Shop Like The Chefs Do At The Center City Whole Foods

Baldor Specialty Foods has long been one of the produce suppliers used by chefs looking for rare, seasonal or weird ingredients. Need sea beans, Bulgarian sevruga caviar or a case of cactus pads? Baldor can get that for you. Whole frozen rabbits? Yeah, that, too. Problem is, for all of you home cooks out there, it’s always been tough to get your hands on some of these ingredients.

At least until now.

In July of this year, Baldor made a deal with Whole Foods to install something they called a “Baldor Forager” in one store–a self-service kiosk that connected Whole Foods customers to “one-of-a-kind produce items” available through Baldor. Or, more specifically, available through Baldor’s warehouses and suppliers who would take that order and deliver the requested ingredients to the Whole Foods market within 1-2 days.

The first store that installed the Forager was in Williamsburg (because of course it was), but do you know where the second one is? Right here in Philly, at the brand-new Center City Whole Foods.

Right now, they’ve got seasonal rarities like wild mushrooms, heirloom vegetables, fresh, water-grown wasabi root, salsify and a strange, purple French mushroom called a bluefoot, among other things. So you can go in there right now, order whatever it is you like, have it delivered to the market, and then pick it up as soon as it comes in–guaranteeing that you’re getting your salsify and bluefoots (bluefeet?) just as fresh and just as fast as the chefs do.

Whole Foods [f8b8z]