Chef Ryan's Mini Quail Egg Tartine

Dish of the Week There's a single moment in any great meal when you hit the sweet spot and get all elements you're loving on the plate together in one perfect mouthful.  Our Quail Egg Tartine was the perfect 'breakfast' moment writ large: fried egg, perfect toast, buttery tomato, salty balcony crunch. The lightly  herbal and  floral notes of cilantro and Rapini kept the rich umami ingredients distinct, until  the last instant, when the creaminess of the egg yolk brought it all home in a Pigs & Pinot moment everyone who experienced it described as  "pure bliss."

Charlie Palmer's Pigs & Pinot ~ A Healdsburg Favorite

OK, so Dish of the Week was actually Bite of the Week ~ a Proustian breakfast moment Chef served to 300 Friday night at Pigs & Pinot, Charlie Palmer’s sold-out signature food event that takes over Healdsburg in mid-March. For those of you who grew up in the age of Top Chef ad infinitum and innumerable  foodzines and foodblogs, it may be hard to believe that once upon a time the cult of the celebrity chef didn’t exist. Charlie Palmer didn’t invent the concept, but he was one of the first American chefs to draw crowds to his restaurant Aureole in NYC by sheer virtue of his talent alone.  Back then (no, I wasn't going to say "in the good old days”) reputations could only be built by reviews and word of mouth. Palmer generated a great deal of both. In the years since he has built a mini-empire of restaurants and hotels that rivals Nobu’s in size if not influence. What Nobu is to black cod (basically on the back of one recipe), Charlie is to pork (significantly, the entire animal).

I like Pigs & Pinot. It supports a number of worthy charities while functioning as it was primarily intended ~ a two day publicity venture for Palmer and Co. What I like best about it is the classy way it goes about making the connection between food and wine while strengthening a good swath of the local economy. Even as he burnishes his own brand, Palmer manages to advance a quality driven definition of the word sustainable in an age where even the best restaurants are struggling with the temptation to fudge standards in order to survive. Any week of the year around here you can throw a stick and hit a food or wine event; few of them put the whole animal in focus to the extent Pigs & Pinot does. This is a message not lost on the 500 ticket holders that flooded the Hotel Healdsburg 1 & 2 this past weekend, with reportedly double that number on a wait list every year.  The remarkable world-class selection of Pinots guests get to taste are the sizzle, but make no mistake, the meat of this event ~ literally and figuratively ~ is the whole hog.

Most of the press Palmer generates focuses on Saturday, when “celebrity” Chefs from all over the country land in Healdsburg to flex their culinary muscle. But if you live here the real fun is watching the local talent go head to head on Friday night. Though every one of these participating local Chefs will tell you it's not a competition, that they are just ‘doing their thing,’ with few exceptions each secretly hopes theirs is the best pork mouthful of the night. And why shouldn’t they?  Our Chefs are a remarkably convivial group, but the fun at these events is upping your game as you coolly hang out in the hood with guys you compete with on a daily basis. The fact that there is an abundance of talent to go with a healthy dose of competition is what makes Healdsburg a dining Mecca. That nobody cops to being competitive is just part of the charm of living in the country.

In this respect Ryan is no exception, except to the extent that his competitive drive comes more from pride, than ego. He always defers when appreciative diners  ask him to come out and meet them, and while he's forthcoming with the press he never goes in search of them either. Quite the contrary.  Yet he’ll cook a dish over and over again to get it spot on, then think about it some more before Pancho and the team are put through their paces so it's served consistently the same way, every time, for each and every diner. As chuffed as he was when he won the Top Chef competition at Taste of Sonoma two years ago, he couldn’t wait to get out of there the minute it was over. I  suspect that when (though no fault of his own) he couldn’t defend his title this year, his worry wasn’t what people would think when he didn’t show so much as missing an opportunity to go head to head again with another talented Sonoma County Chef.

