The Farmplate Blog

“Few American chefs take foraging wild foods quite as seriously as Daniel Patterson, of Coi restaurant in San Francisco,” read a recent piece on NPR’s food blog, The Salt. “At any given day, he might be cooking with clams, lichens, coastal spinach, Monterey Cypress, angelica root, and forest mushrooms — all native California foods from the beaches and forests a few dozen miles from his restaurant.” 

Chef Patterson sources ingredients from as far south as Santa Barbara and as far north as Washington.

Along with his staff at Coi, Patterson takes the process of sourcing locally extremely seriously. But that doesn’t mean he shies away from newer techniques. “The process of finding ingredients and transforming them into cuisine are not separate events, but one continuous action, constantly informed by cultural expectations and new ideas. We brine, cure and smoke, as cooks have been doing for thousands of years, but we also embrace modern cooking techniques. Our dishes are animated by flavors and textures both familiar and strange—Northern Californian cuisine as it appears to us,” according to the Coi website.

Here is his list of local suppliers. Don’t forget to click on the business name to visit their FarmPlate profile. And show your support for the businesses by rating and reviewing them.

Dirty Girl Produce • Santa Cruz, CA - strawberries, brassical, fresh shallots

Full Belly Farm • Guinda, CA - everything, an incredibly diversified farm

De Santis Farms - citrus, especially blood limes and bergamot

Brokaw Nursery (Will’s Avocados) • Watsonville, CA - avocado, kumquats, pixie-like mandarins

Brooks and Daughters • Forestville, CA - wheatgrass and sprouts 

Andante Dairy • Petaluma, CA - cheese 

June Taylor Jams • Berkeley, CA -  preserves 

Hamada Farm • Kingsburg, CA - all kinds of fruit, especially yuzu, niabel grapes 

Happy Quail Farms • Palo Alto, CA - piquillo peppers 

La Tercera • Bolinas, CA - heirloom pole and shelling beans, herbs 

Images courtesy of Coi Restaurant