Edible Mendocino & Lake Counties - Spring 2024 Issue

edible mendocino & lake counties

PUBLISHER & MANAGING EDITOR

Karen Elowitt DESIGNER

Cheryl Koehler

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705 N. State Street #191 Ukiah, CA 95482

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Edible Mendocino & Lake Counties is published quarterly in September, December, March and June. Distribution is throughout Mendocino and Lake counties, and nationally by subscription.

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What’s Cooking

4 TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

With Mica, his ambitious restaurant debut in Ukiah, chef Alan Molina is building on his experience and Mexican heritage.

8 PIPIAN VERDE RECIPE

Alan Molina shares his recipe for pipián verde, a spicy, nutty green sauce that is traditionally served over roast chicken or enchiladas.

10 BREGGO, REBORN

Doug Stewart tells us why it was important to him to buy back Anderson Valley’s acclaimed Breggo wine brand, which he reluctantly sold in 2009.

14 A TRUFFLE TRIUMPH

As of January 2024, Clos Racines got one crucial step closer to becoming Lake County’s —and California’s—largest working truffle farm.

22 COMING FULL CIRCLE

Learn how Roxanne Hampl connects her twin passions for art and food at Rock Seas Farm Fusion in Hopland.

24 ‘BEET THE BLUES’ SALAD RECIPE

Roxanne Hampl shares the recipe for Rock Seas’ healthy and filling salad, which combines beets, quinoa, mixed greens, bleu cheese and pickled onions.

Spring Awakening

BLUE WING SALOON

Considering how long and hard the past winter was, it feels great to have finally reached spring. I am of course grateful for the winter rains, as they provide much-needed water which ensures that our local farmers can continue to grow fruits and vegetables. But there is something so elemental about seeing the changes to the land that come with spring—the first blossoms on the cherry trees, the first leaves on the grapevines, and baby birds fledging their nests for the first time.

Spring is also when many of us leave our nests for the first time in months. After hunkering down and avoiding driving on slippery roads or foregoing outdoor recreation due to the cold, we can at last venture out and resume our favorite sports, visit our favorite restaurants, or even try something new (pickleball, anyone?).

On my recent drives around Mendocino and Lake counties I have stopped the car on more than one occasion and said to myself “when did that place open?” or “how come I have never tried that spot?” One of them was Mica, the new modern American restaurant in Ukiah helmed by Alan Molina, a talented young local chef whose extended family runs some of the best-known eateries in town. With the restaurant business in his DNA, he knew he would eventually open his own place, and last December he did just that. Read more on page 4 about his journey from helping out at the family taco truck to running a major new addition to Ukiah’s dining scene. He also provided a recipe for pipián verde (on page 8), a delicious sauce that I had admittedly never tried before, but have since become a big fan of.

On another of my drives I decided to stop and step inside Rock Seas, the quirky little farm-to-table spot in Hopland that I had previously passed many times without thinking twice. I’m so glad I visited because not only was chef Roxanne Hampl’s food and art amazing, but her story and charisma really captivated me. You can read more about her and Rock Seas on page 22, and find her “Beet the Blues” salad recipe on page 24.

These two chefs capture the essence of what makes our local dining scene so exciting and relevant. I devoted this issue to them, and to all the other chefs in our two counties who are doing unique and inventive things with food. I hope that as you make your way through spring of 2024 (and beyond) that you too can experience some of what they have to offer.

Karen Elowitt Publisher and Managing Editor

THE Edge OF THE WORLD has never been closer.

Cover photo of Roxanne Hampl by Yvonne Boyd

TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL S

ome days, Alan Molina has to pinch himself to make sure that it’s real - that at the tender age of 26, he’s really the co-owner and executive chef of Mica, the new modern American restaurant that opened on December 1 in Ukiah.

It’s a tall order for someone so young, but he’s got all the right stuff to make it a success.

With Mica, his ambitious restaurant debut in Ukiah, chef Alan Molina is building on his experience and Mexican heritage

Born and raised in Ukiah, Molina has been part of the city’s restaurant scene since he was a child. He started working at Lalo’s, which is co-owned by his sister Gaby and brother-inlaw Lalo, when he was just six or seven years old. He continued working there on and off until he graduated from high school, through its transition from a food truck to a brickand-mortar restaurant.

The experience gave him a solid grounding in the skills and hard work required to successfully run a restaurant, and inspired him to want to open his own restaurant some day. But then he decided to go in a different direction, if only temporarily.

“Because I was at Lalo’s every day, I sort of started to hate food,” Molina said. “For a while, I didn’t want anything to do with restaurants.”

Instead, he studied criminal justice for a couple of semesters, then attended the Cal Fire academy and got picked up by the organization when he was 18. He spent five seasons as a fireman, although he did continue to work in the family food business in the off seasons.

