Community Table with Rich Mead & Dan Mattern of Farmhouse

Join us for an edible conversation between a farm, a chef, and the community.

We are delighted to welcome Community Table back for the 2023 Spring Series. 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). By bringing these culinary artists back to the source, we give them an opportunity to connect with new ingredients, find fresh inspiration in our bioregion’s historic foodways, and discover the rewards of relationship with the land.

GET TICKETS

CHEF RICH MEAD OF FARMHOUSE

“It is so important that we sustain the land we use for our food, as well as make this wonderful food available to as many as possible.”

Driven by his passion for bringing farmers and foodies together in celebration of the land that nourishes us, Chef Rich Mead’s exuberance and integrity have made him a favorite collaborator here at The Ecology Center since he helped us launch Green Feast back in 2009. Following a formative visit to the Santa Monica Farmers Market at the beginning of his career, Chef Rich fell in love with the unparalleled flavor of locally sourced organic produce and dedicated himself to building relationship with local farms and food producers. Today, as owner/chef of Newport Beach’s Farmhouse at Roger’s Gardens, Chef Rich’s menus offer a daily exploration of the seasonal flavors found in a six-acre garden landscape.

Chef Mead will be cooking alongside Chef Dan Mattern of Friends & Family, which is a seasonal cafe and marketplace featuring fresh baked goods in East Hollywood, CA run by Pastry Chef/Baker Roxana Jullapat and Chef Daniel Mattern. Longtime champions of produce-driven cooking, Jullapat and Mattern built their careers over fifteen years in renowned kitchens of Los Angeles (including AOC, Lucques, Campanile, and Cooks County) before opening Friends & Family. At Friends & Family, they continue their dedication to handmade food with artisan breads and pastries made daily with locally-sourced, heirloom grains, as well as a produce-forward, day-time menu.

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.