December 13, 2016 – John Cox has been out touring ranches. The locavore chef—partner in Carmel’s trendy new Cultura Comida y Bebida—is researching heritage pig breeds, studying chicken coop design and learning how to raise quail. It’s all in preparation for his next big adventure as chef partner of a new farm-to-table restaurant called The Bear and Star to be opened next spring on the 800-acre Fess Parker Ranch in Los Olivos, California—in the heart of the Santa Barbara wine country.
“I really like ambitious projects and this has the potential to be one of the top restaurants of this type in the country,” says Cox.
The ranch is operated by family of the late 1950s-era TV star best known for portraying Disney’s Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. It already includes 20 head of Wagyu cattle, a 300-acre vineyard, a brewery and gardens. Plans are underway to add a chicken coop, pig pen and bee hives.
While details are still being ironed out, the idea is to serve mainly food produced on the ranch in a closed loop of sustainability that includes growing grain for the brewery on the property and using pomace left after grape pressing to feed the cattle.
“Lots of chefs have a kitchen garden,” says Cox, who reveled in his own chef’s garden while working at Big Sur’s Post Ranch Inn. “But not a lot of people are really doing it at this level and scale.”
Cox says he is inspired by chef Dan Barber, of the acclaimed Blue Hill Restaurant at Stone Barns in New York’s Hudson Valley, but is mystified as to why anyone would attempt farm-to-table in such a harsh climate. “There’s no better place than the Central Coast of California to do the type of year-round growing that is needed,” he says.
Cuisine at the new restaurant will be inspired by products produced on the ranch, but will attempt to reflect both Californian and Texan culinary traditions, which explains the name. The bear appears on the California flag and the star comes from the Texas flag.
And that brings us to Cox’s second new adventure: learning how to barbecue.
Although born in Dallas, he moved away as a child and his classic culinary training did not include Texas-style barbecue. So he’s jumping in with both feet and taking to the road.
In preparation, Cox is having a 30-foot barbecue trailer built—complete with a Texas smoker and pizza oven. He plans to haul it to Texas in January and wants to travel from one barbecue mecca to another trying the food and wheedling tips out of fellow chefs. Meantime he’ll be trying to reproduce the tastes and add his own flourishes in the trailer kitchen.
His plan is to end the trip at a big barbecue competition at the San Angelo rodeo in early February, where he will test his newfound skills against seasoned barbecue champions. “It’s a whole different direction for me and I’m wondering how much a fine dining background translates into barbecue. No matter what happens, I’m going to learn a lot in the process,” he laughs.
Back in Los Olivos, The Bear and Star is expected to open in early March, with what Cox calls “refined ranch cuisine.”
“I want to make dishes my grandparents might have made for me as a kid, but in a more refined way,” he adds.
The multi-talented chef plans to split his time between the Carmel restaurant and the new one in Los Olivos, and to continue contributing wonderful articles to Edible Monterey Bay magazine.
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
