The best meals stay with us forever.
Sometimes it’s a single ingredient, a familiar aroma, or a specific dish that instantly transports us back to a moment we never forgot.
When I think about my travels, so many memories are defined by flavor—the smell of fresh coffee drifting from a small street café, seafood enjoyed along the coast, or a simple pasta dish shared over a bottle of wine late into the evening.
Food has a unique ability to connect us to places, people, and experiences in a way few things can.
Recently, I began reflecting on how we could evolve our wine dinners into something even more personal—where chef-driven menus meet the memories, favorite ingredients, and travel experiences of our members.
The result is The Interactive Chef’s Dinner: an experience inspired not only by culinary technique and thoughtful wine pairings, but by the dishes and moments guests have carried with them long after the trip ended.
Hate It or Love It
Every experience begins with a simple game: Hate it or love it.
I sit down with our members before we create the menu and ask them to tell me what they love, what they hate, and what they may have never tried before. Then I start throwing out random ingredients, flavors, and combinations just to see how adventurous they’re willing to be.
It becomes an instant icebreaker. The conversation is fun, relaxed, and revealing. It allows me to understand where I can push boundaries, where I should stay more familiar, and where we may have an opportunity to experiment together.
More importantly, it gives me insight into their personalities as diners—whether they lean more traditional, contemporary, or modern in their tastes. Most of the time, the final menu becomes a blend of all three, creating different layers and moments throughout the wine dinner experience.
Tell Me a Memory
This is my favorite part. I ask each member to describe a place, meal, or dish that triggers a meaningful memory for them. Sometimes it’s something extravagant from their travels. Other times, it’s incredibly simple—fresh cookies made by a grandparent, noodles from a late-night market in Thailand, or a dish shared during a special moment in life.
For me, it’s jasmine and pesto. Years ago, my wife and I spent several weeks traveling through Italy. One afternoon, we became stranded during a passing rainstorm at a small cottage outside Florence. We sat on a tiny patio overlooking the city, sipping Italian wine while the smell of fresh jasmine drifted through the air from vines covering the fence line.
Inside the cottage, our host had left fresh pesto, handmade dried pasta, and incredible Parmesan waiting for us.
As the rain passed over Florence, we sat there enjoying wine, pesto pasta, and the scent of jasmine in the air. To this day, whenever I smell jasmine or taste pesto, I’m immediately transported back to that exact moment with my wife. It was perfect in every way—simple, yet unforgettable.
That is the purpose of this question. I want part of the dinner to reconnect our guests with a memory—to bring them back to a place, a feeling, or a moment in time through food, wine, aroma, and storytelling.
Because the most unforgettable dinners are never just about what was on the plate. They’re about what we felt while sharing it.
Finishing Touches
From here, I’m fortunate to work alongside an incredible leadership team that helps bring the entire experience to life.
From our clubhouse director thoughtfully pairing the wines to our events director creating the perfect atmosphere, every detail matters. Whether it’s the glow of candlelight, elegant floral arrangements, personalized menus from our marketing director, or the final execution of the evening by our culinary and front-of-house staff, every element is designed to create a dinner experience tailored specifically to our membership.
Together, we’ve elevated our wine dinners into something far beyond a traditional wine dinner.
Fifteen years ago, I never would have imagined saying, “Let the members help guide the dinner.” But after spending years traveling, experiencing different cultures, and discovering food from so many places, I’ve realized that’s where the true beauty of hospitality lives.
Of course, I still love creating chef-driven menus. That passion will never leave me.
But now, the journey has become something deeper. I’m constantly exploring how we can unlock extraordinary memories through flavor, aroma, texture, temperature, storytelling, fire, ice, and emotion—all working together to transport our guests to a meaningful place.
At the end of the night, my goal is simple: To create an evening filled with great food, incredible wine, meaningful conversation, and memories that guests will carry with them long after the table is cleared.
