Michelin Green Star Chefs Team Up for a One-Night Farm Dinner in Sta. Rita Hills

When a Michelin Green Star chef from Austin flies west to build a menu around whatever a Santa Barbara farm pulled out of the ground that week, you're not looking at another wine dinner. You're looking at a snapshot of where fine dining is headed—hyper-local, radically seasonal, and built on soil health rather than sourcing spreadsheets.

On Thursday, July 23, Donnachadh Family Wines hosts a one-night-only collaborative dinner at Rincon Hill Farm in Carpinteria, California, uniting James Beard Award finalist Chef Kevin Fink of Austin's Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group and Chef Daniel Kim of Monte's by Endwell Hospitality. The common thread: all three partners begin their work with the land.

A Dinner Rooted in Regenerative Agriculture

The evening unfolds on the eight-acre regenerative Rincon Hill Farm, which supplies much of the produce served at Monte's. Guests start with a guided farm tour at 5:00 PM, followed by canapés and a multi-course, family-style dinner collaboratively created by Kim and Fink from ingredients harvested that week—then served just steps from where they were grown.

Each course is paired with organically farmed estate wines from Donnachadh, a husband-and-wife-owned winery known for low-intervention winemaking in the Sta. Rita Hills of Santa Barbara County. It's a rare alignment of vineyard, farm, and table around a single philosophy.

"At Donnachadh, we've always believed the best wines begin with healthy soils and thoughtful farming, so partnering with chefs and a farm that share that philosophy felt incredibly natural. I've had the chance to watch Kevin build something really special in Austin over the years, and I'm so excited to welcome him to Santa Barbara," said Vilma Mazaite, General Manager of Donnachadh Family Wines.

Two Michelin Green Star Kitchens, One Table

Fink is the chef and founder of Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group in Austin, where his flagship earned Bon Appétit's Best New Restaurant honor in 2016 and a Michelin Green Star in 2024 for sustainability. He has been named a James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef: Southwest and Best Chef: Texas, and his restaurant Hestia was named Robb Report's #1 Best New Restaurant in America.

"Building a menu straight off Rincon Hill Farm's harvest is exactly the kind of challenge I love. It means the menu comes together around whatever's coming out of the ground that week, and working with Vilma to pair it with wine made with the same philosophy and respect for the land makes the whole experience feel incredibly intentional," said Chef Kevin Fink.

Kim leads Endwell Hospitality's West Coast culinary projects, including Monte's, drawing on time in Michelin-starred kitchens including The Restaurant at Meadowood, Providence, and Le Cirque Las Vegas. Before Monte's, he was Executive Chef of Hibi in Los Angeles, where his modern Korean cuisine earned Michelin recognition within months of opening. Working closely with the Rincon Hill Farm team, Kim helped Monte's earn a Michelin Green Star just three months after opening.

"The best meals begin long before they reach the table," said Chef Daniel Kim. "Our cooking begins with the incredible work happening every day at Rincon Hill Farm, so collaborating with Kevin and pairing that harvest with Donnachadh's wines feels incredibly natural. It's inspiring to bring together people who share the belief that caring for the land is the foundation of exceptional food and wine."

Why It Matters

The Michelin Green Star has quietly become one of the most consequential signals in the industry—a marker that sustainability now sits alongside technique as a measure of a serious kitchen. This collaboration shows operators what that looks like in practice: a farm-first supply chain, low-intervention wine, and a menu engineered around harvest rather than a fixed spec sheet.

For restaurant owners, foodservice executives, and beverage buyers, there are concrete takeaways here:

• Provenance sells. Diners increasingly pay a premium for a traceable, land-to-table story—here, $250 per person for a single evening. Regenerative sourcing is a revenue driver, not just a values statement.
• Collaborations build reach. Pairing a nationally known chef with a regional talent and an estate winery is a low-cost way to cross-pollinate audiences and generate press without opening a new location.
• Menu flexibility is a competitive edge. Cooking to the week's harvest reduces waste and sharpens seasonality—an approach worth piloting even at scale.

As farming becomes a priority for both chefs and consumers, events like this offer a repeatable blueprint for hospitality operators looking to turn sustainability into a differentiated guest experience.

Event Details

• When: Thursday, July 23, 2026, beginning at 5:00 PM with a guided farm tour, followed by canapés and a seated family-style dinner
• Where: Rincon Hill Farm, 6790 Rincon Rd., Carpinteria, CA 93013
• Tickets: $250 per person, plus tax and gratuity; limited seating, with reservations open on OpenTable

Chasing more on how operators are reengineering their programs around craft and sustainability? Read our take on the new economics of craft beverage programs and why local sourcing is reshaping today's menus.

Are you building sustainability into your menu or beverage program? Tell us how in the comments—we want to hear what's working in your kitchen.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40” for founding American Wholesale Floral. Politz is also the founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.