How to Sell to Chefs

hey there today we're talking about selling to chefs it's Friday it's my delivery day I'm just gonna sort of take you guys long talk to you about selling the chef's things to think about some tips and I'll see if I can grab a chef or two and see if they'll talk from camp a little bit and talk about a little bit about being on the other side of it too so I can share that with you so I'm packing things up right now we'll get the car all sorted and just one thing even now as a tip just stay organized it's easy when you're trying to gather things in the morning and you have different accounts are going to and different orders and stuff like that so make sure you're on top of things and you're staying organized so one thing that's important to have our large coolers to transport your produce in now you do all this work to grow this awesome food and you keep it nice and fresh and cold make sure you transport to your chefs cold so I have these big coolers and I put ice packs on the bottom and a pro tip there is make sure you put a towel on top of the ice packs or whatever using keep it cold because if you put the bags of greens or whatever right on top of the ice packs it'll sort of freeze them and and mess them up so yeah make sure you keeping them cold when you're transporting them even though maybe a short ride in your car you want it to arrive in pristine condition and so I harvest everything the day before and it gets nice and chilled overnight in the refrigerator so keeping it cold in the cooler is uh it's pretty easy got the car all loaded up ready to go let's go make those deliveries so let's hit the road but there's probably an overarching theme that I want to keep hitting on during the day today is it's all about relationships with the chefs [Music] so I'm here at full steam brewery in Durham one of my accounts and let's go find the chef and you know talked in for a little bit [Music] anybody got in it so I'm here with Derrick the head chef at full steam brewery Derrick might be working together for I don't know well we're doing a different restaurant but working together now for a club months here it you're gonna have their beginning Amen alright cool so a little while now and now stare a couple questions and see if we can give some insight into talking about selling vegetables to chefs so Derek can you tell me a little bit about you know if I'm a farmer looking to sell to a local restaurant what are some of the things as a chef that you're looking for when you're trying to make next farmers and the sort of things that that help you well I think uniqueness of product is a big one I mean like with you your your peaches sunflowers radishes and all that earth our display are inspiring you know that like what three dishes on our menu that use sprouts and lettuce ingredients I think being able to communicate well like you said measure of personalities Longway consistency definitely because you know you're dealing with farms and obviously crops and all that change time to time over the seasons you know that's a that's a bit more awesome I think the biggest aspect is not being pushing it's one of those things with chefs I hate it if you stop by drop a sample say hey such a--such bar when I he is gonna have drop a the pseudo product list maybe some samples you know we have to make spur that spur the moment decisions but what we're doing said if we want to use something like that chances are we've are you we're going to decide whether we are not I said I think the one thing I don't like here people being pushy about it but it's good to follow up if they don't hear from you guys it's good to follow up but not they'll be knowing about it not today's way this I'm having to use you know seasonal product and all that like we're constantly researching what's coming up next you know what's out there brings a lot of extra challenges - you haven't managed your restaurant yeah how does the farming method play into that do you care about how things were grown or you know is that is that something that you you consider from time to time yes I tended to try to learn how they're doing it lot knowledge base on farming practices is a sensor that also it's more of a learning process do be able to we sold by the farmer that you know this is what people are looking for okay cool so as a farmer I could be helping educate some of the chefs as well absolutely okay you've done a wonderful job with me on that thanks there all right I want to ask you about sort of the local food scene in Durham we're in Durham right now but sort of in the Triangle Durham Raleigh and Chapel Hill and I know you've been a chef in the area for a little while and you know what have you seen changing is it becoming more prevalent our customers expecting it looking for it are more the restaurants are expecting that when their chefs be using more local ingredients we talk about that a little bit not to say that's becoming a trend because it's been it's been a thing Wi-Fi local here full stainless my first like real to experience with you know having to buy as much local product and incorporated and I need as possible I figured at this point time might be able to be respect a lot more seasonale well you know that means that they recognize names that they may not just hey so thank you so much for everything so far I'm really happy working with you guys and happen to be you know together on this and trying to bring more local food into your menu and you know get some good products out to your customers and thanks so much for taking a few minutes a day just to chat and we'll see you later so a big thanks Derek it's just an awesome dude and I love working with them and just doing great things over full-steam so if you guys are ever in the Durham area and me or maybe haven't been to full-si brewery in a while go check them out the jerks been doing a ton of work on their menu just really making awesome dishes a lot of local ingredients so stop by have their great beer and definitely check out some of their food [Music] a so I'm outside of Whitehill right now want another one of my customers and I'm gonna go inside see