He returned to Oregon to open Okta within the Tributary Hotel, owned by Katie Jackson and Shaun Kajiwara of Jackson Family Wines. Over the span of his career, Lightner has cooked for several Michelin-starred restaurants, including the influential, experimental Mugaritz in Spain. Lightner made a name for himself within OregonвЂ™s culinary community during his years at Portland fine dining restaurant Castagna, during which time he made Food & WineвЂ™s Best New Chefs. вЂњYouвЂ™re going to have ingredients and dishes that will only be here for a short period of time,вЂќ Lightner says.

Lightner is cautious about referencing specific dishes or naming a set number of courses any given dinner may include. In the kitchen, Lightner pairs the potatoes with caviar and honeycomb he barbecues over oak coals - at least, for now. The restaurantвЂ™s farm, seven miles away from the hotel, supplies the kitchen with some of the 90 different varieties of plants growing at this given moment, ingredients like purple spinach and Ozette potatoes, often described as the oldest variety of potato grown in the Pacific Northwest. Oregon purple sea urchin and artichokes grown in the coastal range will land at the restaurant, tasting menus developing as the product arrives. When Okta opens in McMinnville Wednesday, July 13, diners will end up drinking, eating, and surrounding themselves with products of the region, from the white oak banquettes to the Willamette Valley wines in the glass. ItвЂ™s a fitting tribute to the restaurant, one that is heavily influenced by the natural environment of the Pacific Northwest. Waters would pool in the Willamette Valley, creating the growing conditions that support the stateвЂ™s lauded wine country.ДЄt the heart of Okta, the highly anticipated Willamette Valley restaurant from Castagna alum Matthew Lightner, sits a basalt boulder, carried to Oregon by the Missoula floods. This happened again and again, as the glacier would reform and break, washing down the continent and carrying so much soil with it. The Missoula floods, as theyвЂ™re known, tore up the ground in its path, carrying and scattering mud and silt and boulders across Idaho, Washington, and Oregon in its pursuit of the Pacific. About 15,000 years ago, a 2,000-foot-high ice dam cracked, releasing a monumental gush of water that swept across the Northwest.

Purple wine glasses