Episode 91: Farmer Lee Jones and Chef Jamie Simpson of the Chef's Garden

The CHEF Radio Podcast

So how do you know, as a chef, where you should be putting your energy outside of your normal job description? Because quite often on CHEF Radio, we talk about how chefs have positive impacts outside of the kitchen through great leadership practices, mentorship, fundraisers, and foundations, but maybe one of the single biggest impacts we can make is through our own responsible purchasing and sourcing and teaching the next generation the importance of being stewards of our foodways and food systems.

Reducing our carbon footprint through climate education, menu planning, reducing food waste, and even packaging and plastics reduction are just some of the ways we can leave this industry better than how we found it, and let's face it, when you become a leader in our industry, you're expected to do so much more than just simply create menu items, work service, and write a schedule.

And of course, as individual chefs, we can each do this on our own, but as you’re going to hear today, when a farmer and a chef work hand-in-glove to create a Regenerative Organic utopia such as Chef’s Garden, the impact they can have is immeasurable, and it's no coincidence that this is Earth Week, and we are releasing this on Earth Day, because I couldn't imagine a better couple of guests to talk about the major positive impacts they’ve had on our planet and people and why would they do is massively important. Support Regenerative Organic Agriculture!

Here’s what else you’ll hear:

Farmer Lee Jones

• Coming to you live from the New York Food & Restaurant Show 2023
• What is Regenerative Organic farming and why you as a chef need to be supporting it?
• Why our vegetables nutritional levels continue to decline on a massive scale even with the advances in technology
• Trying to farm like they did 100 years ago
• Harvesting the sun by planting cover crops and soil
• Why we must support regenerative organic farming as chefs because the government’s not going to change anything
• Having a medical doctor on staff at the Chef's Garden to help create more nutrient dense vegetables to assist in healing.
• How the Chef’s Garden changed the game with the creation of microgreens
• Charlie Trotter’s influence on the trajectory of CG
• Chef’s Garden focuses on their team & community and why that matters

Chef Jamie Simpson

• The Culinary Vegetable Institute at the Chef’s Garden
• Jamie’s love for all 600+ different varieties of fruits and vegetables that grow around him
• How they bring chefs to the Vegetable Institute for either R&D or a little R&R
• The biggest changes that Jamie has been a part of over the years at Chef’s Garden
• Moving towards a direct-to-consumer and pick-to-order concept
• Having to give up his career and music to focus on being a chef
• How they harvest all parts of the plants and use absolutely everything that can possibly be turned into food or a food related product
• Creating vegetable “Deli Slices”
• High Pressure Pasteurization and why Jamie is so excited about it

A huge shout out to our sponsors, Maxwell McKenney and Singer Equipment, for their unwavering support, which allows us to be able to bring these conversations to you. Check out their websites for all the amazing equipment they can supply your restaurant with to make your team more efficient and successful.

Welcome to our newest sponsor, Meez, which is one of the most powerful tools you can have as a cook and chef that allows you to have a free repository for all of your recipes, techniques and methods so that you never lose them. Besides that, it does way more, so check them out and make sure you use the discount code that you’ll here in the podcast to upload 25 free recipes to the platform.