La Toque chef revives Copia gardens, cooks for Napa auction

The once-copious gardens at the now-defunct Copia center are again growing produce fit for a king.

And, if you're one of the lucky few dining at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars this Friday as part of the Napa Valley Wine Auction, you'll enjoy a decadent dinner showcasing some of the garden's tender new lettuces and beans, served up by chef Ken Frank of La Toque in Napa.

For the past year, Frank has spearheaded an effort to restore the weed-choked garden to its former glory by pulling weeds, adding umpteen cubic yards of topsoil and rototilling the beds. In the past few months, the garden — now known as the Downtown Napa Chefs Co-op Edible Gardens — has gone through a rags-to-riches transformation.

"It took us about a month to get the gardens ready. .

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. There were some weeds that were taller than me," Frank said. "It's gone from weed patch to bare dirt to growing and thriving." The City of Napa approached Frank last summer about taking over the fertile plot, which once served as a kitchen garden for the Copia restaurant, Julia's Kitchen. After the food and wine center closed in 2008, the pristine patch fell into neglect and turned into an eyesore.Frank reached out to other downtown Napa chefs to help him revive the garden and put it back to work again. Each chef would be required to furnish his own supplies and labor and maintain the garden's organic status. In exchange, they would receive access to irrigation water and various bounty from Copia, such as its extensive seed library.For Frank and seven others, it was an offer they could not refuse."It's not often that you find a garden that has had endless amounts of money put into it," Frank said. "Everything is state of the art, and it's only a block away."Downtown Napa restaurants currently growing at the garden include Hog Island Oyster Bar, C Casa, Zuzu, Pearl, Oenotri (a new Italian restaurant) and Fish Story, a restaurant coming soon from Mark Dommen of One Market in San Francisco.Joining the co-op shortly will be the legendary master gardener Jeff Dawson, the original gardener at the Copia gardens, who works for Round Pond Estate and also takes care of Ubuntu restaurant's gardens.Dawson is interested in weeding through the seed library in hopes of getting his hands on some of the more interesting, hard-to-get seeds, Frank said.Meanwhile, Frank and his wife, Sherylle, have rolled up their sleeves and put lots of sweat equity into their sizable swath of the garden, which includes 3,200 square feet of irrigated beds, plus dry-farmed patches of tomatoes and pumpkins.Luckily for Frank, his wife is a florist and gardener by trade, who helped develop the gardens at Brix restaurant in Yountville."I'm not a bad gardener, but I married a much better one," Frank said. "Like cooking, it's not rocket science, but it's lots of practice. Experience is the most important thing."Like the other chefs, Frank is growing specialty vegetables that he can't buy in quantity from a regular distributor. That means interesting varieties, such as crimson fava beans and heirloom tomatoes.Frank makes his own pickles for the hamburgers he hand-grinds at his casual cafe, Bank Cafe & Bar. Like La Toque, the cafe is located in the Westin Verasa in downtown Napa.Although the cool, rainy weather has delayed the garden's production a bit, it has also been a boon to seedlings struggling to survive the garden's renovation. By early July, however, Frank figures the harvest should be in full swing, with lots of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers to pick off the vine.Meanwhile, Frank has been busy dreaming up an over-the-top menu for the Stag's Leap dinner this Friday, which will highlight four decades of the winery's iconic Cask 23 cabernet sauvignon.(In 1974, Stag's Leap founder Warren Winiarski enlisted the help of winemaker Andre Tchelistcheff to taste through various lots of new cabs from that year. One was so distinctive that they decided to bottle it separately under the name Cask 23. The wine is only made in great vintage years.)To kick off the dinner, Frank is going to serve an array of decadent bites, from Oysters on the Half Shell and Miniature Lobster Club Sandwiches to Foie Gras on Brioche and Rosti Potatoes with Caviar.Rich, meaty flavors from Wagyu beef, buffalo and braised oxtail will run through the dinner like a recurring theme, playing off the big red cabs from the '70s, '80s, '90s and 2000s."My goal here is to make a great dinner, but my real duty is to make the wine show well," Frank said. "It will be earthy, wine-friendly flavors."At La Toque in Napa, Frank is renowned for his wine-pairing menus, which are ordered by about two-thirds of his guests. While the menus vary in size and content, all take the diner on a similar journey."It's a progression of flavor, starting with shellfish and white wines, and richer (proteins) with chardonnays, and lighter meats that go with pinot noir and Nebbiolo," he said. "And then we highlight what Napa Valley does best — the finest red wines on the planet."Although he has cooked in the past for the Napa Valley Auction dinner, Frank has developed his own auction tradition at La Toque. About two dozen serious wine collectors ditch the auction dinner and show up at his restaurant for an unauthorized, underground dinner.They call themselves the "Renegades," and every year, they e-mail the chef a list of the wines they will dust off from their cellars a week ahead of time."It's an honor to cook for the wine auction, but it's a thrill for me to cook for 24 people who trust me completely," Frank said. "They don't even ask what they're going to have, and that gives me license to use the very best things I can get my hands on .