Episode Details

Darin hits the farmers’ market with the ultimate expert, Sam Rogers. Bridging the gap between some of California’s top chefs and the state’s finest growers for over fifteen years, she sits down to share her five rules for shopping like a chef. Whether you’re a farmers’ market rookie or you’ve been selecting heirloom tomatoes since the ‘90s, Sam’s rules will turn your weekly produce run into a culinary adventure.

[00:00:00] Darin Hello and welcome to Five Rules for the Good Life. I'm your host, Darin Bresnitz. Today, I am joined by farmers market expert, Sam Rogers, who has been a trusted liaison between farmers and some of the state's top chefs for over 15 years and her substack, Sam Loves the Market is one of my favorite weekly reads. Today, she joins us to share her five rules on how to shop the farmer's market like a chef. And we chat about how to approach shopping, the perfect type of vessel to bring with you and how to challenge yourself to try something new. Let's get into the rules. Sam, it's so good to see you. I'm glad I caught you at a day that you weren't at the market. I appreciate you making time to sit down and chat with me.

[00:00:48] Sam Of course, I'm very excited to chat, all things market.

[00:00:51] Darin I always feel that I never make it to any of the farmer's markets in LA. And when I think of someone who's there all the time, it's you in the best way possible. How did you make going to farmer's market is just part of your normal routine?

[00:01:06] Sam When I was in my early 20s, I somehow ended up convincing John and Vinny that I was the girl for them to go and pick up all their produce. I knew Sarah and Sarah from Kismet and Rotisserie, and they had just signed the contract with John and Vini, and I was like, I think I can do it. Loved being at farmers markets, I loved learning, I love asking a million questions. And I just made this job up and it stuck. And at the time there wasn't a bunch of us. Mostly chefs were going to the market or there were wholesalers. So navigating it was fun and it was new and it exciting and I was in my 20s and it didn't matter that you were waking up at five o'clock in the morning multiple times a week. And I fell in love with it and I found my thing which is speaking both chef and farmer pretty fluently.

[00:01:58] Darin For those who might not be familiar with a farmer market buyer, what role do you play at a restaurant?

[00:02:04] Sam Once upon a time, someone wrote that they were a liaison for a female signature. Sure. I wanted a fancy name because I thought buyer sounded boring. And I also don't buy everything. I only buy produce and meat. I only do stuff directly with farmers. So I took farm liaison and just put that on my signature on my emails. And now that's, I guess, technically what this role is called.

[00:02:26] Darin Excuse me for saying the word buyer. I'm so sorry.

[00:02:30] Sam I'm so much more, I'm so much, so much more. So basically what I do is I consult four restaurants and four chefs and work with them to create their menu based on extreme seasonality and work directly with local farmers, basically to bridge those two. So I know who grows the perfect. Small Brussels sprouts versus who grows medium size and it works for your dish perfectly. Being able to understand what a chef wants and what they see and how they imagine a dish being and their little isms because everyone's got their own ism.

[00:03:03] Darin Eeking chef is very important.

[00:03:05] Sam Speaking chef is very, very important, but also speaking farmer is very important and understanding why something is late that year or being able to tell them, hey, what if we bring in the favas two weeks early so that way they're a little bit smaller, a little more ten