A Farm to Fork Feast in California
Photography by Dustin Klemann
No further from the bustling Hollywood Star Walk of Fame than an avocado could be thrown sets a lush, peaceful garden where Los Angeles locals plant their produce. On a warm night in August, a long white-clothed table stretched through the lattice of trees at Wattles Garden as Outstanding in the Field guests arrived for a unique dinner experience.
This wasn’t the first time guests dined here in this unusual way. Founded in 1999 by Jim Denevan, OITF has been hosting farm-inspired dinners at Wattles Garden for the past 15 years. Denevan’s brain child is what he calls a “radical alternative to the conventional dining experience,” where he brings chefs to the field to prepare and serve food. The organization travels to many outdoor locations across the U.S. and abroad, serving a different menu at each place. In July, OITF hosted an event in San Simeon.
The partnership between OITF and Wattles Farm Community Garden, a 4.2-acre community garden owned by the City of L.A., comes from a mutual appreciation of the outdoors and organically grown food. But the way this collaboration began may come as a bit of a surprise – at least it did for Wattles President Toby Leaman when she first heard the story about five years ago.
“It turns out Jim jumped the fence and came in after hearing about how great this place was from one of his team members,” Toby says. “He ran into the head garden master and talked to him about the place, then got my number and called me up.”
Wattles is part public park, part members-only garden that’s enclosed in a chain-link fence; the garden’s 284 members solely have access to this part. Regardless of this surprising revelation, the relationship between Toby and Jim remains strong, as evidenced by their joint welcoming of guests from the top of a wooden bench.
“This place is near and dear to my heart,” Jim told the crowd as they sipped on either a beer from Inglewood’s Crowns and Hops or a white wine from Habit Wine Company, a Santa Maria winemaker.
Jim said the impetus for starting OITF was seeing how chefs didn’t receive recognition for their selection of organically farmed produce. “You’d never see mention of the chef,” Jim shared. “I wanted to bring the chefs forward.”
Under a curtain of avocado and eucalyptus trees, about 75 guests cut into traditional African cuisine described by Chef Gladys as “a way to celebrate common ground.”
“Time to bring L.A. some culture,” she added before delivering to the tables plates of fresh salad, beignets with hummus, oxtail, and lion’s mane mushrooms.
As glasses continued to be replenished with wine throughout the evening, dinner guests who arrived a stranger to the person on their left or right became fast friends. In one section of the table, a trio of couples – an attorney and teacher, ecologist and therapist, psychologist and golf instructor – introduced themselves to one another while they passed around the communal plates.
As cutlery clicked against plates, sounds of animals in the trees and insects in bushes hummed quietly in the background. Flickering candle light illuminated the darkened dining area after nightfall, as dinner guests followed Chef Gladys’ command to “surrender to the flavors of love.”
The same greenery that provided shade from the sun and, later, a veil of darkness, also prevented the sounds of one of L.A.’s most highly trafficked neighborhoods from penetrating the hushed ambiance. As guests filled their plates one last time with a stone fruit dessert, Jim shared his gratitude for the evening and Chef Gladys expressed simple parting words.
“I am because we are,” she said before letting out a tribal cry.