It was during this period that he got inspired to create a fine-dining restaurant that would allow him to both use his classical training and incorporate the Mexican food that is part of his family heritage.

“My goal before I went to culinary school was just to open a taqueria,” Molina said. “But once I went to school and saw the fine dining side, I saw what you could actually do with food. I saw that I could make it better than what we have now, and improve what is already there. And that was really exciting for me.”

It wasn’t long before he got the opportunity to do just that. He was working at a well-known Mexican restaurant in San Francisco, and taking weekend trips back up to Ukiah. On one of those trips he learned from his sister Gaby that the owners of a certain vacant restaurant space were looking for a new tenant.

“She came to me and said ‘hey, I have this crazy opportunity. I know you said you want to keep traveling, but you might want to do this.’” Molina explained. “And I was like, well, what is it? So we started talking about this place, and it was very scary at first, especially because I’m so young and early in my career.”

“For a while, I didn’t want anything to do with restaurants.”

After five years at Cal Fire, Molina reached a fork in the road, and knew he had to decide what path to commit to: firefighting or food. Needless to say, the restaurant business won out in the end.

“I got to a point in my career as a fireman where I would be able to advance to engineer and stay with Cal Fire full time –which meant I would have to forget about all the restaurant stuff,” he explained. “Once you promote to engineer, you go to the academy again, and you basically become a ‘lifer.’ And while I loved being a firefighter, I ultimately decided to leave the fire service for good and pursue a career as a chef.”

WORDS AND IMAGES BY KAREN ELOWITT

Molina spent the next three years training at the Culinary Institute of America’s (CIA) Napa and New York campuses, interspersed with stints of hands-on work experience at different restaurants in New York City. After he graduated, he hit the road, working for short periods at a wide variety of restaurants in the U.S. and Mexico, learning as much as he could in as many different types of establishments as he could. Although his primary interest was upscale Mexican cuisine, he got to know various culinary concepts, dining styles, and kitchen management techniques during his months on the road, which took him from New York to Nashville to San Francisco to Mexico City to San Diego.

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“This place” refers to the property at the northwest corner of Commerce Drive and Airport Park Boulevard in Ukiah, which has seen a few restaurants come and go over the last few years (including Crush and Hangar 39, most recently).

Despite his initial trepidation, Molina’s confidence in his skills and his family’s track record of success in the industry convinced him to go ahead with the restaurant. (In addition to Lalo’s, Molina’s brother-in-law’s family owns Taqueria Jalos in Ukiah and Willits, and other restaurants in the Bay Area).

“I never really thought I would get to do something like this until I had a lot more experience, but I’ve seen so many other people be very successful in the industry who never went to culinary school, that didn’t work in any top restaurants or anything,” Molina continued. “Especially my family members on my brother-in-law’s side. They never went to culinary school. But they opened several restaurants and they’re really good at it and they’re successful. So who’s to say I can’t do it too?”

So Molina moved back to Ukiah, and last October he struck a deal with the property owners, who were enthusiastic about giving an opportunity to an ambitious young local chef with a fresh concept for the space.

Once the deal was done, things progressed quickly: It took him just a little under two months to renovate the space, purchase supplies, and hire staff. Mica officially opened on December 1, 2023. He settled on the name as an homage to both his grandmother, whose nickname was Mica, and his late brother Michael, whose name translates to “Mica” in Latin.

“It’s definitely a learning experience. Every day it’s something new.”

It was during the rampup period that Kenneth Chau came onboard as Mica’s sous chef, which led Molina to change the menu’s focus from upscale modern Mexican, his initial idea, to a “modern American” concept. Molina and Chau, who is Asian and Venezuelan, became friends when they both worked at Californio’s in San Francisco. Together they landed on a menu for Mica that combines different cuisines.

“With how small Ukiah is and how many Mexican restaurants there are, it’d be very hard to do just Mexican,” Molina explained. “So we decided, let’s do modern American with some Mexican and Asian flair in there. I added the Asian influence because of Kenny. He has a lot of input on the menu.”

“The goal is to provide an upscale atmosphere without full-blown ‘fine dining,’” he added. “I’m trying to achieve that middle ground where it’s not so casual that you lose the feeling of an upscale restaurant, but it’s not so upscale that you feel like you need to dress or act a certain way.”

Mica takes advantage of the property’s sheer size to offer two different dining options to customers: there is the restaurant side, which seats about 100 people and has a traditional format and menu; and there’s the more informal pub side centered around the bar which seats about 50 and offers small bites and creative cocktails.

Behind the scenes, Molina is committed to what he calls “clean food,” a concept that incorporates low waste, respect for food and staff, and attention to hygiene in the kitchen.

“It’s about knowing the proper way to break things down, to cook them, and store them,” he said. “For example, when we process a protein, like a whole duck, we utilize every part of it so that there is very little waste, or no waste at all. So we’ll take the bones and make stock, or we’ll make a sauce from the stock and use the fat for cooking confit, or put unused parts in new dishes.”

