farm to table root vegetables from asheville

About Us

About Us

We are a group of cooks, farmers, waiters, cheese-makers, organizers, ranchers, brewers and dishwashers who share a common philosophy about how we eat and in a larger sense, about life.

We believe in the importance of working locally, not just using ingredients from our surrounding area, but also in our contribution to the community. The success of our restaurant has always been closely entwined with the health and progress of our community. For over 40 years we have supported the arts, local-needs and education programs.

Our customers have returned over the decades, we hope in part because we have always tried to treat them as family… and friends. Some might say, our food tastes good, perhaps even memorable. Each day, we do our utmost to prepare and present fresh food in a creative manner with a craftsman’s hand. Working in the most sustainable way possible is important.

The Market Place has been a fixture in downtown Asheville since 1979. Though its beginnings rose in the streams and mountains of western North Carolina – a place of mountain trout and small farms – it also has a hand and heart inspired by traditions far from our borders. This mélange of local food prepared with other worldly traditions of the table may have helped the Market Place garner national attention but the keen reverence for the heritage and roots of Appalachia has always remained at the center of what we do.

We hope you notice.

entrance to the market place asheville

chef william dissen

Executive Chef & Owner

William Dissen

As Executive Chef & Owner, William has been named as one of America’s “Most Sustainable Chefs” where he strives to create “innovative farm-to-table cuisine” utilizing ingredients and artisan products from within 100 miles of the restaurant.

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fresh herbs and farm to table

Our Farmers

Our Farmers

There is no cuisine without gardens and farmers.

The words “local” & “organic”, seen only in grassroots grocery stores, and markets, 20 years ago, are now common at our local tailgates and farmer’s markets, thanks to the demand we’ve created. This transition to locally grown foods has helped to provide support to local farmers, enhance our regional economy, and rekindle our love affair with great food.

Owner & chef, William Dissen, spent his early days exploring the gardens & barns of his grand parents farm. It was there that he realized the necessity of locally grown food. The fields and farm animals of Appalachia educated him, as a chef and a locavore, to truly appreciate the meaning of “sustainability”.

These basic needs represent the honor of what we strive for in our daily cooking here at The Market Place.

The tradition of “farm-to-table” is central to our kitchen.

Today we are fortunate for the wonderful tailgate markets, which we visit twice a week in season. Also for the other wonderful producers that delivery to our doorstep – Sunburst Trout, Looking Glass Creamery, Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams, Gaining Ground Farm, The Culinary Gardener and the local gatherers, like Alan Muskat ‘The Mushroom Man’. The circle broadens into Tennessee, now that Tom Michaels is producing Tuber melanosporum in his hazelnut and oak orchards – the Perigord truffle.

farm to table fresh ingredients

Recent Press Mentions