A London-focused event has been on the OITF bucket list for quite a while now. And Sitopia Farm is just about the perfect place to do it. This urban farm is close enough to central London to travel by bus, but far enough from the hustle and bustle of The Big Smoke to feel like you’ve escaped to the countryside. Farmer Chloë and her team grow a variety of vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers using organic regenerative techniques to feed and protect the soil while rendering some very nutritious and delicious produce. At the center of the farm is a mandala garden, in which seasonal vegetables and herbs are planted in a circular plot, directly in line with the Greenwich Mean Time line. We are thrilled to set the table in their beautiful urban gardens, surrounded by a bounty of spring and summer vegetables, young fruit trees, and a few grazing cows and sheep who live next door. The superstar husband-and-wife chef team at Honey & Co will cook the evening’s meal. Since they opened in 2012, they’ve received glowing reviews for their vibrant Middle Eastern food paired with warm, unpretentious hospitality. Sarit and Itamar are supremely welcoming people and highly skilled Israeli-born chefs committed to using the very best ingredients. Collectively, they run three restaurants in London and are the authors of multiple Middle Eastern cookbooks. Prepare to be floored by their seasonal feast in Sitopia’s fields.
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Events
North Arm Farm
A table set in lush green grass at the base of the Coast Mountains and majestic Mount Currie. This is one of our most beautiful farms to date. Trish and Jordan’s sixty acres are brimming with orchard fruits, berries and peak summer vegetables — music to the ears of guest chef Gus Stieffenhoffer-Brandson. Gus cooked at Michelin-starred restaurants around the world before moving back to Canada to open Published on Main. His popular Vancouver restaurant is known for its rotating seasonal menu sourced from local farms and many wild edibles that he forages himself. Wild mushrooms, huckleberries, sea asparagus or elderflowers might make an appearance on the menu.
Dandelion Spring Farm
Dandelion Spring Farm is home to rows of tender greens, vegetables, cut flowers and herbs, which means there’s lots of pretty spots to place the table — and lots of goodies for our guest chefs to play with. Farmer Beth is a lifelong lover of herbalism and grows a huge variety of medicinal and culinary herbs including tulsi, hyssop and lemon verbena. And guest chefs Damian and Ilma are some of her very best customers. They’re the talented team behind Chaval, a highly acclaimed Portland restaurant with a focus on Mediterranean flavors and a deep dedication to peak season local produce. Their zero-waste kitchen makes use of everything from root-to-stem and nose-to-tail, including a serrano-ham-infused ice cream made with scraps from their charcuterie program. This is bound to be a fun one.
Domaine Lebreuil
Outstanding first brought our long table to France in 2017. We really wanted to go to Burgundy, and Domaine Lebreuil welcomed us with a warm embrace that year, and several summers since. We’ve been pining to get back and can’t wait to see Jean-Baptiste’s friendly face once again. Domaine Lebreuil is an 84 year-old winery with a charming (impressively so) château typical of Burgundy’s small villages. Before we sit down, Jean-Baptiste will take us on a tour of the organic vineyard, where his family has used biodynamic farming practices for over two decades. Guest chef Christophe Ledru grew up north of Paris, enamored of cooking from a young age. After years of hard work, he earned a coveted position in the City of Lights, working with Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athénée. Subsequently, Christophe brought his knives to L’Auberge des Glazicks, a Relais & Châteaux property in Brittany where he worked with Chef Olivier Bellin to earn two Michelin stars. Now Christophe is in Beaune, the heart of Burgundy, and we are honored to have him in our field kitchen.
Outstanding in the Field a amené notre longue table en France pour la première fois en 2017. Nous voulions vraiment aller en Bourgogne, et le Domaine Lebreuil nous a réservé un accueil chaleureux cet été-là, et plusieurs étés depuis. Nous avons hâte de revenir et hâte de revoir le visage sympathique de Jean-Baptiste. Le Domaine Lebreuil est un domaine viticole de 84 ans avec un charmant (et impressionnant) château typique des petits villages Bourguignons. Avant de nous mettre à table, Jean-Baptiste nous fera visiter le vignoble bio où sa famille pratique l’agriculture biodynamique depuis plus de vingt ans. Le chef invité, Christophe Ledru, a grandi au nord de Paris. Dès son plus jeune âge, il se passionne pour la cuisine. Après des années de travail acharné, il décroche un poste convoité dans la Ville Lumière avec Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée. Ensuite, Christophe a emmené ses couteaux à L’Auberge des Glazicks, une propriété Relais & Châteaux en Bretagne où il a travaillé avec le chef Olivier Bellin pour obtenir deux étoiles Michelin. Aujourd’hui, Christophe vit à Beaune, au coeur de la Bourgogne, et nous sommes honorés de l’avoir dans notre cuisine de campagne.