“You need to treat the product well,” he added. “So if you filet a fish, you don’t just throw it around or slam it down on the counter. It’s still an animal that’s losing its life for your consumption, and should be treated that way. You should respect the animal, even if it’s dead.”

On the topic of hygiene, Molina runs a tight ship that’s typical of the high-end restaurants he learned in. He also follows this ethos with respect to staff management, but doesn’t veer toward the abusive.

“I was trained that you always have a clean apron, you have a separate towel for your knife and another for the cutting board or counter, and your kitchen is always clean and organized,” he said. “Storage is important too. Everything’s all labeled and organized in the right containers. We pay attention to the details and clean all the time and stuff like that. There were a lot of restaurants that I worked in before

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If you weren’t a chef, what would your dream job be?

Probably a fireman. I loved doing that.

If you could change one thing about Ukiah’s food scene, what would it be?

I’d like to see more cohesiveness amongst the restaurant community. I wish there was an event that would bring everyone together in the downtown area to eat—something like a Ukiah restaurant week, or a “taste of Ukiah”–type event.

What’s the most important tool or piece of equipment that you use in the kitchen?

My tweezers. And my chef’s knife. I actually just bought a Spyderco chef’s knife. Spyderco makes pocket knives that a lot of firemen use, so it’s sort of a connection between my firefighting background and my cooking.

What’s your favorite local restaurant, other than your own?

Well, obviously Lalo’s!

What’s the most underrated ingredient, in your opinion?

Yuzu kosho paste. Because it’s salty, it’s spicy, it’s citrusy, it’s a mixture of all these great flavors and textures. It’s very concentrated. It’s very unique and interesting. We use it at Mica in a few of our sauces.

If you could travel anywhere in the world for a week-long food vacation, where would you go?

Mexico City.

What’s your go-to meal at home?

Ramen. Either instant ramen, or the ramen that Kenny makes from scratch. I’ll take it home and re-heat it. It’s great.

What would you want your last meal on Earth to be?

Oh, that’s a tough one. Probably these little taquitos with cheese in them that my mom used to make. She’d make a tomato sauce and then just put a bunch of veggies on top, like lettuce and corn and tomatoes and things. On my birthday, I ask for that. It’s simple, but it’s very good.

What’s your favorite hot sauce?

Tapatillo!

Do you have a nugget of advice for young chefs starting their careers?

Start working at high-volume casual restaurants first, then progress into more upscale environments. Because the things that you learn at a high-volume casual place can’t be taught at the higher-end level. And you have to learn those basics before you move up.

I went to school where everyone wiped their hands on their apron. Or no one cared about how to store things properly or how long things last, and that led to a lot of spoilage and waste.”

“You also need to treat your people well,” he continued. “In New York, I worked for a French chef who would scream and cuss at you and throw things. But when I was a firefighter I had a captain who once said that if you create a family or a bond, you create buy-in that everyone’s going to follow and you don’t even have to raise your voice. You don’t have to be mean or loud. I feel like if I do raise my voice in a kitchen or as a leader, it’s a weakness. It means I don’t know how to communicate well enough to you that I need something done. So I try to be a better leader. I don’t lead by fear.”

Although Molina is satisfied with Mica’s current concept, he is open to adjusting based on customer response and the hard-to-define nature of the Ukiah restaurant scene.

“I’m feeling the market and seeing how people react to things, because this is all new to me,” Molina said. “I think the most challenging thing is finding what works in Ukiah, because it’s a very unique community. It’s a mix of a lot of different lifestyles and tastes. So what may work for one group of people may not be to the liking of the other groups. So I’m trying to find where my food and service fits into this community.”

“It’s definitely a learning experience,” Molina said. “Every day it’s something new.”

Mica is located at 1180 Airport Park Bouldvard in Ukiah. The pub is open seven days a week, 11am–10pm, and the dining room is open Tuesday through Saturday, 5–9pm. Reservations are preferred for the dining room, but walk-ins are welcome. To make a reservation, call 707-621-9107 or visit mica.bar.

Alan Molina’s Pipián Verde

Pipián sauce, or pipián verde, is a sauce from the molé family that is traditionally served over roast chicken or enchiladas. It gets its distinctive green color from the tomatillos, jalapeños, and of course the pepitas, which distinguish pipián from other sauces. Although you can substitute de-hulled American pumpkin seeds for the pepitas, we’d advise using seeds specifically labeled as pepitas for the best results.

Makes 1.5 quarts

1½ ounces pepitas

15 tomatillos

5 ounces yellow onion

1 ounce jalapeño peppers

1 ounce garlic

½ ounce white vinegar Salt, to taste

Roast pepitas in the oven at 350° F until golden brown. Char all the vegetables on an open flame. Add all ingredients to a blender and blend on high speed until smooth.

