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We can’t wait to get back to the garden. Robert and his dates and citrus make regular appearances at Outstanding’s table at Coachella. After the enforced hiatus, this year was our seventh gig at the fabulous festival of music and art, and we look forward to bringing the table to Robert’s mystical place in the fall season. In October, the desert weather has cooled and it’s the perfect time to visit the magical garden, where date palms are interplanted with rows of citrus trees. Guest chef Gabriel Woo will cook an Autumn feast in the field kitchen. He’s a Coachella Valley native and the chef behind Bar Cecil, a modern American bistro in Palm Springs known for its indulgent and colorful menu featuring lots of locally sourced seasonal produce. Before opening Bar Cecil last year, Gabe gained an enthusiastic following for his communal dinners at boutique hotels Sparrow’s Lodge and Holiday House. We first worked with Gabe earlier this year and we are thrilled to welcome him back for a very special meal beneath the whispering palms.

The table in the grove at Temecula is among our most beautiful. It seems like every tree has been shaped to provide the most beautiful possible dining site. There is actually some truth to that. Ten years ago, when we set our first table here in the grove, many small branches needed a trim so guests could dine comfortably. The trees have now grown and there is quite a bit more room. Maybe OITF and the Temecula olive grove are growing in concert. Chef Brian Redzikowski has grown alongside the trees also; this is his eighth time as an Outstanding guest chef.

Olive green. You see it everywhere here, including the farm-fashionable clothing of host farmer Thom. So much love and care goes into this farm. It’s really one of the most well cared for properties you will ever see. You may feel lightheaded with intoxication from all the beauty as we dine in dappled sunlight under arching branches. If it happens you have some of your own farm-fabulous olive green somewhere in your closet it’s time to bring it out and join Thom. Guest chef Anthony Wells of Juniper & Ivy will don his green in the field kitchen. Anthony’s worked at Juniper & Ivy since it opened back in 2014, forging deep relationships with local farms and fisherpeople and helping the restaurant earn its stripes as one of San Diego’s very best. He was named a 2022 James Beard Semifinalist for Best Chef: California. Grab a seat in the grove to learn why.

One of our most beautiful table sites. Last year was our first visit to the Hearst Ranch. Two consecutive nights brought extraordinary weather and views — warm, windless skies and a historic castle in the golden hour. As we have often experienced in Big Sur and elsewhere, the higher coastal elevation presents both a view of the Pacific and fog that arrives in the evening, pooling below the table as we float on a cloud. Needless to say, it’s quite the place to dine. And guest chef Julien Asseo will cook up quite the meal to match the scenery. Julien grew up on a vineyard in France and has worked in a number of impressive kitchens in Paris, L.A. and Las Vegas, including Michelin-starred Restaurant Guy Savoy where he climbed the ladder to Executive Chef. In 2019, he and his wife Courtney opened Les Petites Canailles, their celebrated farm-to-table French bistro in downtown Paso Robles. His Fall feast is bound to feature some French flavors and technique, plus plenty of pastured beef from Hearst Ranch.

Here, at one of the biggest of ranches in the USA at 83,000 acres, there is a stunning range of places to set a table, from the ocean side to the mountain top. Steve’s close friends Jim and Debi Saunders of Hearst Ranch Winery will share their award-winning vintages. We are honored that the Hearst family reached out and invited us to this historic property. It’s a gorgeous place, and we’re thrilled to return, this time with guest chefs Jeff and Janet Olsson of Industrial Eats. This will be their second appearance this tour, after having worked their magic in the field kitchen at Gainey Vineyard in July. Lucky for us, this husband-and-wife chef team keeps returning to cook for us. They’re masters of the wood-burning oven and good friends with a slew of sustainable farms, foragers and fisherpeople across the Central Coast which they’ll source from for the menu.

The hilltop table set above the clouds in Big Sur is an extraordinary and unforgettable experience. Anticipation builds during the steep climb to the dinner site. Upon arrival, the effort is well rewarded. High on the ranch, vistas in every direction reveal the sources of our meal: fishing boats working the cold offshore waters; cattle happily munching abundant grasses; the foraging grounds of forest and shore. Chef Jacob Burrell of Niner Wine Estates will helm the field kitchen, gathering everything he knows and loves about Big Sur right there on the plate.

It’s a lot of work schlepping tables and chairs across the sand, but it’s well worth the effort. This quiet cove has seen a few tables over the years — and there’s usually quite a few stories to tell. We’ve often spotted whales and dolphins swimming by and even caught a surprise rocket launch a few years back. Plus, Hans the fisherman is always ready to tell us some stories from the sea. Yosuke Machida is the new Executive Chef at A16, the popular San Francisco Italian restaurant that won our hearts back in 2006. He was born in Tokyo and spent many years working at big-deal Bay Area kitchens before taking the helm at A16. We’re working with Yosuke earlier this year at McEvoy Ranch and are thrilled to welcome him to the beach kitchen for the first time. He’ll transform Hans’s fresh catch into an alluring Autumn feast featuring the flavors of Southern Italy, while pastry chef Charlie Guyard whips up an enticing dessert. Not to be missed.

Guest chef Clark Staub loves cooking in the field kitchen. He’s always up for anything – ask him about ferrying all his ingredients out to a sand spit in Morro Bay for dinner a few years back – and we love any excuse to bring him along with us. This will be Chef Clark’s tenth dinner with us (we’ll also see him earlier this season in Big Sur), and that doesn’t count his appearances at Coachella. He’s definitely an OITF favorite. We’ll be returning to set the table with our friends at Ampelos Cellars again this year. Host vintners Rebecca and Peter are always a welcoming site to a crew that has traveled the country for five months. The Santa Rita hills have the climate and soil that leads to very good wine — there will be no shortage of that as we dine together beside the vines.