Outstanding in the Field: Experience Sonoma County - Sonoma Magazine
Everything from the Sullivans’ orchards is certified organic by California Certified Organic Farmers and the boutique peach varieties are so season-specific that each may only last a few weeks.
Just a few tickets remain for the 150-seat table that stretches down the center of Dry Creek Peach’s 1,000-tree orchard.
The peaches will be celebrated by guest chef Domenica Catelli of Catelli’s Restaurant in Geyserville, punctuated with her Cal-Italian signatures loaded with local ingredients. Throughout the meal, guests will sip Dry Creek Valley wines from a half-dozen vintners, including Dutcher Crossing Winery, Emmitt-Scorsone Wines and Pedroncelli Winery.
A rock ‘n’ roll restaurant tour
For those not familiar with the roving field meals first dreamed up by founder Jim Denevan in Santa Cruz in 1998, the concept is like a rock ‘n’ roll tour, complete with a 66-year-old bright red-and-white bus hauling equipment and crew — except the stars are farmers, ranchers, chefs and vintners and the venues are the lands of food producers.
The message is simple: to reconnect diners with the earth and the origins of their food, while honoring the independent farmers and food artisans who do the hard work.
Outstanding in the Field started as a one-off and now travels to all 50 U.S. states and 24 countries around the globe, with seamlessly stretching tables set in vineyards, beaches, meadows, fishing docks, city streets and organic and sustainable farms.
A famous lasagna
For Saturday’s event, guests will be welcomed with hors d’oeuvres and cocktails spiked with Alley 6 brandy made with Dry Creek Peach fruit.
Then, it’s a family-style meal of more peaches. That means a first course of Quail and Condor grilled bread with DiStefano burrata, peaches, arugula and Italian San Daniele Prosciutto, followed by a second course of Russian River Organics little gems, Red Haven peaches, Laura Chenel goat cheese, Aleppo pepper-spiced pistachios, shallots, basil and Sparrow Lane golden balsamic.
Chef Catelli is well known for her artisanal lasagna, and the third course brings a Summer Lasagna built with eight layers of paper-thin pasta, garden herb béchamel, Bellwether Farms ricotta, wood-grilled Iberico pork slathered in peach-rosemary compote, Russian River Organics squash and purple potato.
For the finish, she is crafting a peach and Front Porch Farm blackberry crisp with oat-pecan crumble.
A first for celebrated chef
This is the first year Catelli is participating in the international phenomenon that is Outstanding in the Field — when Gayle Sullivan of Dry Creek Peach recommended her to the event team, they reached out.
“I have been wanting to work with them for years,” Catelli said. “Even though ‘easy’ is not what I would describe cooking for 150 in a field without a full kitchen. But it’s fun for sure, and I love cooking over live fire.”
To ease the work, she assembles the lasagna, desserts, marinades and sauces a day ahead.
“The rest of the menu is made the day of,” she said. “Fortunately, my restaurant is close enough to the farm that I can run back and forth between the outdoor kitchen and my full kitchen.”
For the Sullivans, in their second year hosting, the evening is a bit easier.
“The team is so professional, with their cross country tour to spectacular sites,” Gayle Sullivan said. “They transport so much including the bar, kitchen set up, tables, chairs, shade umbrellas, bathrooms — pretty much everything. It’s such a great gathering.”
