Farm to Fairway brings diners to a different type of venue
The Alpine Table, Beaver Creek Culinary series, took guests out to the links for dinner
Beaver Creek Resort/Courtesy photo
Throughout the years I’ve experienced some amazing settings for dining, whether it’s snowshoeing to Grouse Mountain Grill during Beaver Creek’s Winter Culinary Weekend, sipping wine at the top of Eagle’s Nest surrounded by huge walls built of snow at the Taste of Vail, taking a jeep tour to experience a wine flight and charcuterie board at Beano’s Cabin, or sharing a meal inside a refurbished gondola car at the former Blue Plate Bistro – these settings have been fantastic. But I was truly blown away last week when I dined in the middle of a fairway.
The unique dining destination was courtesy of Beaver Creek’s culinary series called The Alpine Table: Farm to Fairway. The dining experience was situated at Red Sky Ranch on the Greg Norman-designed course on hole #4, which is listed as a Par 5 and boasts expansive views of the Gore Range, Castle Peak and the Flattops.
While driving up to the member clubhouse where everyone checked in for the event, I could see from the road what looked like a small table in the middle of a huge fairway. After a golf cart transported to the golf course I could see that several rectangular tables were lined up to form one long community table that sat around 50 people.
Once I got to Fairway #4, none other than David Gutowski, who heads up the culinary team at Beaver Creek, greeted the guests with a welcome and a platter of Wynn Farm plums, goat labneh and sunflower seed brittle. Guests were handed a welcome cocktail of Lalo Tequila and Palisade peach puree while Rocky Mountain rainbow trout, rhubarb sambal with fennel latkes and agrodolce-glazed braised Colorado beef with snap pea salsa and radish appetizers were also being served.
Each course was created by a different chef from the Beaver Creek culinary team. Chef Jillian Shaw of Allie’s Cabin prepared the appetizers while the first course was created by chef Jonathan Alonso of Zach’s Cabin. LaVenture tomatoes, Haystack goat cheese, Borden Farms Eggplant and Tomato Vinaigrette was paired with a 2021 LIOCO Skycrest Vineyard Chardonnay from the Anderson Valley in Mendocino, California. Sean Costa, sommelier for Beaver Creek Culinary, took great care in finding the right wines and even some hard to find wines to accompany each dish.
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The second course was prepared by chef Mackenzie Nicholson of Beano’s Cabin. The grass-fed bison short ribs, Anson Mills polenta, sweet tea bordelaise and Gypsum potatoes were served with a 2022 Cervantes Fair Chase Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, California. The third course showcased the peach and corn harvest with a caramelized Olathe corn cake, roasted Wynn Farm peach ice cream and kettle corn accompanied by a 2010 Hetszolo Tokaji Aszu 5 Puutonyos, from Tokaj, Hungary. Chef Ryan Little prepared the dessert as well as the bread service which included blood orange focaccia, rosemary sour dough with baba ghanoush, bomba and grass-fed butter.
“Seeing The Alpine Table come to life out on the fairway was such an awesome experience. Each of us chefs focused on one dish, and together it made for a meal that really highlighted the talent across Beaver Creek. It was amazing to be part of, and I’m excited to build on this momentum with more events like it in the future,” said chef Nicholson.
Where will The Alpine Table series show up next? It’s anybody’s guess. Stay tuned to Beaver Creek.com and check out Signature Events to see what could be popping up where this winter.
