- I mean, it's the only thing that I've really been able to figure out since, since I was a little kid, I mean I cooked when I was growing up and always helped in the kitchen.

And obviously by my Adonis like physique, I like to eat and it just was, for me, it's the easiest and, most sincere way to show emotion.

You're, you're taking food that I prepared and putting it inside your body, I mean that's... That's pretty incredible.

I really find fulfillment.

Not to mention it's just about the only thing I know how to do.

(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat music) - Valle de Guadalupe is a wine region.

That's located 90 miles south of the US Mexican border four hours from Los Angeles.

You're nestled in a really defined geographical valley.

I feel like there's something super magical about it.

Everybody you meet here I feel like whether it's a wine maker or a chef everything here is so perfectly curated.

People have been growing grapes here for a hundred years but making boutique wines that is new and the kind of food that you see here follows that level of wine.

There's also something really convivial about it.

I think a lot of the food here is served family style, and because you're outdoors it's almost like the ultimate picnic.

I think the food here is really free-spirited in other parts of Mexico where people are bound to the traditions of their region here, there are no rules.

- So a lot of times in American culture you'll hear negative things about Mexico.

And for people that live in the border town we know that intrinsically not to be true.

You know what that culture is and how warm and welcome it is.

The people down there are beautiful.

The cooking is beautiful.

And they're so connected to their farming, they're so connected to the food that they grow, they're so connected to the communities.

So here we are me as a food journalist I'm trying to cover Baja.

My goal is to cover a culture as it is, you know and cover the culture as authentically as it possibly can.

I'm talking to all the people down there all the chefs that have been working their butts off they're native, you know, Mexicans and everybody kept on saying, you got to talk to Drew Deckman.

And I'm like, I don't want to do a story about Baja on a white chap.

I'm so sorry, you know, I just, I, it felt wrong and we all know the drill.

Yeah.

You know, the Michelin star.

And he had all this crazy experience but I was really hesitant to go try his food, for that reason.

(Spanish speaking) But then you try his food, and oh my God it's good.

You see this guy cooking with none of the accoutrements that a star Michelin chef would have.

He's got smoke and fire and wood and hay bales for his restaurant.

And you're like God that's a really, really great chef.

You're eating inside of this like private little forest.

And then all of a sudden here comes this big burly Viking chef guy with goggles on.

Yeah he's rough and intimidating and, you expect him to speak in monosyllables when they all of a sudden he's talking philosophy and poetry and he's educated, you know, in so many more ways than you ever thought.

He's just so passionate about everyone in that neighborhood.

You really get to see the sense of soul that he has for that community and for that neighborhood.

And for that farm and for the culture of ours.

He knows these ranchers by name, knows the people in his neighborhood that are growing things.

His truck is living proof of the farm to the table movement.

So it is always full of things that he's found in a five square mile radius of where he's going to cook it and put it on your plate.

You can see that passion it's like he found gold in the Hills.

And his gold is an herb, a quail, a fish and oyster.

There's a lot of disingenuousness that goes along with the farm to table movement.

And then you find somebody like Drew who really, really gives a damn.

We knew that Drew and he's a big timer, you know, but you can't come down to Mexico as a big timer open up a spot and expect to be respected at the table you have to earn that right.

Most of the chefs that I've talked to that are now born and raised in Mexico will tell you the same thing, Drew is one of us.

- Yes.

Well, I had some prejudice about to Drew Deckman.

I knew he was American.

He says, I love it here, I would like to, To cook and to make a little restaurant And I said oh, but there's no infrastructure at all.

So he said, it doesn't matter, I need a tree.

Really?

Are you sure?

Yes.

I need a tree.

I said, where have you cooked?

And he said, well I've cooked in Leon I've cooked in Geneva and I've cooked in France so well... Of course that helped.

And we've made very well along because he's extremely honest in what he says.

He says, and he does and I like that.

(Spanish Speaking) They fly, like literally it's like Kentucky wind You have to, you'd have to season from here.

To have enough like-minded people that come back and live our our dream and our version of insanity ranch insanity every day.

This is not a normal kind of a restaurant.

When we have a new cook come in, who has some experience they either dig it like, totally love it.

