Zone 7

Mikey Azzara, Friend of the Farmer & Friend of Fresh.

Linking Farms & Restaurants

by Kathleen McGinn Spring

Five years ago Mikey Azzara, then director of the Northeast Organic Farming Association and now owner of Zone 7, began holding meetings to bring organic farmers and chefs from fine dining restaurants together.. “There was a lot of networking,” says Azzara. “We did something like speed dating. Each farmer would have two minutes with each chef.”

The two groups are interdependent, especially as diners increasingly scrutinize menus in search of fresh, locally grown ingredients. The chefs know that they need the farmers, and vice versa. But Azzara found that the connection was not always being made.
Read more here