“Glamorous” is not a word often
associated with West Marin. Here, oyster farms operate cheek-by-jowl with dairy
farms and agricultural projects of all kinds. Tack and farm supply shops
outnumber fashionable boutiques. Fog is revered for its year-round ability to cool off
grapes and goats. West Marin Food & Farm Tours, run by West Marin native, Elizabeth
Hill, began showcasing the fruits of this dynamic landscape in 2012. Taste the
terroir of West Marin - oysters, cheese and mead, to name just a few of the
offerings - on one of Hill’s many tours to the area’s farms. At Hill’s farm
dinners, held approximately once a month, a table is set in the host farmer’s
field. With little more than a few bunson burners and a cutting board, chef
Matt Elias and his team compose a meal from the bounty of the host farmer’s fields.
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The table set amidst the crops at Table Top Farm |
Elias, who developed his
field-to-fork culinary style at San Francisco’s Bar Jules and at Inverness's Saltwater Oyster Depot, crafts beautiful dishes with ingredients pulled, quite
literally, from the earth beneath your feet. The August farm dinner, hosted by
Arron Wilder of Table Top Farm in Point Reyes, featured Table Top ingredients
in each course. Elias coaxed beautiful flavors from what was pulled from the ground that day, turning a pastiche of proteins and vegetables into a stunning
meal.
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A place setting - guests took home the flowers |
At Table Top, the meal began with a
sampling of local cheeses paired with Heidrun Meadery’s alfalfa and clover
mead. Guests, advised in advance to bring shoes suitable for field-walking,
chatted and nibbled while inquiring about the farm’s specifics. When the last few
arrived, Hill softly rang a dinner bell and invited us to sit.
The table, set amidst rows of
strawberries, tomatoes and lettuces was dressed in harvest-time finery. A
burlap runner atop a white tablecloth was festooned with fresh bouquets of red
and gold peonies in Kerr jars and wax candles, lit as the sun began to dip over
the Pacific. String lights framed the long table in their soft glow; tall-stemmed
glassware and high polish cutlery glimmered in the soft light.
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Table Top Squash Soup |
As diners added layers to defray the
evening’s chill, Elias and his team delivered a four-course meal, each course
paired with wines made with Marin-grown grapes (or, in the case of the mead,
honey). Creamy squash soup, served in an elegant, curved bowl, got a peppery
boost from nasturtium and deep sweetness from fried onion. Baby lettuces were
simply dressed with Vella Jack cheese and a slice of cucumber, all harvested at
their peak just hours earlier. Sage- braised pork was perched on a bed of Table
Top green beans and baby potatoes infused with crème fraîche. Dessert, Table
Top strawberries layered with lemon sponge cake and lavender cream into a
modern trifle, captured the spirit of the dinner: fresh and wonderfully aromatic,
the ingredients gently coaxed by skilled hands to their flavorful best. This
meal in this place is the very definition of California Cuisine.
The melding of verdant scenery, jovial
company and beautiful ingredients sourced almost entirely from Marin made the
farm dinner at Table Top Farm unique and pleasurable. The little extra details –
the red napkins picking up the red of the flowers, the fresh pumpkins on the
appetizer table, the extra cutlery delivered when a fork catapulted into the
dirt – lifted the meal above the ordinary. As host, Hill has a sixth sense for
making her guests comfortable. Her heritage as a West Marin native, combined
with her knack for designing a memorable evening, add a touch of glamour to
West Marin.
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Table Top Strawberry Trifle |
Labels: bar jules, chef matt elias, elizabeth hill, farm dinners, heidrun meadery, outstanding in the field, saltwater oyster depot, Table Top Farm, west marin food and farm tours