Serving Local Food, From Portland to Durham, N.C.

Chef Marco Shaw was much loved in Portland, Oregon, by patrons of his restaurant, Fife, and also by local farmers from whom he purchased virtually all of the vegetables, fruit, meats and cheeses that he served. In 2009, he moved to Durham, North Carolina, and began doing the same thing at Piedmont Restaurant. The Durham area has a growing local food culture, but it's no Portland, in terms of the level of education about and support for local food among restaurant goers, as Shaw has discovered, somewhat to his consternation, and as he explained in a recent interview with Seasonal Chef. In his years in Portland, no one ever called to ask exactly what was on his menu that night, he says. Fully cognizant of the vagaries of farming, they were content to choose from among whatever local producers were able to deliver that week. In Durham, diners are fussier. "Here, I still have people who don't understand when we don't have salad because it's too hot and things died, or too cold and things froze. I still get pushback when I don't have asparagus in March or strawberries for Valentine's Day," Shaw laments. Here's the rest of my conversation with Marco Shaw.