One enchanted evening in September, chefs Martha Stamps and Margot McCormack will celebrate Nashville's growing appetite for local food
by Carrington Fox
When things happen simultaneously in agriculture—like when all the sunflowers turn toward the light or the cucumber vines creep away from the shadow—it's much more than coincidence. Likewise, when chefs Margot McCormack and Martha Stamps both scheduled al fresco farm dinners on Sept. 13, it was more than just a scheduling overlap. It was a sign that Nashville's dining community is turning its face toward the fields and farms that produce our food.
On one Sunday night, the doyennes of locavore dining in Nashville—Margot from the East and Martha from the West—will shepherd their fans out of the dining room and into the fields, to celebrate fall, the harvest and a burgeoning awareness that food comes from the earth—and the closer to home the better.
Outstanding in the Field with Martha Stamps
Arugula's Star Farm
6624 Leipers Creek Road, Columbia
A mobile restaurant without walls, Outstanding in the Field makes its inaugural trip to Middle Tennessee this fall, with an open-air feast at Allison and Matthew Neal's Arugula's Star Farm in Columbia. Outstanding's organizers said that chef Martha Stamps—a longtime food writer and founder of the recently closed Martha's at the Plantation—"gets the most persistent and eager chef award this year" for her campaign to lure the decade-old movable feast to the Nashville area. (An inveterate ambassador of her region's cuisine, Stamps last year coaxed the venerable James Beard Society from New York City to the Belle Meade Plantation to show off a roster of leading Southern chefs.)
As is customary for an Outstanding in the Field event, guests will dine at long tables set up in a field, and they'll tour the Neals' farm, which is located 10 miles outside Leipers Fork in the Highland Rim area. Stamps will prepare a five-course meal using certified organic vegetables, greens, fruits and herbs from Arugula's Star and from nearby farms. Expect a menu rich in baby beets, sundried peaches, heirloom tomatoes, basil and strawberries, with highlights including braised West Wind Farms short rib with Fall's Mill grits and Bonnie Blue chèvre, and dessert of Hatcher Dairy buttermilk sorbet with spiced plum sauce and pecan short cookies.
Slow Food Nashville convivium leader Robin Riddell will pair wines imported by Winebow with each course, and globetrotting tea merchant Sarah Scarborough of local Partners Tea will stir up a signature "teatini" cocktail with prosecco and one of her tea blends. Katy Bowser and a small band will perform during cocktails in the open field. The event is $180 plus tax per person and begins at 3 p.m. Register online at outstandinginthefield.com.
Farm to Blanket with Margot McCormack
Hungry Gnome Farm
4712 Lickton Pike
At the opposite compass point, about 15 minutes north of town, chef Margot McCormack and guests will blanket Hungry Gnome Farm with an old-fashioned pique-nique. The chef/owner of Margot Café and Marché Artisan Foods is no stranger to thinking outside the restaurant—last year, she staged an al fresco feast on the sunflower-bordered parking lot of her Five Points restaurant to benefit Slow Food Nashville. On Sept. 13, she is teaming up with Hungry Gnome owners Bert Hartman and Alicia Batson to host a benefit for Tana Comer's Eaton's Creek Organics, a nearby certified organic farm that partners with Hungry Gnome in a community-supported agriculture cooperative.
Drawing on ingredients from the host farm, McCormack will create a menu that's likely to include deviled eggs; caramelized onion focaccia; roasted delicata squash with Belle chèvre cheese and pecans; corn, tomato and okra stew over basmati rice; and sweet potato pie for dessert. In lieu of tables and chairs, she invites guests to BYOB. (That's blankets and booze—lemonade and tea will be served.)
The event is $50 per person and begins at 4 p.m. with a tour of the farm. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. Call 227-4668 for reservations.
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