The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano will bring back its “Community Table” series starting Friday, March 3 through the end of August with dinners cooked by local chefs using the farm’s produce.
Certified as a regenerative, organic farm, The Ecology Center, founded in 2008 by Evan Marks, has become an education hub for students, chefs, and the community on food consumption and sustainable farming.
Part of that education is culinary experiences like farm dinners the center has been hosting at the farm for over a decade.
“We’ve always felt that by breaking bread, by experiencing the beauty and joy and flavors of a meal we can come together around this subject matter,” the center’s Direct of Engagement Jonathan Zaidman said.
In past years, the community table dinners have been seasonal and sporadic. But with the long-term lease agreement extension with the city granted last year, the nonprofit decided to put on these dinners every Friday.
“The idea behind the meals is what if you brought a chef together with the farm and created a meal in which everything came from 250 feet away,” Zaidman said.
Each dinner will be curated by a different local chef with their own interpretation on the seasonal produce available. Some of the chefs scheduled for dinners this year are Chef David Serus of Montage Laguna Beach, Chef Willie Eick of Mastu, Chef Brian Bornemann of Crudo e Nudo and more.
The full list of dinners and their chefs can be found on the center’s website.
Thirty-eight dinners were hosted last year and every one of them sold out, Zaidman said. Some guests attended multiple dinners prompting the center to offer a package option this year for those who want to see how different chefs interpret the same ingredients.
Each dinner costs $160 per person with a fixed course, family-style menu. The center will try to accommodate dietary restrictions like vegetarian/vegan needs, gluten intolerance, and seafood/shellfish allergies.
“In Southern California with the cost of land and water and labor and insurance, you need to diversify the farm operations,” Zaidman said. “One of the ways we do that is through our culinary efforts so the dinners help protect and essentially subsidize the long-lasting life of the farm here.”
And the experience is just not something you can get anywhere else. The ability to sit on a farm, surrounded by candles and connect with people around you over food made with ingredients you’re surrounded by is unique, Zaidmin said.
A ticket includes a happy hour in the center’s courtyard, an educational story-telling on the farm’s mission, a farm tour (where you can pick produce off the vine and eat it ahead of the dinner) and the family-style dinner in the dining room. The dinners start at 6 p.m. and typically end around 10 p.m.
“We are really hoping to allow for people to connect with each other,” Zaidman said. “One of the most fun things that we’ve seen happen is someone will come and sit with six people they’ve never met before and then by the end of the night they’ve exchanged phone numbers and then al come back to a dinner together at a future date.”
Additional announcements regarding the dinners can be found through the center’s newsletter or Instagram account, The Ecology Center.
