Adventure With Apples in the City

A Window into the World of a Restaurant Fruit Seller •

Not long ago I drove to San Francisco with 5 bushels of apples from our farm, stashed in the back of my car. I had emailed some restaurant chef friends of mine in the city to let them know the Arkansas Blacks from our farm were ready, but only got advance orders for 2 bushels. And Majkin Klare, the pastry chef at Foreign Cinema in the Mission District, wanted a box of Pink Ladies. I hoped to sell more, since it’s a 2-1/2 hour trip each way, and I needed to make it worth my time and gas. I always like to throw in a few extra boxes whenever I make these outings, just in case.

First Stop: Zuni Café

The sun was just coming up as I headed out of the farmyard. By the time I got to San Francisco, the sun was so strong it hurt my eyes. It was one of those brilliant fall days. First stop, Zuni Café on Market Street. Remi, the produce buyer, was busy getting the day’s soup going, stewing some onions on the stove (if you don’t like the aroma of onions cooking first thing in the morning, don’t go into restaurant work). Remi left the onions to sweat on their own for a minute and came outside to see what I had in the back of the car. He had already pre-bought a case of the Arkansas Black and was interested in Pink Lady, but for another time.

Quince

I was a little more bold with Mike Tusk, the chef/owner at Quince. He was trimming meat for sausage, but he was happy to come outside and check out the fruit (I didn’t see any onions on the stove, but several cooks were making what looked to be pumpkin ravioli). His pastry chef had ordered a box of the Arkansas, but Mike kept saying he himself loved Pink Ladies. I made him a deal he couldn’t refuse, and he decided to get both. Two more boxes sold!

Foreign Cinema

By the time I got to Foreign Cinema, Majkin was busy getting lunch desserts ready (wouldn’t you know it, there were some onions cooking nearby). I opened the box of Pink Ladies she had ordered. Her hand was a blur as she reached in and grabbed one to take a bite. Her smiling face told me all I needed to know. Then I gave her a slice of Arkansas Black, and she was hooked. “Good work,” I told myself, “I don’t have to take any unsold apples back to the farm.”

Later, before I settled down to my lunch at Camino in Oakland, I looked into the kitchen. Chef Russ was there, cooking (of course) some onions for the dinner menu.

Alan Tangren, DooF’s Director of Food Operations, is a farmer, a flower grower, and a former chef at Chez Panisse (and yes, he knows “everybody”)