Questions to ask a wholesale produce supplier before you commit

Most kitchens change produce supplier for one of two reasons: something went wrong, or someone finally sat down and did the maths. Either way, the decision is easy to rush — a friendly rep, a tidy price list, a promise to "sort you out" — and hard to undo once you've built your prep around it. The questions to ask a wholesale produce supplier before you commit are the ones that surface how they actually behave on a bad morning, not a good one. This is the checklist we'd want a buyer to put to us, with the plain answers underneath.

Why the questions you ask up front matter

A wholesale relationship lives or dies on the boring details: when the order has to be in, when the van turns up, what happens when the crop you wanted didn't make grade overnight. None of that shows up in a price. It shows up three weeks in, at 6am, when a case is short and service starts in two hours. Ask the awkward questions now and you learn how a supplier thinks before it costs you a service. If you want the wider framing on this, our note on what to look for in a wholesale veg supplier covers the judgement calls; this piece is the concrete list to run through.

What is the order cut-off, and how do I place an order?

Ask for the exact cut-off time and the accepted channels, then check they suit the way your kitchen closes down. A late cut-off means you can order after service, once you know what you've used. Ortaggi's cut-off is midnight, and you can place an order by phone, WhatsApp or email — whichever is quickest for whoever's still standing.

Which days do you deliver, and when will it land?

A supplier that delivers five days a week leaves you sourcing your own Saturday veg. Ask which days they run and, more importantly, whether produce arrives before your first service rather than during it. Ortaggi delivers Monday to Saturday, with routes leaving New Covent Garden Market each morning so the boxes are in your kitchen ahead of prep, not halfway through it.

Do you cover my area?

"London and the South East" can mean anything. Pin it down to your postcode and your delivery window, because a supplier at the edge of its round is the one that's late when the traffic's bad. Ortaggi runs morning rounds across central, inner and Greater London, and out into Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex. If you're on a boundary, say exactly where you are and ask them to confirm the round covers you reliably, not occasionally.

Where does the produce come from?

Provenance tells you two things: how fresh the produce will be, and how much a supplier can flex when a line is short. A wholesaler buying at market each morning is choosing from that day's arrivals; one working off a fixed warehouse list is stuck with what's on the shelf. Ortaggi's produce is hand-picked at New Covent Garden Market from around half past midnight, so what lands with you was selected that morning, not days before.

There's a real difference between a market wholesaler, a national broadline and an online marketplace on exactly this point — we set the trade-offs out in full in market wholesaler vs broadline vs online. If provenance and turnaround matter to your menu, ask where in that spectrum your supplier sits.

What happens when a line isn't available?

This is the question most buyers forget, and the one that bites hardest. Overnight, a crop can fail grade or simply not turn up. Ask what the supplier does then — do they call you, substitute blind, or leave a gap? A good answer is a phone call and a sensible like-for-like, decided with you rather than for you. Ortaggi's standing position is straightforward: if it's not on the list, ask — we'll source it, and if something's short we'd rather talk it through than surprise you at the door.

Can you hold my spec and grade consistently?

Consistency is the whole game for a kitchen. Ask whether you can specify variety, size and grade — heritage tomatoes for the plate versus standard rounds for the sauce, a particular onion size, leaves picked for the pass — and whether that spec holds week to week. The range should be broad enough to keep you on one order: staples, fresh produce across the seasons, herbs and leaves, mushrooms, speciality lines, citrus and stone fruit, plus dairy, dry goods and provisions. The fewer suppliers you juggle, the fewer things go wrong at once.

How does the account and invoicing work?

You don't need to interrogate pricing to the penny on day one, but you do need to know how the account runs: how you're quoted, how invoices arrive, and who to speak to about terms. Ask early so there are no surprises on the first statement. With Ortaggi the office handles this directly, and new customers have one first point of contact, so you set up an account by talking it through with the office.

Who do I call when something goes wrong?

Every supplier is fine when nothing's broken. What you're buying is the bad morning: a name who answers, sorts it, and doesn't make it your problem. Ask who that person is and how you reach them out of hours. Ortaggi is family-run and has been trading since 2007 — you're dealing with the people who own the outcome, not a call-centre ticket, and the same phone, WhatsApp and email that take your order take the problem too.

The checklist, in one place

Run these before you sign anything:

• Cut-off: what time, and by which channels?
• Delivery days: which days, and does it arrive before service?
• Area: is my postcode genuinely on the round?
• Provenance: where is the produce bought, and how fresh?
• Substitutions: what happens when a line is short — call or blind swap?
• Spec: can I set variety, size and grade, and will it hold?
• Range: can one supplier cover produce, dairy, dry goods and provisions?
• Account: how does quoting and invoicing work, and who's my contact?
• Escalation: who do I call at 6am when something's wrong?

Get straight answers to those nine and you'll know far more about a supplier than any price list can tell you. If Ortaggi looks like a fit for your kitchen, you can see the full picture on our restaurant food supplier page, or just call the office and ask us the list above — we'd rather you did.