Dishing It Out Archive

A few weeks ago I tagged along with my favorite chef de la minute, Carl Schroeder (Arterra Restaurant), when he took a group of visiting food writers on a tour of some of the best farms and food producers San Diego has to offer. The writers — some of whom were from New York, yes, the Times and Los Angeles, yes, the Times — were instantly smitten with our abundance of local produce, fresh fish and artesian food products like Bread and Cie bread.

The writers were housed at the Del Mar Marriott Hotel and spent two days shuttling around to local farms and specialty food makers while feasting on Schroeder’s cuisine for breakfast and dinner. The group visited Tom Chino of Chino Farm, who is known for avoiding the whole paparazzi thing. The usually camera-shy Chino answered questions and handed out samples of his fresh fruits and vegetables. Schroeder got some just-picked Korean melons, which he used, along with Parma prosciutto, micro-arugula and a curry vinaigrette, to prepare the salad course that evening. The entourage also visited Valdivia Farms, where Schroeder gets his tomatoes, as well as Fresh Origins Farms in Ramona, where the not-so-simple process of growing petite herbs and micro-greens was observed. No wonder the dang things are so expensive.

Around lunchtime, the tour made a stop at Bread and Cie’s swanky new 10,000-square-foot wholesale bakery on Pacific Highway. In addition to providing an entertaining and educational tour, owner Charles Kaufman served a fabulous lunch (which received rave reviews).

After an afternoon break in Del Mar, the group was treated to a tasting menu in the Arterra dining room. (Incidentally, Arterra means, “art of the earth.”) It was quite a feat for Schroeder to pull off this dinner since he had spent the entire day farming it with the writers. I was impressed with not only his complete knowledge of product (and these folks asked him a lot of questions), but also with the poise and charming equanimity with which he handled himself the entire day. (Chefs can be very temperamental.)

Schroeder’s contemporary American fare wowed the critics. Highlights of the five-course dinner were the “Pan-Seared Diver Scallops and Hudson Valley Foie Gras,” served over forest mushroom risotto with black truffles and sweet pea sauce (can’t you just imagine it?) and the “Roasted Duck Breast and House Made Sausage,” accompanied by a saffron-fennel pearl pasta, pancetta-wrapped peach and brandied cherry sauce.

This event was very good for San Diego, culinarily speaking. We need to get more national writers and food magazines out here. San Diego tends to be overshadowed or even left out of the real scene merely by being located a bit too close to Los Angeles. San Diego has an abundance of natural resources and quality products at its fingertips. As Schroeder puts it, “This is a chef’s paradise.”

Terryl Gavre believes the world would be a better place if everyone worked once as a foodserver. She is owner of Café 222, Downtown, and can be reached at (619) 233-4060, Ext. 316, or food@san.rr.com.