Week of February 10th

New this week – wild black trumpet mushrooms from Oregon! Hot this week – vibrant red amaranth and beet microgreens!

Make this Valentine’s Day memorable for your guests and their loved ones by serving the city’s best-tasting tomatoes from MightyVine’s glasshouse, including yellow heirloom tomatoes, grown exclusively for my St. Louis chefs. Then, give your dishes a pop of festive red with our vibrant amaranth and beet microgreens.

This holiday isn’t just on the 14th anymore – it’s a weeklong celebration. Be sure to call us early with any special menu needs.

WE’D LOVE TO FEATURE YOU!
Send us the names of dishes you’ve made with our produce and a little blurb about it and we’ll post it on a new page of our site “What’s Cooking?”! Our Marketing Manager, EngageTaste, offers 3 Critical Steps For Taking Gorgeous Food Photos With Your Phone:

LIGHTING
Indirect natural daylight is the best lighting for capturing the highest resolution and the most vibrant color. (Restaurant lighting is often very dim, leading to a pixelated, fuzzy image. Kitchen lighting is often very harsh but will do in a pinch, but see Setting!) If you can time your photo for a daytime photo, DO IT. It often works best to pick a table in the restaurant near a window – indirect is best, but direct sun can sometimes be lovely.

BACKGROUND
One of the hallmarks of a professional photograph is the focus on the subject matter with the rest of the world blurred out. These days, it’s easy to achieve this with a smartphone. On an iPhone using the Portrait feature, follow the instruction to step back enough to engage the feature. Contrasting background colors work best. With a Samsung, install the Google Camera app and use the Lens Blur option – this blurs after the photo is taken and you can adjust the settings in preview.

SETTING
Obviously, your food is the star, but you might not realize what else is taking the stage in your photos. After your dish is plated, set it on an interesting surface, such as a table in the restaurant, the bar top, even the grass or a gorgeous sidewalk outside. If you must take the photo in the kitchen, make sure the surface is clean. Then, keep waste, trash cans, signs, people, light sockets – any clutter – out of the photo.

Squatter’s Cafe (now closed and we’re anxiously awaiting Bulrush!)






Nudo House





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