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Photo: Marcos Elihu Castillo Ramirez / Getty Images

Raised on Organically Farmed Vineyards

Breggo’s Second Act

For entrepreneur Doug Stewart, bringing back the acclaimed brand was about more than just the wine. It was about getting a rare chance to reclaim a business that he loved but lost.

WORDS AND IMAGES BY KAREN ELOWITT

When Lichen Estate’s Doug Stewart learned last year that Cliff Lede Vineyards in Yountville was ending production of Fel Wines, he could have made a mental note of it, and moved on with his life.

After all, wineries and vineyards change hands constantly. Such is the nature of the business.

But Fel Wines wasn’t just any winery. It was a brand that Stewart had created under the name Breggo in 2005, and reluctantly sold to Lede during the economic downturn of 2009. Lede changed the name to Fel in 2014, then decided to discontinue it in 2023. Stewart knew immediately that he needed to try to buy it back.

Not only did he feel that the award-winning wines were worth continuing to make, but as a serial entrepreneur who has built and sold several businesses—and frustratingly lost control of a couple—he knew how rare it was to get a second crack at it.

A Stanford-educated schoolteacher-turnedbusinessman, Stewart’s first venture was Howler Organic Rainforest Sorbets and Gelatos. He started the business in 1994 after sampling açai on a trip to the Amazon rainforest.

“I went to the Amazon in 1993, when I was factchecking my undergraduate field research in the Brazilian Amazon and my thesis, which would soon be published as a book, and I learned that nobody was buying rainforest fruits and marketing them,” Stewart recalled. “I thought maybe I could figure out how to do it, figure out the supply chain. So I brought back a 50 kilogram box full of Amazonian fruit—that was the first time açai was ever exported from Brazil. I made a sorbet out of it, then created a label, quit teaching, and launched the business.”

He started producing and selling his Howler desserts locally at a rate of 30 gallons per day, eventually growing it into a 5,000-gallon a day enterprise with nationwide sales at higher-end organic grocery stores.

10 years after he started Howler, he was “exited” from the company through a complex set of circumstances involving one of the largest food conglomerates in the world. The Howler brand was eventually discontinued. Stewart was left with no company, and no brand. The experience was not pleasant.

“I lost a business that I’d had for 10 years and was really proud of,” he said. “I had 30 employees one day, and two the next. It was depressing.”

In 2005, not long after closing Howler, Stewart and

his wife started Breggo—named for the Boontling word for “sheep”—on a 203-acre former sheep ranch they had bought in the Anderson Valley in 2000. Though he grew up in Sonoma County, Stewart didn’t have any previous experience in the wine business, but he quickly learned the ropes, as he had done with his previous business ventures.

Made from grapes sourced from top vineyards around the valley, it didn’t take long for Breggo’s pinot gris, pinot noir, chardonnay, gewurztraminer and sauvignon blanc to become successful, particularly the Alsatian-style pinot gris.

“When we first came out, we made a real splash because nobody in the Anderson Valley was making a Savoy or Ferrington vineyard-designated pinot noir and selling it on the highway,” Stewart explained. “We got really high ratings, and we just sort of skyrocketed.”

Food & Wine magazine named Breggo the “Best New Winery of 2008.” Wine authority Robert Parker deemed the 2006 Wiley Vineyard pinot gris the “finest ever in the New World.” But the recession of 2007–2009 threw a wrench in the works.

“We were doing well, but the banks were pushing all of their small producers over the cliff,” Stewart explained. “We got an offer [from Cliff Lede], so I thought, why don’t I just sell the brand, and keep the land. So we sold Breggo in 2009, and leased the winery and tasting room back to Cliff Lede for five years.”

Stewart then launched two non-wine-related startups in 2011 as he founded Wattershed and co-founded Smári Organics Icelandic Yogurt. As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, that same year he got back into the wine business when he started his boutique winery, Lichen Estate, in his garage. Mentored by Michel Salgues of Roederer Estate, Lichen began producing acclaimed sparkling wines in 2012.

In 2018 Stewart exited Smári to focus on making wine at Lichen, and getting Wattershed funded to develop high-temperature superconducting transmission cables capable of delivering power across the continent with zero resistance losses.

In 2020, Wattershed landed venture capital funding to reach the next level of growth. The venture backers installed new management. As with many startups entering a new phase of development, a shakeup seemed inevitable.

“I figured that I was not going to be kept on for very long,” he said. “It turns out I made it two years before they booted me. Now the company has 50

“...literally everything just sort of fell into place.”

employees and tens of millions in funding. It’s big and successful. I spent 10 years and a lot of time, effort and my own capital to get to that first dollar of venture money.”

Though Stewart remained a shareholder in the company, he no longer had control of the company’s day-to-day management.

