05/29/2006

Region's eateries have food chain all their own

Professionals turn to locals, speciality outlets

by nancy krcek allen

Special to the Record-Eagle

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
Many area restaurants depend on a variety of local suppliers for their products. Glacier Springs in Bellaire supplies fresh fish, pictured here, to restaurants like Stella Trattoria and shops like Burritt’s in Traverse City.

All great meals come down to the quality of the food and the skill of the cook preparing them. Perhaps you've blamed yourself because you cannot get the same results when you try to reproduce a meal from your favorite restaurant.

Your skills may not be that of a three-star chef, but there might be another reason.

Good restaurants purchase at the top of the food chain. Because they buy in quantity and are willing to pay top dollar, restaurants often get the best and first pick. Sysco and Gordon Food Service are two of the country's largest restaurant suppliers, but many top-notch restaurants have discovered local or out of the way suppliers who contribute to the special character and charm of their menu — and who can contribute to yours.

Amanda Danielson of Stella Trattoria feels strongly about buying local as much as possible.

"Basically, we believe that to make great food you just start with the best ingredients and let them speak for themselves," she said. "Great produce ceases to be great after traveling thousands of miles on a truck with ripening agents. We also believe that it is negligent to operate within a community without being an active part of it. To be active, you must spend as much money as reasonably possible locally. Besides, just from a quality and taste perspective, it would be ridiculous to buy from elsewhere what we can grow beautifully here."

Stella Trattoria uses Glacier Springs in Bellaire for fish, local businesses Provemont Farms, Werp Farms and Eco Learning Center for greens and lettuces, Zenner Farms, Norconk Farms and Croft Farms for vegetables and Shetler Farms of Mancelona for dairy. Their fruit comes, in season, from the local Edmonson Farms, Keunis Farms, Buchan's, Bardenhagen and Urka. Meat like rabbit comes from Aspen Hill and Halpin Farms provides lamb, goat and eggs.

Stella Trattoria also uses fish houses in Hawaii, Massachusetts and Oregon. Gordon Food Service provides mostly dry goods. A number of imported items, including most of the cheeses they don't make themselves, come from R. Hirt of Eastern Market in Detroit. Leonardo's supplements produce when local is unavailable.

Jim Milliman, who started Hattie's and is now chef-owner of Hannah in Traverse City, has always used local produce from morels to wild leeks. He likes to purchase from the Farmer's Market and gets his signature Bibb lettuce from TLC Tomatoes. Gordon's provides his dry goods and some groceries, while Hannah's produce comes from La Grasso in Detroit's Eastern Market.

Milliman also buys unusual cheeses like his favorite Fourme d'Ambert, a French Bleu cheese, from R. Hirt. William King and Son of Naubinway and Superior Seafood out of Grand Rapids provide much of Hannah's seafood. Earthy Delights, an online specialty food company, provides dried porcini mushrooms and Tahitian vanilla.

For years, northern Michigan cooks who needed ethnic ingredients had to buy them elsewhere; they were simply unavailable, in short supply or overly expensive. But two restaurants, the southern Mexican Taqueria Margarita and Chinese/sushi Hunan find that to get the best quality for the best price, they ship their produce in from other, larger cities.

"I drive down to Chicago once a week to buy supplies for the restaurant. We Mexicans like fresh tortillas. No place carries fresher tortillas than El Milagro in Chicago," said owner Miguel Angel Osorio.

Osorio does buy non-food items from Gordon's and his chicken from Sam's Club. But the produce from cilantro and chiles to plantains comes from Chicago.

The Chinese owners of Hunan buy their Asian products from suppliers in New York City's Chinatown, Chicago and even China. Hunan's sushi grade fish comes from a Japanese supplier near Detroit called True World Foods. With two restaurants (the second is in Okemos, where Jennifer Granholm often dines) Hunan's owners buy in bulk and save.

From the local farmer's markets, Leelanau Cheese, Burritt's, Mary's, Fogarelli and Asia's Family Market to Osorio El Mexicano and Meijer, Traverse City offers an increasing number of places that stock fresh, high quality food and ethnic goods. If you are in need of tomatillos, lemongrass, Kaffir lime leaf or chestnut flour, call around. Form a relationship with your markets and vendors.

Good relationships equal good service. Market owners and vendors will be delighted to educate you about what they carry and to order what you want.