A Live Fire Feast in the French Tradition

As the sun slips behind the western hills of the Sonoma Valley, crickets hum, grill embers fade to a rosy hue and the murmur of talk and laughter drift from a long farmhouse table lit by the glow of string lights. The guests are gathered under an old oak tree at Sonoma’s 5th Street Farm, taking in the last of an Indian summer evening. Dinner plates have been shoved to a sideboard and a bottle of Chartreuse appears with a tray of tiny, delicate glasses.

When Sarah Anderson first pulled into the driveway of the 1875 Victorian-style farm on the south end of Sonoma that would become her home, she knew she was onto something special. It was 2008. The house had already played host to more than 125 years of family living and its five acres of land held infinite potential. She and her then-husband were running a small cooking school off the Sonoma Square. She’d hoped to find a home with both ample acreage for an edible garden to supply the culinary classroom and a barn for the French antiques she brought in for her eponymous store, Chateau Sonoma. The historic Sonoma property hit the mark.

Sarah has always had a knack for bringing people together. During her first few years at the home, she renovated the house and landscape with the intention of sharing them. “When I started leading culinary tours to France,” she explains, “we would go to all the farmers’ markets and return to the Château to cook a meal together. I wanted the same kind of experience at my home in Sonoma.”

The garden she designed with Château de Chenonceau in mind—featuring centrally placed fountains, thigh-high espaliered fruit trees forming a natural fence for granite walkways, rows of Provençal lavender, an olive grove and grape vineyard and an immaculate potager with slate markers noting the names of seasonal fruits and vegetables.

The farm-to-table cooking school class made ample use of the garden in those early years. In the many years since, Sarah has continued to share the garden’s bounty with her Sonoma community and her many dedicated customers. Winter’s Meyer lemons find their way into pastries at Sonoma’s Baker & Cook. Summer lavender is gathered into bundles and pressed into oil for sale at the shop. Heirloom tomatoes go into a popular Moroccan Tomato Jam. In the early fall, decades-old Pinot Noir grapes produce a rosé that is bottled with the help of a neighbor and olives are pressed into oil at Gold Ridge Organic Farms’ mill in Sebastopol. And at home, she hosts a Mother’s Day lunch, champagne tastings, cooking demonstrations, wellness retreats and, of course, farm dinners “In this day of disconnection,” says Sarah, “it’s just nice to bring people together, to speak other people’s language. When people are gathered and sharing experiences, you can create a pretty powerful connection.”

Sarah manages the farm and shop by herself—relying on a small group of cherished friends and colleagues to help it run smoothly. Brittany Bennet is a content creator who has accompanied Sarah on many of her buying trips to France and the two have become fast friends. So when Brittany suggested a live fire dinner that took advantage of the garden at its peak, Sarah didn’t hesitate. They asked Sacramento-based chef Kevin O’Connor to take care of the meal and the rest came together naturally.

The chef turned to Stemple Creek in Point Reyes for grass-fed lamb, Marin French Cheese Co. in Petaluma for the cheeses and Gold Ridge Organic Farms in Sebastopol for the olive oil. The produce he sourced from Sarah’s kitchen garden. Kenneth and Laura Juhasz of Auteur Wines volunteered the wine. Guests were a happy mix of friends and friends of friends.

Chef Kevin started the fire in the early afternoon, using a mix of oak and almond wood in an open cast-iron grill, nurturing a steady, smoldering heat from their embers. The chef is a natural live fire cook and his path to the milieu something like full circle. Raised in a rural community in the Sierra foothills, Kevin spent as much time as he could outdoors. As a kid, he hunted quail, picked wild blackberries, camped and cooked the days harvest over a bonfire— the orchards and vineyards of his foothill community the natural backdrop to his adventures. He started cooking in local kitchens at 14 and, at 19, launched his first dining enterprise—an underground restaurant (which we might now refer to as a popup) he called Treehouse.

Fully committed to his self-described “geeky, French fine dining phase,” Kevin crafted elaborate multi-course menus paired with fine wines—at first asking friends to contribute nothing more than wine and ingredients. Word grew quickly, augmented by a feature in Sacramento Magazine, and the gatherings morphed into an energetic, community-driven business. He plated on slate and smooth river rocks, finding as much freedom in the presentation as he did in the cooking. By 23, Kevin had accepted his first executive chef position at crudo bar Blackbird in Sacramento.

After a few intense years in the kitchen, Kevin moved to Montana where he spent a summer living on horseback, foraging by day and cooking over fire by night. A two-year stint at Quon in San Francisco was followed by a collaboration with Cobram olive oil in Australia, where he introduced live fire cooking as the ultimate use for the country’s most celebrated olive oil brand.

Now at home in the U.S., live fire cooking is the constant in Kevin’s experience that has stuck. Fire offers a raw rustic quality to food but also a natural conduit for gathering that he loves.

Kevin and Sarah crafted a live fire menu that does just that— serving everything family-style on a long farmhouse table under the trees. Crostini are used as scoops for melted triple crème cheese from small wheels roasted over grape leaves. A long platter of creamy labneh offers a welcome bed for fire-roasted vegetables. Slices cut from a crusty, herb-infused leg of lamb get last-minute dollops of bright chimichurri. And, for dessert, fresh fruit of the season with little more than a dollop of softly whipped cream are served alongside delicate glasses of Chartreuse, an herbal elixir crafted by French monks since 1737.

Chef and host share a European approach to entertaining that informs the evening—each channeling the long, easy meals of their time spent in France. No phones. No screens. Just good food and good friends sharing relaxed chatter and easy laughter well into the night.