April 16, 2024 – Carmel Valley Ranch is putting a new emphasis on its culinary program, revamping its flagship Valley Kitchen restaurant with a new look, a new chef and an all-new menu that takes full advantage of ranch-grown ingredients.
A gala culinary weekend—featuring three James Beard award-winning chefs—kicked off the transformation, offering guests and the media a sneak peek at what’s in store for diners at the ranch.
“Not only is this a celebration of food, it’s about all that the ranch entails,” said executive chef Hernan Melendez as the festivities got underway. “This is a real ranch, we have animals, we make the honey, we make our own salt and hopefully everyone can taste that in every dish.”
Edible Monterey Bay was lucky to be invited to take part in the culinary weekend, which included a welcome dinner by chef Jen Jasinski, who has three restaurants in Denver and was named best chef in the Southwest by the James Beard Foundation.
Chef Brian Redzikowski of Kettner Exchange in San Diego prepared a lunch and offered a cheese making demo, while chef Lincoln Carson—a Beard Foundation outstanding pastry chef finalist—was in charge of the closing dinner.
The three guest chefs were ably assisted by Carmel Valley Ranch chef de cuisine Rick Aguilar, who also has full responsibility for Valley Kitchen and recently completed the menu overhaul.
Aguilar, who arrived at the ranch five months ago from The Peninsula Beverly Hills, is a deeply talented and accomplished chef who has worked in the famed Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, Thomas Keller’s Bouchon of Beverly Hills and Nobu.
But despite his fine dining background, he is going for a more clubby feel at Valley Kitchen. “I want people to feel comfortable here,” says Aguilar. “We have a well-rounded menu, with dishes that residents and the community would appreciate.”
Due to its popularity with diners, the only item that has not changed on the menu is the signature beet salad that combines tri-color beets, spiced pistachio brittle, arugula and goat cheese made on the premises.
Other items that have already proven popular include the CVR meatballs, also using ranch goat cheese, roasted rack of lamb and Hokkaido scallops served with English pea purée, buttermilk sauce, bottarga and organic mushrooms from Lake Family Forest Farms in Carmel Valley.
“The oyster mushrooms from Lake Family Farm are just picture perfect,” says the chef, who is clearly delighted with the easy availability of local produce and gets his lettuce from Borba Farm or Coke Farms. Culinary herbs, edible flowers and some fruits and vegetables are cultivated in the ranch’s kitchen garden and used in the dishes as much as possible.
Valley Kitchen was part of the recent multimillion-dollar ranch renovation. Floors were refinished with a lighter color, brightening the entire space. Comfy new banquettes were installed, along with fresh tables and chairs. And wide screen TVs were being installed in the bar area for watching sports.
Despite stormy weather while we were there, participants in the culinary weekend had a chance to meet the food artisans who provide Valley Kitchen with cheese, olive oil, honey, salt and wine—truly life’s simple pleasures.
The knowledgeable and funny Rachel Sutton is beekeeper and the resort’s sustainability manager. She loves to tell guests all about the life of bees and how honey is harvested, while at the same time educating visitors about the role bees play in the ecosystem. Honey tastings are conducted on a regular basis at the ranch and overnight guests can suit up for a first-hand taste of beekeeping by signing up for the Bee Experience.
Cheesemaker Audra Volpe is a new addition to the ranch and equally fascinating. She comes from the Midwest, where she was a lion keeper. Now she prefers tending the ranch’s five Swiss Saanen goats, which produce about five gallons of milk a day. Most of that she turns into chèvre for the kitchen, but she also has some hard cheeses currently aging.
I was especially impressed by Andy Magnasco, whose job involves taking care of 73 olive trees—in addition to the golf course and the rest of the ranch grounds, which include a vineyard and thousands of lavender plants. For a golf guy, he has an amazing breadth of knowledge about olive oil. He tends Arbequina, Arbosana and Koroneiki trees and gets his fruit pressed at the award-winning 43 Ranch near Paso Robles, making the Carmel Valley Ranch blend a real treat for the palate.
Rounding out the group of artisans who participated in the culinary weekend were our longtime friends Carlo Overhulser of Big Sur Salts and Ian Brand of I Brand Family Wines. Overhulser is the resident salt maker at Carmel Valley Ranch and has a salt shed in the garden where visitors can watch pristine sea water being evaporated into salt for the kitchen.
Brand—one of the Monterey Bay area’s most respected winemakers—is also the ranch winemaker, crafting the excellent house label Swing Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Rosé and Pinot Noir that you can sample at Valley Kitchen.
It was a special privilege to get to meet all these talented taste makers and it is such a treat to have them all working here in our backyard, making Carmel Valley Ranch a unique place to stay or visit for a meal.
CRV managing director Ulrich Samietz promises to make culinary weekends an annual event, so look for it to come around again next spring or stop by sooner and enjoy the new dishes at Valley Kitchen.
Valley Kitchen at Carmel Valley Ranch | carmelvalleyranch.com/dining
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