Fast forward a year, to June 2023, and Stewart heard that there were changes afoot at Lede. Curious about Lede’s plans for Breggo, “the one that got away,” he decided to take his chances and see if they would sell it back to him.

“In June of last summer I saw in the news that Cliff Lede was selling Savoy Vineyard, and I thought, okay, if they’re leaving the business altogether, they won’t care if I take back what I started,” Stewart explained. “So I called them up, and indeed, that turned out to be true. They were very gracious, and it was actually one of the easiest deals I ever made.”

By August the deal was sealed. Stewart not only bought the Breggo brand back, but also much of the 2022 vintage, some of the 2021 sparkling wines that were en tirage, and the entire 85-case wine library that spanned from 2005 through 2012.

“I always loved the wines, and knew that

they didn’t change the bones,” Stewart explained. “They’d used mostly the same vineyards I previously used, like Savoy, Ferrington, Donnelly Creek, and Wiley, and they’d added a couple sources.”

Seemingly serendipitously, Stewart learned around that same time that Toby and Natacha Hill of Phillips Hill Winery were exiting the wine business.

“For the last 10 years, they’d occupied my favorite buildings in the valley on the Ordway Valley Foothills Ranch,” Stewart said of the picturesque barn, apple dryer and farm stand at 5101 Highway 128 in Philo. “And so I called them up, and they said, ‘yes, it’s going to be available at the end of the year.’ They put me in touch with the landlord, and literally everything just sort of fell into place.”

Breggo officially re-launched in February 2024, and Stewart couldn’t be more pleased with the way things have come full circle. And he’s hoping that by careful financing he can avoid a repeat of past disappointments.

“My observation is that companies that have investors typically don’t stay with the original founder,” Stewart said. “So when I bought it back, I structured the financing so that we can actually not have investors.”

So what does the future hold for Breggo?

For now Stewart is selling wines that were produced under Lede’s ownership, but he has plenty of new ones coming.

“We made 26 tons of wine in 2023 for Breggo,” Stewart said. “The advantage of Breggo is that it’s non-estate. So we can go out and find vineyards that we really love, and work with farmers who we think are great. We bought pinot noir, chardonnay, and gewurztraminer from Ferrington, pinot noir from Golden Fleece up the hill, and pinot gris from Hein. But my guess is that some amount of Lichen Estate is going to migrate into Breggo every year. I’d love to plant some chardonnay, and hopefully, five or ten years from now, I’ll be able to do that. But it’s a long haul.”

“We made pinot noir from Farrington into a blanc de noir sparkling red as well as a still red,” he continued. “The chardonnay we made is still. And we made a brut rosé sparkling blend of pinot noir and pinot gris. The plan is to do a short tirage for the brut rosé sparkling. Our normal sparkling will spend 32 to 60 months en tirage, but we wanted to come out with something fast so that Breggo had its own sparkling. So we came up with this concept, and we’re going to try it and see how it works. It tastes great so far!”

Breggo Cellars’ tasting room is located at 5101 Highway 128 in Philo. It is open from 11am–4pm daily. breggo.com

Lichen Estate’s tasting room is located at 11001 County Rd 151 in Boonville. It is open from 11am–4pm daily. lichenestate.com

A Truffle Triumph

As of January 2024, Clos Racines got one crucial step closer to becoming Lake County’s—and California’s— largest working truffle farm. Now Claudia and Fabrice Caporal’s dream is well on its way to becoming reality.

BY KAREN ELOWITT

Fabrice Caporal training Tartine to hunt truffles in the orchard at Clos Racines

Photo by Karen Pavone Photography

Truffle farming, like making wine, is not an endeavor for those lacking patience.

The typical timeframe, from planting the trees to full production, is about 10 years. The first truffles usually start to appear around the five-year mark, the result of tree roots that have been previously inoculated with Tuber melanosporum spores.

But nothing is guaranteed, and there are many potential pitfalls and challenges—as with any type of farming. Pests, fire, weather, disease, water supply—all these variables can affect the timeline, or ruin the crop entirely.

Which is why the milestone that Claudia and Fabrice Caporal reached on January 6, 2024 was so significant. That’s the day they found their first truffle, a 1.7 ounce black périgord, at Clos Racines, their 26-acre, 3,600-tree organic truffle farm in Upper Lake.

Although it appeared within the “typical” timeframe—over five years after they planted their first trees in April 2018—the long journey to that first truffle wasn’t without obstacles.

The first challenge being their lack of experience with truffle farming. Although the couple had been avid backyard gardeners for years at their home in the East Bay, they had never attempted anything on the scale of what they envisioned for Clos Racines.

It was a vision borne of the desire to make income from truffles, and from a desire to create a different kind of lifestyle for themselves and their two children as Fabrice reached a milestone birthday.

“On Fabrice’s 50th birthday in 2016, he had this epiphany—‘what are we going to do with the rest of our lives?’” Claudia recalled. “And this idea of cultivating truffles outside of France was something that spoke to him.”