Like immediately, and you can see them just engage.

Or they're like a deer in the headlights and they last about three weeks and then they're gone.

And it's, there's nothing in between.

It's either I finally made it.

This is, this is, this is, this is what it's all about or, this guys (beeping) crazy, right?

What do you mean you're standing outside and it's two degrees Celsius or it's, you know 106 and we're still doing it.

That's the fun part.

I like it when it's hot, when it's really cold, it changes the way fire operates.

Way more challenging to keep food hot between here and the table, rain and wind suck.

Yeah.

Those are the grumpy days.

And, but you keep trying to smile because if you're grumpy then they're grumpy.

And that shows itself in the plates and the flavor of the food.

(Spanish speaking) You know, some of the really wild things about having an outdoor kitchen, I mean, obviously today we look like we're a swap meet or a flea market with all the tarps and stuff.

The wood burns different.

The humidity there's more smoke, there's less temperature, impossible to bake anything.

You know, obviously everything has a little bit of rainwater essence in it that the flavors change based on whatever's coming off the tree into the pots right?

The cool thing is that the right people come they know that we can't control the weather and they know that we're still here doing this trying as hard as we can.

You know, it's raining, it's cold, whatever.

I think its cool.

(Spanish Speaking) When I tell you about Don who's now the owner of the ranch.

And I started to talk about this project.

We wanted to create something that was vertically integrated with the ranch.

Everything we used as much as possible is from this ranch.

And if not, you know, working in concentric circles to find our ingredients as opposed to go into some import you know, let's find what our neighbors produce.

What did their neighbors produce?

What did their neighbors produce and trying to get as close to a zero kilometer restaurant as possible.

But one of the things this ranch doesn't produce is petroleum products.

So we have no natural gas.

We have no oil, we have no coal but what we have is a lot of firewood.

So the wood-fired kitchen was born from the desire to stay within the boundaries of the ranch at all cost.

There's so many words that are overused like organic and farm to table, chef-driven and it's like - Come on, right?

So what we tried to do is we try to bring the table to the farm as opposed the farm to the table.

And so when they say what's the most important thing in the kitchen you know, well, it's three things.

It's ingrediente, ingrediente, ingrediente.

It's really fulfilling for me to have these relationships.

You know, we don't make one phone call.

You have to make 30 phone calls to get our products here.

And each one of those people over the course of time has become friends.

So I'm, I'm networking daily with friends who happened to be producing the food that we serve.

They're the rock stars.

They're the ones that are important, without them, there's nothing that we could do.

I, I'm not a chef.

I'm, I'm an ingredient facilitator.

So my only duty here is to find the best in the market and not screw it up before I serve it to you.

Sergio!

(Spanish Speaking) - Thanks so much for bringing us out, man this is...

I love going out to the farm and I respect and admire what you do.

But I think you're also growing one of the products that's really the, the indicative, trademark that has become Baja California cuisine, and it's a well done oyster.

But it's easy to do when it's such a good oyster.

I don't have to do anything I just have to open it and show it to somebody and they go, oh wow.

Oh wow, it tastes, oh wow.

Its not me I'm just, I'm just the vehicle.

(Spanish Speaking) Goldmine.

- You are an expert.

All right so this is the Pai Pai which for me is a really amazing oyster.

This is the top, and this is the bottom.

But if you look at the tumbling It's like, we've made an oyster golf ball I think.

That is beautiful.

So traditionally drinks should be in the right hand and food in the left hand right?

Because if you toast with your left hand it's a sign of disrespect in ancient cultures right?

And in modern cultures.

Salut patron.

Thank you for letting us come out here.

Pai Pai.

Wow.

- Texture is great.

- You chew your oyster, I love to chew my oyster.

There's other people that are- They can't get it down fast enough.

It's like, no, you got to chew it to understand it.

- For a chef for me, Baja California is Nirvana.

It's everything I was looking for that I could never define until I got here.

That's why I became Mexican.

It's why I'm making wine.

That's why I'm building a house that's why my children are Mexican.

Salut brother.

(slow music) Smell that.

What does it smell like?

- What is that smell?

- It's thyme.

- Is this dirt?

That's dirt yup.

