August may signal the end of summer, but it’s also the season at its most bountiful: a golden moment for tomatoes, corn, melon, peaches, and plenty of other summer produce. Fifty years since New York’s very first Greenmarket in the summer of 1976, the farmers market remains a beloved rey from the people who grow it
It’s also where many of the city’s best chefs shop for the seasonal ingredients that make their menus come alive. At Hags, a fine-dining restaurant in the East Village, the farmers market is the ultimate muse, says chef and co-owner Telly Justice. “It is our most central inspiration,” Justice tells Vogue. She and her team go to the market three times a week, and write their menu based on its offerings.
Justice says that the dishes the team conceives while shopping and talking to farmers are often “the biggest hits.” For example: a Niçoise-inspired salad with “gorgeous cucumbers,” ripe summer tomatoes, potatoes, and herbs from Halal Pastures, one of Justice’s favorite vendors. Many chefs note being inspired by the produce they source. Patty Lee, the chef at Lei—the wine bar that won this year’s James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant—tells Vogue she loves to shop the fruit stands and markets in the bar’s Chinatown neighborhood.
There’s always something I’m crushing on, Lee says
“There’s always something I’m crushing on,” Lee says when asked about her favorite produce and stands. At the moment, it’s Sycamore Farms’ yellow beefsteak tomatoes. “I think they’re oftentimes overlooked tomatoes because the heirlooms are more sexy—they’re prettier, they’re the more showy ones.” Lee uses the beefsteaks as a backdrop for her snapper crudo, and says they’re the perfect pair.
While we can’t all be award-winning chefs, we can learn a lot from how theyd six of our favorites—Telly Justice, Patty Lee, Nick Tamburo, Daniel Boulud, Jay Kumar, and Igor Almeida Cabral—about their favorite stands, market-inspired dishes, and how they shop for the best produce. Below, read their advice on how to make the most of the farmers market
Engage your senses
The farmers market is “one of the most vivid and important places to spend your time if you’re even a little bit serious or curious about food,” says Justice. “Go early, take exactly what you need, go often, and just experience it in a sensual way,” she advises. In short: “Engage your senses.”
All the chefs seem to sniff out the best produce. “Smell everything,” says Lee.
(Her favorite scent? The Thai basil from Amoon
(Her favorite scent? The Thai basil from Amoon Farm. “It smells tropical and is just the most wonderful perfume in the world,” she says. “Something magical is going on in his soil, cause year after year that basil is like that.”)
Nick Tamburo, the chef at Smithereens—the East Village seafood restaurant that was named one of America’s best restaurants by the New York Times in 2025—says to look for vendors who specialize in a particular offering, “like Eckerton with tomatoes and peppers.” Tamburo and his team go to Union Square and the Tompkins Square Greenmarket, which is right down the street from the restaurant, on Sundays.
This summer, one of Tamburo’s favorite market hauls was colorful snow peas from Norwich Meadows Farm, which he used in a razor clam dish. “They’re just so beautiful,” he says. One overlooked item right now, according to Tamburo? Potatoes. “When the skin is thin and peeling off on its own, you’ll know it’s a fresh potato,” he says. “That’s something that people wouldn’t think of as summer produce, but they’re really nice right now.”
Let the fruits and vegetables shine on their own
When the produce is as good as it can be, you want to err on the side of less is more in your preparation.
Raised in Portugal by Cape Verdean parents, chef Igor Almeida Cabral would always go to the market in the morning with his family. There was “this excitement of ‘What are we going to have today? What can we find at the market?’” he says. When he moved to Marseille, he continued to love vegetable-focused meals. Cabral spent a decade working with Chef Alain Ducasse before taking the helm at Greenwich Village’s Claudette in June.
He wants his menu to point
He wants his menu to point to the heart of who he is. “The goal is, after eating my food, to be able to understand where I come from,” he says. To that end, he put a Du Marché section on the menu featuring produce from the Union Square Greenmarket. The market reminds him of his early days of going shopping with his family. “The goal, when I use the vegetables from the market, is to highlight them.” He doesn’t want to overwhelm their innate flavor with butter or sauce; he prefers olive oil and a light touch.
Daniel Boulud echoes this approach, saying: “A beautiful ingredient suggests its own preparation. The finest produce makes you want to cook simply, allowing its natural flavor to shine.”
“I truly believe it’s something that brings some soul to the menu,” Cabral says of featuring farmers market vegetables on the menu. He loves Lani’s Farm, Migliorelli Farm for plums and cherries, and El Rancho de Abuelito for green onions.
Talk to everyone
“I always enjoy talking with the farmers because they know their products better than anyone,” says Boulud. “They can tell you exactly when something is at its peak, how it was grown, and the best way to enjoy it. Those conversations are as valuable as the ingredients themselves.”
If you’re looking to try out a new-to-you vegetable, Justice also recommends talking with your fellow market-goers.
If you see somebody grabbing something and they
“If you see somebody grabbing something and they seem really confident about it and it’s unfamiliar to you or you have questions, just ask them: ‘What are you gonna do with that?’” she says. And, she adds: “Definitely involve the farmers. They’re so well-versed in the things that they’re growing and harvesting.”
Take your time and enjoy the experience
Jay Kumar, the chef and owner of Park Slope’s Lore and Folk, uses seasonal produce on his menu whenever possible.
This summer, for example, he used Fiddlehead ferns in his lamb sheesh kebab dish. Outside of his restaurants, however, Kumar loves to make a stone fruit granita or a salad with stone fruit at home. “You don’t need to put too many things to make it taste good,” he says. Kumar loves to go to the Grand Army farmers market with his wife and son to shop for dinner together. “Involve all of the people [you’re eating with],” he advises.
There is pleasure to be found in shopping at the market together. “It’s an experience,” he says, encouraging his fellow market-goers to stay curious and explore. “That is the best part: You don’t know what you’re going to find. There are so many things that could be your next meal,” he says. Lee also recommends exploring with an open mind. Recently, she hit the produce jackpot when she stumbled upon white bitter melon at G & J Florist, which she had already been searching for.
Shopping in Chinatown is so magical because just
“Shopping in Chinatown is so magical because just when you think you’ve seen it all, there’s another pocket or another stone to unturn,” she says. Justice reflects on how special the farmers market can be, especially in a place like New York. “The city is so vast, and it’s tough. It’s a hard place to live, it’s a hard place to work. And you can get really sucked into how bleak that experience is sometimes, and then we get really lucky to be treated to these moments where you see the best in people,” she says.
“That’s one of the special things about New York: Every once in a while you see somebody do something really benevolent, or we have a big win like Knicks in five, and you just see the city come together,” she continues. “But you can find that four days a week at the Union Square farmers market.”
Source: www.vogue.com
