Gorgeous and picturesque Nazaré Harbor is the site of our very first Portugal event. Nazaré is famous for having the world’s largest rideable waves nearby, and the adjacent land and waters are home to key ingredients for a sustainable seafood-centric feast. Our guest chef Sebastião Castilho has devoted his adventurous culinary practice to exploring the significant heritage of food in Portugal. With his special portable cooking rig, named “The Trawler,” he has the ability to move about the entire country and realize his culinary aspirations and dreams in just about any kind of location.
Joining us at the event is famed big wave surfer and noted environmentalist João Macedo. João will give an overview of efforts toward environmental preservation and responsible stewardship of fisheries. João is a resident of both California and Portugal, and as a representative of Save the Waves, presents a global and local perspective on environmental issues.
O belo e pitoresco Porto da Nazaré é o local do nosso primeiro evento em Portugal. A cidade da Nazaré é famosa por ter as maiores ondas surfáveis do mundo, e a terra e as águas circundantes fornecem os principais ingredientes para um banquete sustentável centrado no marisco na praia. O nosso chef convidado Sebastião Castilho dedicou a sua prática culinária aventureira à exploração do significativo património gastronómico de Portugal. Com seu equipamento de cozinha portátil especial chamado “The Trawler”, ele tem a capacidade de se movimentar pelo país e realizar suas aspirações e sonhos culinários em praticamente qualquer tipo de local.
Juntando-se a nós para o evento está o famoso surfista de ondas grandes e conhecido ambientalista João Macedo. João dará uma visão geral dos esforços para preservação ambiental e gestão responsável da pesca. João é residente na Califórnia e em Portugal e, como representante da Save the Waves, apresenta uma perspectiva global e local sobre questões ambientais.
This is our first visit to the beautiful Loire Valley, where we will set the table in the verdant grounds of the breathtaking Château de la Bourdaisière, which dates back to the 14th century. This is a place of superlatives, and we’re eager to experience it all. Set in the midst of 136 acres (55 hectares), the castle is a classic limestone block edifice with soaring turrets and spiers. The estate’s extensive parterre gardens are a collection of sculpted topiaries, lush flowerbeds, and bounteous kitchen crops, all laid out in exquisitely intricate patterns that will make OITF founder/artist Jim Denevan deliriously happy. The chateau’s mini-farm is an ambitious experimental project of agroecology, and is home to the National Tomato Conservatory, a unique collection of 700 varieties of tomatoes. The farm will provide ingredients for our table;
***Guests have the opportunity to stay at Château de la Bourdaisière , in one of the hotel’s 29 rooms and apartments. Bookings can be made directly through their website.
This dinner promises to be a delightful mix of mystery and familiarity. We’re no strangers to a secret beach setting, but as the name of this event suggests, we’re setting the table in a special spot this time around. With a soundtrack of crashing waves and echoing gulls, and views of the setting sun on the distant horizon, this special secret sea cave is worthy of the uncertainty you may feel entering coordinates into your map to get there. We promise you’ll be well taken care of by our old friend and field kitchen veteran, Matt Millea. Matt has spent time in many celebrated restaurants, including Big Sur Bakery and Post Ranch Inn, as well as touring the world with OITF as expeditor and chef. He promises to delight you with his take on H&H’s fresh caught fish while our favorite fisherman, Hans Havemen himself, delights you with stories of his catch at the table. Some secrets are better kept, while others are best shared with friends. We can’t wait to share this one with you.
It wouldn’t be a complete Outstanding in the Field season without our annual last-dinner-of-the-year foraging feast at the iconic Pie Ranch in Pescadero. Stomping around the woods this time of year can uncover some truly incredible secrets of the forest. Our host forager and king of mushrooms Todd Spanier will lead us on a treasure hunt through the moss-covered redwoods, and give some valuable insider knowledge on the forests of Northern California. We’ll also hear from Pie Ranch host farmers Nancy Vail and Jered Lawson, who have been operating their 14-acre farm in the shape of a slice of pie since 2005. Guest chef Brad Briske is deeply dedicated to sourcing from small-scale Bay Area farms like Pie Ranch. He’s cooked a few events for us over the years and each of his menus is uniquely inspired by whatever’s freshest and best at the time. At his Soquel restaurant Home, he’s known for hyperlocal California cuisine featuring everything from house-cured wild game to handmade pastas to fresh-caught Monterey Bay fish. Expect a feast full of foraged mushrooms (this is the height of porcini season!) and fall vegetables paired with earthy autumn wines.
