Farmers Joseph and Helen Fields will host us at their 50 acre organic farm on John’s Island, where they grow for several local farmers markets. Joseph, a third generation farmer, was born and raised on the farm on John’s Island and entrenched in Gullah culture. They will tour us through their vegetable fields before we sit down for a feast of Filipino-infused Lowcountry
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Events
Bells Bend Farms
This 40-acre farm is just a stone’s throw from downtown Nashville, even though its rolling pastures, cropland and forests feels like a countryside escape. Bells Bend Farms is the result of community members who’ve fought city developers since the 1980’s to maintain the area’s rural roots. Farmer Eric Woolridge helped build the deer fence around the current property where he farms with wife Tyler. Together, they grow a wide variety of fresh vegetables and flowers for their Music City community, helping to maintain this thriving foodhub in Davidson County. We’ll toast to another season of hard work with an early autumn meal in their fields. Guest chefs Mailea Weger & Mike Kida are the team behind Nashville hotspot lou where they craft seasonal small plates paired with an impressive list of natural wine.
Richardson Ranch
Richardson Ranch encompasses 50,000 acres of redwood forest, pastureland, and shoreline — plus a 25-acre Pinot Noir vineyard on a bluff overlooking the ocean. It’s also home to the state’s oldest redwood: a 1,640-year-old tree with a trunk as wide as a two-lane road. Needless to say, this is quite the majestic place to set the table. Our hosts will tell us all about the ranch’s impressive history, conservation projects and sustainable meat and lumber production before we settle in for a meal from guest chef Francis Ang of Abacá — an acclaimed Filipino-Californian restaurant in San Francisco. He’ll cook us up a feast of traditional Filipino dishes and flavors using all the glorious fauna and flora of coastal California, plus plenty of meat raised on the ranch.
Bells Bend Farms
We last visited beautiful Bells Bend Farms in 2013, so we’re setting the table twice this year to make up for lost time. Eric and Tyler’s 40-acre farm is so close to Nashville you can almost hear the sound of banjos streaming out of honky tonks — but the abundant rows of fresh flowers and vegetables surrounded by lush woods makes it feel like a countryside oasis. Bells Bend is part of a community project to preserve the rural landscape of Davidson County and maintain its thriving foodshed. Farmer Eric has been there since the beginning, volunteering to build a deer fence around the farm in its infancy back in 2008. We’ll hear more from him and wife Tyler on the farm tour before we settle into our early autumn meal in their fields.
Happy Valley Farm
The field that started it all. This beautiful apple orchard belongs to OITF founder Jim Denevan’s brother Bill and Jim spent many seasons here thinning apples, collecting brush and picking fruit as a teen. The idea for Outstanding in the Field was born with this place in mind: one long table right here, where these heirloom apples were planted several generations ago along the Santa Cruz coast. We first set the table here back in 1999 and we’ve been back a few times since. This year, our guest chef is Jim Denevan himself. Jim spent many years as the chef at the lauded Gabriella Cafe before venturing around the country in the big red bus. Bill is a pioneering organic farmer and will give us an educational tour around the property while Jim and crew cooks away in the field kitchen.
Secret Sea Cove
A pristine beach typically inaccessible by foot. The soundtrack of seabirds, ebbing waves and a gently flowing stream. A few cows grazing on the bluffs overhead. Platter after platter of thoughtfully prepared seafood plucked from the water that morning. It doesn’t get much better than this. Plus, guest chef Jessica Yarr will be barefoot in the beach kitchen cooking up a feast of her famous Eastern European fare. Her Santa Cruz pop-up Chicken Foot has earned much acclaim over the last couple years, known for its delectable combination of traditional Ukrainian flavors and colorful California produce. Dig your toes into the sand and stick around for dessert — she might bring some of her famous chocolate beet cake, or perhaps a batch of chamomile doughnuts.
Oxford Community Table
Our community table events create a unique platform to celebrate the local talent of an area and truly tell the story of a place. For this event, we’ll transform a bustling Oxford street into a communal table that showcases local handicraft alongside the city’s hottest culinary talent, inviting an opportunity to dine alongside makers who can speak to how their work has been influenced by the area. In the street kitchen, we are thrilled to welcome chef John Currence of City Grocery—a celebrated Oxford landmark for more than 30 years. John first moved to Oxford from New Orleans in 1992 and has since opened some of the most celebrated restaurants in the city while picking up a host of culinary accolades including a James Beard award for Best Chef: South. He’ll be joined by an all-star team of chefs, including City Grocery’s head chef Nic Swogger and pastry chef Austin Agent, alongside past and present members of City Grocery hospitality group. Chef Vishwesh Bhatt is the Executive Chef of Snackbar and a fellow recipient of the lauded Best Chef: South award. Tyler Edwards is an Oxford native who worked with Vishwesh at Snackbar before taking the reins at Elsewhere Brewing in Atlanta. And Greg Peters is the culinary mastermind behind celebrated Houston steakhouse Georgia James. They’ll put their talents together to craft a fabulous Fall feast sourced from local farms via Oxford Community Market—and Betsy Chapman, the market’s director, will be at the table to tell us all about her important work connecting small-scale farmers to the Oxford community. This is one for the books!
Secret Sea Cove
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.
Bartlett Farm
We always get a warm welcome here. Since our first visit to Bartlett Farm in 2014, Farmer John and his Mom, Nancy, have become like family. We usually come to NOLA on OITF’s Winter Tour. This will be our first visit in the fall, and we expect it to be a glorious season in the Big Easy! When it comes to great chefs, New Orleans offers an embarrassment of riches. We’ve had some great ones cross the long causeway to Lake Pontchartrain to come out in the field with us, and this event is no exception. Guest Chef Michael Stoltzfus of Coquette will join us in the field kitchen to cook up a beautiful feast comprised of Bartlett Farm’s rich fall harvest and the area’s Gulf Coast seafood.
Ampelos Cellars
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.