July 23, 2013 – Holman Ranch and Paradise Catering put on a truly magical evening for the ranch’s second summer vineyard benefit for the Food Bank for Monterey County on Sunday.
The dinner was part of Edible Monterey Bay’s Pop-up Supper Club series, and our second benefit with Holman for the Food bank. It was so magical, in fact, we plan to do it again at the end of next summer, so mark your calendars!
The event raised more than $1,000 for the Food Bank and provided many local foodies from around Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties with their first chance to visit Holman’s gorgeous property and experience Paradise Catering’s transportingly beautiful, unique and delicious cuisine.
It was the first event we’d collaborated with Paradise’s Jon Kasky and Nancy Rohan on, and they succeeded in wowing the discerning and convivial diners who’d signed on for the dinner.
Right from the start, it was easy to forget that Kasky and Rohan were cooking for 50 other people—each dish seemed to have the sophistication and artistry of food served at an intimate dinner party—and all were intensely tasty.
After guests were shuttled to a courtyard near ranch’s historic 1920s hacienda, hosts Hunter Lowder and Nick Elliott handed them glasses of the winery’s bright, crisp 2011 Estate Sauvignon Blanc and the platters of passed hors d’oeuvres began to circulate.
The first I tried were a sublime, still-hot roasted fig stuffed with goat cheese (served with or without a thick wrap of bacon) and artichoke tempura with Meyer lemon aioli—a surprisingly light take on traditional fried artichokes.
The two hors d’oeuvres that stole the show, however, were the vegan rainbow spring rolls—airy, technicolor rounds of feathery rice noodles with the bright petals of edible flowers showing their hues through their translucent rice-paper skins—and “next-door” Pinot Noir sliders, which were extremely juicy and spicy grass-fed burgers, thanks to the grass-fed cows next door to Holman.
Dinner, fittingly, was under a lovely grape arbor that ran the length of the single long table that we congregated around, but there was nothing predictable about the meal.
The surprises began with an amuse bouche of “Vegan Caviar,” aka olive oil caviar, an Italian import marketed under the name Caviarolio. The golden beads have the pop of real fish eggs and deliver a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil over whatever they are served with, in this case, tiny Carmel Valley new potatoes.
To pair with dinner, Holman treated us to its delicious 2011 Heather’s Hill Pinot Noir and 2011 Chardonnay, just released the day before.
The Pacific can be quixotic, and a broken hand never helps, but nonetheless, Local Catch Monterey Bay’s Stan Bruno was able to harvest and deliver fresh line-caught local salmon for the dinner, which was served with a tarragon beurre blanc. From the sea we also dined on delicious tuna and from the land, a rack of lamb with fig-mustard chutney and quinoa grown in the Paradise garden.
In fact, just as it should be at a farm or vineyard dinner, the home-grown, still-alive heirloom vegetables, just picked from Serendipity Farms’ and Kasky and Rohan’s own garden were the real stars of the he meal. Some elevated other dishes, but many stood alone as some of most deeply flavorful contributions to the meal, like the Paradise caprese of garden heirloom tomatoes, candied basil, grilled watermelon and purple haze basil, or the simple medley of Tonda di Parigi carrots and red beets.
This why we have farm dinners in the summer. Fresh produce like no other, ripened at the seasonal peak of flavor. Wonderful, interesting friends—new and old—to enjoy it with around the communal table. And great organizations likethe Food Bank that allow us to share the great pleasure and good health this food brings.
Oh yes, and to eat Kasky and Rohan’s “Baker’s Bacon crack”—chocolate dipped bacon, a brilliant pairing if there ever was one. And peach and blueberry cobbler, if we must. After all, summer fruit is amazing, too.
About the author
SARAH WOOD—founding editor and publisher of Edible Monterey Bay—has had a life-long passion for food, cooking, people and our planet.
She planted her first organic garden and cared for her first chicken when she was in elementary school in a farming region of Upstate New York.
Wood spent the early part of her career based in Ottawa, Canada, working in international development and international education. After considering culinary school, she opted to pursue her loves for writing, learning about the world and helping make it a better place by obtaining a fellowship and an MA in Journalism from New York University.
While working for a daily newspaper in New Jersey, she wrote stories that helped farmers fend off development and won a state-wide public service award from the New Jersey Press Association for an investigative series of articles about a slumlord who had hoodwinked ratings agencies and investment banks into propping him up with some early commercial mortgage securitizations. The series led Wood to spend several years in financial journalism, most recently, as editor-in-chief of the leading magazine covering the U.S. hedge-fund industry.
Wood now lives with her family in Washington, DC, where she is a freelance writer and manages communications for Samaritan Ministry, an antipoverty and antiracist nonprofit that provides struggling Greater Washington residents with highly personalized and compassionate life counseling and coaching.