Take a seat at almost any restaurant in San Francisco, and chances are that you’ll be eating your dinner off the simple, elegant, and impeccably well-made plateware from Heath Ceramics. We’ve been serving our family-style farm dinners on Heath platters for over a decade. At this very special event, we’ll begin with a glass of wine and a hands on demonstration on how these ceramics are crafted. From there, we’ll take a short walk to the Sausalito waterfront, where we’ll dine on a seafood-heavy feast, featuring local catch from host fisherman Kenny Belov of TwoXSea. In the waterfront kitchen will be Ravi Kapur, Kevin Keovanpheng and Brett Shaw of OITF-favorite restaurant Liholiho Yacht Club and the newly opened Good Good Culture Club, both in San Francisco. Ravi has cooked with us on beaches, in vineyards, between fields of vegetables and even at an organic coffee farm on Maui. We can’t wait to reunite for this very unique late fall seaside event.
This is our fifth year at Pinnacle Farm, and we are so in awe of Farmer Janna Anderson. Pinnacle Farm has abundant shade and a gorgeous view of South Mountain from the table. Farmer Janna has a matter of fact, no-nonsense manner typical of hard-working farmers. An appreciation of the view isn’t the first thing on her ever-busy mind. Farming in Arizona is challenging, and you’ll hear it straight from her — the ground truth, no sugar coating. We will gather to celebrate the rewards of planting seeds, tending crops, and bringing it all to harvest with an Autumn meal from guest chef Stephen Jones. Stephen regularly sources from Pinnacle and other local farms for his restaurant, the larder + the delta, where he combines New Southern cuisine with the diverse agricultural bounty of the Southwest. His imaginative and community-driven cooking has earned him quite a few awards over the years; this year, he’s a James Beard Foundation Semifinalist for Outstanding Chef.
Every chef wants to cook at Big Sur. Adam Dulye, who has joined us in several states and a few countries, finally gets his turn. This is as far as you can get from a normal kitchen, and for Adam that’s only a positive. A professional challenge feeds a chef’s passion. Adam has taken on some of our most challenging events, and this one high on the ocean bluffs along Big Sur’s rugged coast is no exception. He’ll cook the evening’s meal while staring out into a view of rolling golden hills above a sea swallowed by fog. We’ll have the same view as we dine. As the evening progresses, we’ll get a sweeping sunset over the ocean while the waxing moon rises in the East.
Our second-ever event in Africa is a very special one. In the field kitchen, we host Chef Fatmata Binta, the passionate woman behind Ghana’s Dine On A Mat, where she cooks up modern interpretations of West African cuisine. Fatmata crafts innovative and interactive menus based on the nomadic traditions of the Fulani people, with a focus on heritage ingredients, sustainability, and female empowerment. For her efforts, Chef Binta has been awarded the 2022 Basque Culinary World Prize, the Nobel Prize of Gastronomy. To celebrate this momentous achievement, she will cook what promises to be an incredible meal in the renowned mango orchards of Hendy Farms, a lush family-owned mango farm in the foothills of the Larteh Mountains. Host farmers Sandra Snowden and Rita Brobey will welcome us to dine amongst their trees heavy with ripening mango during their second of two annual harvests—a benefit of their unique location in Dodowa. Join us for this unique celebration of the vibrant flavors and cultures of West Africa, then explore the streets of Accra and its beaches on the Gulf of Guinea.
We return to Markegard Family Grass-Fed for an autumn meal in their lush pastures overlooking the Sonoma coast. Erik and Doniga Markegard are deeply dedicated and knowledgeable ranchers and it’s a joy to hear them speak about their story and their practices while staring into sweeping views of happy grazing cows, chickens, pigs and lambs. Through their regenerative grazing system, the Markegards aim to boost the health of their soil and their animals. This leads to some very nutritious and delicious meat, which guest chef Byron Hughes knows just what to do with. He’s the culinary powerhouse behind Last Supper Society in Sacramento, a custom culinary experience aimed at forging connections and celebrating cultural differences. Byron and his team cooked us for us at Markegard last year and is cooking earlier this year at Forlorn Hope as well. We are thrilled to have him back for another round. Expect an unforgettable meal featuring Afro-Asian flavors, flame-grilled Markegard meat and fall vegetables from surrounding farms.
A desert oasis in the olive groves, the buzz of a local festival, wafting fragrances in the air, and the dusty green and deep purple olive trees contrasting with the vibrant hues of the nearby city streets…our first table in Morocco will be a paradise to behold. Our guest restaurateur is Mike Richardson from Cafe Clock, named after the centuries old water clock that occupies the facing wall to the Bou Inania Madrasain, in the heart of the ancient city of Fes. The kitchen team at Cafe Clock will guide us on a culinary tour of this profound and magical land, paired with inventive non-alcoholic beverages designed to compliment each course. We’re popping up the table in the olive groves of Noor Fés during their annual olive oil festival. Guests will be granted access to festival programming for the day before sitting down for dinner amongst the Moroccan Picholine olive trees. Dakir and the Amor family stewarded the growth of these trees, with a strong eye on sustainable practices, for over a decade before harvesting their first olive crop. The result is award winning olive oil grown with traditional methods, watered from the springs near the Ain Blouz River. Join us for a day of celebrating the olive tree in this oasis, followed by dinner at the long table, which will be sure to delight with culinary invention and cultural tradition.