“I wanted to change the perception of luxury that you just can’t get anywhere else,” says Matthew Kammerer, Executive Chef at Harbor House Inn. AD joins Matthew in Elk, California—approximately 3 hours north of San Francisco—to tour the state’s most remote two-star Michelin restaurant.
Alongside its two Michelin stars, Harbor House Inn holds a green Michelin star for its efforts towards sustainability. From locally sourced objects running through the interior to a responsibly sourced sea-to-table cuisine from the cove of the Mendocino Coast, Matthew and his team foster their own unique philosophy on sustainability, without skimping out on luxury.
Alongside its two Michelin stars, Harbor House Inn holds a green Michelin star for its efforts towards sustainability. From locally sourced objects running through the interior to a responsibly sourced sea-to-table cuisine from the cove of the Mendocino Coast, Matthew and his team foster their own unique philosophy on sustainability, without skimping out on luxury.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00We have so many things here that no one else has, so I wanted to change the perception
00:07of luxury as something that you can't just get anywhere else.
00:15This is the Harbor House Inn in Elk, California.
00:17We have a restaurant that carries two Michelin stars and a Michelin Green star for our approach
00:21to sustainability.
00:23On site, we have six traditional rooms and five standalone cottages across five acres.
00:28Our nearby farm has 320 acres where the majority of our produce is sourced.
00:33Welcome, I'm Matthew Kammerer, the Executive Chef and Director of the Harbor House Inn
00:38in Elk, California.
00:39We're about three hours north of San Francisco, come on in.
00:49So we're in the main house on the property.
00:51This is the dining room.
00:52The main focal point of this room is definitely the view, the Pacific and Greenwood Cove.
00:57The first time I saw the view, I actually started laughing because it's probably one
01:00of the most unique views on the entire West Coast.
01:03It really started to take shape around 2016.
01:06I always wanted to have my own restaurant.
01:08I wanted a small inn somewhere remote near the ocean where I can grow food, and within
01:12that my ethos started to take place, and that's the sustainability, the localism, and the
01:17one-of-a-kind experience.
01:19The dining space, it's all old-growth redwood from the area.
01:22You kind of can see the super tight grain wood.
01:25In the late 1800s, redwood was discovered as the primary building material.
01:30For me, Harbor House is meant to be a singular experience where that's kind of our version
01:34of luxury, right?
01:36Something that you can only have here.
01:37In California, there's only about 5% of old-growth redwoods left, and those are all protected.
01:42So being able to dine amongst redwood paneling with redwood tables that have all been naturally
01:48felled kind of adds to that singular experience.
01:51We're kind of like dining within history.
01:54And then the chairs that you see in here has this kind of like rustic elegance to it.
01:58Actually replicas of one of the chairs that was left behind from the 50s.
02:04All the two top tables are one slab of old-growth naturally felled redwood from about 45 minutes
02:09north of here.
02:10We're trying to bring in that rough outdoor elk environment.
02:15You look outside, you see the sea stacks, and it's kind of this rough thing, and then
02:18a plate shows up with that same aesthetic.
02:21So we're really encompassing the Mendocino Coast.
02:24I think a lot of people think about local, what is a local restaurant?
02:28The food part's actually easy.
02:29How do you bring the rest of that experience in?
02:32It's using pottery that's made 20 minutes north of here, you know?
02:35It's not throwing things out because they're chipped.
02:37When something's chipped, I actually find some beauty in that.
02:40All of our pottery is made by Cliff Glover and Sandy Ceramics.
02:45So this is the drawer with all our sake ware in it.
02:47During dinner service, we'll let the guests pick their own.
02:50So there's about 18 different ones, and I have a couple that I've made myself.
02:54Whenever I go to a table during service and I see they've selected both of mine, I always
02:58give them a nod of approval.
03:03So this is a table designed by Craig Hathaway, who is a local artist, and this piece was
03:09known as a sinker log.
03:10We didn't go out and cut down a tree to create this.
03:13It was actually in the bottom of Big River, which is about five minutes north of here.
03:17Throughout the day, the light will hit it differently and cast these different shadows,
03:21and it's always giving you a new experience.
