With their emphasis on sourcing great ingredients, chefs like Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower and Wolfgang Puck revolutionized restaurant cooking. Today’s menus are all about the ingredients: which beets are you serving, from which farm, in which county? “Ingredients are creating the point of difference,” says Steve Schimoler, general manager of culinary business development for SYSCO, the foodservice distributor.

But as a multi-unit or volume foodservice chef, how do you get access to the artisan and small-production foods that, as Schimoler puts it, “make high-end chefs into higher-end chefs”?

Many of these small-scale or new producers can’t get traditional broadline distribution because they don’t have the budget for brokers or sales support. So they remain out of reach for most volume operators.

This system bothered Schimoler, who knew that operators wanted the specialty products and producers wanted the business. The solution he helped devise at Sysco is known as ChefEx.com, and it’s designed to provide the link between artisan suppliers and foodservice buyers. With more than 400 suppliers in its online catalog, providing everything from organic chocolate to Vermont cheeses to Niman Ranch natural meat, ChefEx helps small food companies grow their business and helps foodservice providers distinguish themselves.

“ChefEx is empowering a customer base who didn’t have access to things they read about in Food Arts and Saveur,” says Schimoler, “and it’s supporting a production base that needs to grow.” Sysco takes the order; the supplier fills the order and ships the product. It’s not the most efficient system, acknowledges the executive, but ChefEx fills a need.

Several years ago, the Chipotle chain, now owned by McDonald’s, began using Niman Ranch pork exclusively in its carnitas tacos and burritos. Despite a significant price increase, sales soared. Now, every time Chipotle opens another restaurant, Niman Ranch can add another family farm to its network.

“As operators, we can create demand that makes a difference in this country and its agricultural base,” says Schimoler. By seeking out small, sustainable producers, big companies can have an outsized impact.