Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley features an all Riverdog Farm menu

Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley featured an all Riverdog Farm menu on Friday. They invited us to share a meal with them at their Chef’s Table in the kitchen. It was a quite a treat.

Sitting between the pastry chef’s workstation and the wood-fired grill, Riverdog is in the heart of the Chez Panisse kitchen viewing the action where the deliciousness of prepared food comes from.

The menu included an appetizer of shaved asparagus and purple carrots with pork terrine in a mustard sauce, risotto with fresh shelling peas, braised chicken with a side of cabbage, spinach, and new potatoes, and for dessert: ile flottante with strawberries.

Riverdog has been selling to the world-renowned restaurant since 1990, almost 25 years. It was a pleasure being in the midst of the wonderful meal creation that emanates from the Chez Panisse kitchen.

SF Gate journalist Michael Bauer put it this way: “The restaurant was built on heart, soul and determination, and it conducts business in ways other places don’t even consider.” As a farm that’s been selling to the restaurant for so long, we can testify to that: they are dedicated to buying from the area farmers.

A small printed message posted above the invoice box in the kitchen conveyed the Chez Panisse way of preparing food and sharing meals with others: “Cook from the heart.” And it could be felt in the Chez Panisse kitchen during our meal on Friday. No fuss, no frantic, no haste. Just thoughtful, artful food preparation to please the senses.

—Riverdog Farm