Americans have a funny relationship with what is, culturally, our inherently competitive nature. Because we always seem to equate success with money (or its corollary, fame) we are congenitally guilty of making the mistake that whoever has the most marbles when the bell rings has “won.”  I’d go as far as to say that our obsession with money and fame ~ no matter how many ‘unhappy’ rich and famous people are paraded before us ~ borders on being a national illness. The mistake here, to my mind, isn’t so much that we haven’t learned money and fame can’t engender happiness (which deep down we probably know) it’s overrating the ephemeral entity of happiness in the first place. Between happiness and true satisfaction I'll take satisfaction any day of the week. Happiness is a beautiful vagrant, its perfume a scent in the air, music that lifts your heart, the touch of someone you love. All good, but for it even to exist it needs someone to blend the perfume, write the music, become the person you love. True accomplishment, whether building character or just a better mousetrap, is complex, and while luck can play a role it's not a sustaining ingredient the way a combination of passion and patience is. The satisfaction that comes from accomplishment ~ whether it brings you happiness or not ~ resides in the way something is made,  how long you spend refining an idea, how many times you paint over a figure before its heart ~ of joy or darkness ~ appears.

Until six years ago when I took on my latest career incarnation as “restaurateur,” I managed to fashion my life in such a way that whether I succeeded or failed (and I did a lot of both) it was always on my own terms.  Even as my game changed over the years, from academia to photography and journalism, ultimately to design, I mostly avoided the world’s judgment in a way that allowed me to work on the quality of what I was producing without fear an audience of strangers wouldn’t like it. Many people don’t see a problem basing their success on something that’s been copied or stolen from its original source. Maybe that's why the world is filled with such derivative crap.

But food doesn’t wait for that certain someone who understands your aesthetic to fall in love and take it home. What takes years to learn and untold hours to source and cook is consumed in the span of a few minutes. Wham, Bam, the verdict is in.  In the past if someone did not like what I created I could console myself that it "just wasn’t to their taste”, or take the time to improve it. With food every dish and every meal must suit a diners taste each and every time…. because with food the customer is always right. That Ryan knows this and works at making our food ‘right’ for every customer, yet does so in a way where he is consistently challenging himself, pushing his own creative boundaries, is remarkable to me.

As for who actually produced the best pork inspired dish last Friday, while I did not taste everything (an understatement considering how much incredible food was being offered) Dino Bugica’s (Diavolo) black sausage was about the best I’ve ever eaten. This man’s talent in all things charcuterie is a wonder.  Ari Rosen (Scopa) had the most beautifully roasted whole baby pig which, in his inimitable style, he served simply. Cyrus’ Chinese bun was perfect respite just at the moment I was suffering from serious pork fatigue. I did not taste Charlie’s dish ~ his lines were moving at a snail’s pace ~ but the burnished pork bellies turning on the spit behind him in the central courtyard looked utterly mouth-watering.

It was not until I returned to our station that I fully registered how our contribution was going over. Until that moment I hadn't put Barndiva into the competitive mix I had running in my brain, which made it all the more delightful when I saw the faces on the crowds inundating our station. This was a different set of folks than we’d had during the first hour of the evening, when everyone was moving through the rooms tasting things for the first time. While many had returned hoping for another taste, most were new faces, that all opened with the same heartwarming gambit: “I heard from everyone this was the best thing here tonight.”

Very cool, right? But the most enjoyable moment of the night was still to come. As I stood watching I was approached by a couple from San Francisco who had returned to our station for “the final bite of the night.”  I had never met them before and they had never eaten at Barndiva, though the woman  ~ dark haired, very pretty ~ said she read the journal. They were extremely knowledgeable about food ~ off to Chicago in a few weeks “just to eat ” ~ but it wasn’t their erudition on all things culinary that struck me as the conversation moved swiftly from our favorite SF haunts through greatest meals ever, to a surprisingly honest appraisal of why eating out had come to comprise “some of the best moments” of their lives.  Though they were obviously passionate about food, they weren’t precious about what they ate. While the room and the ambiance of a restaurant mattered, connecting with informed but not overbearing servers mattered a great deal more.   Though they weren’t in the business they had, through their travels, begun to understand how hard good restaurants had to work to get it right, especially when it came to sourcing. They were, in short, critical but sympathetic. Standing there in the beautiful din of Charlie’s world the possibility suddenly occurred to me that along with the age of the celebrity chef we may be entering the age of the enlightened diner, people who see their patronage as team support, as crucial to the game as the crowds in a grandstand. Dining out is a collaborative experience; diners should be honestly invested in its outcome. Because it's true, progressive diners ~ like the best fans ~ are  the first ones to tell you when you make a bad play (or dish) but it's their cheers, when they come, that are the ones you most long to hear.

