There’s a jungle growing wildly on Abbot Kinney – one of L.A’s coolest streets. The Cook’s Garden by HGEL is actually an organized, high-functioning urban farm at closer look, but at first glance, to passer’s by in the asphalt jungle, the effect is pure green wildness.

Although an evening on Abbot Kinney is usually characterized by it’s famously minimal-industrial restaurant dining rooms, recently, we joined master gardener Geri Miller for an evening inside this charming urban farm for an incredible dinner by local Tender Greens chefs that made us feel a million miles away from the city.

Tender Greens chef Charlie Knowles is just one of many L.A. culinary pro with their own plot at The Cook’s Garden. We spotted plots reserved for many of our favorite L.A restos and even for farm-to-glass bar wizard Matthew Biancaniello. Now that’s Chalkboard living: a garden plot just for the bar.

The dinner menu featured a salad picked from the garden by guests during cocktail hour, butternut squash with farro, brown butter and sage, a main course straight from nearby ReRide Ranch, Drake’s Farm goat cheeses, local wines, and apple pies served with sweet cream that we’re still dreaming about.

Chef Knowles is sharing the below recipe from the evening, the key to which is the best, seasonal, farmer’s-market-fresh ingredients you can find so that not much has to be done to them. Just a little salt, pepper, good quality olive oil and the flavors of the ingredients will shine.

This is one of many garden events the The Cook’s Garden and we hope you’re inspired to visit for yourself. Our host and the garden’s owner, Geri Miller is one of the city’s best edible landscape consultants and we’ll be sharing a few of her incredible home gardens throughout the year.