7

Often the itinerary is shaped by chance encounters; a
tomato grower recommends a winemaker, who in turn
recommends a seaweed forager in Monterey. “We’re
bringing back stories that people can actually go and be
a part of,” says Stone on a detour to show us the
Danish architecture in the tourist town of Solvang, in
the Santa Ynez Valley. “It’s just a short drive from Los
Angeles to come and experience this,” says Hilbert.
“Or maybe you’ve already been and our menu will
bring back memories.”
Both chefs are excited by a visit to the 1870s
Stepladder Ranch in the town of Cambria, just south
of Big Sur. Owner Jack Rudolph’s family has been
here since 1980. Rudolph took over the business six
years ago and built a dairy on the property, originally
with cheese-ageing caves made from old refrigerators
fitted with humidifiers, and taught himself to
make cheese “on the internet”. Rudolph and his
partner Michelle now milk 50 Lamancha goats,
tend 5,000 avocado trees and a vegetable garden,
and run heritage pigs and Black Angus cattle.
Stepladder’s cheeses include pure and blended
cow and goat’s milk cheeses such as clothbound
cheddars, ash-coated chèvre and washed rinds.
Stepladder’s 90 pigs, a mix of old spot, Tamworth,
black and red wattle breeds, roam wild on the
farm and feed on avocados, acorns and more than
a thousand litres of whey a week. “I’ve never seen a
happier pig,” says Stone, sitting on a quad bike looking
over rolling hills and the end of the Santa Lucia
Range, Rocky Butte. “They eat all the ripe avos, leave
the green ones and spit out the pips,” he laughs, as
chuffed as a pig in mud himself.
A couple of walnut trees strung with fairy lights
frame a brick oven in Stepladder’s front yard, and it’s
here that Stone, Hilbert and Cruz cook lunch. It starts
with wedges of Big Sur, a triple-crème cow and goat’s
milk cheese named for the nearby coastline. Pomelos
and blackberries are picked from the garden, and they
grab handfuls of wild thyme and nasturtiums as they
walk and talk about options for the new menu. The
herbes de Provence from the farmers’ market form
a crust for a rack of pork, and Hilbert rolls cabbage
leaves from the garden around Stepladder’s Lil’ Pico
young chèvre. The parcels are baked in the fire, the
cheese turning buttery inside the cabbage. Cruz, the
pastry chef, experiments with a goat’s cheese mousse
drizzled with Stepladder’s avocado-blossom honey, and
a tangerine and passionfruit salad studded with
bergamot flowers.
The group occasionally splits to maximise their
research. While the chefs are at an urban farm or an
abalone hatchery, Tolmachyov and Aviram might be
tasting single-vineyard semi-carbonic cabernet franc