5 Bay Area chefs, food bloggers’ favorite markets and places to shop

The concept of bulk shopping is a very American thing. Elsewhere in the world, it’s common for people to shop daily or for just a couple of days at a time. It ensures fresher ingredients and cuts down on wasted food (and requires considerably less storage space than the results of a Costco run).

Turns out that’s how many Bay Area food professionals — chefs, cookbook authors and food makers — shop, too. They frequent small local grocers and specialty markets, such as Vallejo’s Anchor Pantry, Belmont’s Namaste Plaza and San Francisco’s Nijiya. And they shop for produce at the region’s bountiful farmers markets once a week or more, letting the seasonal splendors there inspire their restaurant menus and table decor, as well as their home cooking.

Paul Magu-Lecugy, Rêve Bistro

Farmers markets — and the brimming produce aisles and specialty foods at Lafayette’s Diablo Foods — draw chef Paul Magu-Lecugy, the chef who owns this French bistro in Lafayette with his wife, Laura. Paul was a chef at San Francisco’s Ritz-Carlton and the St. Regis before the couple opened what they call a “little bit of Paris in the ‘hood.”

“I spend hours upon hours creating a new menu,” he says. “Of course, being French and owning a French bistro, I’m inspired by the flavors and food of France. I am always picking up new cookbooks to see what other great chefs are doing.”

But it’s the farmers markets that frame his week and provide seasonal inspiration.

“Every Sunday, I start my week with a trip to the Walnut Creek Farmers Market,” Paul says. “It’s there I can see what’s really in season locally and talk directly with the farmers to get a sense of what is coming up and when. I usually pick up some things for my weekly seasonal specials there. When you see, smell and taste a perfectly ripe fruit, vegetable or root that just one day ago was on a tree or a vine or in the ground, there is nothing more inspiring than that. Cooking is an art, and food is the medium.”

Details: Rêve Bistro is at 960 F Moraga Road in Lafayette; http://revebistro.com. The Walnut Creek Farmers Market is open Sundays on Locust Street; www.cccfm.org. Find Rêve’s gougeres in the freezer case at Diablo Foods, 3615 Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette; www.diablofoods.com.

Avery Ruzicka, Manresa Bread

Ruzicka began her bread-baking career at Los Gatos’ legendary three-starred Manresa. By 2013, she was doing bakery pop-up booths at farmers markets. The first Manresa Bread brick-and-mortar opened in Los Gatos in 2015 — and her fifth location is set to open this fall on Santa Cruz’s Westside.

With half a dozen farmers markets in her hometown — Santa Cruz —  or close by, Ruzicka has plenty of choices.

“We are lucky to have so many to choose from each week, with two separate markets on Saturdays,” she says. “I try to get all my produce from either my home garden or a local farm and only buy items at the grocery I cannot source directly from the producer. I spice up my local finds with fun preserved items, liked smoked fish from Fishwife and spicy condiments I read about on Instagram. It allows for the most creative food habits, I have found.”

During the pandemic, Ruzicka planted an expansive garden with raised beds in her backyard that has been so prolific, she only needs to hit the farmers market every couple of weeks. And the long-neglected, now-thriving apple tree she discovered in that garden inspired a new dish, too.

“A warm salad of roasted sweet potato, delicata squash and apples, tossed with raw shaved apple and squash that have been quick pickled in apple cider vinegar and garlic,” she says. “Finish the salad with a drizzle of local olive oil and some toasted nuts and serve with Manresa Bread Levain, of course”

Details: Find details on Manresa Bread and its locations in Los Gatos, Los Altos, Campbell and Palo Alto at www.manresabread.com. Order tinned fish from Fishwife at https://eatfishwife.com. Find Santa Cruz farmers market details at https://santacruzfarmersmarket.org and https://montereybayfarmers.org

Katia Berberi, Anne’s Toum

Katia Berberi didn’t start out in the professional food world — she was an operations and development manager for Tesla for five years — but she grew up making Toum, an addictive Lebanese garlic sauce that can be used as a dip, a marinade or a spread. (Try it slathered on grilled cheese or drizzled over kabobs, she says.) In 2019, she launched her East Bay-based company, Anne’s Toum, in 2019

“I am a daily shopper,” Berberi says. “While I’m eating breakfast, I think about what I’m going to have for dinner and then plan to shop for it later in the day.”

In addition to shopping local farmers markets, Berberi enjoys shopping at several markets, including Vallejo’s family-owned Anchor Pantry, which carries an enticing selection of pickles, cheeses, sausage and crackers — and Anne’s Toum.

“While there are a lot of great Middle Eastern grocery stores around,” Berberi says, “we tend to get our Arabic bread, Arabic pickles, ingredients for hummus, baba ganoush and even pre-made labneh at Shish Market in San Ramon. They also have a good selection of Arabic spices.”

Details: Find Anchor Pantry at 620 Marin St. in Vallejo; https://anchorpantry.com. Shish Market is at 1061B Market Place in San Ramon, www.theshishmarket.com. Find a list of shops and farmers markets where Anne’s Toum is sold at www.annestoum.com.

David Yoshimura, Nisei

Yoshimura began his career at New York’s now-shuttered wd-50, before coming to San Francisco’s then-new Californios, which now holds two Michelin stars. These days, you’ll find him at Nisei, the fine-dining Japanese restaurant he opened last year on Russian Hill — and at the Marin Farmers Market and the San Francisco Ferry building market, where Yoshimura and his team shop for ingredients twice a week. And when he’s going to cook at home, he picks up ingredients at the Japanese supermarket, Nijiya, in the city.

”I usually find inspiration for my cooking in the seasonal produce at the (farmers) market,” he says. “We like to look forward to the seasons and plan our menus around what is coming up next. Inspiration can come from past experiences with holidays and loved ones or by simply looking at the bounty around us.”

That inspiration extends from the menu to dining room embellishments. “Fall is one of the best times of year for Japanese cuisine,” Yoshimura says. “I generally look forward to using pumpkin in a variety of ways, persimmons and chestnuts. Hoshigaki is the sign for fall, and we cannot wait to hang them in our window at Nisei.”

That harbinger of autumn consists of strings of slowly dried persimmons that have been gently massaged every day for four to six weeks. It’s a Japanese tradition that goes back centuries.

Details: Nisei is at 2316 Polk St. in San Francisco; www.restaurantnisei.com. The Marin Farmers Market in San Rafael’s Civic Center is open on Thursdays and Sundays; www.agriculturalinstitute.org.The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; https://foodwise.org. Nijiya has locations in San Jose, Mountain View and San Mateo, as well as San Francisco; www.nijiya.com.

Hetal Vasavada, Milk & Cardamom

“Being a blogger and Instagrammer, it’s always a plus when the fruit is visually stunning as well,” she says.

Vasavada loves Sigona’s Farmers Market, too, a small, family-owned specialty market in Palo Alto and Redwood City. And for her Indian food essentials, she heads for Namaste Plaza in Belmont.

Details: The San Mateo Farmers Market is held on Saturdays on the College of San Mateo campus; www.pcfma.org/sanmateo. Find details on Sigona’s locations at https://sigonas.com. Namaste Plaza has six Bay Area locations; http://www.namasteplaza.net.