if I grab chef's pile of talk just a little bit and share some of his insights about local food and what do you recommend to people looking to sell to chefs [Music] hey buddy oh hey Jade you got a minute I think I do all right awesome step out for a minute yeah totally perfect all right so I'm here with Kevin and Kyle wait did you guys plan that no okay we're here why Hill and we're just asking some questions and giving some point you get some pointers about you know solar chefs and some of the local food scene here awesome yes so we love dealing with satin Hill Farms we like dealing with a lot of local purveyors it provides us a lot of seasonality and commitment to growing practices that we like to support while still allowing us as a restaurant to hit the boss and what we need to be doing and I mean it's it's just better light all around I mean getting to know all the partners firsthand getting to see the product when it's just now growing and when it's near at the end of the season and everything in between it just gives you a much better idea of where you want to go with our ideas and with how you want to treat your restaurant and anything else pop-ups or whatever okay so one of the main things you guys would say about sourcing local food is just about the quality the quality the accessibility there's such a wide range of products that we're able to get from farmers that you don't see big aggregates doing you get a lot more uniqueness and specialty items Josh brought us this this green sorrel it's one of my favorite things to work with now we actually conceptualize dishes solely around that one product that he brought us so while it's really cool to get that also being able to sustain and produce enough for a restaurant scale is really important and everyone that we've worked with great job of that if they weren't already at that production level they knew how to tell us what that timeline was and what that was gonna be looking like which makes it convenient not only for planning but I mean it's convenient that you guys come here to us and bring us samples before without us even asking a lot of times it'll be it'll be hey I see what you guys are doing I think that you guys would like this and if you're bringing it to me and you're kind of taking the guesswork out of it I already know it's gonna be a great product and a few bow more and you have already you know seen it used like this or have wanted it used like that that just makes it easier for me I just got to make it happen cool so what do you guys recommend for farmers that are looking to start selling to chefs well I mean some pointers on how you take an approach shafts things like that I think with the age in time of social media it's really easy to reach out to a lot of us shooting us a message or something to let us know that you're coming in this is really big because a lot of our days are very busy we try to make as much time as possible but trying to plan those things are out is really important and then shooting for those like you know non-typical peak hours coming in you know between that like kind of like 11:00 to 2:00 range you want to bring samples by if you want us to have a chance to be able to sit and talk for a minute that's usually your optimal timeframe for most people never come in at 5 o'clock for dinner service a lot of people don't think about that it's kind of obvious yeah yeah you're gonna get turned away and then it'll just be it's not a good chapter that really showed up Revenue Service is startin a yeah we don't time to talk to you right now so what can you guys talk about a little bit can you guys talk a little bit about the local food scene here in the raleigh-durham area of things maybe how it's changed over the last couple years like our people really interested in local food is it something that your customers are asking for something that they think I think the triangle the triangle has become almost like a food mecca we know many people that have moved to just for the restaurant scene to be in the industry here we go to the farmers market three or four times a week and the number of local chefs that we run into off the wall we can't go there without running into someone that we know at this point so it really goes to show how committed Raleigh is and Durham and all these triangle areas to locality people are going to the Wake Forest farmers market the state farmers market you know Midtown up at North Hills people are going to these it's not just you know your average consumer it is chefs because we are trying to find the best product and you know the best relationships to build and I think that's in high demand I think people just once the lid got blown off a couple of years ago about how good the product really is from the farmers market and how competitive those prices are compared to going to food line or harris-teeter or what maybe I mean people are just you know they could tell the difference when they go to your restaurant to go eat that food and they could tell that you're using a North Carolina product that was grown probably less than 100 miles away from here and then brought to you that morning picked by us cut by us and prepared by us for you guys and I think people crave that want that and now that it's here you know I think if you're not doing that as a restaurant owner and it's chefs you're kind of missing out on the abundance of opportunities are they mess around with farmers and yada it's just locally here yeah it's fantastic to have people come and just throw an idea at us like hey I have this one thing you guys think you can use this at all it's like I don't know yet but yeah let's figure something out yeah gives us you know like I can't grow enough for this for you but I substituted I can make you a blend of this well I didn't maybe let's try it out and it turns out it's better or you know maybe I can't use it for that but I just got another idea for a dish for fall time can you grow this you know it's let's an outlet in inlet kind of situation so it sounds like a lot of the local food being available to you guys and sort of seasonal and availability that sort of