At Antica Terra, ‘the luxury belongs to’ the patrons

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — When you head to an Oregon winery, you can expect excellent wines. That is true at Antica Terra in Amity, but it’s also true you’ll find food prepared by the James Beard Award-winning Best Chef in the Pacific Northwest.

Chef Timothy Wastell earned that distinction at the awards ceremony in Chicago.

The food, prepped with care and sourced in the PNW, is obviously getting a lot of attention.

It’s a serene setting at Antica Terra, even in the kitchen where a symphony of talent works together to make the meals that’ll go with plenty of wine pours.

It might seem intimidating to wine and dine at Antica Terra, but Chef de Cuisine Ramon Canarios — aka Chef Ray — will tell you otherwise.

“I want people to feel comfortable and enjoy themselves. I get weirded out when we have very stiff guests who expect this really prim, proper fine dining thing,” Chef Ray said. “It’s not like that. I want people to feel that this luxury belongs to them.”

He wants you to share in the luxury and the fun they have there.

“It’s just fun to have a new ingredient in front of you and it’s like, ‘Oh, you know what we should do? We should add this to this dish.’ Or we build a dish around it. It’s fun,” he said.

“A Very Nice Lunch” at Antica Terra starts with several snacks, like Deviled Pacific Coast Farm Quail Egg and Osetra Caviar, then a scallop crudo with green scallions and shio koji or the Dreamfields Farm tsukune (a meatball) grilled over Japanese charcoal.

There are, of course, a lot of wine pairings.

Then there’s the crudite, a colorful presentation of fruits and veggies with a sweet Walla Walla onion dip.

But that’s not all.

There’s the grilled Alaskan halibut with a sweet corn bisque, then miso marinated chinook salmon roasted in cedar.

Then comes Wastell’s specialty: a smoked whole chicken with summer chantrelle mushrooms and peaches, along with truffle butter-infused broth.

There’s also dessert, a playful version of Baked Alaska called Baked Amity that uses seasonal fruits from nearby farms.

The price for A Very Nice Lunch is $295. Last month, the New York Times did a story about their Table in the Tree experience for $175 per person.

This menu often evolves, Chef Ray said.

“Every week something might change because we’re trying to grab things at the peak of the season.”

Chef Timothy Wastell, the director of culinary operations at Antica Terra, loves and appreciates using the food resources all around him.

“I’ve never sought this out or been a PR person or any of it, yeah that’s not the reason that I do it personally,” Wastell said. “I’m here for the support of local farms and for the future of sustainable food and building a better system.”

Next week, Northwest Grown takes a closer look at what it means to experience wine at Antica Terra.