“What I was looking for was a return to the earth—to find something that would allow me to be closer to nature,” Fabrice added.

“But I didn’t see myself carting tons of apples around, or having to wake up every morning to milk cows—that was too much. So I looked for something that was financially sustainable and interesting that could eventually replace our normal source of income.

Then I found out that truffles were a possibility, but there were a lot of unknowns about it.”

So they set about educating themselves. Fabrice, a French-born computer programmer with a degree in marine biology, started learning everything possible about soil composition, optimal tree positioning, water requirements, moisture levels, and more.

“My background is marine biology, but I worked as a programmer, which I basically learned on the job,” Fabrice said. “It’s fascinating for me to try to figure out how things work, and I wanted to contribute to the knowledge of truffle farming—to educate people, and educate myself. I’m not afraid of going into the unknown. And Claudia was very supportive of the idea.”

The next challenge was finding the right piece of land.

“We were originally looking for some land close to the Bay area, but we were outpriced completely, and there was not enough water, so we came up here,” Fabrice said. “I didn’t know anything about Lake County at the time, but I’m glad that we found it!”

It took about nine months to find the Upper Lake property, which comprises 26 acres. At this time, they prefer to keep the exact location private.

“It was a big relief, because up to now, it was all a concept… ”

Photo by Océane Caporal

Clos Racines’ first-ever truffle, a 1.7 ounce black périgord.

“We were worried at first that Lake County’s climate and soil might not be conducive to truffle growth, but we saw that many farms in Australia that were completely outside of the natural ‘range’ for truffles were successfully producing, so it was proven that it was possible to do,” Fabrice continued. “Here we have enough water, some heat, and a big temperature range between day and night. It freezes in the winter, and we need the frost for the truffles. So it’s really looking promising.”

They planted their first 1,000 trees in 2018, then 2,600 more in 2019. They decided not to use holly oak, which is typical for truffle production, because evergreen oaks such as holly are more sensitive to sudden oak death (a problem in parts of Lake County). Instead they opted to plant primarily English white oaks, which are more resistant to the disease. They are not native to Lake County, but Fabrice and Claudia also planted 200 native valley oaks and 60 trees of other native oak species that were inoculated with the fungus, in the hope of growing black truffles on them as well.

They chose the French name Clos Racines, which literally translates to “enclosure of roots,” to evoke not only the tree roots on which the truffles grow, but also the roots that they and their second-generation American children are establishing in Lake County and the U.S.

More challenges presented themselves in 2018. Part of the property burned in the Mendocino Complex fire, but luckily the first batch of seedlings was spared. However, a gopher infestation around the same time caused them to lose 200 trees, but they replanted. The couple now controls the gopher population with traps, and by encouraging raptors such as owls to visit the property.

The Caporals are partially self-taught, with their learning process augmented with help from truffle experts from around the world—who often give conflicting advice. The couple realized early on that there is a lot of science around truffle farming, but also a lot of superstition.

“Some scientists from France said, ‘Your trees are too healthy! You are not raising trees. You are raising truffles. Struggle them a little bit!’” Fabrice recalled. “Some experts said ‘Give them more water,’ and others said ‘Don’t give them too much water.’ They all have their own methods, and their own philosophy. But here we are, needing to experiment on our own, following what’s been done and what makes sense to us.”

In the two years before finding their first truffle, they did four unsuccessful hunts, using professional truffle hunters (and their dogs) who traveled in from other parts of California. Truffles are not typically found until the fifth year, so they kept at it, and scheduled a fifth hunt on what turned out—perhaps not coincidentally—to be a prophetic and emotional day.

“We found the first truffle on the day of Epiphany, which is a significant day in our traditions,” Claudia explained. “It’s when the three magic kings come.” And they got their magic that day.

From top: Fabrice and Claudia Caporal; Truffle hunters unearth the first truffle; Chorizo, the barbecue smoker, keeps watch on the orchard; The pond and orchard at Clos Racines

Photo by Karen Elowitt

Photo by Karen Elowitt

Photo by Karen Elowitt

Photo by Océane Caporal

“What I was looking for was a return to the earth—to find something that would allow me to be closer to nature.”

“We saw the dog scratching, telling us that a truffle was there, so we all got down on our knees and saw this big truffle breaching the soil,” she continued. “So we called the kids down from the house, and everybody came to look at it. We took some video, and you can just see the joy and excitement.”

“It was a big relief, because up to now, it was all a concept, nothing concrete,” Fabrice added. “The only concrete thing we had was that we had to pay our bills, and people were calling us crazy.”

For now, the truffle is under lock and key, and will be used to re-inoculate the soil.

“We had decided ahead of time that our first truffle would belong to the orchard,” Fabrice said. “So the idea is that we’re going to use it to put back spores into the orchard.”