- You find it?

- You have a beautiful garden.

- I used to keep my camera with me so I can photograph everything.

And I use when close to the, to the grill and I request him if I can take a picture and I still have those pictures.

I was just enjoying the food and the ambiance.

And beautiful decor.

And that's how we met.

My dad became a super, super fan of his food.

It was how we start to interact.

So he came to the table.

He started to be really good friends with my parents.

So we start to make more time together.

He wrote a letter to my, to my dad in a menu in our dinner requesting him permission to, to date me.

That was three weeks.

And we decided that we need to be married.

I'm most proud of the family that we have raised.

I am very proud of my husband who he, he became a Mexican because he loves my country.

- [Drew] Yep.

Yep.

Oh okay, nice job.

- Wow, you want another one?

I want to raise my kids teach them that they honor and respect the environment.

The responsibility of choose correctly ingredients and being sustainable and be responsible.

- [Drew] So all this is, look at this, look at this.

So there's potato, right on top of the soil.

You see the potato?

Will you grab all of those?

One, two.

- Perfect - For us consuming local doesn't only mean food stuffs.

It means being part of the community.

It means giving back.

It means teaching.

It means reducing your footprint making the place a better place than the way you found it.

You know, we opened Deckmans here in the valley.

I still had my restaurant in Cabo.

It was tough you know, business wasn't really working.

We were doing six months here, six months there.

I was never a hundred percent in either place.

- And the moment that I decided to go full-time up here and It's like the stars, just, everything just went, just lined up.

And, and my wife and the restaurant became full.

And I mean, just, it was, it was, it was like immediately like the universe saying, all right, you finally made a good decision.

Now we're going to give you something for it.

And, and that, that just, it's been a steep up since then.

And it's been a hell of a ride and it just shows no new indication of changing.

So we're very, very privileged and very thankful - [Reporter 1] And ordered close the U S Mexico border to non-essential travel goes into effect at midnight.

It's a joint decision by American and Mexican officials to curb the spread of the Corona virus.

- [Reporter 2] Concerns on the border COVID-19 cases are climbing in Mexico.

- [Reporter 3] This morning health officials are racing to respond to a growing crisis along the border.

(sad violin music) Quarantine the day one.

Yesterday, we closed, we closed Deckmans.

And so today we're packing still have quite a few of the team members here today.

That'll diminish start going down.

They were packing up the entire restaurant, putting it away essentially not leaving anything out here.

We, we don't know how long this is going to last.

Our restaurant, family, 50 families, that most of them are married and have children extend that out.

And you know, you start talking in about 200 people that live on a daily basis here from the restaurant.

So what I've promised our team is that every day we're going to cook a family meal that each one of them has has the right to take up the food for four people.

We're going to cook for staff as long as we can.

We've contacted our ranchers and our purveyors.

And everybody wants to help.

We're really, really concerned about it.

It's, it's, what's causing me the most sort of stress you know, worry about the families of, of our people.

And we've got such a good team and how do we preserve them and make sure they're here.

When we, when we get back at this it's easy to find employees.

It's tough to find like-minded team members.

And we've got a phenomenal team and I don't want to lose them, you know without them we're, we're nothing.

I can't do this by myself.

Let me think about our producers.

Think about the guy that grows our coil, the fishermen that fish our fish.

I know I'm wearing the Baja shellfish farms hat today.

They're shut down, but they can't send anybody home.

Cause they still got to take care of the oysters in the, in the farm, same thing with the with the Stripe bass there, they may not be exporting and may not have any business, but you know they got a million fish swimming out there and those pins and somebody's got to take care of them and feed them.

And it's a, it's far reaching the effects of this, very far reaching.

It will rebound.

We don't know when, how strong but we all know that when it does rebound the world's gonna be a different place.

Restaurants are going to be a different place.

People are going to think differently when they go into a restaurant.

(somber music) - It's one of the biggest decimation of an industry that I've ever seen.

Let alone one that I've been intimately involved with for over 12 years.

And I've been talking to these people and chronicling their existence for 12 years and all of a sudden 60 to 70% of it dried up overnight.

It's heartbreaking.

It's absolutely heartbreaking.

