We are delighted to welcome Community Table back for 2022. This beloved event brings a renowned chef to our farm to design an ecological meal around our four seasonal rotations (market garden, milpa, berries, 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.
Join us for a rustic, family-style feast in The Ecology Center courtyard, featuring thoughtful courses crafted exclusively from ingredients grown on our 28-acre Regenerative Organic™ farm.
With a guest list capped at just 60 people, this intimate gathering is designed to provide an authentic taste of the farm.
Book Your Tickets Below!
Doug Settle is a San Diego-based chef with 15 years of culinary experience. His desire to create positive change in the world through food led him to his current role at The Ecology Center, where he oversees the organizations culinary efforts.
Chef Janina Garay has worked in some of the best kitchens in the world under the guidance of industry titans such as Rick Bayless and Javier Plascenia. Today, Chef Janina serves as Culinary Director for various restaurants in San Diego and Baja, including Wormwood, Tahona (both San Diego and Ensenada locations), and Tahona Mercado Tijuana.
A boy wonder for much of his cooking career, Chef Chris was the youngest chef ever hired at the famed Inn on Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., at 19. After staging around the country at four Michelin-starred restaurants, Chef Chris eventually landed in San Diego where he dazzled diners at Searsucker, Gabardine, and other acclaimed restaurants. Today, Chef Chris leads the new restaurant at the world-renowned Rancho Valencia Resort.
As a chef, small farm advocate, cooking instructor, menu consultant, and serial entrepreneur, Chef Cathy McKnight embodies The Ecology Center’s ethos to cultivate a regenerative food culture. Her commitment to cooking with abundant love and respect for the earth is matched by her unique ability to connect chefs and farmers in the effort to reach a larger community.
A 25-year veteran of the culinary industry, Chef Jason McLeod first made his mark at Chicago’s RIA, earning the relatively unknown seafood restaurant two Michelin stars in just a year’s time. Even while managing multiple projects at once (opening The Aria's new restaurant concepts in Las Vegas, hosting of his own cooking podcast, and appearing on the Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay”), Chef Jason’s award-winning approach to cooking remains the same: simple, honest, no-fuss preparation of the best locally grown seasonal ingredients.
The Community Table
accord
Our Community Table dinner series began with the development of the Community Table Accord–a set of principles developed by chefs and leaders of the regenerative food movement to promote sustainability throughout all aspects of sourcing, preparing, and eating food. At The Ecology Center, we believe that everyday, simple solutions create big change in our communities. Together, we are building a healthy, vibrant future designed around the understanding that we are a part of nature.
The Community Table Accord is an effort to mainstream sustainability in the global farm-to-table community. Shaped, practiced, and shared by our found chefs, the Community Table Accord advances the conversation at the dinner table. By living and eating in accordance with these principles, each one of us contributes to a more abundant future.
eat fresh + seasonal
Choose local produce that’s in season
Buy local
Support a dynamic local economy
Choose Organic
Remove contaminants and toxins from our food supply
Choose Organic
Remove contaminants and toxins from our food supply
Respect Animals
Only eat animals raised with intention and respect
Grow your own
Participate in the act of growing food
Celebrate diversity
Cultivate and consume a diverse variety of foods
Promote Polycultures
Make farms regenerative ecosystems
Nourish All Children
Give children everywhere access to delicious, healthy food
Educate for Change
Empower positive change through personal and collective activism
Celebrate the harvest
Take time to celebrate, recognize, and inspire your community