Menu
We are excited to welcome you to our Community Table all summer. This beloved event brings a renowned chef to our farm to design an ecological meal around our four seasonal rotations (market garden, milpa, fruit forest, cover crops) highlighting the bioregional cuisine of San Juan. By bringing these culinary artists back to the source, they have the chance to connect with new ingredients, unearth fresh inspiration in our bioregion’s historic foodways, and discover the rewards of relationship with the land.
An alumnus of the Culinary Institute of America, Aaron began his career with an apprenticeship at the Ritz Carlton, Buckhead under Gunter Seeger. Then for nearly a decade Aaron traveled extensively and worked with a wide range of world-renowned chefs such as Roland Passot, Laurent Gras, Francesco Berardinelli, and Eric Ziebold until landing in his own kitchen at the Ritz Carlton, Half Moon Bay. He has cultivated a long career as Executive Chef and Director of Operations in premier locations with leading brands including Rosewood Hotel Group, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, and the Google Mountain View campus. Aaron is eager to bring an innovative culinary experience to La Vaquera that is deeply rooted in San Juan Capistrano’s history.
Paying tribute to the original Californian ranchero, La Vaquera’s thoughtfully crafted menu reflects both the past and present of San Juan Capistrano, its local terrain, and the generations of people who have settled there.
FAQ
DIETARY PREFERENCES
Community Table dinners are fixed course, family-style meals. As such, we cannot accommodate every dietary restriction. Please email us with any dietary needs. We will try to accommodate for vegetarian/vegan needs, gluten intolerance, and seafood/shellfish allergies but let us know if there are any specific dietary restrictions for any of your guests. We will do our best to accommodate anything beyond the 3 listed. If there are any life threatening allergies we recommend emailing before purchasing tickets.
SCHEDULE
Community Table Dinners begin at 6pm, when we’ll start with drinks and a farm tour. We appreciate timeliness as the dinner is coursed intentionally with just one seating. Dinners typically end around 10pm.
REFUNDS
We can offer refunds up to one week before the dinner. In the case that you need to cancel last minute, we would be happy to work with you to pass along your tickets to friends or family members.
MEMBERSHIP
If you are an active member of The Ecology Center, thank you so much for your support! As a token of our appreciation, we are pleased to offer you exclusive ticket pricing. If you are not yet a member but wish to take advantage of the discount, please visit our SUPPORT page to become a member today. If you’re unsure of your membership status, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected], and we’ll be happy to assist