When we talk about what's happening to the restaurants you're not just talking about the restaurant owner or the chef or that spot.

The restaurant is just a beachhead for an entire huge food culture, the farmer, the rancher, the honey maker.

And when that restaurant goes out, all of that supply goes out to, there are 50 to 60 tentacles that are affected when that restaurant shatters, it's an absolute decimation of the entire food industry.

People are just going back to the small roots that they came from, or they're absolutely stripping everything down to the bones in absolute survival mode.

All of those chefs now are taking the time to say what actually works.

The ones that are hanging in there, I think are going to have a longer term vision of sustainability.

- Hi everybody.

One more day here in kitchen quarantine, everybody welcome back to kitchen quarantine, Deckmans Malore.

(Spanish speaking) You know, we're just kind of here trying to keep the fires going and trying to feed our staff.

We started take out, which is kind of cool.

We've never done that before ever in the eight years of our existence.

So today's main course is English style roast beef.

I get to be the one who slices it just to make sure we have enough.

The sheep are happy.

We've got lots of grass.

We had some late rains that, that really made the valley nice and green.

Just really the best time of the year.

In my opinion, here in the valley Except for the restaurant that's empty.

Other than that, everything's okay.

Tomato sauce, a rugala or Basil.

Today we're back in, Deckmans making one of my mom's best recipes.

This is my mom.

You know everybody is on the verge of mental breakdowns and we just kind of rotate each and everybody different person each day, has their issues.

So today we're starting a program that was thought up by Ezekiel Hernandez from Hamad.

He's one of the stronger distributors and very very concentrated in the world of sustainable fisheries.

And he came to me with the idea of, hey let's do some food for the fishermen.

We've got a lot of products.

We can get more product donated.

We've got cooks that are like tigers in cages that just want to be cooking.

So the reality is, we can do it where we have the ability to do it.

They're bringing us the fish.

We've got things in our garden.

In a time like this when everybody's affected, the only, you know the only real thing we can do is help everybody I mean help as much as you can.

And we'll just put as much positive energy in into what we're doing and and try create some wholesome food and, and help some people that are hungry.

I feel like we're getting there.

You know, we're going on a month now of of paying salaries of people not coming to work.

We still got, you know, our core chefs and our directors who are now not directing but now they're doing whatever we ask them to do.

And you know, you hear the noise behind us.

That's, that's my administrator washing dishes.

And we're just, we're here.

We're positive.

We're just getting through, we're doing it.

- [Female Reporter] How the coronavirus outbreak is impacting the restaurant industry.

- [Female Reporter 2] Now to the issue of going out to eat so many are itching to do it but will it ever be the same?

According to a recent survey the average independent restaurant only has enough cash on hand to cover two weeks of expenses - [Female Reporter 3] A recent survey estimates that restaurants have only a 30% chance of staying open longterm.

- [Male Reporter] There'll have to be some government intervention but the size of this would take something in the tens of billions of dollars per month to adjust.

They've really never seen anything like this before.

And I think it's going to have a tremendous in fact devastating effect.

- One of the worst ironies is that restaurants that brought us together in a time that we've been immeasurably separated.

If you think about American society we've gone for a long time, from one box to another box.

We go from our homes, into our cars, into our workspace and then back into our phones, into our home.

Again, box to box to box and restaurants were the ones that make us put it all down and talk.

They made us come together.

And the brutal irony is that the ones that brought us together in a time that we've never been so socially alienated are the ones that are paying the biggest price because of this.

- [Female Crew] What you're going to talk about.

I don't know if that would you want to keep your mask on?

- I'll put down when were... - [ Male Crew] Audio is on.

- Yeah so this, this week kind of had to make some decisions about whether or not we want to keep paying all of our employees or have enough money to reopen if it's 1st of June or 1st of July or whatever.

So today we're sort of the last day of paying everyone and we're taking time to talk to each employee and explain the situation.

- [Female Crew] All right, let's go right over here in the shadow.

Bear with us cause we're not-- - No problem.

- [Female Crew] We don't have the staff-- - I don't have staff neither.

Slowly heart breaking has been very, very hard.

You still paying taxes and you're still paying social security for your employees.

