The article begins with this:

“Imagine a place where foodies not only have a favorite chef, but also a favorite farmer; a place where the distance between the organic farm and the award-winning restaurant is mere miles; a place where a sustainable future is foreseeable. It’s all a reality in Durham-Chapel Hill.”

Could be a statement describing Paso Robles, don’t you think? Except that they would have to mention our world-class wineries and vineyards as well.

Janis Switzer recently gave this mention a nod in the Tribune, along with a lovely description of her recent meal. Thanks, Janis!

Autumn being the time of harvest it is befitting to tell you that it is also the time of Charcuterie. The time we harvest hogs for the making of that ancient and noble art of sausage making. Salting, curing, mixing, hanging and drying. We here at Villa Creek are having 4 hogs raised for us this year. So there will be plenty of work and delicious pork pleasures to be shared.

There are several reasons to come to the Central Coast during this season. We Have the Harvest wine tour, which is on the third weekend of October.  Four Vines Winery and Villa Creek will be teaming up again for a memorable dinner out in a stunning tempranillo vineyard on the east side of Templeton.  We will be doing a private tasting and “Day of the Dead” dinner with Villa Creek Cellars on that weekend as well.  I believe we will also team up with Tablas Creek for that weekend, so there are many opportunities to really get a taste of the season at Villa Creek restaurant.

Windrose Farm will be harvesting some of their incredible bounty throughout the next couple of months and we are pleased and honored to be able to feature the fruits of their  labor on a regular basis.

Firestone Brewery and Bristol Cider will be joining us in the month of November for a Beer dinner.  I will keep you posted as to the date and time.

I will be posting more information on all these events on the website and the blog in the near future.  My favorite time of year is Fall and I am excited to share it with those of you who are able to make it to the Central Coast to see the Grape Harvest, taste some wine, sample the local cuisine, and enjoy the richness of the season with us.

Grapevine Radio

Saturday, August 23, 12-1 pm

920 AM KVEC

Keeping it Fresh with Charles Myer

Wednesday, September 3, 4:30-5 pm

KCBX FM90

Charles and Tom will broadcast from the Templeton Farmer’s Market as they discuss local farmers, producers, and the seasonal bounty currently available at the markets.

Coming out of culinary school, I wanted to shape the industry and show everyone something they hadn’t seen before.  Armed with my new piece of paper that told me and everyone else that I knew how to make hollandaise and butcher salmon, I was led to believe I was going to get my face on the covers of Saveur, Food & Wine or possibly my own cookbook. However, what I wanted to show the world was prepackaged and the same thing that the instructors at the school had spoon-fed to many other students like me. I was left with something that was not new and lacked my soul and any real foundation, and my quest to invent something new must begin. Luckily I came to the realization that the old way of doing food, the really old way, was and is still the right way. Restaurants, hotels and cooks of households in rural towns shopped in the market square that we know now as the Farmer’s Market and prepared what was available to them at the market. The geographic location of where you lived dictated what was available to you. For example: if you lived on the coast, the ocean’s treasures were there for you. If you lived in the mountains, goat, rabbit and cattle might more likely make an appearance on your menu. Of course the geographic location with its soil content and climate also affected what produce was available to you.  Living in California I am fortunate as I have a huge array of vegetables and fruit here for my picking, as well as the most expansive coastline in the U.S. and several fresh water resources to fish from.  Within a hundred mile radius all of these things are at my fingertips. The proximity eliminates the gas consumed to deliver any nonlocal product, and ensures freshness.

As a cook I want to serve foods that taste good and are exciting, but at what cost?  Should I be serving pumpkin in the middle of spring? Or should I be flying in halibut from Alaska if I have fresh California halibut available? These don’t support my local economy or help my environment by flying or driving a product hundreds or even thousands of miles away to reach my table. As a consumer, these questions should be asked: Where did my vegetables come from? How is it that I am having English peas in the middle of fall?  It’s spring, how or why am I enjoying figs?  Is it that these things do not matter?  Of course they do! Neither is available in those seasons.  Again this goes back to the classic way of doing things. Foods should only be prepared while they are seasonally available. Now of course with modern developments like planes, trains and refrigeration, people in South Dakota can get fresh tomatoes, avocados or mangoes and in the blistering cold winter.  Again, at what cost?

For me, I like having the ability to visit with the farmer and ask him or her what is on hand as well as what will be coming on line in the next few months. Sure, its fabulous to be able to display exotic items from far off places and sit in a dining room that looks like it was pieced together from a town in the La Mancha region of Spain, but again at what cost?

So now with a few years of industry realities under my toque, I have developed an idea of what the world needs to see (and I strongly emphasize the word, needs).  With a cynical but very realist chef as a boss and mentor showing me the way as a young epicurean, I have realized that yeah, all the million dollar restaurants with chefs who have their names embroidered across their chests and dining rooms designed by GQ’s top rated interior designers are great but what are they doing for the community in which they reside? How are they giving back? Being in a small town versus a large city, this point is far more important in the birthing years because you do not have the masses to visit your establishment and pay your bills.  However, in the grand scheme of things if more restaurants decided to only buy local either from fishmongers, cheese mongers, cattlemen or farmers, the local agricultural economy would thrive and allow for growth and security instead of being outsourced from a stranger hundreds of miles away.  And come on, isn’t nice to know where your beef came from and not just seeing a picture of your happy cow in a green pasture chewing on some grass behind a wood fence? FYI, I have decided that Happy Cows come from Cayucos. Just look at that view!

