the club kitchen: At Santa Lucia Preserve, It's all about the Environment

Left: Porcini Mushroom Infused Agnolotti |  Right: Chef Marc Johnson, Executive Chef at Santa Lucia Preserve, Carmel, California, USA
Photography by Caleb Rosenberg, © Santa Lucia Preserve

by Karen moraghan

He had never been a club chef before, but something about the Santa Lucia Preserve immediately felt right to Marc Johnson.

“I fell in love with the property. It’s this serene drive for 15 or 20 minutes from the entrance gate all the way up to the hacienda,” Johnson says. “There’s wildlife everywhere you look—it’s so peaceful and quiet. I really enjoyed that. And then, added to that impact are my co-workers and our CEO Karen Baxter, who hired me and continues to support everything my team and I do.”  

While he never saw himself going to work in a club environment—”I always thought it was going to be boring and stuffy”—Johnson now admits he was wrong. “Here at Santa Lucia Preserve, it’s very open, and I love it. There was a distinct shift in dining during and after COVID-19, as the club culinary scene exploded.  People sought dining opportunities where they felt comfortable and trusted their surroundings.  Along with this, though, was an expectation for higher level options and menu variety.”

And it’s not as if Santa Lucia Preserve (SLP) is like any other club. With 18,000 of its 20,000 acres perpetually endowed as open space, SLP provides a unique place to live for its families. Residences embrace a modern California Ranch aesthetic, emphasizing indoor-outdoor living that takes full advantage of the magnificent views and fabulous amenities, including an historic Hacienda, 18-hole golf course and clubhouse, equestrian center, barn, hiking trails, and lake set among diverse eco-systems.

Before his 2020 arrival at SLP, Marc worked his way up the culinary ladder in innovative kitchens in California such as The Marine Room (La Jolla) and Waterloo & City (Culver City) and mastering the nuances of fine dining at The Resort at Pelican Hill, a five-star property in Newport Beach. He then came north to helm a number of esteemed establishments in Carmel, including the iconic Bernardus Lodge & Spa, a distinguished Forbes Four-Star hotel. Thus, he appreciates the differences between the two kinds of clientele.

“At stand-alone restaurants and resorts, guests come in, they eat, and you typically don’t know who they are,” Johnson observes. “They may be happy, or they may not. 

Photography by Caleb Rosenberg, © Santa Lucia Preserve

You don’t get to know them, or really touch anyone the way you can in a club environment.”

“Here, I get to make a personal connection with the members. I see the same people coming in to eat three or four nights a week. I know exactly what they like, what they don’t like, and their dietary restrictions. I can tell you who’s coming in for dinner and create a menu based on what they’re going to order.”

Those menus are as diverse as SLP’s members, who are, according to Johnson, “very well-traveled, eat at nice places, and have open palates so that they’re willing to try anything. Proving to them that I know what I’m doing, they allow me to experiment, play around, keep it creative.”

He changes the menu often, refusing to let his cuisine be pigeonholed.

“Technically, my cuisine is coastal California, but I also prepare globally inspired dishes. I use Korean ingredients. My wife is Vietnamese, so I use a little Vietnamese here and there. We make handmade pastas. I try to pull from every culture,” he says. “There are multiple options, which means members can come back three times in a week and have a completely different experience each time.”

He’s also as involved in the cooking as he can be. “I’ve come up in kitchens where the chef doesn’t ever leave the office and walks around with a clipboard. That’s definitely not the person I want to be. I’m in the kitchen all day long cooking. That’s what I got into this for, that’s what I love, and that’s what I’m going to keep doing.”

Another benefit to being at SLP is the available acreage and the community’s commitment to local agriculture using natural methods. Just outside the kitchen door is an expansive garden, featuring herbs and a seasonal mix of fruits and vegetables.

“In the summertime, we get tomatoes and squash; in spring, I’m picking green almonds or strawberries,” Johnson says. “It’s nice to go out there and know where it’s all coming from. Everything’s organic and natural and it really tastes better. You can take a tomato, eat it right off the plant or the vine, it doesn’t need salt. The soil is ​so well taken care of that it produces enough salt as it grows. When people say farm to table, we actually do it.”

He also relies on local farms—and the closer the better. “This region is like ag central,” he says. “We have everything at our fingertips that we could want.”

Johnson’s personal style is as eclectic as his cuisine. Yes, he wears the same white coat that all chefs wear, but he says you have to “accessorize with something,” and he exercises his freedom of choice with shoes, trading in the traditional black, non-slip clogs with funky kicks and big-name sneakers like Air Jordans.

“I’ve liked shoes since I was a kid,” he explains. “I’m not one of those sneakerheads who buys them, puts them in a box, and stares at them. If I buy a pair of shoes, I’m wearing them, in my kitchen or outside. If they get dirty, they get dirty. I want shoes that feel like who I am, that help me be me.”

It’s clear that a big part of being Marc Johnson is having fun. 

“My job isn’t a job. I go in the kitchen and play around all day. I want to make good food that people enjoy. My number one priority is making people happy.” 

Chef Marc Johnson  © Santa Lucia Preserve