As far as menu items go, Santa Maria-style barbecue is just the tri-tip of the iceberg at Alisal Ranch’s two on-site restaurants.
The resort’s new chef de cuisine, Adam Measurall, oversees both—River Grill and Ranch Grill—and often juggles different cooking techniques. But one consistency is fresh, locally sourced ingredients.
“The style of food is pretty approachable, with sandwiches, burgers, salads, and whatnot, fish tacos, steak tacos. But it’s all scratch made. We’re not packaged or bottled or anything,” said Measurall, who joined Alisal Ranch in January.
Measurall was in his fourth year as the executive chef at Leroy’s in San Luis Obispo when he saw a job listing online that caught his attention.
“I just wanted some change from where I was at,” said Measurall, who found out about the Alisal position through Indeed. “I had heard of Alisal before. I looked into it more, and it just looked like a place I wanted to be part of.”
The colossal resort sprawls across 10,500 acres of rolling hills in the Santa Ynez Valley and houses two championship golf courses, River Course and Ranch Course, where Measurall operates out of River Grill and Ranch Grill, respectively.
Despite his advantageous surroundings, you probably won’t find the chef trading his spatula for a golf club anytime soon, he explained.
“If I golfed, I could golf here for free. But I don’t golf,” said Measurall, whose new place of work facilitates a variety of other recreational outlets as well, including tennis, cycling, fishing, and horseback riding.
Measurall commutes to the ranch from his home in the Santa Maria Valley, where he’s lived since 2015. Before becoming executive chef at Leroy’s, Measurall worked under the same title at the Far Western Tavern in Old Town Orcutt.
In his new role as chef de cuisine, Measurall works under the resort’s executive chef, but still has plenty of creative license in the kitchen, he explained.
“It’s been a pretty smooth transition. There’s a really good team over here. And I’m working under a really good chef, but I still have a lot of freedom to do what I want to do,” Measurall said. “The executive chef has the final say on everything. But as far as the day-to-day operations, it’s my job to manage that.”
One of Measurall’s most recent specials at the resort is his Asian-style seared ahi salad, served with ginger chili vinaigrette and sriracha aioli. The offering harks back to some of the first dishes Measurall grew up loving.
“I loved making a lot of Asian stuff and rice as a kid,” said Measurall, who credited his stepmother for teaching him a handful of Japanese recipes.
Measurall loved spending time in the kitchen from an early age. Cooking outside the kitchen was equally enjoyable, he recalled.
“My dad was a big barbecue guy, so I grew up grilling, cooking tri-tip, and ribs, and stuff like that,” said Measurall, who grew up between Port Hueneme and other parts of Ventura County and moved to Santa Barbara during his 20s to attend culinary school.
Among the aforementioned benefits of working at Alisal Ranch, the shorter commute time from Measurall’s current home in Santa Maria to Santa Ynez, compared to his former commutes to San Luis Obispo, is another small perk.
“It’s a little bit closer [to home],” said Measurall, who added that the panoramic views the ranch has to offer don’t hurt either, and expressed his excitement to host outdoor barbecues and participate in the resort’s Barbecue Bootcamp, a three-day masterclass in “all things barbecue” held twice a year at Alisal, with workshops led by visiting chefs and grill masters from throughout the country.
“There’s a beautiful patio that overlooks the mountains and it’s got a nice barbecue pit, and serving station,” Measurall said. “I plan on doing a lot of barbecues here in the future.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood is chillin’ and grillin’ at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 3, 2022.