As for what comes next, the couple is staying cautiously optimistic. If all continues to go well, it will still be a few more years before the farm produces enough volume to start selling the truffles commercially.

“We know that one truffle doesn’t make a business,” Fabrice explained. “Obviously we’re still far from reaching the 30 pounds per acre of production that we need for it to be a worthy investment, which is not a certainty. We’ll continue the maintenance, but there’s really no guarantee that we will ever reach commercial scale production. But that’s our goal.”

While they continue watching and waiting, they have their work cut out for them: they are currently training their dog Tartine, a French Brittany spaniel, to become a truffle hunting dog, which is a two-year process. They are also planning a distribution and delivery system, and they eventually plan to develop partnerships with potential buyers.

“Part of our work is cultivating relationships with local chefs that we admire who share an interest in sustainable gastronomy,” Claudia said. “Yes, you can import truffles from Europe or from other parts of the world, but the ones that will come from Lake County will not only be fresher, but a local, sustainably grown truffle is a different experience from an imported one.”

The fact that truffles only have a two-week shelf life—and yields are hard to estimate—is another reason that they lend themselves well to the region’s robust seasonal farm-to-table dining scene.

“A lot of local chefs don’t create their menu until maybe a week before based on what’s available, so there’s a good synergy there,” Claudia added.

“If they find out that there’s some truffles available down here and we can deliver them to their restaurant within a couple of hours, well, that’s going to go on their menu.”

The couple is also slowly building the house that will double as their personal residence once the farm reaches full production. Their long-term plan is to turn the property into a gathering center for friends and family, and also for local culinary events.

“The dream is to be able to make this a retreat,” Claudia said. “We want to be able to go out walking with our dog on a cold, frosty morning and find truffles, then cook together with family or friends, and just share the journey, share the experience. My other dream is to have a culinary space where we could invite chefs and their teams for a truffle hunt then a cooking experience.”

Dreams can indeed come true, if history is a guide. And now, having made it halfway to their goal, Claudia and Fabrice look to be on track to see it through to the next chapter. In the meantime, they are truly appreciative of where they are at right now.

“It’s amazing just being outside and having all this,” Claudia added, gesturing at the orchard, pond, and sky stretching out toward the horizon in front of the half-finished house. “I mean, look at the clouds. The beauty never ends. It changes every day. It’s just really, truly breathtaking.”

Claudia and Fabrice with their children Dorian and Océane

Photo by Nick Dierauf

Coming Full Circle

How artist-chef Roxanne Hampl connects her two passions at Rock Seas Farm Fusion

WORDS BY KAREN ELOWITT | IMAGES BY YVONNE BOYD

On the outside, Rock Seas Farm Fusion is fairly nondescript. Located on the west side of highway 101 where it passes through Hopland, the plain white house with a steeply pitched roof is tucked between the McNab Ridge winery tasting room and an acupuncture clinic. Aside from its quirky sign, you might miss it if you’re not paying attention when you drive through town.

But the inside is a whole different story. Once you pass through the front door, it suddenly becomes mind-searingly memorable. You’re transported into a small but vividly colored dining room painted in hues of claret and saffron, filled with oil paintings of exotic places, shimmering mosaics over the bar, and undulating carved wood tabletops. It feels like you’ve entered an art gallery, which is exactly how chef-owner-artist Roxanne Hampl intended it.

The effect is replicated on every plate. Colorful salads with tangles of different lettuces, angular drizzles and garnishes evoke a Jackson Pollock painting. Stacks of geometric grits sit aside bushy greens piled on top of plump pork bellies, all with starkly contrasting textures and a palpable dynamic flow.

Known as “Roxy” to friends and as Rock Sand Clay in the art world, Hampl’s artistic endeavors first started when she was a small child—outside the kitchen.

“I’ve always been making tons of art, from when I was very young,” she recalled. “I can remember making sculptures and selling them at the town-wide yard sale. That was my thing for a long time. Then when I was 10 years old I really got into ceramics, throwing clay and baking it in kilns and stuff like that.”

She started taking college-level art classes at age 12 in her childhood hometown of Poultney, Vermont, and her interest only deepened in the ensuing years. After studying art at a community college in Sonoma County, she moved to the UK for six months and caught the travel bug. She then spent the next few years traveling around the world doing short-term jobs and creating art, mainly in Asia, India and Australia.

The transition from painting and sculpture to food started in 2014. Hampl had stopped traveling and recently settled in Hopland when she met Patrick Martin, a three-Michelin-star chef who had worked at various restaurants around Mendocino County. After they became partners in life, they decided to become partners in business as well.

They decided to turn the former Subway sandwich shop at 13456 Highway 101 into a fine-dining farm-to-table restaurant. Hampl designed the interior and worked as hostess, bartender and waitress alongside her childhood friend Sarah. Martin’s domain was the cooking and the menu. They named it Rock Seas as a play on her nickname, “Roxy,” and in a nod to the surf-andturf cuisine they specialized in.

