Bring Your Own Plate From the beginning, Outstanding in the Field has asked diners tobring their own plates to the public dinners they organize. “It’s a way for everyone to par- ticipate,” said the organization’s direc- tor, Katy Oursler, as well as tovisually reflect the people whohave gathered together. The “BYOP” tradi-
tion is one that’s often repeated by corporate and non- profit clients, with some organizations scouting out mis- matched plates at thrift store and vin- tage shops. At a din- ner in St. Louis for the Young Presidents’ Organization, meeting organizers commis- sioned a local artisan to make plates for all the dinner guests. “Afterwards,” Oursler said, “people took them home as a reminder of the evening.”
Giving Back By Barbara Palmer
AMoveable Feast
A California company has created a wandering restaurant where the marriage of food, place, and design sets the stage for great conversation— for public dinners and private events.
Inthefarm-to-tablemovement,chefsandrestau- rateurs bring seasonal, locally grownand sourced ingredients to their tables whenever possible.ACal- ifornia-based company called Outstanding in the Field has taken that idea a step further—setting beautiful tables out in the very fields where the ingredients for dinner were harvested. These “table-to-farm” events date back to
1998, when chef and artist Jim Denevan began hosting “farmer dinners” at a Santa Cruz, Calif., restaurant, and inviting the restaurant’s produce suppliers to breakbreadwith other diners and talk to them about where their food came from. From there, Denevan launched a “restaurant without
certain things that don’t change, Oursler said, whether a dinner is public or private—including the goals of connecting diners with their food sources and telling the stories oflocalcommunities.
Ultimate Alfresco Menus always feature local, seasonal ingredients —and list not only the chefs and sous chefs who have prepared the meal, but also the names ofthe farms and purveyorswhosupplied the ingredients. “Dinner usually starts with a tour,” Oursler said. “We might be at a sea cove, where there’s a talk [with] a fisherman, or at a farm wherewetalk with a local beekeeper who has brought the honey
Menus always feature local, seasonal ingredients—and list not only the chefs who have prepared the meal, but farmers, too.
walls,” working with his brother, an organic farmer, to organize a series of dinners on area farms. The dinners caught on, and Denevan began to orchestrate them all across the country, inviting local chefs, farmers, and food producers to partic- ipate, and selling tickets to the public. In the last two years, Denevan’s partner, Out-
standing in the Field director Katy Oursler, has begun to organize events that follow the outlines of the public dinners but are created for private groups, including corporations and nonprofit associations. “It’s not a cookie-cutter format,” Oursler said.“Our first stepis to [help] folks tosee what it is they want out ofan event.” But there are
fromdownthe road.” At other dinners, guests have foraged for mushroomswith local experts.“Wedo things in a hands-on way,” Oursler said. In October, Outstanding in the Field served din-
ner at a party celebrating the 10th anniversary of theToyota Prius at a rustic educational and retreat center near Malibu, Calif., owned by architect Eric Lloyd Wright, the grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright.EricLloydWright talkedabout sustainabil- ity and architecture before guests sat down at a long, spiraling table overlooking the Pacific Ocean for a dinner that included locally caught rock cod, squid, and mussels. The dinners aren’t always rural. Outstanding in
ON_THE_WEB: For more information about Outstanding in the Field, visit www.outstandinginthefield .com. Among the numerous tributes created by former dinner participants, two standouts are a slideshow from a farm dinner in South Haven, Ind. (http://bit.ly/3nGHk), and a film made by Chicago chef Stephanie Izard, who cooked at an Outstanding in the Field event in 2008 (http://bit.ly/chZ0kQ).
ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT HANSON pcmaconvene December 2010 37