Chef Jeremy Ford is sitting in his Michelin-starred Miami restaurant, Stubborn Seed, talking tractors with Like a Farmer podcast host Pat Spinosa. “So you’re a John Deere guy?” Spinosa asks. “I was a Kubota guy at first, but it didn’t have the horsepower I needed,” Ford replies. “My buddy got me up to a 65 horsepower John Deere. It won’t do everything, but it’s enough to get my auger in the ground and start planting fruit trees.”
Two years ago, debating the pros and cons of tractor models is probably not something Ford would have found himself doing. But these days, the chef begins most mornings at the wheel of his favorite ride—a John Deere 5065E—surveying the 5.5 acres of land in Homestead that he calls Ford’s Farm. It is a place the former Top Chef winner, award-winning chef, and restaurateur never imagined he would be. Yet now that he has added “farmer” to his repertoire, Ford says that his new profession is one of the greatest passions of his life.
Those who know Ford best are likely not surprised by his latest venture. His career path has always been a bit unconventional, starting as far back as 7 years old when he picked up not a spatula but a guitar. “I was hell-bent on playing,” says Ford, who spent his early childhood in Jacksonville and dropped out of high school in his early teens to take his shot at being a rock star. “I went out to L.A. and toured. I played in a bunch of metal bands, but the one that ended up making it was Shinedown.” The group released their debut
album in 2003, long after Ford had left the band. “It was kind of bittersweet,” he says. “I guess if I had stuck it out, I would have made it, but it just wasn’t meant to be my path.”
What was meant to be his path, apparently, was to become one of the most renowned chefs of the moment. Newly out of the music business, Ford landed a job at Matthew’s Restaurant in Jacksonville when he was 15. “Matthew’s was a tasting restaurant with very high standards,” he says. “I got great training at a very young age, but it was very intense.” After two years there, he got the itch to expand his cooking experience and moved to California with his best friend to seek out new opportunities. After asking around, he learned that L’Orangerie, a French restaurant in Coronado, was the place to go—so he went. “We knocked on the back door, and this tall French guy with glasses opened the door,” says Ford. “We told him, ‘We’re here to work.’”
At L’Orangerie, Ford focused on learning everything he could about French cooking. “The chef was right out of Nice, France, and every single day we were learning these old French techniques that you rarely see anymore,” he says. “I felt very fortunate to be in a place where we were learning such crazy techniques at such a young age.”
When his mother fell ill, he returned to Florida in 2004 and contemplated his next career move. He set his sights on Miami, citing the city’s diverse culture and cuisine as what enticed him. He inched his way there—moving first to Fort Lauderdale in 2007 to work for Dean Max, who owned a series of successful restaurants including his flagship 3030 Ocean. Ford helped Max open new restaurants, they wrote a cookbook together, and Ford did his first James Beard dinner in New York. Then, in 2012, he got a call: Jean-Georges Vongerichten—a legend in the culinary world—was opening a restaurant in Miami Beach. Ford was hired as chef de cuisine at the esteemed chef’s new Matador Room. “Working under Jean-Georges was the job of my career,” says Ford. “He changed the way I season fish, how I look at produce… He was such a big influence in my career.”
It was Vongerichten who encouraged Ford to interview for Bravo’s Top Chef in 2015—and also may have helped get him cast. Recalls Ford: “I was on a Skype call interviewing for Top Chef, and JG [Jean-Georges] walked into the room. They all saw him behind me. What better endorsement do you need?” The producers gave Ford the nod, and he flew to California to compete on Season 13 of the show. Ultimately, he emerged as the season’s winner, an achievement that brought him national fame and launched a new stage in his career. He was 30 years old.
In 2017, Ford opened his first restaurant, Stubborn Seed in Miami Beach, which was awarded its first Michelin star in 2022. He made his mark in Palm Beach County with The Butcher’s Club at PGA National Resort in 2021, followed by Miami gourmet burger joint JJ’s Guilty Pleasures in 2024.
Amid all these openings, Ford’s wheels were turning. “I had money saved up, and I thought about what I wanted to do with it,” he says. “I really wanted to get closer to the earth, and I decided it would be cool to learn what it takes to be an organic farmer.” He started driving around the Redland area of Homestead looking for land. “We were looking at 2-acre lots, and then it morphed into 4 acres, and somehow I ended up with 5 and a half acres,” he says. He bought the farm in July 2023, not really knowing much about “working the land”—but luckily, the farm had belonged to a woman with a master’s degree in horticulture. “She took me under her wing and taught me everything she knew about the land,” he says.
Just three months after Ford bought the farm, the winter growing season began—and he got a crash course in being a farmer. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” he says. “I would call my farmer friends and try to learn what I could.” The previous owner had grown all her plants in pots, so the soil hadn’t yet been cultivated for seed. The land was on coral rock, so Ford had to use an auger to break through so he could integrate topsoil. “I spent thousands on Caterpillars, just grinding away at this hard coral rock,” he says. The good news was that the coral provided lots of calcium, which is great for growing.
By the end of the season, he had succeeded in growing okra, eggplant, tomatoes, herbs, carrots, and radishes. Says Ford: “It was just enough success to tease me to want more.” Ford’s Farm was officially in business.
Going into his second growing season, he upgraded to his beloved John Deere tractor and
focused on expanding his plantings. He now grows more than 40 different crops including carrots, turnips, hibiscus, lemongrass, Swiss chard, allspice, eggplant, okra, broccoli, cauliflower, and tomatoes. His harvests are shipped to his various restaurants to be used in food and drink items. He also added bees to the property to generate fresh honey.
Last November, Ford completed construction on a 7,000-square-foot event space on the farm, where he hosts farm-to-table dinners. (The space is also available for private rental.) At press time, he had already hosted two farm dinners in the space featuring a multi-course menu with food grown on the farm, and he plans to do more. “We’ve had hundreds of people reaching out asking when we will be doing more dinners,” he says. “I’d like to be doing two dinners each month from November to March or April.”
The farm is a happy place for Ford, but he has no intention of slowing down and living “the simple life.” In fact, his life is quite possibly busier than ever at the moment, as he continues to expand his culinary empire. In January, he opened Salt + Ash at Hawks Cay Resort in the Florida Keys, and in February, he brought Stubborn Seed to Vegas, opening a second restaurant under the name at the luxury hotel Resorts World Las Vegas. On the horizon: restaurants in Aruba and Columbus, Ohio.
As Ford looks back on the many incredible chefs who have mentored him along his journey, he hopes to foster the same passion for food in the next generation. He is building an internship program on the farm for culinary students to learn not just about cooking but also about where their food comes from. “They don’t teach you that in culinary school,” he says. “If the information is out there, there will be a lot more chefs growing food and a lot more chefs caring about where their product comes from. Our real goal is to give back to the community.”
Follow Jeremy and Ford’s Farm on Instagram: @chefjeremyford; @fordsfarmmiami
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