Eating at a Meeting

Local Ingredients Matter: Journey of Food from Farm to Event Buffet

It started as a kitchen garden. Nine acres. A favor from her husband. Today, Green Door Gourmet is 350 acres of certified organic farmland on the Cumberland River — one of the largest organic operations in Tennessee — growing 80 kinds of fruits and vegetables, 80 flower varieties, and 25 specialty herbs, including Southern heirloom varieties that most event menus have never seen. Sylvia Harrelson Ganier is its President, and Chief Farm Operator (CFO). She is also the former chef and owner of CIBO, a Nashville restaurant she built before she ever picked up a trowel. She knows both sides of the table. On this episode of Eating at a Meeting LIVE, Sylvia talks about what it takes to feed a city — and what the meetings and events industry gets wrong about food sourcing. She is a past President of Les Dames d'Escoffier International's Nashville Chapter, a member of the James Beard Foundation, Chair of the Davidson County Agricultural Extension Board, and a speaker at the USDA Women in Agriculture convening. Her farm welcomes 85,000 visitors a year, including 5,000 school children who pick strawberries for the first time. The food on your event menu has a story. This episode is where it starts.

How a FarmHER Feeds Music City: Bloomsbury Farm's Impact on Nashville Conferences & Catering

What does it actually take to grow the food that ends up on a hotel banquet table or a farm-to-table dinner menu? Lauren Palmer has spent 17 years answering that question one harvest at a time. Lauren is the owner and farmer behind Bloomsbury Farm, a USDA Certified Organic operation on more than 400 acres outside Nashville, Tennessee. She grows vegetables, fruits, sprouts, microgreens, mushrooms, edible flowers, herbs, and wheatgrass — and she supplies it all to local restaurants, grocers, CSA subscribers, and guests at the farm's own events and private dinners. In this episode, Tracy sits down with Lauren to talk about the real supply chain behind event menus: what organic certification means in practice, how seasonality shapes what's actually available to caterers and chefs, why regenerative agriculture is the next frontier, and what it means to run both a working farm and a hospitality venue under one roof. Lauren also shares her philosophy on community, food transparency, and why she believes the best thing a planner or chef can do is get to know their farmer personally. If you're designing menus, sourcing ingredients, or telling the food story of your destination — this episode is your invitation to start at the source.

Why Sustainable Event Menu Design Starts Outside the Kitchen

What if the most interesting ingredient at your next event was already growing just outside the venue? I've been thinking about this lately — and then Lotta Giesenfeld Boman introduced me to Lisen Sundgren, and honestly, she made it impossible to think about anything else. Lisen is my guest this week on Eating at a Meeting Podcast LIVE — and she is the perfect person to kick off Women's HERstory Month as our very first honoree. She is a Swedish herbalist, forager, and author based in Stockholm, but joining me from Nepal. She has spent more than 30 years teaching chefs, curious eaters, and anyone who will listen about wild edible plants — the ones that have shaped human diets forever and that most of us walk past every single day without a second glance. She has foraged for some of Stockholm's most celebrated restaurants and worked with Sigtunahöjden Hotel & Conference to weave local wild plants right into their menus. Not as a gimmick. As a genuine expression of place. And that is exactly what so many of us are chasing when we plan events, right? A menu that actually means something. Food that tells guests where they are. Lisen also leads foraging walks and forest baths as part of conferences and retreats. Fun! There is real responsibility here, too. Safe identification, sustainable harvesting, knowing what you are serving and why — Lisen takes all of that seriously, and we are going to talk about it. I promise this one will change how you look at the landscape around your next venue. 🌿

Taste of Place: How to Use Event F&B to Celebrate Local Culture

What if your event menu was the most powerful branding tool your destination has? In this episode, Tracy is joined by Erik Wolf, Founder and Executive Director of the World Food Travel Association and the pioneer behind the global "Taste of Place" movement. We talk about why food and beverage should no longer be treated as a banquet line item—but as the way destinations, hotels, and convention centers express identity, protect culture, and drive measurable economic impact. Erik shares insights from the 2026 Taste of Place Report and explains how culinary heritage, terroir, ethical eating, and storytelling are reshaping tourism—and what that means for meetings and events. If you're a: • Destination marketing organization trying to differentiate your city • Hotel or convention center leader looking to move beyond generic banquet menus • Event planner wanting your program to actually reflect where it's hosted This conversation will challenge how you think about menu design, sourcing, storytelling, and guest engagement. Because when attendees travel for a conference, they don't just want to learn. They want to understand where they are. And sometimes, the fastest way to create a sense of place… is through what's on the plate.

Black History Month 2026: Designing Events That Honor Culture & Community

What does it mean to truly belong at the table — as a guest and as the one designing the experience? This Black History Month, I'm hosting an Eating at a Meeting Podcast LIVE conversation with two extraordinary Black women leaders in the events industry: Zoe Moore (Grow with Zomo) and Diane R. Brown, MBA (Derby Brown Productions). We'll explore how to design events that honor Black history, culture, and community—not just in February, but every time we gather. We'll cover: • What Black History Month means in 2026 for event pros. • The real state of equity and belonging in events and hospitality. • How food, beverage, and supplier choices can either reinforce or repair harm. • Practical ways to source and support Black‑owned caterers, restaurants, and suppliers. Food is culture. Gathering is community. Honoring both isn't a checkbox — it's a practice you can design for.