And you still paying the payroll and you're still paying electricity.

And every single bill that at least I still have, but we don't have income.

- [Female Crew] Well somethings going on what's going on?

- Cutting fish.

- [Female Crew Member] Yeah, you're not happy today.

- No, I'm all right.

Just want to get the day done pack everything up and go away.

- [Female Crew Member] Why do you think you're not getting any donations anymore?

- Just because it doesn't make any sense for us to keep bringing people together, for what?

To burn our firewood, that we're running out of that we can't pay more for and... And the take-out's not working just because our food is not take out food.

Just not, I'm not gonna make a fricking sandwich menu just because it sells.

I'd rather go to the beach and hang out with my daughter.

You know, when we announced that we were closing there was a few people, few purveyors or partners that said whatever you need don't worry about us.

Don't worry about the bills.

And there were a few that immediately came back with pay me.

When are you gonna pay me?

Are you gonna close, you owe me money, pay me, pay me.

You're gonna close?

Pay me, we need the money right now.

You see who's with you and who's not with you.

So we're just going to shut it down.

Put it all in a bag and wait until we can come out of our caves.

We did our part.

There are other restaurants here.

- Its a weird question he's a... - So this'll be fun to try these The chickens almost ready, yeah, look for a soft one.

Like that.

Some of them are probably pretty hard.

It'll keep the vampires away.

- Yeah.

- No vampires tonight.

(Spanish speaking) We're almost there.

This has not been, it's not been an easy time.

This has been, really, really a challenge.

I'm surprised we're still married.

- [Paulina] Yeah, me too.

- [Drew] Yeah I think we have to Bill.

I mean, there's no like thinking that we're going to be back to how we were in March, right?

I mean, it's just not, it's not going to exist.

And even just the volume, I mean, we're going back to something very, very small.

Well I think there's gonna be a big impact.

I think a large part of it is is sort of our, our fiscal situation reopening.

There's no more money.

- Right?

So - If you can't pay for a product they're not going to deliver it to you.

- You can give a very big hug to a customer that you really love.

And for me like doing this, this thing, it doesn't work for me because... - And the importance of the, of the table.

I mean, just, just the breaking bread together in every culture is, is something that is essential.

It's essential.

It's part of... Who we are as, as exactly.

- Yeah.

We have to, we have to take it as a gift.

We really enjoy, we really enjoy our kids because we never enjoy them because we always been traveling and working and I'm tired.

And working stress.

Now we're just stressed.

But I think it has been a a gift we're off being with our kids.

- Hey Mathilda, come have lunch.

I enjoyed your show.

Yeah, so here we are.

Game time.

We're getting near.

So today's the first day that we've got a whole team here.

And basically we're just knocking the rust off of months of being stagnant today.

Today we're cleaning, we're moving stuff and moving grills and redesigning the kitchen a little bit.

I'm just finishing the last part of the menu.

When I entered here just a few minutes ago, I I with some water in my eyes, because for me you see everybody again here working and we're not having any service yet but see all those faces again, together and for me, it's very, I'm very emotional.

It's something that we are wondering like three months ago but I'm very nervous as well because I need to protect my husband, my family my people I'm, I'm looking forward for for work and feed all those families again and feed everybody who's coming here.

Sorry.

Why am I only one that is always crying?

- She's got me crying a couple of times.

About 20 years ago, there was a big fire came through here.

So there's a lot of dead, dead, dead wood on these trees.

And based on all the things that's happened during the closure three months, without having people sitting in the restaurant, he offered say, well I'll give you all the firewood you want.

He's got to come cut it.

You know what's the best firewood.

It's free firewood.

So we're out here with my new friend, and we're trimming the trees and we're going to start using olive, mix olive and Oak until the restaurant starts rolling.

But it'll be fun.

It'll be fun to play with some different flavors.

And really, you know, the smoke is such a big part of what we do.

It's hot today.

There's 3000 trees out here that we have to trim.

So we'll have, we'll have plenty of olive fruit for quite a while, quite a while.

Well, this eight year old masonry is... - I don't, I know how to cook.

It's about the same I'm guessing.

You know, one of the mistakes that I think I hear a lot of people say is when we returned to normal, I don't I don't think normal exists.

