Segerstroms open ranch for Festival of Children dinner

The Segerstrom Family Ranch in Costa Mesa opened the barn doors Oct. 6 for a tour and dinner to benefit the Festival of Children Foundation.

About 50 guests – mainly business and community leaders – picked their own vegetables at the ranch, and chef Nancy Silverton prepared them as part of a five-course meal, according to a news release.

Silverton won the James Beard Foundation’s outstanding chef award in 2014. She and celebrity chef Mario Batali and winemaker Joe Bastianich are partners in Pizzeria Mozza in Newport Beach.

Wine for the event came courtesy of Memento Mori Winery, whose founders, Adam Craun and Hayes Drumwright, attended.

The fundraiser was organized by Sandy Segerstrom Daniels, managing partner of South Coast Plaza and founder and executive director of the Festival of Children Foundation.

“Segerstrom Family Ranch, and the family’s heritage with those who help support the Festival of Children Foundation, has made this a memorable and nostalgic night for me,” Segerstrom Daniels said in the news release.

The 1915 Segerstrom house, which sits on designated farmland off Fairview Drive, features antique tractors and fruit and vegetable fields. Though the Segerstrom family is best known for South Coast Plaza, its Orange County roots are in agriculture.

The Festival of Children works to improve the lives of needy children by working with charities throughout the region and in other parts of the country. All donations go directly to children’s programs; all administrative costs are covered by volunteers.

—John Canalis