Centennial Farm to host exclusive wine dinner featuring special guests
On Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017, Centennial Farm at OC Fair & Event Center will host The Red Barn: Fire-and-Ash Wine Dinner, a unique dining experience featuring talented chefs, special guests and, best of all, a scrumptious multi-course farm-to-fork wine dinner.
To start, the exclusive event will feature live-fire exhibition-style appetizers, sparkling wines provided by Orange County Wine Society (OCWS) and tours of the farm and garden at 6:30 p.m. The Millennium Barn doors will then open at 7:30 p.m. for a multi-course family-style wine dinner featuring California’s bountiful produce and artisan meats cooked exclusively on an open fire in ash.
The live-fire cooking style is not a new trend, but it has become more popular in the last year or so as restaurants throughout the country are swapping out gas for wood. Bon Appetit wrote in June: “It’s funny to call this return to cooking with fire a trend. If it is, it’s certainly the oldest trend in the book. And yet there is no arguing that the burning hearth has of late gripped the restaurant world, seeming to bestow the imprimatur of ‘serious chef’ on anyone who embraces it.”
Cracklin’ wrapped porchetta will be served with blistered fingerling potatoes, and a grilled, split Cornish game hen will go well with fall succotash straight from Centennial Farm’s own garden. An ash-roasted autumn squash trio will feature rosemary, garlic and honey, while lemon-wilted spinach sides beef steak Portobello.
Need more to get your mouth watering? View the entire menu at ocfair.com/redbarn.
The menu will be prepared by Executive Chef Jesse Lopez, of Spectra Food Services, and has been curated by Chef Annie Morgan, of KOCI Radio’s Pots and Pans with Jack and Annie
Honored special guest for the evening is French-American artist Guy Buffet, whose restaurant-themed art has been featured in Food Arts and Wine & Travel magazines.
Speakers for the evening include:
Michele Richards, VP of Business Development, OC Fair & Event Center
Dan Kohler, food scientist on Hallmark Channel’s “Home & Family”
Melissa Cortina, butcher and owner of Bavette Meat & Provisions
Thom Curry, owner of Temecula Olive Oil Company
Irv Wnuck, wine expert and COO, Seize the Vine Wine Brokerage
Featured local farmers, artisans and wineries include:
Melissa’s Produce
OC Baking Company
M.O.F. Chef Stéphane Tréand of The Pastry School
Angeline Vineyards
Martin Ray Vineyards
Courtney Benham Wines
Orange County Wine Society
Service provided by Buena Park Future Farmers of America, and Orange County School of the Arts Culinary Arts & Hospitality Students.
Tickets to this exclusive event are $125 per person (available on Ticketmaster), which includes dinner, wines, gratuity, tax and parking.
Support of The Red Barn dinner provides year-round educational opportunities through Centennial Farm, Heroes Hall and Imaginology, and helps fund our community give-back programs.