California grows more food and makes more wine than any other US state, and its farm-to-table ethos has shaped how the whole world eats. But according to a recent episode of Wanderlust's Off the Page podcast, the state's most memorable meals aren't served in Michelin-starred dining rooms. They happen on warm evenings outdoors, when the person who grew your dinner is the one handing you the plate.
Host Aaron Millar talks it through with two people who live this philosophy daily: Honor Comfort, Vice President of International Marketing at the Wine Institute of California, and Juan Barajas, a slow food champion who runs Savory Café in Woodland, Yolo County — a small town in the Central Valley where, Barajas says, slow food is less a movement and more a way of life. He describes watching almond blossoms open and smelling tomatoes on the county air, a reminder that food, at its best, feels like a small miracle.
On the wine side, Comfort argues that every glass of California wine tells two stories at once: the land it came from and the person who made it. The state's small family wineries offer some of the most hands-on visits anywhere in the wine world — you can clip vines, help stomp grapes and pour your own tasting. And it's not all big-name regions. Some of the best farm dinners — candle-lit community tables where the farmers themselves serve the food — hide in small towns most travellers have never heard of.
If this all sounds like an itinerary waiting to happen, Comfort maps out exactly that: a food and wine road trip running from Anderson Valley and the wild Sonoma coast, through Russian River Pinot country and Lodi's old-vine Zinfandel, down to Paso Robles with its Rhône varieties, and finishing with a glass of Chardonnay as the sun sets over Santa Barbara's Channel Islands.
The broader message is about pace. California's culinary culture rewards travellers who linger: talk to the grower, taste the vintage from the barrel, sit at a long table with strangers who leave as friends. For anyone plotting a trip that goes beyond the usual coast-and-cities loop, a detour into the Central Valley's small towns or a family-owned winery might be the part of the holiday you remember longest. The episode is the third in Wanderlust's California series, and it doubles as a practical starting point — the show notes point to visitcalifornia.com, discovercaliforniawines.com and the Capstone California wine education programme for anyone ready to start planning.
Who is this for? Anyone who'd rather meet the winemaker than the concierge, and anyone who thinks the best souvenir from a trip is a meal they can still taste weeks later. Practical sources: discovercaliforniawines.com for planning winery visits, and Savory Café in Woodland if you find yourself in Yolo County. Source: Wanderlust.