03:23There's very similar ways that I approach the design of the restaurant to the design
03:27of the dinner menu, and those go hand in hand.
03:29We're just focusing on what we do have, not what we don't.
03:33So on the wall here, you'll see abalone shells, all red abalone, all from California.
03:38These giant barnacles on these ones, and then you have some shells that are perfectly untouched.
03:44Each one of these abalone shells is telling its own story.
03:48So our flower arrangements are done locally by Filigreen Farm.
03:51We choose to have a dry arrangement for the winter instead of importing flowers from somewhere
03:56else in the world so we always have fresh flowers.
03:59From the food, to the service, to the flowers, we're just telling the story of Mendocino
04:03County today.
04:05With the design intentions here of making it a community project, we've been able to
04:10be awarded different accolades, like the Michelin Key, which highlights the architecture and
04:14interior design of Harbor House.
04:16Without all of the talented people around here, this wouldn't exist.
04:20It's about simplicity, directness, intention, but also showcasing your environment.
04:26All right, so we're in the study right now.
04:32During my travel to Japan, I stay in all different types of ryokans, which is a Japanese-style
04:37inn.
04:38For me, the family-style ones always leave the biggest impressions.
04:41Definitely the Japanese element has played a lot into my kind of design aesthetic and
04:46how I want Harbor House to feel.
04:48So our goal is to create an environment where guests feel comfortable, relaxed, and they're
04:52not going to question, hey, you want to play battleship right now in this common area?
04:56They just totally feel at home, and that's what we want to create in this space.
05:01Behind me, we have a sea lily, about 180 million years old, and it's a carnivorous plant, which
05:06is now obviously extinct.
05:09In this room and all throughout the property, really, you'll see all these different natural
05:13artifacts where, if I'm in the woods or down in the cove, I see something interesting,
05:17I'll bring it back.
05:18I want guests to experience them because, for me, this is more interesting than a purchased
05:23piece of art.
05:24You know, this is unique to here.
05:26So this is a red sea urchin, which, after shucking it, we remove all the uni, and then
05:31you can boil this a couple times, and all the spines will come out.
05:34If you hold up to the light, right, you can see all the thousands of holes in it.
05:37You realize that nature is actually the real artist here.
05:40Also, we have no TVs on property.
05:43We want you to get out of your room, go for a hike, go for a walk, and just experience
05:47what it's like to be here.
05:49As we kind of continued our sustainability journey, I wanted to look at our energy sources.
05:53A couple years ago, we were able to move all of our daylight power to solar, and at night,
05:58it switches over to geothermal.
06:00Our water's coming from different well sources behind us in kind of the mountains of Elk.
06:05From the get-go, we always wanted to co-exist with nature.
06:09Every decision that we've made is to kind of uphold that relationship.
06:19So we're gonna go into the Redwood room right now.
06:30For me, this room definitely has the most character.
06:33It's the only room in the house that is all clad in Redwood still.
06:36It has an aroma of the Redwood, so you're kind of getting this multi-sensory experience.
06:40It has this cozy element that kind of ties into that homey style of Rio Kahn that I really enjoy.
06:45It's a work of art in its own right.
06:48So throughout the entire property, we try to limit plastic use as much as possible.
06:52And instead of importing plastic and then producing that waste, we use all-glass refillable
06:57bottles and those get filled as guests need them.
06:59We do the same in the kitchen.
07:01We don't have cling film, and the fact that we're not using deli containers limits that
07:06plastic that ends up in the landfill.
07:12So we're walking over to four cabins over here.
07:16We had these cypress trees, and they were starting to encroach on the building.
07:20So we had to take them down, but we wanted to find a way to repurpose that.
07:24So there's a local woodworker named Rabani in town.
07:27So we had him carve some black trumpet mushrooms, which are always a constant on the menu during
07:31the winter season.
07:32So bringing in the design element of Harbor House into the dining room again.
07:40We never really want Harbor House to dominate the landscape.
07:42We want it to immerse itself into it.
07:45So we were coming up with all the footpaths and the overall layout of the backyard.