changes the way you make make up dishes and you really take advantage of that and and use that to your advantage is that is that challenging for you I mean it definitely is I mean part of at least why I and I'm sure Kevin got into this industry is we don't like doing the same thing every day I can't I couldn't imagine waking up and doing the same job day in and day out so being able to go alright well we're gonna have tomatoes for three more weeks alright let's you know run it for them it's like all right now what's coming up and we're in this process now of talking to farmers on all right as we move into September and kind of late September or October period what's the new crops that are coming in what are you guys going to be providing in pull so that we can start conceptualizing our dishes and met around that now I think like I mean the situation we had yesterday we're at the farmers market we're out picking the tomatoes and we just look at each other like tomato students coming a lot closer to an end than we were anticipating yeah so I mean we wouldn't know that if we were just getting pasta this stuff shipped in without ever talk to anybody we're they're seeing it and again now worried but I ask whoever maybe you Ronnie anybody at the farmers market hey how long are you gonna have this up what is a part of you can have this should I start scaling back but no it gives us options like maybe we don't have to take everything off the house tomatoes or maybe we'll do something take half of things off make it last kind of thing yeah so something that could be really important for farmers looking to start relationships with chefs is I feel like and I always say this but communication super-important right being very upfront about what you have what you don't have that sort of thing is that is that relationship and that part of it you know what makes working with the farmer so good it's a lot of what makes it it makes it easier to work with them to be able to push that towards any other side of things because you can show them that you're going to have the same reliability that you would have ordering from any of the large aggregates and/or food suppliers it gives that sense of sense of security and knowing that when I asked for a product it's gonna be there it gives us time to plan as well you know a lot of times if you are using the big vendors say like whatever it may be you don't find out till you go to put in that order at 4 o'clock that you're not gonna have tomatoes for the next day yes for working satin Hills farm or whatever I probably already know maybe even a couple of days it's not even sooner than hey I'm not gonna have this available for you guys this happening I might be able to get this but it allows us to plan for the coming week and what we need to do and how we need to make adjustments to really make you know successful I think one of the biggest things on from the farmers side of things that I've realized talking with a lot of people is go out there and talk to chefs we all want to network and get to know people and build those relationships we want to see what you guys work just as much as you guys will to see where we were yeah don't be don't be discouraged if there's a chef like even ourselves it's not able to work with somebody at a certain given time it could be the price point pretty good production hasn't risen to the level where the price point can drop enough we might not not be looking for something at that time but always reach back out Josh and I had message for a year and a half two years before we finally connected on doing what we are here at yl so that perseverance and that you know that willingness to keep trying is really important well thanks for taking the time today guys and what this one here you guys good you know a lot of fire a lot of fun ladies squeeze your life tongs aren't good enough know that need to be decision okay all right all right so I'll be back in a couple weeks we're gonna do we're do cooking lesson baby yeah I think we're talking about doing something but two weeks yeah so we'll have that out for you guys can do some more in-depth stuff with with with Kyle here and yeah hopefully this will is helpful for you guys think about starting to sell do yeah raus raus now we're excited right thanks guys aw thank you yeah alright back from doing deliveries and talking with chefs and hope you guys enjoyed that and I will leave a link down below to those two restaurants and the Instagram accounts for all those chefs so if you want to check them out I'll post those links down below anyways I just want to recap a couple of things I was talking about make sure that when you or what these guys are talking about make sure that when you're reaching out to chefs and if you do want to drop in and you bring some samples that is a great thing to do just please use your common sense don't go during dinner rush you know late morning or mid-afternoon is usually best you know don't hit them up when they're cooking when there's service going on that sort of thing but yeah I recommend if you can do some networking and try to connect with chefs before you just walk in cold if you can set up a meeting ahead of time that's great then they'll set aside time and they're usually pretty happy to meet with chefs and you know just bring them bring up a box of stuff like whatever you have bring a price sheet and tell them what you're up to and ask them what they're looking for and you know see if you can help them out sometimes they'll just be like yeah I'm really looking for this I can't get that or whatever so you know be open-minded about that moving forward is like once you start working with a chef you know really good communication is important I think with everything in life especially with working with chefs chefs in general aren't always the best of uh getting back to you but they do eventually and sometimes they just forget because they're busy so it's it's okay to hit them up you know more than once just don't be annoying about it and you know the other thing is don't over commit and under-deliver that's a huge thing that can happen and so be realistic