This article is part one of a two-part series on ingredient sourcing. Stay tuned for part two later this week.
Typically, when a customer at a restaurant is served a meal, an offering that they’ve selected from the menu, they’re concerned with the presentation, the aroma, and how the first bite will taste—the sensory elements that stimulate the chemical and biological processes involved in their gastronomical experience. What isn’t necessarily at the forefront of a guest’s mind is the nature and sourcing of the ingredients that have made up their meal, despite growing awareness of issues such as freshness, use of chemicals, and sustainability. Increasingly, for restaurants, ingredient sourcing has become a critical business function.
In the United States, once home to of a plentiful agrarian economy with meals that relied on what was available locally, sourcing used to be rather straightforward. Over the past decade, it has become one of coping with various challenges and finding competitive opportunities. While the priority was once procurement at the lowest price, sourcing has evolved into a strategic discipline that influences menu engineering, labor efficiency, guest perception, profitability—and even brand identity.
The Inflection Point and Beyond
The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic permanently altered supply chains. Since then, operators have had to contend with everchanging circumstances mainly due to high inflation, rising fuel prices, reduction in agricultural activity in the United States, climate change and erratic weather patterns—and most recently the impact of global conflicts such as the war in the middle east.
Rather than merely responding to temporary shortages, restauranteurs have been compelled to adapt to a marketplace in which volatility has become the norm. Food costs fluctuate more frequently than they once did. The increasing prevalence of unusual weather events have come to affect annual harvests. Transportation costs—a critical cost driver in goods sourcing—remain unpredictable. Labor shortages bleed agriculture, manufacturing and distribution lines. All the while, consumer expectations have been undergoing an evolution towards greater transparency, sustainability and local authenticity. That said, this emerging consciousness among diners has done scant to reduce price sensitivity for the vast majority guests.
As a result, operators are asking more sophisticated questions than simply, "Where can I buy this product?"
Instead, they contemplate questions such as:
- Should we prioritize local suppliers even if prices fluctuate?
- When is a national distributor the more apt choice?
- How much does consistency matter over uniqueness?
- What ingredients truly differentiate our concept?
- How can we explain sourcing decisions to guests while protecting margins?
Local Sourcing: Serving Up the Surroundings
Locally sourced items not only help local agricultural businesses—farmers, ranchers, fisherman, etc.—but for years, “locally sourced” has become a highly sought label for marketing purposes in the industry. Consumers have embraced farmers' markets, seasonal menus and neighborhood producers, encouraging operators to develop closer relationships with nearby farms, fisheries and specialty manufacturers.
Green consumers know that higher the geographical proximity is of an item that is sourced for the menu, the lower carbon footprint it has. Hence, this group of diners tend to support such sourcing by patronizing restaurants with a high degree of local sourcing.
In addition, emphasizing buying American and investing in one’s community has meshed well with the economic nationalism that has developed since globalism moved jobs offshore and has left once vibrant manufacturing towns as dustbowls.
Feld, Chicago: A Local Sourcing Success Story
In Chicago's Ukrainian Village, a small 20-seater restaurant can be found of which it might be said, sets the standard in local sourcing. The establishment sources only from what is available at small, sustainable farms and producers located within a four-hour radius, exemplifying “produce-driven fine dining.” Owned and operated by Chef Jake Potashnick, Feld’s rhythms must synchronize with those of the farmers and ranchers that supply it, adapting to seasonal availability and the conditions of the day.
“The whole concept of Feld is about serving guests exactly what is in season right now,” Potashnick explained, adding: “Guests do not come to Feld for a menu that has been [in] practice thirty plus times for the intent of consistency. They come to Feld to experience a snapshot of the season as it stands. We are an inherently experimental and everchanging restaurant, and that appeals to our guests rather than being a hinderance.”
While Feld’s approach hyper-contextualizes the term hyper-seasonal, it also requires the Potashnick to take a different approach to conventional costing (in which the industry norm is by the dish). Elaborating on this, Potashnick explained: “We only offer one tasting menu, so we don’t think in terms of dish-by-dish costing. We think in terms of costing for the whole menu, so if the cost of one [of the] items we are working with goes up, then we will continue to use it, so long as it remains in season, and will find a different part of the menu to reduce cost to keep a balance on margins.”