I think we're going to be creating a new normal if you're counting on going back to what you perceived as normal I think you're that moth that didn't adapt to the color of the tree and got eaten by the bird.

You got two choices you adapt or you don't survive.

It's like a rebirth everything's back set back to zero and there's no precedent.

And that's what I think you just have to be on your toes and let's, let's get really consequent about About being, that zero kilometer dream that we've always had.

And, and now it's not because it was our desired philosophy.

It's because now it's, it's necessity.

(upbeat music) - Hey, look even if we lose a bunch of reservations it's still an unbelievable exercise.

We're ready you know, so I'm, I'm happy.

I don't think I've ever said that before.

- Hey Kapi where's the jazz music, baby.

(jazz music) - Well, we've been open a month.

Hasn't met my expectations.

I mean, I I'd say it's exceeded my expectations or, I mean we did didn't really have expectations.

We, this was such an unknown.

We didn't know if people were going to be showing up.

We didn't know how any of this was going to happen.

You know the culinary God's gifted us a full restaurant the first week and it stayed that way since we've reopened and all just it all kind of clicked and it all came together.

You know we had some, some interesting discussions over the last couple of years, Natalia and I were sort of the victim of our own success to a certain extent the restaurant really grew exponentially.

And really, we sort of surpassed a point that I really felt like we were still doing what the original intentions of the restaurant were, you know, intimate, small, you know sharing the farm experience.

And it had just really become just sort of, this this factory you know, just, just move them in, move them out.

And it was tough for me to identify with that.

It was tough for me to to really feel comfortable in my own place.

I just didn't really want to be here.

So the closure and the, and the virus and all these things I really see it as a gift in disguise.

It was a chance for me to really reset and go back to where we started.

With limiting the number of people per day.

Is it, it really gives us a chance to work in a more detailed fashion in the kitchen not to mention we opened in, you know, the gardens just going crazy.

We've got so many little different leaves and herbs and different things that we can play with.

Living basically from the daily harvest.

It makes us so much more versatile and cost efficient.

For sure.

It feels good to be working.

It feels good to have the team still stay eager.

It was very clear.

We have a smaller team, you know everybody's gotta be a ringer there.

There's no room to carry people who aren't at a hundred percent.

I don't know that I have a hope for the future.

There's just so many unknowns.

So, you know I think the only thing we can do is just do the daily grind and make sure all of our staff's okay.

And if a curve ball comes, we just, you know adjust your stance and and lean into it and, and figure it out.

We made it four months closed, we'd probably do it again.

Not that we want to.

I'm definitely calmer, I'm at least content.

As dark and black and meek and whatever you want to call, it felt like, seems like.

But yeah, there's some really, really hidden gifts.

Deep down in all of this (slow piano music) (upbeat music) Hello everybody, another day of quarantine hanging out here in Rancho salvia with, Tokio, say hi Tokio.

Just wanted to check in Spring is definitely here in every sense of the word.

It is unreal.

The bees and the flowers and the sun.

And it's just gorgeous.

There's no traffic, there's no pollution in case there's no business either, but you know, there's a there's a, trade-off, there's gotta be something positive to, to given the earth a break for a couple of minutes.

So maybe, maybe we're the virus.

Maybe, maybe, maybe we're the problem.

So a couple of things we can keep doing after all this let's go is, think twice about throwing that stuff away that you had to hold onto during, during quarantine, because you couldn't get to the store.

You know, food waste.

God let's continue to use everything we have possible, that can that you had sit in the back of your, your pantry that you finally ate on day 23 of quarantine.

And it ended up being okay.

Remember that because you had chopped some lean into it and whatever it was.

You know, let's, let's use this as a lesson.

Let's use it as a chance to, to get back to nature.

What do you think Tokio?

Tokio, what do you think?

Anyway, just checking in with all you guys.

Continue enjoying the quarantine, A little concerned that people are going to start opening up the world again, but we'll see how it goes.

Enjoy the weather, enjoy the Spring.

And we'll be sitting right here at the Guadalupe Valley, Baja, California, Mexico waiting for your return.

Come back and see us drink Mexican wine.

Cheers.