Every Thursday Changes the Menu

First of the season fiddlehead ferns

I get to the Marin Farmers Market early — just as the vendors are finishing setting up, before it gets crowded. My first stop is always Star Route Farms. I pre-order from them, so we look for my “Roux Catering” crates and I load them into the van. I spend a few minutes with Annabelle, the farm manager who has been there forever, Then I walk the market.

This is where the menu happens.

Not in a kitchen, not in front of a spreadsheet. Right here, walking the stalls, seeing what came in this week. The Marin Farmers Market is where I see the first of the first — the moment a new season announces itself before anyone else knows it's arrived. Last week it was fiddlehead ferns and baby artichokes—now that’s exciting.

I love fiddleheads. These tiny, tightly coiled ferns that look almost too beautiful to eat — until you sauté them in good butter with garlic and they turn nutty and tender and completely extraordinary. Last week I paired them with those baby artichokes and finished the pan with fava greens from Star Route. Fava greens are something I wish more people knew about — bright, intensely green, with these delicate little flowers still attached that are actually the baby beans. They taste like spring distilled into a leaf.

I folded them in at the very end, just long enough to wilt, and that was the dish. Three ingredients. One pan. The whole story of this exact moment in the Northern California growing season on a single plate.

I'm lucky enough to have a corporate lunch client who trusts me to wing the menu every week. That relationship is a gift. It means I can follow my instincts and I often build an entire menu around a single ingredient that caught my eye at 8am, This is what farm-to-table actually means in practice. A Thursday morning.

I always end my market visit at Front Porch Farms, where I pick up flowers. I bring a fresh arrangement to my lunch clients every week — because beautiful farm flowers are like taking a piece of the market back to the kitchen..

If you are planning a wedding and you love vegetables — really love them, the way I do — I want you to know that this is how your menu would be built. Not from a checklist. From a Thursday morning in Marin, following what's extraordinary right now.

Come to the market—say Hi and let’s get inspired together.

Planning a vegetarian or plant-forward wedding in the Bay Area? If you want a caterer who is genuinely passionate about vegetables — not just accommodating them — I'd love to talk.