Happy cows come from Cayucos

The beauty of this concept of Local, Organic & Sustainable is that any cuisine can fit this mold. It’s this simple if an ingredient is missing in order for your cuisine to be completed you either do away with the recipe or the cuisine as a hole. Don’t get me wrong, I love having all the Chinese, Thai, Indian or Italian restaurants around to dine at but just imagine how much better they would be if they were based in their proper environment. This idea allows for a fresh menu that correlates with what is fresh that day. This is so cutting edge because now the cook is faced with a challenge to prepare something what is available now and not with a set of ingredients he or she is so used to having readily available due to modern logistic capabilities. Could there be a better market for the consumer? Farmers, ranchers and fishmongers working hand-in-hand with chefs to bring the consumer the freshest product available?

The very idea has sparked my appetite.

Not only has the kitchen tried to shove these amazing berries down your throats but so has the bar. If you find yourself at Villa Creek and are in dire need of a cocktail to unwind from the days pressures post up at the bar and let one of bartenders fix you a black berry mojito or some other concoction that will have you slip away into berry ecstasy.

If there is one thing you can be happy about last weeks intense heat is the beautiful summer treasures it has packed for us in little cardboard flats from our farmers, berries galore.

Yields 6 servings

5lbs heirloom tomatoes
1 large cucumber, peeled and seeded
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
1 small white onion
3 cloves garlic
4 tblsp. good Sherry vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper to Taste

PUREE TOMATOES, CUCUMBER, RED PEPPER, GARLIC AND ONION
IN BLENDER UNTIL VERY SMOOTH.  SLOWLY ADD VINEGAR  AND OLIVE
OIL TO BLENDER UNTIL EMULSIFIED INTO SOUP. SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE.  SERVE ICE COLD, AND GARNISH WITH TOMATO SORBET.

Tomato Sorbet

5 lb yellow  tomatoes( Pureed)
2 shallots(SLICED)
5 tablsp. Red wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
salt  to taste

COOK TOMATOES AND SHALLOTS ON LOW HEAT FOR ABOUT 1.5 HOURS
LET COOL.  ADD REMAINING INGREDIENTS AND PUREE UNTIL SMOOTH.
POUR INTO ICE CREAM MACHINE AND FOLLOW OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS.

MINT PESTO
2 CUPS LOOSE PACKED MINT LEAVES
1/2 CUP LOOSE PACKED PARSLEY LEAVES
3 CLOVES GARLIC
4 TABLESPOONS PINE NUTS
1/4 CUP GRATED PARMESEAN CHEESE
1/2 CUP VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
JUICE OF 1 LEMON
SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE

USING A BLENDER OR FOOD PROCESSOR, BLEND ALL INGREDIENTS EXCEPT OLIVE OIL. WITH BLENDER RUNNING ADD OLIVE OIL IN A SLOW STEADY STREAM UNTIL MIXTURE IS A BRIGHT GREEN AND BLENDED WELL.

RISOTTO
3TABLESPOONS EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
2 CUPS NANNO VIALONE  RICE
1/2  YELLOW ONION (DICED)
1 CLOVE GARLIC (SLICED)
1 CUP WHITE WINE
2 QUARTS CHICKEN OR VEG STOCK (WARM)
1/4 CUP GRATED  PARMESEAN CHEESE
3 CUPS ASSORTED TOMATOES  (I.E. GREEN ZEBRAS, AUNT RUBIES, CHEROKEE PURPLE, VALENCIA,ETC.)
1/2 CUP MINT PESTO (RECIPE ABOVE)

IN A SAUCE POT, SAUTE ONION AND GARLIC IN OLIVE OIL ON LOW UNTIL ONIONS ARE TRANSLUSCENT. THEN ADD RICE AND INCREASE HEAT TO MEDIUM HIGH, COOK FOR 3 MINUTES STIRRING FREQUENTLY.  ADD WHITE WINE AND STIR UNTIL WINE IS ALMOST EVAPORATED. REDUCE HEAT TO MEDIUM AND SLOWLY ADD THE WARMED STOCK 4-6 OUNCES AT A TIME
UNTIL RICE IS CREAMY AND ALDENTE.  FOLD IN TOMATOES, PESTO AND PARMESEAN  CHEESE.
SERVE ON INDIVIDUAL PLATES, OR FAMILY STYLE AND GARNISH WITH FRESH MINT SPRIGS AND EVOO

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

10# Beef Short Ribs or Beef Brisket
2 Sliced yellow onions
1/4 cup peeled garlic cloves
4 dried avocado leaves
4 chopped tomatoes
2 oaxaca pasilla chiles
2 guajillo chiles
2 ancho chiles
1 tsp whole coriander seed
1 tsp whole fennel seed
1 tsp whole mustard seed
1 tsp whole cumin seed
1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
1/2 stick of cinnamon
1 tsp achiote
4 cups water
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups veal or beef stock
salt and pepper to taste

process:
Heat oven to 300 degrees.
In Large rondeau, heat 1 cup olive oil over medium high heat. Brown short ribs in batches and remove from pan. Reduce heat to medium, and add onions, garlic, avocado leaves and chiles. Sweat onion for about 5 to ten minutes then add the tomatoes, fennel, coriander, mustard seed, cumin and cinnamon. Continue to sweat ingredients, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Add 2 cups of red wine and reduce to au sec then add the ribs and all the stock and water. Stir and cover with a tight fitting lid. Place in Preheated oven and allow to braise for 3 hours. Remove pan from oven, carefully remove lid and check texture of ribs with tongs. If the ribs are soft to the touch they are finished, if they are still a little tough replace lid and put them in the oven for another 30 minutes. When finished, place ribs in a serving casserole and cover. In batches, carefully puree remaining braising liquid in a blender. (Be careful When Blending Hot Liquids). Place Pureed Sauce in 8 qrt pot and simmer slowly until reduced by a third. Salt and pepper sauce to taste and ladle over ribs. Serve with mashed potatoes, creamy polenta or Cheddar Cheese Grits.