Winter Fruit Salad

Dish of the Week:

Bright jewel colors in the dead of winter are nothing short of magical and Chef Ryan's Winter Fruit Salad with Honeycomb is a case in point.  Check it out: Navel Oranges, Blood Oranges, Page Mandarins, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Fuji Green Apple, chervil, chive, edible pansies, rapini, radish,  & last but not least, slivered kumquats from Chef's own backyard tree.  Interesting combinations result as the taste buds pick out fruity, floral and fresh green notes in the dish.

The dish also celebrates Chef's deft hand with Gastriques ~ sweet or savory reductions which are the result of sugar, often combined with fruit, caramelized until nutty brown, then cut with either vinegar or wine.  Despite their reliance on sugar as a catalyst, gastriques are often savory for as sugar cooks, its sweetness subsides.

Most bistro dishes are a result of the classic line up: Marbled cuts of meat using salt and herbs to heighten flavor, wine to mellow, starch to carry the sauce.  But the ultimate brightness in many of Ryan's classic French country dishes comes from his love and use of vinegar.  Two gastriques here rely upon vinegar ~ the mandarin and the apple ~ to bring a brighter nose and sharper initial taste before they mellow on the palette.

When we can, we serve honeycomb with our artisan cheese plates to remind folks honey doesn't start out refined in a jar.  The honeycomb served with this fruit salad comes from Hector's here in Sonoma County.

Bees have been much on our mind as of late, as the mysterious 4 year-old crisis of disappearing honeybees deepens.  While a new heavy bee die-off this winter may be the result of extreme weather, no one really knows yet what's causing a worldwide hive collapse.  Pesticides surely play a role, but sometimes I think ~ between CAFOs and suburbs ~ bees have just had enough.  Say it isn't so.

all photos and text, Jil Hales, unless noted otherwise.

In the Fields with Friends

Barrel tasting weekends are a mixed blessing for those of us that depend upon the food and wine that has made Sonoma County a gold standard in destination travel. On the one hand we are thankful for the tribes of wine lovers that infiltrate the area for these events, as they fill our waning winter coffers. On the other, it’s hard to ignore the fact that by mid-day many of them begin to weave and talk in extremely loud voices. How and when those not staying in town will find their way home becomes a real concern.

But my mixed feelings about Passport and Barrel Tasting weekends don’t only come down to a dichotomy that pits revenue against safety. I’ve heard it said with increasing frequency that’s it a good thing more and more people are staying in town to focus on tasting rooms they can walk to. But while that thought ~ especially for those groups that do not have designated drivers ~ makes sense, it runs counter to the initial spirit of these events which was to bring wine lovers into the countryside where they could connect a product they love with the place it is grown and the people who make it.

If you ventured to the last stretch of West Dry Creek in search of wine to taste this past weekend, just before the bridge and  bend in the road that leads to Preston of Dry Creek,  you would  have come upon a vineyard that made your journey not a detour but a main event. Adjacent to fields where pigs and chickens roam and fertilize  some of the oldest vines in the valley, guarded over by Guisippe, the Preston's magnificent sheep dog, a flock of new lambs took their first baby steps.

I’ve written about this family farm and vineyard often in the past, not simply because they are dear friends, but because they are working toward a bio-dynamic definition of farming that any fool can see should go hand in hand with the growing of premium grapes. When Lou and Susan pulled a great many of their vines out years ago to make more room for hedgerows and crops, revenue focused vintner’s shook their heads. The value of the land was in yield of a crop that made the most money, right? Depends on how you define that ephemeral word value.

