Here is a Labor Day getaway where District gourmands can travel against traffic to the Delaware beach in support of a hometown hero and at the same time be part of an unforgettable experience.
Chef Matt Haley, who grew up in Silver Spring and cut his culinary teeth in the finest D.C. restaurants before moving to the beach, will serve as chef at the Outstanding in the Field event held on the grounds of the Indian River Life-Saving Station located off Route 1 in Delaware.
The concept behind OITF, which began in 1999 by California chef-artist Jim Denevan, is based on meals that feature ingredients from local farms and served in a natural setting. In this case, the natural setting, the great outdoors, is on the beach. Some of the top chefs in the nation have participated in this event.
“This is our first ever event in Delaware,” said Leah Scafe, director of OTIF. “We have had a number of beach dinners on the California coast in the past, but this is the first time on an Eastern beach.” Haley was a natural choice to serve his farm-to-table cuisine.
“We embrace the idea of supporting Sussex County [Del.] farmers, whose products we feature on all our menus,” said Haley, who, through his multimillion-dollar company, SoDel Concepts, owns six restaurants along the Delaware coast.
He is also co-owner of Highwater Management, a hospitality management company that oversees three more restaurants in Delaware and one, Water’s Seafood House, in Ocean City.
Haley asks that Washingtonians and all participants in the Labor Day feast picture this: appetizers, cocktails and wine in the museum’s courtyard. Soon a bell rings and diners walk 70 yards to the beach along a candle-lit path. Once at the beach, everyone will be seated at one long table that accommodates 150 people. They will partake in a seven-course meal served up by Haley and several assistant chefs from a fully equipped kitchen with grills and prep tables set up right on the white sands.
The menu will consist of food that embraces the Delaware “style,” and Haley is happy to share a few of the dishes.
“Corn is big in Delaware, so there will be a corn and Old Bay aioli, also fresh corn blended with fresh rosemary and bay leaf for mojitos,” he said. “We will have blue fish smoked with lemon crust, pureed soy beans on cracker, heirloom tomato salad and whole, 12- to 15-pound rockfish up and down the table because everything is family-style.”
To speak with Haley is to suck in his enthusiasm for both the cuisine and the feast with its sense of community sharing in one beautiful meal by the sea.
