Surrounded by greenery, but accessible in a short time. What are Farm Restaurants?

 

Have you ever heard of farm restaurant? It is a new way of doing catering that aims to offer an essential and mainly vegetable cooking experience but at the same time of the highest level. 

The farm restaurants rank fully among the new restaurant formats that are starting to set trends in our country. Even if they were not born in Italy, these new types of restaurants could quickly spread in our country, facilitated both by the great variety of raw materials and typical regional products, and by the numerous places of natural interest to be discovered just outside the big cities.  

What are Farm Restaurants

Literally "Farm restaurant" means "Agricultural restaurant". Are more modern than a traditional farmhouse and more competitive, in terms of offer, than the gourmet restaurants that flock to the city. Farm restaurants are generally found just outside the inhabited centers but are never located in remote countryside places. In short, out of the chaos, immersed in the green of the countryside but accessible in a short time.  

They are born as restaurants with farm and vegetable garden, and focus on mainly vegetable products of their own production, building the offer in a dynamic and consistent way with their availability and their seasonality. The business model of these restaurants goes beyond km0 and follows the philosophy of farm to table: quality raw materials are produced and cooked, cultivate practically a few meters from the stove. A very short cycle that goes well with the idea of ​​serving genuine and essential dishes. 

Another feature of farm restaurants, which makes them different from the more popular and well-known farms, is the fact that they offer one basic cuisine, but of the highest standard, which amalgamates the freshest ingredients to create refined and refined dishes. Finally, in farm restaurants, the location also plays a fundamental role: rustic but at the same time classy, ​​able to welcome the customer in a family atmosphere with an authentic flavor. 

How did the philosophy of farm-to-table

With the expression farm-to-table we are referring to a social movement and a philosophy that supports the idea of ​​consuming products "from farm to table". The basic requirement is that of shorten the gap between production and consumption but also to facilitate the traceability of the foods used in the kitchen, to have greater safety, greater control over what we eat and, consequently, greater decision-making power with respect to consumption choices.  

The farm-to-table philosophy coincides with the increasingly widespread need for "back to the origins”, When the food products consumed at home came directly from breeders, farmers and sellers, without intermediaries. 

To accelerate the spread of this philosophy of consumption, also the birth of many small farms and, above all, agritourisms (today in Italy, there are almost 21 thousand). 

The Farm Restaurants in the world and in Italy

Some American writers, journalists and chefs inaugurated the farm to table philosophy. Among all the figure of Dan Barber, American chef and writer, author of the book "The third plate - Field notes on the future of food" in which he expounds his ideas about a new healthier and fairer food model to follow to meet the needs of consumption on a global level. For Dan Barber, the food model of the future will have to be based on mainly vegetable, various and seasonal products, cooked in a simple way to avoid the dispersion of nutrients and taste. Today Dan Barber is the owner of Blue Hill, a restaurant with two locations in New York where he continues his idea of ​​cooking, consisting of a strong return to vegetable, local and genuine products. 

In Italy, the first farm restaurant was born in Gaggiano at Cascina Guzzafame (southwest of Milan) and is named after its founders: Ada and Augusto. The restaurant today managed by the family heirs, is led by the chef Takeshi Iwai, with a great experience of Italian cuisine, and the pastry chef Mary Julia Maybe. 

The kitchen of the first Italian farm restaurant today uses 70% of self-produced products, from meat (beef, pork, chicken), to milk that becomes cheese, butter and yogurt, up to vegetables, vegetables and then flour, rice. and honey.  

We will probably have to wait a little longer to see the birth of other farm restaurants in Italian cities, but we know that the need for a different, more sustainable and essential cuisine today is already part of the needs of many people. 

 

And you, you are drawn to the idea of ​​trying a farm restaurant? 

 

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