Outstanding in Los Alamos
A dinner showcases the renewed bounty of a CENTRAL COAST RANCH
Las Cumbres Ranch sells beef and honey direct to consumers, and it also offers cow shares. The ranch is available as an event space, and its Saturday tours can be booked online.
Written by Caitlin White
Photographs by Jake Lutz
The life’s work of land artist and Outstanding In the Field founder Jim Denevan is to continually create better iterations of extraordinary and memorable dining experiences that invite guests to commune with the physical environment where their food is sourced and produced.
“The events are a way for people to have more meaningful connections at this long table, and a deeper sense of where they live or where they might travel,” Denevan says of the series. “My inspiration for Outstanding In the Field is to bring the farmer, the chef, and the general public closer together. This happens through experiences that inspire greater connection, which over time makes for a more meaningful food culture.”
Taking place for more than 25 years, the wildly popular series has become something of a phenomenon, particularly on the West Coast, where an abundance of fields, farms, and functional outdoor spaces are available for transformation into a hospitality pavilion for one night. The events have become renowned among food and wine lovers, aficionados of the hyperlocal, and anyone with a soft spot for farm-to-table dining.
“Outstanding In the Field events have become renowned among food and wine lovers and aficionados of the hyperlocal.”
Denevan has thrown multiple dinners in the greater Santa Barbara area, including many in idyllic vineyards. A number of collaborations have been with chef Clark Staub of Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos. One of these gatherings recently spotlighted Las Cumbres Ranch, a holistically managed cattle ranch near Los Alamos. Acquired by the Selbert family in 2017, the ranch is known for its soil-regeneration practices, a system that has changed the quality of its produce and beef in a few short cycles. There has also been an increase in different types of animals and plants on the ranch, including native grasses, flowers, birds, and insects.
“We found out about regenerative agriculture in 2019, and I was hooked on the idea of making positive changes in our environment,” says Stefan Selbert, the operations manager and son of ranch owners Jim and Patricia Selbert. “Our family started implementing regenerative practices right then, and we’ve been practicing holistic management ever since. What excites me the most is to see how these practices expand the amount of life on the ranch while also improving the quality of the beef, honey, and eggs we produce.”
““We get to share how our regenerative practices heal the land while also
celebrating what makes our community so special.”
Bonsmara cattle are perfect for the Central Coast and are an important part of land management at the ranch, helping increase the stocking capacity of the ranch every season so they’re able to support more animals year after year. “The main tool we use in working our land is called holistic planned grazing. We move our animals in a way that mimics grazing patterns of ancient migrating herds that evolved along with the native fauna of California. We do so because it helps propagate all species of native plants while sequestering carbon, healing the soil, and improving resiliency of the land.”
To feature the beef, honey, and eggs produced here, Staub created a dinner menu that used all these ingredients. It was a celebration of the ranch with beef included in nine separate dishes of the 12-course meal—from beef-bone broth consommé and beef gelée on top of Morro Bay oysters to sirloin carpaccio and bone marrow ice cream.
“Outstanding In the Field espouses using hyperlocal ingredients, which is also what my restaurant does,” Staub says. “Full of Life Flatbread is six miles down the road from Las Cumbres Ranch, so it was really nice to create something so hyperlocal.”
Part of the setup for the dinner at the ranch was situating guests in an area where they could enjoy all aspects of the beautiful landscape, including the flowers, trees, and wildlife that have thrived here because of the regenerative practices.
“Las Cumbres shows how important the culture of ranching is to not only the Central Coast but the United States,” Selbert says. “We get to share how our regenerative practices heal the land while also celebrating what makes our community so special. Historically, the Central Coast has been one of the best growers of quality beef, wine, and produce. With these practices we can ensure that, for generations to come, the Central Coast will continue to grow delicious food.”
Denevan says places like Las Cumbres, and what the Selberts are doing to restore the land there, are helping transform the food culture across America and create a greater sense of stewardship for future generations. “It sounds a little pretentious to call the series ‘dinner art,’ but I do see it as an extension of my land art,” he says. “Learning about the cattle and the history of that particular site is always going to be the coolest thing for me.” outstandinginthefield.com
