Michelin-obsessed diners and culinary clout chasers, start saving your pennies: One of the West Coast’s most lauded chefs is launching an $800 dinner series set in his own home in the Hollywood Hills.
Joshua Skenes made his name with intricate, seasonal tasting menus at San Francisco’s Saison and recently brought his live-fire–loving SF seafood restaurant, Angler, to Beverly Grove. Like a kitchen-creative Grizzly Man for the Silicon Valley set, he’s retreated back to the woods with Skenes Ranch, an elite wilderness escape in the Pacific Northwest, but for his next trick, he’s bringing self-foraged herbs, personally-hunted wild game and Skenes-caught seafood to the heart of L.A.
Starting December 12, the invitation-only, all-inclusive Skenes Place dinners will run Thursday to Saturday nights at $800 per guest and with a menu tailored to wild, fresh and seasonal—an echo of the ethos Skenes has already brought to his full-service restaurants. The price is undeniably steep, but a portion of each ticket’s proceeds will be donated to charities that fight childhood hunger and support those impacted by California wildfires. And, let’s face it, it’s an opportunity to eat one of the most intimate meals with one of California’s leading culinary minds.
“If you know me, you know I’ve been trying to do something like this forever,” Skenes says in a news release. “I can’t wait any longer. I just returned from a trip to Japan where I had the chance to spend time in a small seaside town and cook using only what was around me. I know it sounds cliché, but the experience was a reminder to just get back to the pure forms of cooking that I’ve always been drawn to—the ones that this business tends to pull you away from.”
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Interested parties can request an invitation via the Skenes Place website, and upon confirmation will receive all the necessary details, such as, of course, the location to Skenes’s own home. Despite the cost and the exclusivity, there’s no dress code to Skenes Place—“we invite you to come as you are”—and, note: There are also no substitutions or amendments for dietary restrictions or allergies, as the team is small and the ingredients are precious. These are the rules. You’re quite literally in Skenes’s house now.
Skenes Place launches on December 12, in the Michelin-starred chef’s Hollywood Hills home. Dinners run Thursday to Saturday, with seatings at 7pm.