The approach runs counter to conventional menu management as mentioned in the recent article in Bar & Restaurant News on menu engineering—but it works for Feld and might well be considered the exception that proves the rule.
The restaurant has been in operation for just over two years. So far, the public and industry have responded positively with reviews calling their tasting menu, “adventurous,” and Chef Jacob Potashnick winning the award for Best Chef—Great Lakes at the 2026 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards as well as being awarded a Michelin Star for sustainability, all seem to have cemented the restaurant’s status in the industry. The recognition is something that chef/owner Potashnick finds reassuring and reinforcing of his approach.
“We have not changed our approach to ingredient sourcing.” Potashnick asserted to B&R News, indeed, doubling down by mentioning: “We have always, and will always, source directly from small farmers. In the summer, 90 percent of our produce comes from the farmers’ market.”
It follows, according to Potashnick, that the restaurant avoids using national distributors. That said, there are five core products that really can’t be source directly from farms. These are: salt, sugar, frying oil, distilled vinegar, and starches/thickening agents (corn starch, rice starch, gelatin, etc.). Potashnick added this caveat, though: “Even for those five items we do not partner with a big-box truck company to deliver them. We go buy them.”
Running a restaurant like Feld is not just about walking farmers’ markets, selecting produce for dishes, making them—and then waiting for the accolades to come in. Of growing concern to the owner/operators of such restaurants, which rely almost exclusively on local agriculture to meet their sourcing needs, is the expansion of data centers in the United States. The procurement of large swaths of land for these computer ‘server farms’ is putting pressure on farmers. According to a recent article published in The Guardian, such expansion directly impacts the American agricultural economy by competing for scarce rural land, straining local water supplies, and driving up local power demands. The pressure can cause farmers to sell their land for a small margin above market and move on.
Indeed, even during the brief lifespan of Feld, data centres are nipping at the heels of some of their producers, though yet to be impactful. When that will change, at the rate of AI expansion, is anyone’s guess. “We’ve had a few farmers impacted by data center construction, but not yet in a way that has directly affected their farming or output,” Potashnick said.
When asked about what products carry the most price volatility, Potashnick mentioned beef, contending that it is “obviously very expensive right now.” But he said they adjust by to buying larger cuts and sub-primal cuts (large, intermediate sections derived from a beef carcass's eight main primal zones such as the chuck, rib, and loin) that they can, in turn, dry age in-house to help control the cost through usage optimization.
This is just one of the ways in which restaurants like Feld adjust to price volatility and changing conditions. These include but are not limited to the following: using flexible and seasonal menus; building direct grower relationships for stable pricing models; and blending local ‘hero items’ with broad-market staples. Such establishments also track weekly ingredient costs, reduce waste through precise small-batch ordering, and use transparent storytelling to communicate price shifts to customers.
National Suppliers Still Offer Significant Advantages
Notwithstanding the approach of restaurants like Feld, large distributors continue to play a necessary role throughout the hospitality industry for reasons that extend well beyond purchasing power.
Consistency remains one of their greatest strengths. Certainly, restaurants operating multiple branches often require ingredients that meet identical specifications every week. Recipes depend on predictable flavor profiles, portion sizes, and product performance. National suppliers typically offer standardized quality control systems, which help restaurant operators to maintain consistency across locations.
The distribution infrastructure of national providers also provides stability through changing market conditions. Large suppliers generally maintain multiple warehouses, broader transportation networks and larger inventories than independent producers. During periods of regional disruption, these systems often allow operators to maintain supply continuity that smaller vendors aren’t quite capable of guaranteeing.
Technology has further strengthened these relationships. Modern purchasing platforms allow operators to compare pricing, monitor order histories, forecast demand, and identify substitutions when products become unavailable. Digital procurement tools increasingly support inventory optimization while reducing waste. It can also offer a common platform, making payment easier.
“Some of our small farm customers still by cheque,” said Michael Shemtov, owner/operator of several restaurants including Nashville’s Butcher & Bee. This can create lags in getting paid that being on a direct payment system avoids.
For many operators, national distributors provide operational efficiency that outweighs modest price differences on commodity products.