Hillside Grain
Amber waves of grain! This family-farmed ranch in Idaho’s Wood River Valley is outrageously beautiful and our host farmers are extraordinarily passionate about what they do. Brett Stevenson and her brothers grow many different heirloom wheat varieties carefully chosen for nutritional quality, environmental sustainability and flavor. This is terroir-driven grain: you can taste the region’s hot sunny days, cool nights and spring-fed Silver Creek water. And their custom-made stone mill modeled after the French burr makes for some seriously delectable flour. Guest chef Jay Veregge will make good use of all that grain and flour in the field kitchen. At Warfield, he’s known for high-end pub fare and a deep commitment to the region’s agricultural community. That means lots of peak season produce and locally reared meat to go alongside Brett’s delicious grain.
Sage Farm Goat Dairy & The Market Garden School
This family-run micro-dairy in the mountainous town of Stowe is intentionally small, producing award-winning cheeses from happy, healthy Alpine goats. Farmer Katie milks the goats and Molly crafts all sorts of cheeses with the milk, while their partners Bob and Dave manage the maple grove. Lelia Evans runs the Market Garden School, a farming and gardening educational program for kids in the community. Sage Farm’s acres of rolling green pastures makes for a stunningly beautiful spot to dine outdoors. And we’re thrilled to welcome guest chef Cara Chigazola Tobin back to the field kitchen for the second year in a row. She’ll take the night off from her James Beard-nominated restaurant Honey Road to whip up a Mediterranean feast — with plenty of goat cheese, of course.
Mead Ranch
Breathtaking views and delectable beef. We love dining at Mead Ranch. This historic property encompasses 1,500 acres of impeccably green grasslands and grazing cattle in the shadow of the Grand Tetons. The Mead family has been sustainably raising cattle here for more than a century, and guest chefs Nick Phillips and Joel Cox know just what to do with all their lovingly raised beef. Sweet Cheeks Meats specializes in whole animal butchery and barbecued meats — the perfect team for the job. After dinner, you’ll probably find the crew letting loose at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. In the morning, you’ll find us at Sweet Cheeks for a breakfast burrito.
Red Acre Farm
We don’t bring our long table to Utah too often, but when we do, wow! With its kaleidoscopic, water-carved landscape of pink cliffs and lava-lamp hoodoos, it’s a trippily beautiful place! We first visited Red Acre Farm in 2018 and vowed to be back some day. That day has come. This is a high-desert location, at 6000 feet elevation about an hour from Zion National Park. The Patterson family left southern California for Utah in 2005 and now grow year-round in the red dirt of southern Utah, inspired by the boundless enthusiasm of daughter Sara. Sadly, Dad Lynn passed on in 2015, but the indomitable mother-and-daughter team of Symbria and Sara continue to do amazing things here, providing devoted CSA members with nutrient-dense produce, meat, dairy and baked goods from the Red Acre fields and farm kitchen. Guest chef Shon Foster will make magic with our farmers’ summer bounty. At his Kanab restaurant Sego, Shon cooks up a rotating menu of shared New American small plates, celebrating unique flavors and food traditions across the country while sourcing as much as possible from farms and producers within the fine state of Utah. Shon cooked us an epic feast for our last event at Red Acre and we are thrilled to welcome him back to the field kitchen!
Wild Harmony Farm
Farmers Ben and Rachael raise cows, chickens and pigs as close to the “wild” as possible: they roam freely through acres of lush pastures dotted with wildflowers and thick woodlands. This is a very inspiring place and an equally beautiful spot to dine outdoors. This year, chef Benjamin Sukle will return to the field kitchen to cook us a feast of Wild Harmony’s thoughtfully raised meat plus lots of peak summer vegetables and fruits. Chef Benjamin has quite the culinary resume, including a brief stint at Noma in Copenhagen and two James Beard nominations for Best Chef: Northeast. At Oberlin, he’s known for creative, seasonally driven menus that celebrate the rich agricultural landscape of Rhode Island. His homemade sourdough bread and nduja were big hits at the table last time around — perhaps we’ll see an encore this year?
McArthur Gulch
A second night at this majestic spot in the Colorado Rockies. Once again, we’ll dine in a vast meadow dotted with wildflowers and surrounded by rolling hills, woodland and wildlife beneath summer skies. Guest chef Caroline Glover cooked a fantastic feast for us at the Gulch last year—and we are thrilled to have her back! Her Aurora Restaurant Annette has made big waves in the Rocky Mountain food scene since it opened in 2016 and has earned her quite a few James Beard nominations. This year, she’s a finalist for the Best Chef: Mountain category! Her menu last year featured all sorts of glorious summer produce from area farms and freshwater fish caught in nearby mountain streams. We can’t wait to see what she cooks up this year.