TIME:
Forget trying to get a reservation at Joel Robuchon or The French Laundry. This summer’s coveted tables are out in farm fields, literally. A raft of new businesses started by restauranteurs and food enthusiasts are offering outdoor culinary experiences everywhere from the Napa Valley to France’s Basque country. The idea is to supply diners with great food and ambience and to reconnect them to the land where the food is grown while supporting local farms and artisans.
Chef and artist Jim Denevan started his Santa Cruz, California-based company, Outstanding in the Field, in the mid 1990’s as a way to introduce diners to local farmers. Denevan, along with his associate, Katy Oursler, have since expanded their reach from local farms to far-off locales such as vineyards in California, farms in Italy, South America and, most recently, on an iceberg in Greenland.
The dinners are luxurious - often including 6 courses and sometimes cooked up by world-renowned chefs - but also educational with farmers giving tours of their land and explaining how the produce is grown. Additionally, proceeds from some dinners go to non-profit organizations supporting environmental, agricultural and organic education. For the Greenland dinner, sponsored by Absolut Vodka as part of its Absolut Visionaries campaign, the focus will be on global change as influenced by the world’s tastemakers. Read full article.
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