Local Suppliers Deliver More Than Ingredients
While national suppliers excel at consistency, local producers frequently deliver advantages that cannot easily be replicated.
Freshness remains one of the most obvious. Produce harvested within days—or even hours—of delivery often arrives with superior texture, flavor, aroma and shelf life. Seafood landed locally may reach kitchens considerably faster than products moving through national distribution systems.
Many in the F&B industry will emphasize the importance of relationships to their business operations. Chefs describe local sourcing partnerships as collaborative rather than transactional. Producers may grow specialty varieties specifically for restaurant clients.
Shemtov’s relationship with a supplier for a particular kind of potato, exemplifies this: “Right now we're running a dish at Butcher & Bee. I'm watching the prep cook prep these potatoes that are… we call them Julie's potatoes, because they're coming from Farmer Julie. And so, we told her, like, hey, we're going to put this dish on in the summer, we're gonna run it for 8 or 10 weeks, you know…So, she knows we're going to be buying say, 50 pounds of potatoes a week.”
Bakers develop exclusive products. Butchers customize cuts. Farmers provide advance notice of seasonal availability, allowing chefs to build menus around upcoming harvests.
These relationships create opportunities for menu differentiation. Guests increasingly appreciate stories behind ingredients. A cocktail featuring locally produced honey or herbs grown at a nearby farm carries marketing value beyond its flavor profile. A menu that names regional cheesemakers or oyster farms offers authenticity that resonates with many diners.
Significantly, authenticity only works when it reflects genuine sourcing practices. Consumers have become increasingly sophisticated and can often distinguish between meaningful supplier partnerships and vague marketing language.
Shemtov’s decade-long relationship with Bear Creek Farm, located close to Nashville is another case in point. “All the cattle and pigs are born on the farm, live their whole life on pasture, and are slaughtered on premises, and processed,” Shemtov said. “We've been long customers. There's just a higher value perception for beef or pork than there is for chicken, and so we found people will pay that [for locally sourced beef and pork].”
How Cost Volatility Has Impacted Purchasing Strategies
Few operational realities receive more attention than food costs. While inflation spikes have smoothened from recent peaks, ingredient pricing remains unpredictable across various categories.
Proteins, in particular, continue experiencing periodic price swings driven by feed costs, disease outbreaks, weather events and global demand. Coffee, cocoa and citrus products have also experienced notable volatility for different reasons: mainly climate pressures affecting yield and quality. Specialty imports face additional uncertainty from shipping disruptions and currency fluctuations. Tarriffs have also played a role. Indeed, Japanese tea exporters have expressed frustration to this writer about tariffs, wondering what local industry the U.S. government is protecting as the types of teas they sell have no competition in the U.S. American businesses including restaurants and ultimately the consumer end up paying more.
In this unpredictable era, rather than attempting to anticipate every market movement, many operators now focus on flexibility. Menus progressively incorporate ingredients that can be substituted with minimal guest disruption.
For example, instead of building signature dishes built around a single expensive seafood species, chefs may develop recipes adaptable to multiple fish varieties depending on seasonal availability and pricing.
Similarly, bars may rotate syrups, fruit garnishes or specialty ingredients according to regional supply and seasonal abundance.
Moreover, there are just some ingredients like bulk essentials, which due to their year-round availability at distributors like butter, flour, and oil, which even restaurants like The Bee, source through a mix of large national broadline distributors such as Sysco and Restaurant Depot. For a time, Shemtov had been trying to get a Community Supported Agriculture model started with local farmers. The CSA model is a kind of partnership in which restaurants buy a "share" of a local farm's upcoming harvest upfront, receiving regular weekly or biweekly deliveries of fresh, seasonal produce in return. It can also be thought of as a subscription.
This has left Shemtov going with large distributors for certain bulk essentials due to price competitiveness and reliability of supply but in one case they went back to the smaller producer.
“Creation Gardens is a supplier to us here in Nashville… they called us, and they said, ‘hey, we noticed you stopped buying cream cheese, and you used to buy a bunch of cream cheese. What happened?’ And we said, well, ‘we just get a less expensive, similar quality.’ So, they matched that price for us,” said Shemtov.
