Outstanding in the Field comes to Montana

Outstanding in the Field is returning to Montana, bringing its long communal table to Gallatin Valley Botanicals Farm on July 19 for a multi-course feast prepared by guest chefs Davey and Kierst Rabinowitz of Bisl restaurant in Bozeman.

Outstanding in the Field is the traveling restaurant without walls that partners with top regional chefs to stage multi-course feasts between soil and sky in the places where the food on the plate was harvested.

The July 19 event is part of OITF's 2017 National Tour -- 90+ table-to-farm meals from coast to coast.

In Montana, the hosts are farmers Matt and Jacy Rothschiller, who grow about 150 varieties of produce on their 20-acre spread in the fertile bottomlands of Rocky Creek. Matt and Jacy market their harvest to summer and winter CSAs and farmers markets, local restaurants and the Community Food Co-op.

Famers and chefs have been in cahoots for months planning the July 19 menu, which will also feature Napa and Sonoma bottlings from Failla Wines. For dessert, The Emperor of Ice Cream, Alex McKenzie, will scoop out frozen treats from his mobile ice cream cart.

Outstanding in the Field is the pioneer of pop-up dinners set between the soil and sky in the places where the food on the plate was harvested. The culinary caravan will stage nearly 90 multi-course feasts across North America on its 2017 Tour - plus OITF's first-ever event in France in August. 

 

Outstanding in the Field's mission is to introduce adventurous diners to the people who provide the ingredients for the menu. The OITF 2017 Tour schedule includes table-to-farm feasts prepared by top regional chefs in 27 U.S. states, four Canadian provinces and a vineyard in Burgundy, France. 

The Outstanding in the Field 2017 #TabletoField Tour schedule runs May through November from coast to coast, with a hop across the pond for an August event in Burgundy, France. The season starts with May/June dinners up and down OITF's home state of California before they hit the road to circumnavigate North America. With their vintage cherry-red bus leading the caravan, OITF will head north to Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, east across the top of the U.S. to Quebec and Ontario, then zigzag down the eastern seaboard before wending their way back home across the south and southwest.

 

The 2017 schedule includes places Outstanding in the Field hasn't been to in a while -- like Montana and New Mexico -- and places they've never been to before -- including a salt farm on the Oregon coast, an urban farm in downtown Detroit, and farms on Cape Cod and Prince Edward Island, Canada. Along the way, they'll visit creameries and cheeseworks, abalone farms and vegetable farms, ranches and olive groves.

 

"Our mission is to get folks out to the farm and honor the people whose good work brings nourishment to the table," says Outstanding in the Field founder, chef/artist Jim Denevan. "From the beginning, we set out to inspire an appreciation for local farmers, and the food culture has traveled right along with us. Now that farm dinners have become a 'thing,' we're proud to be the hardworking roadies who set the stage for America's rock-star farmers."

A few of the events on the Outstanding in the Field 2017 Tour: 

July 6 | Jacobsen Salt Farm | Tillamook, OR (Portland area) | Guest chef Matthew Sigler, Renata, Portland

July 12 | Willowood Farm | Widbey Island, WA | Guest chef Stuart Lane, Spinasse, Seattle

July 19 | Gallatin Valley Botanical | Bozeman, MT | Guest chefs Davey & Kierst Rabinowitz, bisl, Bozeman

July 23 | The Fresh Herb Co. | Longmont, CO (Boulder area) | Guest chef Eric Skokan, Black Cat, Boulder

Aug 7 | Kinnikinnick Farm | Caledonia, IL | Guest chef Bruce Sherman, North Pond, Chicago

Aug 16 | Thaxton's Organic Garlic | Hudson, OH (Cleveland area) | Guest chef Jonathon Sawyer, Trentina, Cleveland

Aug 18 | Pearl Morissette | Jordan, ON (Toronto) | Guest chef Ariel Coplan, Thoroughbred, Toronto

Aug 23 | Four Season Farm | Harborside, ME | Guest chef Devin Finigan, Aragosta, Stonington

Sept 5 | Pat's Pastured | East Greenwich, RI (Providence area) | Guest chef James Mark, north, Providence

Sept 12 | Waldingfield Farm | Washington, CT | Guest chef Jason Sobocinski, Caseus Fromagerie & Bistro, New Haven
Sept 17 | Amber Waves Farm | Amagansett, NY (Long Island) | Guest chef Jason Weiner, Almond, Bridgehampton & NYC

Sept 27 | Who Cooks For You Farm | New Bethlehem, PA (Pittsburgh) | Guest chef Justin Severino, Cure, Pittsburgh

Oct 1 | Free Union Grass Farm | Free Union, VA | Guest chef Tarver King, The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm, Lovettsville

Oct 7 | Wrecking Barn Farm | Loganville, GA | Guest chef Ian Winslade, Murphy's, Atlanta

Oct 12 | Pure Land Organic | McKinney, TX (Dallas area) | Guest chef Robert Lyford, Patina Green Home & Market, McKinney

Oct 18 | Green Tractor Farm | La Cienega, NM (Santa Fe) | Guest chef James Campbell Caruso, La Boca, Santa Fe

Oct 24 | Wattles Farm Community Garden | Los Angeles, CA | Guest chef Steve Samson, Sotto, L.A.

 

About Outstanding in the Field

In the summer of 1999, OITF founder, chef/artist Jim Denevan, came up with the idea of setting a table on a farm and inviting diners to an open-air meal in celebration of the farmer and the gifts of the land. He called it Outstanding in the Field.

 

Since that first dinner on a farm in Santa Cruz, Calif., Outstanding in the Field has staged table-to-farm events in all 50 states across the US and 13 countries around the world, welcoming more than 100,000 people to its long table set in vegetable fields and fruit orchards, on beaches and mountaintops, in barns and greenhouses. Hundreds of talented chefs -- including dozens of Top Chefs and James Beard award winners and nominees -- have cooked in OITF's traveling kitchen. The group stages 100+ events every year as part of their May through November tour and a smaller winter tour in January/February to warm-weather locales like Florida, Hawaii and Mexico.

 

Guests at an Outstanding feast may find themselves sitting next to a local farmer who grew the greens, a fisherman who reeled in the fresh catch or a cheesemaker who separated curds from whey. Fellow diners at the long table may have traveled from across town or across the country. Many loyal "fieldheads" follow OITF as it travels, using an Outstanding event as the centerpiece for a visit to a place they've never been before or to experience a favorite spot from a fresh perspective. One couple attended 13 OITF dinners in one season!