about what you have what you can actually sell to them and if you think you're going to come up short like let them know as soon as possible don't like show up big oh sorry I don't have that three pounds of lettuce mix that you wanted you know be upfront with them about it and they really appreciate that if you're looking to get into restaurants you know don't go after the big fancy restaurants or the chain and things like that like try to find locally owned and operated restaurants somewhere where the the owners involved or it's a chef owner something like that where they're a little bit more flexible with the menu or ingredients or sort saying and you know go for go for those sort of account so those are the places that you should really be starting with not the big corporate places or hotels or things like that and don't go into meeting with a chef and promise things you can't promise I mean that's a huge thing so if you you know if they if they're gonna if this places needs 20 pounds of lettuce a weekend you can't do that then you don't really have lettuce for them so keep that in mind stuff like that is important another couple of logistical tips are that when you bring your stuff into the restaurant make sure that you try to get in the fridge and sometimes people are busy or the right persons not around and it'll just sit out for a little while make sure you after you deliver there once or twice find out where to put things and the chef's like a tubes they don't have to wind up putting it away so if you can like just bring it in and put it in the fridge that'll be better because what's gonna happen is it'll stay cold and it'll last longer and be a better product and you know if it does if it starts to sit out for a while and you know the quality suffers then that's your product and they'll go oh your thing only lasted two days or three days when it should have lasted ten days or two weeks or whatever so make sure it goes in the fridge another logistical thing to talk about is payments and invoicing and I think that can be very different if you're not already doing that and I use square for pretty much all my payments and invoices I'm not affiliated with them or sponsor or anything I'm just a paying customer and they've been good you know any sort of electronic payment you take their get is gonna be a charge for it and luckily the restaurants write you a check so there is no fee there but I was I've been using it for my family boxes and I do all my invoicing through there and it keeps really good track of everything and I'm also using that on my web store so it's all in one place it's been great for me I've been really enjoying Square and the hop on the phone is great and they also send you a card reader so if you do need to take a payment or something you can do that too but what I do is I find out you know who wants to get the invoice and because I harvest on Thursdays after to do my harvesting Thursday afternoon or evening I'll send those invoices to the person that needs to pay the bill and so that when I show up on Friday with my delivery they often have a cheque waiting for me and that's a really great system they appreciate it too because they don't sit there and fumble around and get the invoice enter and get a check for you but it's mostly Co D that's what I've seen so far so you show up with food and they give you a check and so what I usually do is I bring my clipboard and I print out two invoices one I have them sign and I keep a copy of it so I have a record of it and then the other one they get to keep and they give me a check and so that's just you know how it works sometimes the right person is not around and I get the check next week but you know my accounts have been awesome and you know if you start delivering to restaurants and they just keep pushing back the payment and they don't pay you you know that should be a red flag so make sure that everybody's staying on top of things so you don't wind up in a bad situation so I don't have a ton of experience with restaurants and chefs I'm just sort of getting started with it and trying to pick up some new customers soon and so it's been awesome I really enjoy working with chefs and and I can't stress enough it's all about relationships you know get to know those chefs and you know just work with them and they'll they'll be great and it's a it's a really nice thing to add on if you're already doing you know one of the other sales outlooks like let's say you're doing a farmers market or you're doing you know a CSA or whatever you know it's a great way to add on and you can get some more products out there and you know if you are doing a farmers market you probably will meet some chefs there and so you can connect to them and see if they want some stuff right delivered right to the restaurant so it's it's pretty awesome hope you found this helpful there's a lot more involved in selling to chefs but this would be a good way to start and just sort of giving you a little bit of behind-the-scenes here and hope you enjoy this so thank you so much for watching we'll see you the next one that's what I mean protecting the screen okay so Derek thanks so much for work with me so much mr. that was cut no it's all in the reporting of conversation earlier I know that always happens whenever you turn the camera off I'm just saying just say just say no the camera's not on it's cool different for me just pop this out here all right well thanks for you got it I've been off the camera thing I'm like my brain turned off

Channel: Josh Sattin

Views: 29,597

Rating: 4.9745021 out of 5

Keywords: farming, farming for profit, farming business, micro farming, urban farming, urban micro farming, urban farmer, regenerative farming, regenerative agriculture, sustainable farming, sustainable agriculture, no till farming, no till garden, no-till gardening, no-till farming, organic farming, organic vegetable gardening, market gardening, market gardening for profit, suburban farming, suburban farmer, permaculture, homestead, homesteading

Id: rS4dDCmlnKo

Length: 24min 17sec (1457 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 26 2019