Coachella 2023 Outstanding in the Field: What you need to know

Ema Sasic, Palm Springs Desert Sun
Updated ·4 min read

Several artists at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will be bringing song stylings from around the world on stage, and the VIP Rose Garden will also have a taste of international cuisines for a lucky few.

Outstanding in the Field, a four-course, family-style dining experience, will return to the desert for its eighth year during both Coachella weekends. Each day, a new chef will treat hungry guests with culinary flavors spanning West Africa to Mexico.

This year's chefs include:

  • April 14: Zarah Khan, executive chef of Rustic Canyon Restaurant, has a passion for vegetable-centric cooking.

  • April 15: Tolu “Eros” Erogbogbo, executive chef and founder of ILÉ, is a Nigerian-born chef whose restaurant offers an upscale, experimental Nigerian tasting menu.

  • April 16: Jared Simons, who established himself in the LA dining scene with casual eatery Violet, will soon oversee the kitchen of the upcoming Argento restaurant in Silverlake.

  • April 21: Javier Plascencia, who owns and operates Erizo and Caffe Saverios in Tijuana, will bring a taste of Baja California, Mexico, to the festival.

  • April 22: Monty Koludrovic, executive chef of Grandmaster Recorders, moved from Australia to take on the LA dining scene.

  • April 23: Nogales, Sonora-born Rene Andrade and Sonoran desert-born Derek Christensen joined forces to bring a taste of home at the Phoenix-based restaurant Bacanora.

Tolu “Eros” Erogbogbo, executive chef and founder of ILÉ, will be one of the chefs featured at Outstanding in the Field at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Tolu “Eros” Erogbogbo, executive chef and founder of ILÉ, will be one of the chefs featured at Outstanding in the Field at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Each chef will take guests on a unique tasting journey. Erogbogbo's menu, titled "Chasing Drums," explains that drums are a big part of his West African culture and are used to express a range of emotions. During his dinner, he will take guests on a "on a journey exploring the culinary landscape of West Africa, chasing different sounds and tastes that express the emotions of celebration, thanksgiving, and love." Items on the menu include pepper soup, jollof rice and a puff puff (an African donut).

Plascencia will treat guests to homemade corn tortillas with a beef barbacoa course. Other menu items include tostadas, crispy cauliflower, striped sea bass ceviche and grilled corn cake. For vegan diners, he will prepare grilled nopal ceviche, grilled adobo king trumpet and tamal de frutos rojos (red fruit tamale).

"I am so excited to pair two of my favorite things in the world; food and music. The Coachella festival has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, so this opportunity is very special to me," Plascencia said in a statement. "I am thrilled to showcase the flavors of Baja using local and sustainable ingredients. Our guests will have a great time eating and drinking with us. I am delighted to meet and hang out with my music-loving fellows."

In addition to the food, guests will be treated to small-production, low-intervention and highly sought after wines, including those from Habit by Jeff Fischer, whose new vintage wines will be poured for the first time at Koludrovic's dinner. Khan's dinner will feature a 2020 sparkling red wine from La Garagista in Vermont, while Plascencia's and Andrade and Christensen's dinners will feature Octagono wines from Central Mexico, which, according to its website, is the first contemporary Mexican winery to make natural wine in clay vessels since 2016.

The communal-style dinner concept was created by Jim Denevan in 1999 as a way to change the conventional dining experience, according to a press release. Denevan wanted to connect and educate diners on where their food comes from, and over the years, the roving restaurant without walls has reached across all 50 U.S. states and 24 different countries.

"An oasis on festival grounds, the table vibrates with the energy of the Coachella crowd, making these dates some of our most magical in Southern California," Denevan said in a statement. "Our team looks forward to sharing a hand-picked roster of chefs and local farmers with the creative and music communities around our communal table."

Fresh produce grown at County Line Harvest, a farm located in Thermal.
Fresh produce grown at County Line Harvest, a farm located in Thermal.

This year's dinner will celebrate the Coachella Valley's and Southern California's rich agricultural landscape and utilize produce from local farms. Those that will be featured this year include Aziz Farms in Thermal, County Line Harvest in Thermal, Sage Mountain Farm in Anza and Coleman Family Farm in Carpinteria.

Dinner costs $350 and tickets can still be purchased for all evenings except the April 15 dinner. Aside from the meal, tickets include a welcome cocktail and access to the VIP Rose Garden on the day of your dinner. Seating begins at 6 p.m.

For more information on Outstanding in the Field, visit outstandinginthefield.com/coachella/

Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella 2023 Outstanding in the Field: What you need to know