My goal at Saddle Peak Lodge is pretty simple: To use the finest ingredients, prepare them in the manner which suits them best, and ultimately let the ingredients do the talking.  So, how exactly is that done?  A high quality ingredient is impossible to replace. Honoring the farm, the farmer, and the guest who will eat the ingredient, however,  is not easy to achieve. My every day goal is to take these amazing ingredients that are given to us by these amazing farmers — these ingredients that border on perfection — and really enhance them. Make them shine.

At Saddle Peak we’ve been blessed with a long history of high expectations and excellent relationships. I truly value these relationships, both with the farms and farmers with whom I work, and the guests who walk through our doors each day.  These relationships, as with any, come expectations . Expectations of Saddle Peak’s past and present are for us to serve the best wild game around. Our guests today expect a meal, which is both rustic yet refined. A meal where you enjoy the freshest seafood, wild game and vegetable dishes while enjoying the beautiful scenery Malibu Canyon has to offer. Everything prepared with love, care and respect.  Having been bestowed the helm of the kitchen and it’s relationships, it’s my goal day-to-day to nurture these relationships and expectations with the utmost care.

The expectation of the farmer is that his product will be prepared in the best manner to highlight the flavors of the ingredient that they work so hard to grow.  The expectation of our guest is that the food being served to them is of the highest quality both in preparation and in ingredient quality. I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from some incredible chefs. I’ve also been fortunate enough to have been taught both classic and haute techniques.

I really appreciate the balance of both aspects of cooking. Some modern techniques have given chefs the ability to do some things impossible to do by classic method. While classic French technique and cooking methods are irreplaceable and will always give you a better product, a touch of the modern offers me a wider array of tools for allowing the ingredients to shine.

Techniques, like sous-vide cooking, which are relatively new, give a chef the ability to truly cook any ingredient with absolute precision. A carrot will taste more like a carrot, less like salt water. A steak will be cooked all the way through without ever causing the protein fibers to become tight (or tough). A short-rib can be braised for 48 hours, be fork-tender but still medium rare. These advances in technology have definitely given us some pretty impressive advantages in our constant strive for perfection, as well as ways to achieve flavors and textures that you couldn’t create otherwise.

On the other hand classic techniques will never be replaced. The maillard reaction (browning of sugars and flavor development) in a true braise. The crisping of fish skin while you cook it on one side. Those can’t be achieved by some of the modern methods. It’s truly a balance. A balance I appreciate and love. I am also excited about the future of Saddle Peak, the future which is only possible because of it’s incredible past.

Adam Horton, Executive Chef
Saddle Peak Lodge

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• In The Kitchen