Crop Chef: Local Eatery's Glenn Crawford advances in national fan favorite competition

LACONIA — Local Eatery’s Chef Glenn Crawford has been a farm-to-table cook almost his entire life. Growing up on a farm in Massachusetts, and continuing the farming tradition as an adult, he finds pride in being on “both sides” of a dish.

Crawford is in the fourth round of the nationwide “Favorite Chef” competition, put on by chef, author and TV personality Carla Hall. Even though Crawford said he “never thought I’d make it this far,” he is on the cusp of advancing to its quarterfinals.

Entrants began the competition in groups of 1,000, and online votes over time have winnowed down the field of each group round by round. Crawford is currently one of five finalists in his group. The current round, slated to close at 7 p.m. this Thursday evening, will pull the top vote getter from each pack, sending them on to a quarterfinal. As of publication, Crawford held the second place slot in his group.

Crawford joined Local Eatery in May 2019, after being forced to take some time away from cooking for health reasons.

The cooking bug, he said, will always come back. It was a bug he first caught early in life. 

Growing up on his family farm in Oakham, Massachusetts, Crawford’s family made almost everything from scratch and sourced ingredients from their own farm or nearby connections.

“We went to the store just for snacks,” Crawford said. “I grew up always knowing what good food was.

“My dad would be in the kitchen, showing me, you know ‘This is where you put love into the family,’” Crawford said. “I was hooked.”

After serving time in the military, Crawford’s professional cooking career began with a catering company that specialized in 14th century British Isles cooking, often selling at renaissance fairs. Period cooking, with its restricted ingredients and tools, has a lot of parallels with farm-to-table, and is a personal passion of Crawford’s.

Because of Local Eatery’s commitment to sourcing its ingredients from within 150 miles, it maintains a rotating menu. For Crawford, this meant it was a natural continuation of his lifelong relationship with food — including by providing the restaurant with ingredients from his current farm in the Granite State.

“It is a great thing to be able to say to people, you know, that I'm on both ends of the food that hits your plate. I've produced it and I've cooked it,” he said.

It also gives him room to play. 

“I have fun twisting dishes,” he said. “Taking a nice comfort food dish that some people like and then finding a way to elevate it and make it original again,” he said. He’s fond of going out among diners and talking to them about these plates — the Italian wedding soup-inspired risotto, the sherried rabbit inspired by his grandmother's recipe, the exact breaded trout his father used to serve for breakfast on fishing trips — and hearing their thoughts.

“I like seeing the customers' looks the first time they taste something,” he said. “They're like, ‘Oh, yeah, I get it. I get the dish.’”

Crawford described how the support he’s gotten through online votes, if surprising, is telling of the reach of Local Eatery and its role as a pillar of the restaurant scene in the city for locals and visitors alike. 

The fact that the competition is judged by regular people is endearing to him.

“Unlike most competitions you've seen, it's not three judges on a board tasting your food and judging you. It is the public countrywide,” he said. “It's nice to see that I have that many people out there voting for me, supporting me.”

The winner of Hall’s Favorite Chef competition wins a cash prize and an advertorial in Taste of Home Magazine. Voting is free, but an additional daily vote can be obtained after a donation to the James Beard Foundation. To cast a vote for Crawford, visit favchef.com/2023/glenn-crawford.