Preston, Quivira, and forward thinking wineries like them have built large and loyal followings. They have started and continue to happily stir conversations about how food is grown and distributed, and what diversity can bring, on so many levels, to the monoculture of just growing grapes.

On Saturday I was struck by the various stages the baby lambs were going through in order to survive their first perilous days. Some were still sunk into the grass, huddled right where they had been birthed, weakly taking stock of their new surroundings. Others gamely tried to follow mum and the source of food, on legs that kept failing to hold them upright, while still others, only a few hours older, gamboled around with a joy of movement that was a blessing to behold. With the exception of the ones that did not have the strength to walk from birth, the lambs followed an age old journey all of us make ~ taking baby steps before they ran. There’s a metaphor in here somewhere I kept thinking, for all the vineyard owners who look at the rich magnificent balance the Preston’s have managed to achieve through the dint of mindful hard work, and think “sure, I’d like for my vineyards to look like that, but I don’t know where to start.” Unlike sheep, we should be able to figure out what happens next if we don't take those first wobbly steps, no matter how unprepared we think we are.

To read more about the Preston's and all their multifaceted endeavors, check out their beautiful new website and visit their blog.

Smoked Salmon

Dish of the Week:

Smoked Salmon Salad

Smoked salmon has been a staple in Russian and Scandinavian diets for centuries, long before the world learned how good Omega 3s are for us.  Like preserving, curing relies upon traditional techniques that extend our enjoyment of nature’s bounty, which is always a good thing.

Chef Ryan’s Cold Smoked Salmon is a dish of unusual color for the middle of winter: radish, mandarins, avocado, sunchoke chips, pickled onions, rapini, chervil, chives. As a delicious nod to the dish’s Russian tradition, Chef included perfect cubes of cooked potato and a luxurious caviar crème fraîche dressing.

There are two stages to preserving salmon, which go hand in hand: brining and smoking.  Brining draws water and moisture out of the fish, but care must be taken so the salt used in the brining process does not overwhelm the taste of the sea. By the same token, spices want to enhance, not interfere, with salmon’s hallmark flavor profile, which is sweet and rich.

Ryan prefers cold smoking to hot because as the temp never exceeds 90 degrees F, the fish cooks while retaining the translucent pliant texture it had raw.  Cold smoked salmon is also easier to slice.

Chef made two dressings for the salad which ingeniously played off one another: a sharp citrus vinaigrette (fresh squeezed lemon, orange, grapefruit and lime juice, virgin olive oil, apple vinegar, salt) followed by a languorous trail of caviar crème fraîche.  The combination of the two brought out disparate but savory elements ~ from the sharpness of the pickled onion, through the green notes of chervil and chive, to the sweet citrus of mandarin.  As for the meeting of caviar, crème fraîche and potato, it would have brought a smile to any Czar’s face.  Or serfs like us.

I love salmon. But the truth is, we’re coming to the end of it.  These days sustainably harvested salmon is a very rare treat.  Alaskan troll-caught and California rod and reel, when you can find them, are the gold standard ‘wild’ alternatives to Loch Duart farmed.  Next week we begin a discussion about sourcing fish mindfully.  It’s a conversation all Chefs who are passionate about food needs to participate in, sooner rather than later.

Studio Barndiva ~ Special Events

The Bride's Cafe Wedding Blog

Thank you The Bride's Cafe for  featuring a wedding that took place in the new Gallery Garden. The album was photographed by Sylvie Gil, whom we have had the pleasure of working with many times in the past. Very cool that Sylvie still shoots film.

Barndiva ~ In the News

Because we always keep schtum about it, you'd probably be amazed at the number of famous people who have wandered into (and often stumbled out of) Barndiva over the years.If discretion is not the better form of valour, it's up right up there. But when a famous person mentions you on national TV in the same sentence as "one of the best restaurants I've ever been to" it's okay to out their visit. Before she came to brunch on Oscar Sunday we're embarrassed to admit some of us didn't even know who Chelsea Handler was. Now we do and we think you should too.

