Editor's note: This is the fourth in a series of four stories about Woodland's Dinner on Main and the restaurants involved with the event. 

The past few weekends have put a spotlight on Yolo County restaurants as hundreds of people dined in Woodland's Edible Learning Garden downtown for the city's Dinner off Main series.

The event — consisting of separate dinners spearheaded by several local restaurants — marked an evolution of Woodland's Dinner on Main. As the name suggests, the dinner typically involves a long, long table stretching across Main Street, where diners enjoy local cuisine from Yolo County chefs, celebrating the region's rich agricultural heritage.

However, the coronavirus pandemic necessitated change.

Instead of one large-scale event in September, the event — with the new moniker of Dinner off Main — consists of eight separate dinners.

Woodland's Dinner on Main Executive Director Linda Henigan explained that early in the development of this new model, her team spoke with Yolo County health officials to see what was doable under current circumstances. The dinner had to be outdoors, which is unchanged from previous years, but the number of people in attendance would be limited to 60 people. Chefs and their staff will need to wear face coverings but diners can remove their masks to enjoy their multi-course meals.

The name Dinner off Main is due to the dinners taking place on a different street. Each event will take place in Woodland's Edible Learning Garden on the corner of First and Court Streets. The garden has been a passion project for the Woodland's Dinner on Main team for several years.

The Dinner off Main series started on Saturday, Sept. 11 and finishes this Saturday and Sunday.

Looking back at the first dinners in the series, Henigan called the event a resounding success.

"Absolutely every dinner has been really successful, and each in their own way," she said. "The chefs used Dinner off Main as a way to uniquely shine. Many of them departed from what their restaurant is known for and had fun creating something different from what they're known for. Each dinner had a different feel to it depending upon the chefs, those guests that chose the night, and the separate great bands."

Henigan noted a slight learning curve from one night to the next. She said the only adjustment they made was having the guests settle into the garden right away, instead of mingling near the band on First Street. They also moved the band to the center of the street and added a hand-held microphone for presenters.

Asked if the Dinner off Main format will be used next year, Henigan emphasized the positive feedback from the community to continue with both formats.

"There was a resounding sentiment that we should absolutely do these dinners again, and have the Dinner on Main too," she said. "Our guests loved the intimate experience in the garden. I think they also appreciated how wonderful an asset the garden is, how it feeds folks and felt compelled to support the brick fundraising efforts."

Henigan noted that she and other Dinner on Main organizers were grateful to all the event sponsors, including Visit Yolo and Pacific Coast Producers.

Dinner off Main concludes this weekend. Visit woodlandsdinneronmain.org for more information.

LAS BRASAS TACOS & SALSAS

Rudy Peniche's dream of creating and running his own restaurant was something he only recently pursued in his life after an accident while working as a building engineer led him to reevaluate what he wanted to do.

"I was always passionate about cooking," Peniche said. "I remember that when I was seven, I was always around my mom and grandma in the kitchen trying to help. It was a natural passion."

Rudy Peniche, owner of Las Brasas, Tuesday outside the Edible Learning Garden in Woodland. (Gerardo Zavala/Daily Democrat)

Peniche worked as a building engineer for 21 years prior to cracking two lower disks that prevented him from continuing work in the same field.

"The owner of the company told me, 'you already worked for my dreams, it's time for you to work for your own dream,' and my dream was the kitchen."

Peniche started taking cooking classes and eventually moved from the Bay Area to Woodland, where his father was a pastor, and opened Las Brasas nearly seven years ago.

While he only helped during the first Dinner on Main, Peniche has been an integral part of each dinner since and is looking forward to hosting his dinner this Saturday.

"It's a dream for me because it's my two biggest passions; cooking and helping my community," he emphasized. "Every single year, it's an adventure and an honor for me to participate in. We're doing great things."

This year's dinners will be funding restaurants in Woodland that have been struggling the last two years because of the pandemic instead of the usual nonprofit organizations it has been funding in previous dinners.

"It was a great idea from the board to help restaurants because we've been suffering too much these last two years and now, approaching the last two dinners, we see it's been very successful," he said.

Las Brasas's dinner — "The Flavors of Mexico" — will have six courses that aim to make guests feel as if they were eating food from various regions of Mexico.

Guests will start the night with a "Tabla Botana Mix," which is a board with chicharrones, panela cheese, avocado salsa and chips.

"In Mexico, you start with a little snack before dinner," Peniche explained. "That's why you always have chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants, it's kind of a tradition to start the meal."

