Celebrate local & seasonal

The issues 

Fruit features heavily in sweet gastronomy. We all know that fruit is very much seasonal produce but suppliers accessing the global economy can create the impression that all fruits are available all year round. As a result, it can become second nature for chefs to source ingredients out of their local growing season, sometimes from far away.  

Customers often expect to see certain dishes on the menu. You may feel like you need to keep firm favorites such as a strawberry tart or a Tarte Tatin on the menu all year round, which makes choosing seasonal ingredients difficult. 

Why it matters

Buying local produce in season is a shortcut to fresher, tastier, healthier ingredients. Seasonal fresh food, with shorter food miles, often has a smaller environmental footprint. Quality and costs can also be better controlled. At the same time, it also provides a valuable investment in the local economy, helps establish and maintain local food resilience and protects local food heritage. Serving locally sourced food also helps give customers more transparency and traceability over what they’re eating. 

Top tips to celebrate local & seasonal 

  • Know where all your ingredients come from, ideally down to farm level and source from at least one local farm or producer 
  • Change your pastries and desserts with the seasons and promote seasonal specials to increase their appeal 

Get inspired by our contributors

We would rather disappoint customers than use something out of season. Because we dry our own grapes to make raisins, we only make pain aux raisins when the grapes are in season. Customers know they won’t be around forever so demand builds up and we sell more of them. Use social media and specials boards to highlight seasonal specials and don’t be afraid of saying that they’ll only be available for a short amount of time.

Lindsay MOREL 
Co-Founder 
The Floating Boulangerie 
London, UK 

We have direct relationships with farms. Thanks to this, we can choose which products to buy when, for example if there has been a large harvest and excess fruits that would otherwise be wasted we will buy these.

Koji TSUCHIYA 
Chef Owner  
Musée du Chocolat Théobroma 
Tokyo, Japan