Lamb stew

Ashland, Oregon, April 27, 2013—

I'VE WRITTEN ABOUT HER before any number of times here; she's one of the two or three best cooks I know of: Charlene Rollins. Everything they serve here is locally sourced, save such things as coffee and the best of the wines. Even the water you drink here is particularly delicious, and comes from the property itself.

But sourcing isn't everything. God sends food, the Dutch say, and the devil sends cooks: but in this venue the cook is as heaven-sent as the provender she prepares for the table. You just know, if you have any attentiveness at all, that you're in a special confluence of raw ingredients and intelligent, sensuous technique.

I had the menu, which is my usual approach here, even though the a la carte items are extremely attractive. The menu was a "Caesar" salad, that first word in quotes because the salad was a bit revisionist, including pickled peppers and capers, for example.

Afterward, lamb stew, capped in my soup-plate with a float of cauliflower gratin — a pleasant dish, as you'd expect from a cook whose specialty is the long-simmered entree.

Dessert was the fine cake you see here, made with orange, olive oil, and ground almond, served with strawberry-rhubarb sauce and orange-honey ice cream. Charlene is a genius, a generous and resourceful one, and she and her restaurant — and her sommelier husband Vern — are among my favorite people, and the national treasures of gastronomy.

Red, Bela Voda (Macedonia): rich, deep, sound, rewarding.

• New Sammy's Cowboy Bistro, 2210 South Pacific Highway, Talent, Oregon; (541) 535-2779



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