For many chefs, the connection to food starts in the ground, knowing where ingredients come from and letting the seasons decide what goes on the plate. This concept was at the core of Chef’s Atelier, a three-part culinary series at Wildflower Farms, an Auberge Resorts Collection, which paired visiting chefs with the resort’s own farm and kitchen teams in partnership with Le Creuset.
“The second a visiting chef steps onto the farm, we want them to feel inspired and excited,” says farm director Will Conway. “Basing a culinary experience on vegetables that are harvested on site makes the ingredients the main characters in the story.”
The final edition brought in Joshua Pinsky, the chef and owner behind New York’s Claud and Penny. He walked the farm with Conway and Brian VanderGast, head chef of the hotel’s restaurant Clay, to forage and single out the produce worth building a meal around before cooking a three-course farm-to-table dinner for guests. Much of the menu centered on fall staples like radishes, carrots, and collard greens. Pinsky also applied a twist to a classic, showing guests how to make fondue with goat cheese in place of the usual Alpine varieties.
For VanderGast, that exchange of ideas was one of the highlights of the series. “I think the most interesting part is giving someone access to ingredients we work with every day and seeing how they interpret them through their own culinary background,” he says. “The goal isn’t to have them cook our food. It’s to create something that represents both perspectives.” He adds, “You can spend your entire career working with an ingredient, and someone can come along with a different perspective and show you something new. That’s what keeps cooking interesting.”
The meal was only part of the overall goal. “We hope guests remember the feeling of the evening and the memories, as much as the food itself,” concludes VanderGast. “We want guests to leave feeling connected to the food, the setting, and the experience of gathering together.”
