Field Trip with Curtis Stone

California is big.

It's kind of got everything.

Oceans and mountains,

fertile plains and coastal valleys.

Just a short drive north from the restaurant in LA

is the Central Coast region, an absolutely amazing place

to go when you're looking for new ideas,

and extraordinary ingredients.

The Central Coast stretches from Los Angeles

to San Francisco.

And for a chef, it's a bonanza.

All the things that land and sea have to offer,

an abundant agricultural wonderland,

right next to the Pacific.

If I'm looking to capture this area,

I'm gonna need a wide net. Think about it.

We've got the climate perfectly suited

to grow in fruit and veg.

The small farms and free range animals,

and the wide array of marine life.

All things that to me are quintessential California.

Cuisine comes from a culture,

its characters, the attitudes.

It's the soul of a place.

As I look to reinvent the menu

for my flagship restaurant, Maude, in Beverly Hills,

I'm going on a journey that'll take me,

and some of the team around the world,

to experience the food, wine, and history,

in some of the world's most fascinating regions.

The goal? To taste the most unusual ingredients,

to meet the most unique people, and to become inspired,

as each adventure serves as the basis

for a distinct menu at my restaurant.

Buckle up. We're in for one hell of a ride.

Don't leave me.

Michelle Rudolf starts her day tending to her herd.

She and her husband, Jack, run the day to day operations.

Stepladder Ranch and Creamery has been around for a while.

Founded in 1871, the ranch has been family-owned

and operated for three generations.

The creamery sits amid the lush valleys

of the San Luis Obispo County.

And their main focus here is making cheese.

Hi, Blaire.

Delicious, small batch cheese,

from their herd of Lamancha goats.

Back at Maude, we've heard all about these cheeses.

So Yesenia, Justin, and I stop by for a closer look.

So what do you guys mainly do?

It's a little bit of a grab bag.

So, we've got our orchard operation,

so it's about 45 acres of orchards.

We also have our dairy, so we're milking goats,

making cheese, and then, we raise cattle

that's out on the ranch, and then,

we have a bunch of pigs, too.

So kind of a little diversified, integrated operation.

- Sounds like a dream. Yeah.

It really does. - Look at that.

And you have an amazing view,

every time you come to work.

The commute's not too bad either, which is nice.

- Yeah. Yeah,

- just a walk away. - Is this where lunch happens?

Yeah. You're feeding us, right?

Yeah, we'll- we'll cook for you.

Perfect. Yeah, absolutely.

That's the deal, you show us your...

you show us your cheese, and we'll cook you lunch.

Awesome.

Jack's love of cheese started as a hobby.

While working at a startup in Palo Alto,

he bought his own herd of goats.

A few years later, he brought his goats to Stepladder,

and took over the day to day operations

from his grandfather.

So these are all the mommies.

- Yeah. - We have all the mamas.

So after they get milked, they come, have a bit of hay,

and then, they're waiting on us to let them out to pasture.

- So... Right.

Yeah, so they're spending a good bit of their day up here,

where they get, uh, all the different grass

and the wild thistle, and you can see

there are no leaves within reach anywhere.

- Right. - Because they get up

on their hind legs, and start grabbing them. So...

- Really? - Yeah, they're, uh...

- You wanna feed them? - They love anything green.

Wow, look at that.

Little black walnut.

Whoa, it's like feeding my children at home.

Yeah.

You guys are so hungry, aren't you?

Hey, guys.

In the fall, they'll leave a ton of acorns,

which gives them a lot of body condition and fat.

Really? Gee, I didn't know that.

They're really, like, big kids.

I mean, you have a personal relationship

- with every single one of them. - Oh, my gosh.

You talk to them beforehand, or they won't...

they'll feel uncomfortable, and, uh,

one of our milk maiden,

- she sings to them. - No way.

Uh, it helps their milk release.

I like to joke around that they're like girls

in high school, and, like, some of them are the jock

and the cheerleader, and all sorts of things

because they really do have their own little personality.

A generational tour guide,

this would've been a ride on horseback.

But today, the fun until it happens on quads.

The views across the valley are just so beautiful.

And the abundance of ingredients

hanging off seemingly every vine

is enough to make a city folk go crazy with jealousy.

At every turn, there's a new fruit,

a new vegetable, or herb.

Stop it.

And we haven't even got to the pigs yet.

Roaming and frolicking amongst the hills

are these free range heritage breed pigs.

The happiest little buggers I've ever seen.

Hey, piggies. Guys. They're beautiful.

Look, they go for the ripe ones.

They don't know why we brought those green ones.

Just want the straight guacamole.

It's like when we put family meal out, mate.

They're pretty smart though. They won't eat the pit,

they don't usually eat the skin,

they'll just eat the green flesh out,

just like your or I would, and then,

another big part of their diet too

is all of the whey, the byproduct

of the cheese making process, we bring up to them,

and we have a big trough,

and they'll basically drink the whey,

so they're getting all the protein,

residual sugar out of the whey.

But the main thing is, they're out,

eating whatever they can find, and whatever they want

- most of the time, so... - Yeah,

just leading the real natural healthy life.

Uh-hmm. Totally, yeah.

This is definitely the opposite of like a confinement

feeding operation, to say the least. So...

And they're all heritage breeds.

- These are young guys, huh? - Uh, crosses, full breeds,

so meaning they have a nice fat cap, grow slow.

Most of our pigs take almost a year and a half

to reach their weight, so it's-

Yeah. Yeah, right.

really slow.

I see the Gloucester Old Spot in there somewhere.

Exactly, yeah.

So what are the breeds? They're little Berkshire?

- Uh-hmm. Little Berkshire,

Large Black, Old Spot,

Tamworth, and Red Wattle.

So we've slowly sort of cross them

to be like this pasture pig breed

that combined some of the best qualities of all of them,

and also, mellow some of those qualities out,

so you get really nice intermuscular marbling,

you get really nice dark color, a little less

of the massive fat cap, but still plenty of fat.

I've never seen pigs look so healthy

and happy, and just, like thrilled. So...

Clean.

How cool is that? That was awesome.

- Amazing, right? - These pork...

- Beautiful. - Yeah.

I mean, just being up there

and watching those pigs forage around.

- It's amazing. - It's wild.

- Look how good that looks. - It's beautiful.

I mean, look at this.

Just talking about that beautiful fat cap

- from the breeding. - Yeah.

Looks like Gloucester Old Spot,

probably a little bit more fat, so you can tell

that it's a cross with that, and something else.

So, this is the rib.

I'm gonna do like three bones.

I'm tempted not to even French it, to be honest.

- Well, that's the point? - What's the point of all that?

Yeah, that's gonna be good.

Beautiful fattiness.

Season it with salt and pepper.

How beautiful is this... does this make you wanna just,

like, quit your job and come out here, and live on a farm?

How many times have I tried to cook

where I have no idea every time I do this?

And there's nothing like that smell and aroma of wood.

Smells super good.

Just little smokiness.

Gorgeous.

So what do you think we're gonna serve them with some pork?