FEATURES

A NOMADIC GROUP OF CHEFS PAUSE ON THE NORTH FORK TO ORCHESTRATE A FARM-FRESH MEAL MADE WITH LOCAL RESOURCES

In search of the perfect harvest, Jim Denevan and his team of foodies follow the seasons. The 44-year-old chef, surfer, artist, occasional farm worker and former model has, to date, held 53 dinners around the country for nearly 5,000 people. All have taken place as part of Outstanding in the Field, an organization he founded in 1999 to take diners "right to the farm." At each dinner, an extension of his environmentally themed artworks, Denevan choreographs farmers, food artisans and regional chefs to design a meal using only local ingredients. Locales have ranged from a farming valley in Alaska to a sea cave on the California coast (which required a one-mile trek through sand with the chefs carrying the food). Late last summer, after traveling cross-country in a 1953 bus, the Outstanding crew rolled up to a field at Satur Farms on the North Fork, just as the region's bounty was at its peak. The farm, operated by Paulette Satur and her husband, chef Eberhard Müller, had become a colorful tapestry of crops including baby mesclun, heirloom tomatoes, beets and broccoli rabe. Denevan and his friends pitched camp on the waterfront property and the next morning began preparations for a feast serving 60. In an adjacent field, they set up a long table draped in white linen, elegant against the green grass that caught a diffuse sunlight through a thin fog.