Why? Because it turns out that besides having very good taste in restaurants, Chelsea Handler is very, very funny. Cue Dorothy Parker, this bestselling author and stand up comic manages to project a genuine yet deeply sardonic point of view rare in the otherwise mind numbing world of talk shows ~ check out her interview with Brit singer Adele if you don't believe us. As for Ed McMahon being reincarnated as Chewy the Mexican midget...Johnny would have loved it.

Click here to watch.

Chelsea Handler Hearts Barndiva

Lukka Feldman and his Barndiva restaurant made quite the impression on comedian Chelsea Handler.

While visiting San Francisco last week, the best-selling author and star of E! Network’s “Chelsea Lately,” trekked up to Healdsburg for a Sunday brunch. She said she’d never been to Sonoma County, but went to Barndiva at the behest of her friends. So taken was she by Lukka and the food, that she gushed about it on her hit late-night talk show.

“I wanna give a quick shout-out to my new friend Lukka who runs the Barndiva which is in Healdsburg, California. So if you’re ever in Northern California and you want a really really good meal, it’s one of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to. So there.” After the applause subsided, she added, “And I did pay for my meal, in case anyone was wondering.”

Ms. Handler doesn’t often give on-air shout-outs, so it was that much more remarkable.

So what did the young restaurateur have to say about all of this? “I was shocked and flattered,” says Lukka. “She presumably eats at world-class restaurants all the time. So for her to say that about Barndiva, well, that was quite an honor.”

Scott Keneally for The Press Democrat

In the Studio ~ Special Events

Another beautiful private party in the gallery this week!

For more information on having an intimate dinner party or celebratory event here: 707 431 0100 info@barndiva.com

Oscars ~ In Memory

There was a lot of talk Monday morning about the efficacy of the Oscars, much of it relevant (starting with too many Best Picture nominations and hosts that couldn't hold the attention of each other, much less millions of cinema lovers around the world). We continue to believe it’s important to celebrate the arts ~ and great to do so together. There is something wonderful that happens in a room that breaks out in spontaneous applause. Even better, one where strangers get to know one another while eating and drinking with genuine enjoyment.

As we head into a world where it’s getting harder and harder to differentiate quality and singular artistic vision from products that have nothing driving them but the hope they generate revenue by hitting the lowest common denominators, it’s important to set the bar as high as we can. And to stop for a moment to acknowledge and enjoy when a fellow human being sails over it. RIP to all the singular artists that died last year, but a special call out to two that touched our lives profoundly.

Claude Chabrol, director 1930-2010

Pete Postlethwaite, actor 1946-2011

Barndiva's 6th annual Oscars Menu

Barndiva's 6th Annual Oscars dinner party

The Fighter: Raw Course

Chiogga Beet Tartar, Caviar Moussaline, Mustard Vinaigrette, Sunchoke Chips

The dish we paired with The Fighter was meant to be raw and bloody ~ though the ‘blood’ came from a vibrant beet tartar whose magnificent color was spiked with a bit of vinegar.  It was topped with a moussaline of whipped crème fraîche, a dollop of caviar, and a wreath of baby sunchoke chips.  Texturally, while the beets and sunchoke chips initially tasted very different, the earthy flavor profiles of both root vegetables played in concert when paired with the creamy moussaline and salty caviar.

Black Swan: Salad Course Butter Lettuce Salad, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Meyer Lemon, Virgin Olive Oil, Radish

The idea behind serving a spare green salad to honor a movie about starving ballerinas started as a joke.  Then Chef saw Black Swan and was actually incredible moved by Natalie Portman’s beauty and elegance.  With it’s ruffle of butter lettuce, sharp crimson edge of radish, and delicate segments of ruby red grapefruit, the salad, finished with champagne vinaigrette and a shower of flowering rapini, was indeed a visual ballet of color and form.  Delicious as well.

True Grit: Fire Course Veal Chop, Boulangère Potatoes, Golden Chanterelle Mushroom, Pickled Pearl Onion

Back in the day, when people still cooked on the hearth, small town bakeries were often used by villagers to cook their evening meal in the still warm wood fired ovens once the bread run was finished.  There wasn’t a lot of heat left and space was always at a premium ~ but I’m guessing some wonderful rustic recipes came out of this unique and very communal way of cooking.  The story behind Boulangère potatoes was simple: meats were put on the top shelf with sliced potatoes beneath them, the better to catch the delicious meat drippings.

