Farm-to-table
Farm-to-table (or farm-to-fork, and in some cases farm-to-school) is a social movement which promotes serving local food at restaurants and school cafeterias, preferably through direct acquisition from the producer (which might be a winery, brewery, ranch, fishery, or other type of food producer which is not strictly a "farm"). This might be accomplished by a direct sales relationship, a community-supported agriculture arrangement, a farmer's market, a local distributor or by the restaurant or school raising its own food. Farm-to-table often incorporates a form of food traceability (celebrated as "knowing where your food comes from") where the origin of the food is identified to consumers. Often restaurants cannot source all the food they need for dishes locally, so only some dishes or only some ingredients are labelled as local.
George Francisco
In 2011, Francisco moved to Hunter Valley and became the executive chef at the Tower Estate, which comprised Tower Lodge, Restaurant Nine, Peppers Convent and Roberts Circa 1876. He is an advocate for the concept of reducing Food miles, which measures the distance food travels between production and consumption. In 2012, he established an organic kitchen on the estate to source ingredients for the restaurant. Later, he increased the area covered by the garden and also established a small chicken farm and beehives.