Regions: California | Fall

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.

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.

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.

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.

A dinner on a dock is a unique opportunity to put fisherpeople at the forefront – highlighting the work they do in the physical space where they do it. The wharf where we’ll set the table has beautifully expansive views of the San Diego Harbor and the sparkling Pacific and is usually the scene of San Diego’s open-air seafood market directed by our host fisherman Peter Halmay. Peter is one of the first sea urchin divers in San Diego and has made over 21,000 dives over his lifetime. He’ll tell us all about his underwater work while we enjoy a seafood-centric feast from guest chefs Travis Swikard and Mike Reidy. Travis worked for Daniel Bouloud in NYC for many years before moving back to San Diego to open Callie, his fish-forward restaurant inspired by the flavors of the Mediterranean coast. Mike is a fisherman-turned-chef with a lifelong love of the sea. His menus at The Fishery highlight the hard work of local fisherpeople and local farmers alike, adjusting for the seasons of both land and sea.