During their years together at the restaurant, Hampl learned classical French cooking techniques from Martin, even though she was technically only in charge of the front of the house. But those skills would come in handy later.

“In a very short amount of time I feel like I got more training than anybody will ever get in culinary school,” she said. “I could always cook— in fact I had various cooking jobs when I was in Australia— but I absolutely learned how to be a chef from Patrick.”

“The kitchen is a canvas—it’s got all the ingredients to make all the beautiful art I could ever possibly want.’”

edible

Photo by Karen Elowitt

Photo by Karen Elowitt

Roxanne’s ‘Beet the Blues’ salad with champagne vinaigrette

Makes 1–2 servings

For the salad

¼ cup quinoa (cooked)

1 large beet (cubed)

3 cups fresh garden mixed greens

4 tablespoons Point Reyes bleu cheese

2 tablespoons pickled onions

For the champagne vinaigrette

3 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

5 tablespoons champagne vinegar

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 cup sunflower oil

1 teaspoon salt

To prepare the vinaigrette: Combine garlic and champagne vinegar in blender and blend until garlic is liquefied. Add Dijon mustard, maple syrup and salt to blender and blend until all ingredients are well-mixed. With blender on, slowly pour sunflower oil in until desired thickness and taste is achieved.

To prepare the salad: Mix all ingredients together except pickled onions and blue cheese, and put on plates or bowls. Sprinkle with bleu cheese and top with a dollop of pickled onions. Drizzle with vinaigrette.

“I did all the artwork, I did all the woodwork, I raised the cows, I made all the food, and made it look pretty on the plate. Everything you see, I had a hand in.”’

Martin eventually quit the restaurant, and Hampl’s personal relationship with him ended not long after. She hired a series of new chefs but had difficulty finding and keeping the right people. So, in 2018 she made the big decision to go it alone. It was not easy at first, but she slowly got into the groove.

“It used to be a lot more stressful, just living up to the expectations that I had built for myself around what I wanted this place to be,” Hampl recalled. “But I’ve fully stepped away from other people’s ideas and expectations and morphed into my own expectations of what I really want to be serving people, and just focus on making good, healthy food.”

She settled on a format that combines surf and turf with elevated Southern comfort food, which is evident in menu items such as Nana’s fried chicken with mixed greens, hand-cut fries, and spicy aioli, or the seared scallops with brown butter, quinoa, and crispy Brussels sprouts.

“It’s close to the original concept that I built with Patrick,” Hampl said. “I learned so many of his recipes and his cooking style, which was from the South, and adapted that, because I like that kind of cooking and that kind of food. It’s something that you can’t really find around here.”

She has put her own stamp on the menu too, adding presentational flair, and including items that are inspired by her own travels— such as the cardamom-and-cinnamon-spiced Tunisian carrots— or driven by her own cravings, such as a recent crab dish with chanterelle mushrooms.

“The kitchen is a canvas,” she said. “It’s got all the ingredients to make all the beautiful art I could ever possibly want. And my menu changes all the time, which I like, because I would get kind of bored cooking the same thing all the time!”

Although the coronavirus pandemic forced the restaurant to close from early 2020 through mid 2022—during which time Hampl acquired a liquor

license for the restaurant— she is glad that she was able to make it through and get back to making healthy, seasonal, organic food.

One way that she ensures quality control is by using meat from animals raised at her ranch in Hopland, which she shares with her partner Milo, their oneyear-old son Orion, two black Angus cows, eight sheep, and a pack of Hampshire pigs.

“I don’t want the gluten. I don’t want all those chemicals,” she emphasized. “I make almost everything from scratch, and I cook just using good, basic ingredients. I raised most of the meat myself— I think it is fairly unheard of to have the actual chef be so handson with the animals, living with them day-to-day.”

Hampl admits that she wears a lot of hats—chef, artist, business owner, rancher, mother, partner— and doesn’t have a lot of free time, but she feels that being the sole proprietor at Rock Seas is not only good for her personally, but improves the dining experience.

“At most other places you won’t find the consistency that I am able to bring, because Rock Seas is such a small spot and I have total control,” she explained. “I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I’ve worked really hard. It’s a lot different than walking into a place where there’s a bunch of people that don’t necessarily know what’s going on or where anything came from.”

“This is also a very unique place because it’s one of the only 100% woman-owned restaurants in the county,” she added. “But what I like most about it is that it’s a full circle. I did all the artwork, I did all the woodwork, I raised the cows, I made all the food, and made it look pretty on the plate. Everything you see, I had a hand in.”

Rock Seas Farm Fusion is located at 13456 Highway 101, Hopland. It is open for dinner Tuesday–Sunday 5–9pm. To make a reservation, call 707-670-6054 or visit rockseas.com.

Photo by Karen Elowitt