The second course will be a mango, scallop and shrimp ceviche prepared by Las Brasas chef Fernando Carrillo. Carrillo is from Sinaloa and his dish highlights the restaurant's goal of representing the many different foods from different Mexican regions.

"It's a food comfort for him because he's been growing up making seafood his entire life," Peniche said. "His biggest culinary strength is seafood."

The main course will be a Tampiqueña — a dish that honors Las Brasas's signature cooking style that utilizes mesquite charcoal and uses foods from different regions of Mexico.

"I decided to pick this popular Mexican dish because it has a little bit from different parts of Mexico," Peniche highlighted. "The steak came from my hometown — Monterey, Nuevo León — the marinades came from Sinaloa, and cilantro rice is popular in Mexico City and central Mexico. That's why I decided to go with this dish, so we have a little something of everything."

The last course will be a grilled peach Ala Mode with a crispy buñuelo topped with a berry compote and pistachio.

"The entire experience is going to be as if you traveled to Mexico and had all of these flavors. That's why we're naming it 'The Flavors of Mexico.'"

Las Brasas is located at 537B Main St. in Woodland and is open 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Peniche mentioned that the dinner will be held on his birthday and that there will also be a live Mariachi performing during the event.

BUCKHORN STEAKHOUSE / PUTAH CREEK CAFE

A veteran of Dinner on Main, chef Benjy Head of Buckhorn Steakhouse has been involved in the event since its inception.

Head's two-year anniversary at Buckhorn — located at 2 E Main St. in Winters — is this November. However, before joining the team at the steakhouse, Head worked at Morgan's on Main in Woodland where he also participated in the Dinner on Main event.

While Head has been cooking professionally for nearly 30 years, his interest sparked when he was a kid, often helping with family events and Thanksgiving dinners. He credits his grandmother as the main reason for his love of cooking.

Chef Benjy Head, chef at Buckhorn Steakhouse in Winters, is partipicating in Woodland's Dinner off Main this weekend. (Robyn Dobson/Daily Democrat)

"I was lucky enough that from a very young age cooking just struck a chord with me and then it's always been there for me," Head said. "Really, out of high school, it was the only thing that I pursued."

Head said the first dish he remembers making with his grandmother was reheated macaroni and cheese and Spam in a toaster oven. He was seven at the time.

Head eventually went on to culinary school to grow and elevate his palate in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before bouncing around to work at several locations including North Carolina and Tahoe before landing in Winters.

Right across the street from Buckhorn is Putah Creek Cafe, located at 1 E Main St., where chef Bryce Parker is at the helm and is also working the Dinner off Main event on Sunday having collaborated on the menu with Head.

Like Head, Parker has been surrounded by food his whole life as his parents both were in the food and hospitality industry growing up.

"Food in my family has always been a big thing," Parker said. "Both of my parents cook really well, my grandparents cook, so it's like when we get together everyone is always cooking something. It's always been a big part of my life."

After a four-year stint in the Marines, Parker decided to use his GI Bill to go to culinary school. Parker then worked in several restaurants in the area including The Kitchen, one of the first Michelin Star restaurants in Sacramento.

Chef Bryce Parker of Putah Creek Cafe in Winters collaborated with Head to create the menu for their dinner this weekend. (Robyn Dobson/Daily Democrat)

Parker credits Head as the main driving force behind Sunday's menu, but both chefs said they were able to pick each other's brains to work together and create a menu for the guests to enjoy.

"My goal was to give it a little more elevated, white table cloth feel," Head explained. "I thought it would be fun to showcase not only what our local agriculture can do but also add a level that normally wouldn't be able to see at other events."

The dinner will feature a new-age American style with slight hints of French fusion, according to Head.

The six-course meal will begin with artisanal bread served with black garbanzo bean hummus, herbed goat cheese, olives, seasonal fruit, whole roasted garlic and a beef candle with aged balsamic.

"I hate throwing stuff in the garbage, I just absolutely can't stand it," Parked stressed. "So we made a little candle out of the beef fat, we rendered it out, so the guests on Sunday will light it and the candle will melt and the guests can dip their bread in it."

The fourth course will feature a lamb chop with roasted root vegetables, squash puree and a pomegranate gastrique. Parker said the lamb is from a local farm in Dixon.

Other offerings will include a fresh garden salad with vegetables and herbs from Woodland's Edible Learning Garden, a clear broth chowder and a 5 oz. butter poached filet. Guests will finish off the night with a seasonal panna cotta terrarium.

"I like to use good ingredients and cook them simply and flavorful," Parker explained. "Benjy and I cook a lot alike in that fashion. Everything is local and that's just how we like to do it."