Thursday, September 4, 7:00 pm
Members $90, guests $115

Jeffrey Russell has got ambition. He wants Desert Sage “to be the best restaurant in California, hands down!” It’s a tall order, but Russell may just be poised to make it happen. By many accounts, he’s already got Palm Springs in the bag. Writer Carolyn Patten notes that the restaurant is “a favorite of the most ‘in the know’ diners in the valley.” What else would you expect from an exacting chef formerly known for conjuring up pristine seafood on behalf of landlocked patrons in the middle of Arizona? He’s sticking to the desert environment, but now he’s found one that’s close to the ocean. If he could make outstanding cuisine happen with limited resources, imagine what he can do with the California bounty at his knifetip.

Russell attended the CIA at the urging of his mentor, Gerhard Schmidt, under whom he worked at the Gateways Inn and Restaurant in Lenox, Massachusetts. After graduation, he worked for James Cohen at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona. Russell spent two years in New Jersey at the Hilton at Short Hills and at Rosemary and Sage Restaurant, then returned to Arizona for the chef de cuisine position at the Ventana Room at Lowes Ventana Canyon Resort. He quickly made a name for himself at the Ventana Room, where he helped the DiRoNA and Wine Spectator award-winning restaurant secure top rankings from Zagat reviewers. Gourmet named the Ventana Room one of its top picks for casual hotel dining.

Russell’s menu is reflective of both the region’s offerings and his fierce imagination—think wild mushroom and spinach salad with raw baby vegetables, pear turnover, and buttermilk–blue cheese vinaigrette, or apricot-glazed sea bass with sun-dried tomato mashed potatoes and sweet pea purée. Maureen Daly, writing for The Desert Sun, called Russell’s fare “delicious and offbeat.” And Jade Thomas Nelson, in a four-star review for The Desert Sun, wished, “May this Desert Sage always burn bright.”