Waste from this California kitchen returns to its farm to fuel nutritional, flavorful crops.
A little known fact about chef Kyle Connaughton is that he quietly dons vintage Alexander McQueen while working on his farm. He and his wife, Katina Connaughton met at a punk rock show when they were 15, so naturally, they have a strong affinity for British fashion brands aligned with the punk movement like McQueen and Vivianne Westwood. The idea for their farm-to-table restaurant, SingleThread, spawned in some ways as an extension of their punk values.
After living and working in Japan and England, the Connaughtons wanted to be in the world of fine dining but didn’t feel quite at home there. “We wanted to be, work, and execute at that level. But not necessarily all those things felt like they were us,” says Kyle. “So it was a balance of ‘How do you be at that level, and at the same time, be true to who you are?’”
Katina, SingleThread’s co-owner and head farmer, tends their loamy, 24-acre Sonoma County farm consisting of a greenhouse, shade structures, an heirloom fruit orchard, and beehives nestled by Dry Creek Valley and the Dry Creek stream. The farm supplies vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, and honey for dishes like gazpacho and megumi wagyu at SingleThread’s idyllic inn, right on the farm, and restaurant kitchen just four miles away in downtown Healdsburg…