By Thomas Claypole, founder of Buy From Farmers Direct

There’s nowhere to hide in a tomato salad. When the tomatoes are sweet, ripe and fragrant, a little seasoning will do nearly all the work. When they’re watery, no dressing will save them, however handsome the plate.

Diners can tell, and they remember. A clever dish can be forgotten by the weekend, while one ingredient treated well is often what brings us back.

So when a restaurant first talks to a local producer, price and availability shouldn’t be the whole conversation. There’s something better to find out: what this ingredient could do on the plate, and whether it might become one of the reasons people seek you out.

Begin with the dish

“Do you supply restaurants?” is a fair way to open, but it won’t get you far. The conversation improves the moment a chef says what they want to cook.

Tell a grower you need tomatoes for a raw salad and they have something to work with. Now you’re talking about flavour, texture and ripeness. Tomatoes for a sauce that will cook down slowly may be another choice altogether.

The same goes for the rest of the menu. A cheese served on its own has to hold a diner’s interest in a way that one melted into a dish doesn’t. An apple baked in a tart has a different job from one sliced thin and crisp beside a savoury course.

So ask which of their products the producer would pick for the job, and why. They may suggest a variety you hadn’t considered, tell you when it’s at its best or warn you off it altogether. Better to hear that before you place an order.

Ask what’s good

Then comes the simplest question of all: what’s good right now?

It gives a producer the chance to offer more than a version of what you already buy. A crop coming into its best, a leaf you’ve never cooked with, a cheese that’s ready to eat: any of them could be the start of a special.

This is where local sourcing gets interesting for diners, too. A seasonal dish gives them something to discover, and it ties a meal to its surroundings in a way the usual promise of “quality ingredients” never will.

You don’t need to rewrite the menu. Start with one dish and give it proper thought, so the kitchen can get to know the ingredient, see how it holds up in service and hear what guests make of it.

And don’t mistake “local” for a guarantee of quality. Distance tells a chef very little about flavour, handling or whether something suits the dish. The point is to find excellent produce close by and learn how to use it well.

Taste before you promise

Before a new ingredient goes on the menu by name, try it in the dish it’s meant for.

Taste it alone first, then prepare it exactly as the guest will receive it. Does the flavour come through? Is the texture right? Does the sauce lift it, or bury the thing that made you want it in the first place?

A good ingredient won’t always need a more elaborate recipe. A lighter hand might do it, or a different cooking time, or something simpler alongside. And something wonderful eaten fresh may simply not suit what the kitchen has in mind. Better to find that out at a trial than to force it into the dish.

Use the tasting to cover the practicalities, too. How long will the season last? How should the produce be stored? How much will it vary from one delivery to the next? Settle quantities, prices and delivery before you commit to regular orders, because a dish has to work on a busy evening as well as it did at a quiet tasting.

Tell guests why it’s there

When you find a producer you value, it’s worth telling your guests. Just make sure the detail means something.

Naming the farm or the cheesemaker is a good start. Saying why the kitchen chose that product tells guests far more. Perhaps its sharpness cuts through a rich dish, or its texture lets the chef prepare it simply.

Your front of house team should be able to explain that in everyday language. Nobody wants a lecture with their dinner, but a short, accurate answer can make an ingredient more interesting and show the care behind the plate.

Check the provenance before you repeat it. A nearby supplier may sell food produced somewhere else, so the address on the shop isn’t necessarily where the ingredient came from. One specific, honest detail will persuade guests more than a sweeping claim about the whole menu.

Where to start

Finding the right producer can still take time. We’re developing Buy From Farmers Direct to help people discover UK farmers, growers and independent food businesses, and our guide to finding local food by product is a good place to begin looking for ingredients and potential suppliers. Do check with each business what it sells and whether it can supply a commercial kitchen directly.

The conversation is only the beginning, and the test comes at the table. Ask what’s good, say what you want to cook and take the time to taste. Get that right and the kitchen has a new idea, and the diner has a dish to remember.

About the author

Thomas Claypole is the founder of Buy From Farmers Direct, a developing UK directory that helps people discover farmers and independent food producers and learn how to buy from them.