07:50We wanted the guests to be able to disperse throughout the property and kind of create
07:54their own little niches and not really be exposed.
07:57So they feel like they have this place to themselves.
08:07This is a marigold.
08:08We use this all throughout the menu.
08:09It has a really, really strong kind of citrusy, aromatic flavor and aroma.
08:14And definitely gets picked every day and finds its way into the menu.
08:18So as we move to the backyard, we have some of the garden beds that we originally built
08:22to kind of help sustain the kitchen's needs.
08:24We quickly, as we got busier, outgrew this area and transitioned down to the Point Arena
08:29farm, but the chefs are still in here harvesting and planting and kind of trying to understand
08:34what farming is as well.
08:35So they're in here turning the soil, planting new seeds and, you know, being a part of the process.
08:47I'm Amy Smith.
08:48I'm the farm manager here at the Harbor House Ranch.
08:52Fully growing, for me, means a focus on soil.
08:54So we want to be following a crop rotation.
08:58We want to make sure that we're not depleting nutrients.
09:00We want to be giving back to the soil.
09:03And I use drip tape because you can isolate where your water is going to help conserve water.
09:10We plant out starting in about July.
09:13And those things have enough time that they can put on growth so that come December, they're
09:18hitting peak.
09:20Sort of like a relay process where I come up with a crop plan and then it goes to Chef
09:25Matt and then he works his magic.
09:28Something is always maturing, peaking, being harvested throughout the year, so he's really
09:33able to go into the walk-in, see everything that's come from the farm that week and create
09:39a menu around that.
09:41I really appreciate seeing the full circle side of it and the passion that he brings
09:46to working with a quality ingredient, turning that into an exceptional course for the people
09:51who come and dine with us.
09:57It's 5.30, dinner service is about to start.
09:59We have our first guest sitting right now.
10:01Tonight, we have 12 courses.
10:03We have nine savory and three dessert.
10:08Throughout the four different services that we have here, so breakfast, lunch, the main
10:13dinner, and then the interim dining, we'll get in whole products and that could be different
10:18versions of the vegetable from seed to root, from the farm, or whole fish, which is coming
10:23with the tail, the collars, the heads, and then the main fillets.
10:27Each part of those products will find its home in a different part of the experience
10:31within Harbor House.
10:32So if guests come for two nights, they might have interim dining the first night and see
10:36the fish collars, and then the second night, the premier piece of that will go up in the
10:39tasting menu.
10:40We try to focus on utilizing the entire product throughout our experiences.
10:44We have 18 guests.
10:45We only make 18 portions, so at the end of the night, it's not like we're saving anything
10:49for tomorrow.
10:50There's no guesswork going into how much should we make, how many are we going to sell.
10:54We know exactly what everyone will be eating that night, and then we can prepare exactly
10:57how much we need.
10:59Water machine in the kitchen is kind of the lifeline of the property as a whole.
11:02It'll fill the water bottles that the guests drink in their rooms, but also it's the only
11:06water that we cook with, which saves on our carbon footprint at the end of the day.
11:11So dinner started right now.
11:14We try to operate in a silent kitchen.
11:17We'll try and have one person speaking and everyone will just listen and understand what
11:20their next movements are based on what course we're on.
11:23In the actual dining room, you'll see hand gestures that will be a nonverbal source of
11:27communication so the team can understand what's happening on each table from across the room.
11:33Before you enter the dining room, we have a little mantra, which is be a swan.
11:36While we're in front of the guests, we want to look cool, calm, and collected, but underneath,
11:40if you see a swan, their feet are moving really fast.
11:42So mentally, you're doing multiple things, but you don't want to kind of display that
11:46to the guests.
11:47You want to look like you're kind of totally in control, know exactly what's going on,
11:51present yourself in an elegant way.
11:54Our version of luxury here, it's not just buying the most expensive thing.
12:10It's truly sourcing and creating a one-of-a-kind experience.
12:14By us doing it in a more sustainable way and looking after the nature that's here, we're
12:18able to preserve that for future generations, and tomorrow it's going to be a different
12:22form of luxury because our available options are different.
12:26Our goal is to continue to redefine what a luxury experience is.