Maine has always been synonymous with the great outdoors, but great radicchio is another story. In 1988, when Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier set about turning a farmhouse nestled in the woods near Ogunquit into a restaurant, they were stymied by the lack of gourmet vegetables and fresh herbs available in the area. But the new chef/owners decided to apply the same hands-on approach they used when building their wine cellar to plant a garden on the premises.

These days Arrows, Bon Appétit's "Restaurant of the Month" last April, employs two full-time gardeners who supply the restaurant with plenty of radicchio (and chicory, and lollo rosso, and asparagus, and tomatoes, and berries).The can-do duo even spend the off-season curing hams for Arrows' prosciutto. Lucky for us that Frasier and Gaier are wrapping up this year's winter break at the Beard House, their fourth appearance here.

Not that their sophisticated cuisine-which the Quarterly Review of Wines described as having "an oriental twist, a New England heartiness, as well as a smattering of northern Italy [and] a seriousness that can only be French"-isn't often celebrated outside the L.L. Bean set. Arrows has become a destination restaurant, and its proximity to Boston ensures a steady stream of fans, including Julia Child.

Frasier and Gaier met stateside working at Jeremiah Tower's Stars Restaurant in San Francisco, but it is frequent international travel that may be their strongest influence. Travels in Asia, where Frasier once studied Chinese, are evident in tea-smoked duck breast and ginger-confit duck leg with scallion and Chinese black-bean sauce, and in an imaginative bento box featuring a Maine sea-scallop brochette with candied lemon and basil dipping sauce. Of course, Frasier and Gaier don't really need to stray beyond their backyard garden for inspiration. And you don't have to go any further than the Beard House.