Close your eyes and imagine a 200-person long dining table covered in wildflowers spanning the length of rows of vines just at the end of spring. There’s a gentle breeze, the shade from ancient olive trees gently filters out the late afternoon sun, and you can hear baby goats ewing just on the other side of the garden. This, my friends, was the setting for a dinner party hosted by Outstanding in the Field and Tres Sabores.
Founded fifteen years ago in Santa Cruz as a humble pop up dinner series to reconnect diners with the people and places that make their food, it has since grown to a year round ‘traveling circus’ that has curated dining experiences as far away as Japan.
After dreaming about attending for literally years, I finally pulled the plug on attending one right in my own backyard. Read on for all the details of how it went!
Frequently Asked Questions About Outstanding In The Field
How Long Does It Last?
Start to finish, the dinner is about four to five hours.
What if it rains?
Bring a jacket! All events are rain-or-shine, unless there’s unsafe conditions.
How Much is a Ticket?
$395-565 per person, depending on location.
Can I see a menu?
Nope! The menu is a total surprise until the day of.
What if I have dietary restrictions?
No guarantees that you can be accommodated, but you can email them in advance to let them know.
What do I wear?
An elevated, weather-appropriate version of whatever you would normally wear to the host venue to begin with.
My Experience at Outstanding in the Field
Eager to take it all in, we were one of the first guests to arrive. Although I’d been to Tres Sabores countless times as a wine club member, the transformation still took my breath away. The evening began with passed appetizers in the old olive grove, which were so delicious I had to remind myself multiple times not to stuff myself before dinner.
Once all the guests were checked in, a clinking of the glasses encouraged everyone to gather round for toasts and speeches. The founder, Jim Denevan, told the origin story and introduced his crew, followed by Julie and Jon doing the same before taking us on a little tour of the vineyard.
Because Tres Sabores is like a second home to me at this point, I took the opportunity to sneak away and check out the final preparations. The teamwork and operations behind the field kitchen totally blew me away – I couldn’t believe that all this was set up for just a day!
Finally, it was time to come back around and choose our plate and seats. I’ll be honest, this was a pretty stressful part of the night. It was a total mad dash, and there were a lot of high emotions and elbowing between guests who had a strong idea of where they wanted to sit.
The food is served family style, and everyone is encouraged to make friends with their neighbours. This is an idealistic luck of the draw, but we ended up pretty lucky. Our neighbours to the left of us were awkwardly territorial over passing plates or sharing anything, but we got along great with the couples to our right – we actually ended up spending the entire night laughing together and traded numbers to meet up again later this summer!
As for the food itself? Each night brings with it a different chef, and ours was Chef Telmo from Uma Casa. He incorporated his Portuguese heritage as well as Julie’s homegrown ingredients into every dish, and it was a total treat.
OITF’s website states that their chefs may not be able to accommodate allergies or food restrictions due to the nature of the field kitchen, but for our dinner the team went above and beyond in individually creating several dishes for the vegetarians dining beside us.
So, was it worth it? Absolutely, one hundred percent, hell yes. With so much fine dining at our fingertips in Northern California, there’s something especially magical about these ephemeral experiences.
They have several events coming up that still have plenty of tickets from the Colorado Rockies to Burgundy, all of which I’m daydreaming about. Who knows, maybe I’ll see you in the fall at the top of Big Sur!