Ryan’s homage to the dish couldn’t involve a bread oven.  But if you took your eyes away from the screen on Oscar night and closed them, it was easy to taste the inspiration.  His savory layer cake of thinly shaved potatoes was saturated in dark stock that dripped down flavoring the potatoes during the baking process.  Served alongside big juicy veal chops from milk and grass-fed free range calves, this was haute campfire with True Grit.  The veal was sourced from Sonoma Direct, where Ritz Guggiana and his cookbook-writing daughter Marissa (Primal Cuts) find some of the most delicious ethically sustainable animals in the county.

Toy Story 3: Sweet Course 3 flavors of Bon Bons

Opps.  While the Journal’s photographer clearly remembers devouring the Toy Story 3 Bon Bon course just as Best Picture was announced, images of it clearly did not make it into the camera.  The plate was a riot of color ~ with sprinkles, roasted coconut and almond flakes covering dark, milk and white chocolate Bon Bons filled with passion fruit, vanilla and crème fraîche ice cream.  The good news is that the Bon Bons above are equally delicious and better yet, available often on our regular dessert menu.

Blonde Frisée Salad

Dish of the Week:

Blonde Frisée Salad with Warm Garlic Crouton, Bacon, Pecorino, Hen Egg & Chives

Bistro classics have enduring appeal, in part because of the virtuoso way they balance the rich comfort of full-flavored cuts of meat with the bright flavors of vinegar or wine.  Taking a classic dish and updating it with panache is something Chef loves to do, and this salad is no exception.

The addition of crème fraîche to the vinaigrette is not traditional but it refines the connection between the meaty satisfaction of the lardons and the bracing clarity of vinegar.  The salad is typically made with Frisée, aka frilly endive, which belongs to the chicory family.  This often maligned salad green has a lot going for it when picked young and prepped with skill.  A creamy vinaigrette clings to Frisée’s frilly edges like no other salad green.  The blonde variety we use, soft and peppery in flavor, has a wonderful crunch.  Other ingredients Chef Ryan incorporates to elevate the dish to an elegant dinner salad ~ without losing its essential bacon and eggs appeal ~ is a handful of mache, finely diced red onion, fresh chives, and a shaving of dry grated pecorino (the kind with lovely salt crystals).

A softer loaf for your croutons will still give you the desired crunch without tearing at the roof of your mouth.  All home chefs have their own methods of producing a crouton that has the requisite taste of garlic ~ only rule is to try and avoid the bitterness burnt garlic imparts.  At Barndiva, as we make garlic confit almost daily for other dishes, we save the olive oil, fragrant with garlic, for our croutons.

There are two different cuts of Applewood smoked bacon in the salad ~ a thick dice, cooked slowly to melt the fat revealing the fullness of the pork belly, and thin strips of crispy grilled ‘breakfast’ bacon.

These highly addictive pork nuggets are mixed into the salad along with the croutons, while the strip of bacon is strategically placed alongside the fried hen egg, perfect for dipping, triggering that classic bistro moment when the yolk breaks and a golden river flows through the dressed greens. All photos Jil Hales, unless otherwise noted.

Studio Barndiva ~ In the Gallery

Handblown glass from Sugahara, one of the finest glass blowing companies in Japan.

Barware $30 Drinking Glasses $29

Studio Barndiva ~ In the Gallery

Hands down, the  best gift you could give this year is a framed card collection from the early 1900's, unique to Studio Barndiva. Encyclopedic in scope, these beautiful cards reveal fascinating details on a variety of subjects. For that bicycle - bird - flower - horse - butterfly -fish- scientific invention- garden- or even old car- lover in your house, this is a great gift. Framed in-house in 2 panes of UV glass, the better to read the fascinating descriptions on the backside! Collections start at $295.

