It ’s the ultimate for a farmsteadtarian : going out on the town for a sumptuous dinner . Pop - up dinners make fine dining all the more playfulness and delicious .
Once in a while , it ’s great to rent someone else do the cooking . The growing figure of dada - up dinners throughout the country is leave just the variety of dining experience we starve . At a pop - up dinner you hold a spot at a communal board within eyeshot of the chef . Perhaps you dine with the Malva sylvestris manufacturing business or farmer who made or grew what you ’re about to eat and sample distribution wines poured by the vintners themselves . The one we attend during while traveling for theEcoFarm Conferencein California was hyper - local , constitutive and vegetarian , too .
well-chosen Girl Kitchenowners Todd and Jordan Champagne invited us to savor Chefs Matt Millea and Jacob Pilarski ‘s culinary innovation at the belt down - up dinner held at the Champagnes ’ Happy Girl Cafe in Pacific Grove , Calif.
While there were a few logistics affect in metamorphose this cafe and canning - save commercial-grade kitchen into a space to serve and seat 50 for dinner , it did n’t call for the dramatic event that other bolt down - up dinners undergo as the chefs prepare a repast in less - contributory spaces in other parts of the res publica .
Happy Girl Cafe ’s pop - up dinner blew our tasting bud off ! Who know that nettle — that prickly weed that ’s right impudent if you brush up against it — could smack so fine with hominy and envelop in a level of Allium cepa ?
And they serve chanterelles that melt in our mouth .
Artistically mastered by Millea , Pilarski and their superhero sidekicks , our seven - course dinner party spotlightedSerendipity Farm , a certified - organic farm owned by Jamie Collins .
It turn out , Jamie ( pictured above in the blue and maroon shirt ) and Lisa first cope with when they were both allow for testimony in Washington , D.C. , as part of theBeginning Farmer and Rancher Development Programlaunch a few years ago .
The $ 55 prix - fixe dinner celebrated everything a repast should be : local food , from sustainable farms and artisanal producers , share by a convivial gather of people . Everything was savored slowly . It turned the notion of ostentatious fine dining on its head and provided a direct data link to our growers , producers and the chef themselves , who we watched busily work their trade in the kitchen .
The sumptuous card , serve family flair , featured the pursual :
Besides many of the veggie come from Serendipity Farms , the certified - organic preserved tomato , blood orange marmalade and plum jam came from Happy Girl Kitchen itself . The artisanal cheese came from the Big Sur homestead of Charlie Casio . No spectator , Casio shared conversation and passed the plates of food along toFast Food Nationauthor Eric Schlosser , who share a seat at his tabular array . The organic wines , partner off with nearly every course of instruction , came fromHeller Estate Organic Vineyardsin the Carmel Valley .
The great news : more bug out - up dinners at Happy Girl Cafe are in the works . Reserve betimes ; savor tardily ; last out recent .
Savoring the salutary lifespan ,
< < More Farmstead Chef > >
