Press
50 female chefs in 50 states
Chef Karen Small has owned Cleveland's The Flying Fig for almost two decades, infusing sustainable agriculture from small farms and local food artisans into her menu.
USA TODAY
March 2018
Chefs Karen Small and Jill Vedaa make CLE history as James Beard semifinalists
"In light of the nomination, I keep thinking about how long I’ve been at the Flying Fig and all the amazing people I’ve worked with over the years. It’s the staff’s commitment to my vision that truly led to this nomination. Long before farm-to-table became a catchphrase, we made a commitment to local purveyors and, more importantly, a promise to our customers to offer clean, beautiful food.”
freshwater cleveland
February 2018
Midwest Traveler: Northeast Ohio's old and new taste traditions
Karen Small is the godmother of the Cleveland farm-to-table scene, using lessons learned from her Italian immigrant grandparents and the decade she spent raising sheep and cows and canning for the winter on a back-to-the-land homestead.
Minneapolis star tribune
February 2018
Karen Small’s Sweet Sixteen
For Small, her lifestyle was the logical endpoint of the self-reliance and taste for simple, local food that her Italian grandparents had taught her. She’d grown up admiring the way her grandfather cured his own sausage and grew figs and tomatoes in his tiny backyard in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood.
Edible cleveland
Spring 2016
Flying Fig's Karen Small, Salt's Jill Vedaa semifinalists in James Beard Awards
This is not the first time the area has produced two recognitions in the same year, but it is the first time both are women: Karen Small of The Flying Fig in the Ohio City neighborhood and Jill Vedaa of Salt in Lakewood.
Cleveland.com
February 2018
30 Essential Restaurants
As Ohio City continues to change at hyper-speed, we're increasingly grateful for Karen Small and her unpretentious bistro. While concise, the locally sourced seasonal menus offer enough variety for everybody at the table, and that includes the vegetarians.
Cleveland Scene
August 2018
25 Best Restaurants: Flying Fig
Still focusing on sustainable ingredients, Flying Fig continues to forge its own path after nearly two decades.
cleveland magazine
May 2018
Flying Fig quietly maintains its wonderful place in Cleveland's culinary world
What's hip? Maybe it's being truly independent. As in its owner's unpretentious approach to offer whatever and whenever while waving the sustainability flag. If that's hip, fine. If it's having an award-winning owner-chef who doesn't sound her horn often, maybe that's it, too.
Cleveland.com
May 2018
Local female chefs recognized
Cleveland's tantalizing food scene is sizzling and now two local chefs are cooking up some national buzz.
WVIZ/Ideastream
March 2018
James Beard Restaurant & Chef Awards Semi-finalists
Karen Small, owner and executive chef of The Flying Fig, is nominated for Best Chef, Great Lakes. The 2018 James Beard Awards Gala will take place on Monday, May 7, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
James beard foundation
February 2018
Get The Scoop On The James Beard Award Semifinalists
Karen Small and Jill Vedaa share three dishes that left a mark on them.
cleveland magazine
May 2018
Karen Small: Chef/Owner of The Flying Fig
Small’s legacy move came with the opening of Flying Fig in 1999, a seasonally focused eatery surrounded by little else than the West Side Market and Great Lakes Brewing Co. While Ohio City now is a thriving artisan food district, with craft beer bars, restaurants and food businesses dotted all along West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue, little has changed at Flying Fig, apart from the next-door addition in 2010 of an artisanal market.
Crain's Cleveland Business
February 2015