How To Make Your Own Chicken Coop, circa 1923 

Sommelier Tommy DeBiase's 2009 Pinot

The bottling and release of our Sommelier Tommy DeBiase's 2009 Pinot was cause for celebration around Barndiva last week. We love it when we can make a real connection between food and wine, and it doesn't get better when we can do that and ALSO celebrate one of our own. This is the third year Tommy has been making wines with Fritschen grapes. Fritschen VIneyards is located on Eastside Road across the river from the old William Selyem crown. It is also a farm where some of our finest lamb is raised (as well as olives brined on the branch that we serve with our whole roasted baby poussin).

The winemaker's notes read: "Old vines grown on 36 degree steep rocky hillsides, result in low yields (only 1.5 tons per acre). Lots of minerality and crispness with Bing Cherry and Pomegranate fruit, with a structure that has both bright acidity and supple tannin."

DeBiase 2009 Fritschen Vineyards Pinot Noir, by the bottle and by the glass, is now available in the lounge.

Barndiva's Valentine's Menu

Barndiva's Valentine's Dinner ~ 2011

Barndiva’s Valentine’s Dinner ~ 2011

Many a great chef has floundered on the sea of expectation that is otherwise known as ‘a romantic Valentine’s Dinner’.  “It’s the equivalent of making love with your hands tied,” a chef once told me.  “Even happy couples come in with weighted expectations.”

True, but confounding expectations are what’s great about love, right? We followed a hunch this year that the only thing couples who chose Barndiva for this very special meal didn’t want us to do was bore them.  It was Chef’s idea to use the 5 senses to inspire each dish.  When his insistence on a sorbet intermezzo between the entrée and dessert brought us to six courses we did some quick research on ‘the 6th sense’.  Turns out premonitions- especially when they are of greater things yet to come- was perfect inspiration.

1st Course: Touch

We started the meal with a Barndiva Classic, Warm Goat Cheese Croquettes, which beg to be eaten with your fingers.  Golden salty crust, toothsome creamy filling with a heart of housemade tomato jam. Fingers used again to glide through rivulets of honey studded with lavender flowers.

2nd Course: Sight

You eat with your eyes, first and foremost, but the mouth and the stomach have to follow for something to be both beautiful and delicious.  The spirit of Matisse hovered above the salad course, a delightful dance of form and color: glistening gold and red beets, tutu pink and orange citrus, ripe avocado, blades of red radish, all atop a creamy mound of fresh crab meat.  Nestled in a shower of Rapini flowers was a single tiny house-made Kennebec Potato Chip.

3rd Course: Smell

How to fully enjoy the aroma of our third course, a warm wide-lipped bowl of truffle flecked risotto?  Some lifted it up and inhaled deeply, while others just closed their eyes, and slightly bowed their heads.  There was no escaping the ethereal woodsy smell redolent of truffle oil.  A big fat Maitake mushroom in a crispy tempura batter held pride of place, but the bravura touch was a halo of translucent crème fraîche foam.

4th Course: Taste

Though we offered a vegetarian option, most diners headed straight for the Snake River petite fillet seared and bathed in garlic, butter and rosemary for their main course.  Sweet buttery batons of carrots, caramelized endive, and a mount of OMG Yukon Gold Potato Purée with lobster and crème fraîche sent the dish straight to Umami Heaven.

5th Course: Sound

The snap of a sweet and nutty Florentine was point of entry to our fifth course, a late intermezzo of bracing citron sorbet with slivers of grapefruit and mandarin citrus.  Like a dip in a deep cold lake, it brought you to your senses, just in time for the final course.

6th Course: 6th Sense

Love is risk, we all should know that by now, so it’s a good thing that premonitions exist if only to remind us from time to time to trust our instincts.  Which brings us to our 6th course, Temptation, a triple threat… but definitely not one to be afraid of.  A Lady Gaga lunar hat of white chocolate balanced precariously on an orb of creamy passion fruit ice cream, which, in turn, sat melting on a couplet of moist dark chocolate ganache cakes.  Lovers were encouraged to end the meal as they started it, intimately gliding their fingers through a passion fruit syrup the color of a Mexican sunset.  We don’t know what they got up to after they left Barndiva but ‘our’ 6th sense tells us for most of them, the sweet notes continued.

