Independently-owned restaurants from South Jersey are looking to show their communities they support local farmers by hosting Farm to Fork Week beginning July 20 and running through July 26. South Jersey Hot Chefs, a collection of local chefs from independently-owned restaurants, designed the program.
“We started doing restaurant weeks about 11 years ago,” SJHC President Assad Khoury said. “Then, about five years ago, we decided to make each restaurant week specific, and the Farm to Fork Week is designed to showcase the local farmers who grow the food that we cook in our restaurants.”
There will be 45 local eateries from Camden, Burlington and Gloucester counties participating in the event. The restaurants will feature four-course summer-themed meals for $35.
Participating restaurants in Mount Laurel include Carlucci’s Waterfront, Flavors of India and Monsoon fine Indian Cuisine.
“This is the best way we can think of to show the community that we are dedicated to buying locally-grown produce,” Khoury said. “We want to support the local farmers because as independent restaurants, we understand that we all need to help each other.”
There are a few new features to this year’s Farm to Fork Week. On July 16, SJHC is inviting the public to help harvest the crops with them at Duffield’s Farm in Sewell. People will get the opportunity to pick the produce the restaurants will be using to prepare their meals.
“This is a great way to show the people exactly what it means to buy locally,” Khoury said. “We’re trying to give the people a taste of what man-made food looks like and where they can get it.”
Another addition to this year’s event is the “Littlest Chefs” contest. This interactive element allows people to submit photos of their kids with their culinary creations. People can submit their photos by tagging SJ HotChefs on Facebook or by using the hashtag #SJLittleChefs on Twitter.
“Our goal is to get as many people involved as possible,” Laurel Fairworth, who is heading the public relations for the program, said. “With these kinds of interactive elements, we’re hoping to get some more people out and involved in the community.”
Fairworth says she feels most people don’t get to see where their food comes from anymore with large grocery stores and processed food.
“Even those people who try to buy local get their produce from a farmers market mostly,” she said. “We’re trying to bring people directly to the source and let them pick the produce from the ground with their own two hands.”
For a complete list of participating Farm to Fork restaurants, visit www.sjhotchefs.com.