In this instance, Shemtov broke his own rule because the difference wasn’t simply about price: “I always tell our team, if somebody's gonna [sic.] match the price, go with the person who gave you the lower price to begin with. Give them the win. They went out on a limb and dropped their price. It's not fair to them that somebody matches it—and then they lose the business, you know? They need an incentive to be aggressive, But, in that example, I think we switched back to Creation because they not only matched the price but they also they delivered to us. So, it also saves us from having to pick it up at Restaurant Depot, which was a pain.”
Such flexibility reduces purchasing pressure while encouraging culinary creativity.
Sourcing: The Core of Menu Development & Engineering
Sourcing decisions increasingly influence menu development from the earliest planning stages. Historically, chefs often designed dishes before determining procurement strategies.
Today, many operators reverse that sequence. Purchasing teams, chefs and finance managers collaborate earlier, identifying dependable suppliers before finalizing recipes. This shift reflects broader menu engineering principles.
Every ingredient represents not only its purchase price but also storage requirements, preparation labor, spoilage risk and purchasing complexity.
Reducing the number of unique ingredients can significantly improve profitability: A single herb appearing across cocktails, appetizers and entrées generates stronger purchasing efficiency than specialty products used in only one recipe.
Cross-utilization has become an important sourcing strategy: Restaurants intentionally design menus allowing ingredients to appear across multiple categories while maintaining culinary variety.
This approach improves inventory turnover, reduces waste and provides purchasing leverage with suppliers.
The Dialectic of Quality Vs. Consistency
Operators frequently describe a central dilemma in sourcing as balancing quality with consistency.
Guests expect memorable dining experiences. Still, they also expect their favorite dishes to provide the same or a similar taste experience upon each visit. But those expectations can conflict.
Seasonal tomatoes may deliver exceptional flavor but vary considerably throughout the growing season. Heritage livestock breeds offer distinctive eating experiences but may differ in size and fat content. Small-batch cheeses can exhibit natural variation that requires recipe adjustments.
Experienced kitchens recognize that consistency does not necessarily mean uniformity. Instead, successful operators build systems capable of adapting to ingredient variation without compromising guest experience.
In this endeavor, training becomes essential. Kitchen teams must learn how to adjust recipes based on moisture content, acidity or seasonal characteristics rather than assuming every delivery behaves identically, and the front staff need to explain how characteristics of a meal can vary depending on seasonality or circumstance.
Such operational flexibility allows restaurants to benefit from premium ingredients while maintaining execution standards.
Protecting Margins Without Sacrificing Brand Identity
Every sourcing decision ultimately affects profitability. Still, the lowest purchase price does not always produce the strongest financial outcome.
Lower-cost ingredients may require additional labor, produce greater waste or diminish guest satisfaction. Conversely, premium ingredients must generate measurable value through pricing power, increased guest loyalty or stronger brand differentiation.
Successful operators therefore evaluate sourcing through multiple lenses including: Contribution margin percentage; labor efficiency; waste reduction; menu pricing flexibility; guest perception; brand positioning and supply reliability. A broader perspective recognizes like this, positions sourcing as an investment rather than merely as an expense.
What’s On the Horizon?
Ingredient sourcing is likely to become more complex in the years to come.
Climate variability, evolving consumer expectations, geopolitical uncertainty, and continued pressure on agricultural production suggest that supply chain complexity will remain part of restaurant operations. Farmers still don’t know what the impact of potential fertilizer shortages resulting from the closure of the Strat of Hormuz off the coast of Iran and Oman will have on them in 2027.
The industry’s approach has necessarily matured in its evolution. Rather than searching for one ideal sourcing model, operators are building resilient systems capable of adapting to changing conditions.
Hybrid purchasing strategies combine the reliability of national distributors with the authenticity and differentiation offered by local producers. These go together with flexible menus that accommodate seasonal availability while protecting margins.
Technology supports smarter purchasing decisions, and transparency strengthens guest trust.
Ultimately, ingredient sourcing has become much more than procurement. It now sits at the intersection of culinary creativity, operational discipline, financial management, and brand storytelling.
For bars and restaurants seeking long-term success, the question is no longer whether sourcing matters. It is how thoughtfully those sourcing decisions align with the experience guests expect—and the business operators hope to build.
Part two of this series will explore hybrid models of sourcing, sustainability, transparency and the impact of technology.