eateries, Executive Chef Brian Kaywork solidifies the im- portance of seasonality and farm-to-table cook- ing as he instructs students in the advanced course's "working classroom." He says that while the contemporary farm-to-table movement "is coming of age a bit and means a lot of different things to different people," it plays a vital role in connecting culinary students directly with the growers behind their coveted ingredients. As part of their coursework, CIA students visit DiBenedetto in the storeroom daily to pick up orders and inquire about products. As they work on various projects, they also might en- counter local growers like Chelsea Migliorelli of McEnroe Organic Farm in Millerton, New York: Located about 30 miles northeast of the CIA campus, it's a frequent source for staples like tomatoes, asparagus, shallots, and onions. "It's really great working with people who are going to school to become chefs so they get to work with local produce and see the quality differ- ence between something that was shipped from California and something that was picked this morning," Migliorelli says. Both DiBenedetto and Kaywork have wit- nessed firsthand how much of an "enriching experience" those encounters can provide— and the impact they can have on a budding chef's career post-graduation. "They see really quickly how hard and labor-intensive it is to work on that scale and learn how to support people who are choosing to work in that way," Kaywork says. "That's our legacy and our heri- tage as chefs: We were always working with the farms and working with our hands. We were laborers just like them. It's only recently that there's this stardom that comes with working in this industry, but that's not what the basis of it is built on." Or, as DiBenedetto summarizes with his signature New York brevity, "It's just cool to see kids really learning this industry and everything it entails." McEnroe Organic Farm supplies the CIA with tomatoes almost year-round and delivers one to two shipments a week of other staples like onions, shallots, and asparagus during their peak seasons. ■cr

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