Studio Barndiva ~ Special Events

Here’s a great shot of artist Jordy Morgan’s chiseled redwood boulders, captured in yet another wedding blog: idovenues.com FYI: Jordy is just about finished on his ‘living room’ sculptural pieces in the Studio Barndiva Gardens. As soon as the rain stops, come by and see these extraordinary pieces. Jordy's work will be available in various sizes and configurations on commission beginning of May.

Vintage with a Twist: (visit idovenues.com to see all the beautiful pictures taken by photographer Rosemarie Lion at this wonderful wedding held at Barndiva)

There is a level of anticipation and excitement that every bride feels right before the guests enter the main reception area. In the industry, we call it the Ohhh…Ahhh factor – it is the sound your guests make as they enter the room.

Barndiva is a perfect location for the avant garde couple that wants to maximize their Ohhh…Ahhh factor. It is such an amazing venue and so unexpected – when your guests arrive, they truly have no idea what awaits them.

The restaurant turned trendy reception venue has successfully captured the aura of part shabby chic, part retro. The organic gardens (where many of your dinner items are sourced) are meticulously cared for and provide a stunning backdrop. The abundant details at your fingertips deliver a plethora of wonderful design elements – all which act as inspiration for an incredible wedding theme.

Barndiva is perfect for the bride who wants to experiment with vintage or shabby chic details for her celebration. Everywhere you turn, you will be mesmerized by amazing design touches that have been perfectly incorporated into the outdoor patio and fun reception room.

This bride does a wonderful job of enhancing the facility’s existing design elements without taking away from their own natural beauty and charm. The iron gate is a perfect example – this piece is timeless all on its own, but with a few elegant floral accents, you now have great WOW factor as a welcoming point for your guests. I love, love, love the use of the wrought iron garden chairs in this design. They are perfect for this venue and look as if they belong here.

Esperanza Spaulding

(originally posted February 16, 2011)

The world seems surprised over Esperanza Spaulding’s Grammy Award Sunday Night for Best New Artist of the Year, but anyone who was blown away by her first Healdsburg Jazz Festival performance in the Barndiva Gardens two years ago knows the award was well earned. This is one extremely talented, beautiful woman. We expect great things from her in the years to come.

Lamb Shank

Dish of the Week:

Preston Lamb Shank with Parsnip Purée, Caramelized Endive & Fennel Marmalade

As soon as we took possession of this beautiful sweet-grass fed* animal from Lou Preston, we broke it down and began to slow roast the bones intended for stock.  The next day we sautéed the shank along with the shoulder, tongue, neck, and tail until golden brown adding white wine, carrots, tomato paste, garlic, fennel and the stock from the roasted bones.

We love it when we get an opportunity to serve a bone-in cut of meat: the shank is especially delicious as slow cooking enhances the flavor in each bite.  Lou’s animals are leaner than most, which imparts a subtle meaty flavor with an unmistakable hint of sweet-grass in the finish.

The final sauce, with its rich caramel color, is the result of further reduction with sherry vinegar, butter and herbs.

The earthy trio of shank, parsnip purée and caramelized endive, all saturated flavor profiles, call for contrasting notes to brighten and lift the dish to a higher level.  We’ve added two ~ a quenelle of fennel marmalade is made by combining diced caramelized fennel, champagne vinegar, reduced vegetable stock, a pinch of sugar and fennel pollen.

Then, just before the plate is wisked off to the dining room, a light shower of fennel fronds and Rapini flowers completes this perfect winter dish.

*sweet-grass fed: Everyone wins with biodynamic farming as practiced by the Prestons.  The animals are moved daily fertilizing the soil from pasture to pasture, orchard to orchard, and in Lou’s case, vineyard to vineyard.  The animal gets to eat the sweetest top grass and the diner gets to enjoy superlative taste from a life well grazed.  Last but certainly not least, Barndiva gets to honor its commitment to supporting a sustainable food shed.