Credits: Michael T. Whalen - Writer/Producer/Director
Release: March 9, 2014 @
Filmed 2010-2013
He is a world famous chef with one of best restaurants in the world. She is a Biodynamic® farmer known worldwide for her award winning heirloom tomatoes.
And one thing connects them…. the food served at Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos, Ca. Together this farmer and this chef are revolutionizing how diners experience a modern Californian meal.
The James Beard Foundation named David Kinch best chef in the Pacific in 2010. His restaurant, Manresa, has two Michelin Stars and was named one of the world’s 50 best restaurants in 2005 and 2012. Oh, and he kicked Bobby Flay’s butt on Iron Chef America in 2009.
Farmer Cynthia Sandberg owns Love Apple Farms, nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains and is dedicated one hundred percent to Manresa. Everything grown here is at Chef Kinch’s disposal. It’s such a unique and successful relationship that famous chefs like Eric Ripert and Alain Passard have traveled to this small town to cook with Chef Kinch and explore Cynthia’s farm.
But all is not so easy for this Farmer and Chef. Keeping his Michelin Stars means Chef Kinch has to constantly evolve to stay atop his game. In the current economic climate survival means standing out from the crowd and serving the most unique and delicious meals.
For Farmer Sandberg, Love Apple Farms is a for-profit business and her only source of income. Unlike many other biodynamic farms serving restaurants in this country she doesn’t have the backing of a huge NGO. She has to make her farm profitable to pay the bills - which means becoming a small cooking & farming school as well as serving the restaurant's needs.
The Farmer & The Chef is a 1-hour documentary that takes you behind the scenes to see how two creative geniuses grow and serve the perfect Biodynamic® meal. Watch Cynthia move from a 2-acre garden to a 21-acre farm that needs to be transformed into the new Love Apple Farms. And follow Chef Kinch as he remodels Manresa and confronts the new challenges of cooking with a ten fold increase of product. It’s about the passion two people have for farming and cooking in a way that respects and pays homage to their local environment.
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