A Backyard Dinner
Every so often, a photo of our pots stops us mid-scroll. More often than not, it’s one of Marcella’s. Her food—unfussy, generous and full of feeling—looks like something you’d want to eat barefoot in the grass, with a chilled glass of something nice in hand.
Marcella runs a micro-restaurant out of her backyard in Los Angeles, hosting intimate, ticketed events that feature seasonal, family-style meals served at a long table under the trees. For years, guests have been coming together to share thoughtfully prepared dishes, made with produce from local markets or Marcella and her husband Marco’s own garden.
This month’s dinner will be the final one for now, but Marcella gave us the scoop on what’s next for her and shared some photos from her April gathering—with appearances from Yuzu and Prune! We’re thrilled to share them with you. Read on to get to know Marcella in this #EastForkDoesMyDishes feature!
Meet Marcella of @marcellacooking!
How did you get started collecting East Fork? How did you find out about us, and how long have you been collecting?
I found East Fork on Instagram back in 2019. I started to notice all these beautiful plates popping up in different restaurants and chefs' food photography. I was ready to upgrade my home dishware and had to have East Fork.
Can you tell us a bit about your Backyard dinner party series? How did the concept come about?
After skipping college and going straight to culinary school, I have always worked in food. A big chunk of that was in homes cooking for clients and catering their dinner parties. Then in 2020 I shifted to food writing, recipe development, and creating content online. Both jobs, while fun and a way to be creative, lacked one big thing for me – community and connection.
In 2022, my husband and I were moving back to Los Angeles, where we grew up, and I knew I needed to cook for people IRL again. Opening a restaurant has more hurdles than we wanted to take on, so I landed on what we call a “micro restaurant.” Restaurant style meals served out of our home, appropriately called Backyard.
We serve 14 guests an 8-course meal in our backyard with beverage pairings. The dinners are ticketed and open to the public. It’s the perfect balance of restaurant life without the daily grind of being in a restaurant.
How do you select a concept and menu for each dinner?
Our menus are highly seasonal with the produce we use being sourced from farmers markets here in LA and our backyard. Marco, my husband, is a passionate gardener. His whole ethos is connecting with the land to nourish us and our guests. We have chickens, fruit trees, and loads of vegetables and flowers.
Besides seasonality, I cook what excites me. Each meal is a moment in time and a true creative expression of the dishes and ingredients that I’m into that month. I’m not reinventing the wheel but I’m making the best product I can, from scratch, with really great ingredients.
What does event preparation look like?
Backyard is my main job right now. On weeks we don’t have a dinner, I’m cooking and testing new recipes and ideas. Tickets go on sale three weeks before each event. After that, I land on a menu and touch base with Marco on drinks. He runs front of house, service, and beverages while I do all the cooking.
The week of, we bounce around to a few farmers markets hunting for produce and fine-tuning all the details. I design the menus, make flower arrangements, seating charts…every detail is important. The bulk of food prep starts on Thursday and I cook all day Friday and Saturday before our guests arrive for dinner Saturday night.
What's your hosting philosophy? And what's your #1 piece of advice for hosting and entertaining?
Hosting should be fun. Hosting Backyard is my favorite thing to do in the whole world and our guests can tell. We have fun with them! If you’re not into it, don’t force it.
Timeline, timeline, timeline + prepare as much as you can in advance. These are my secrets to serving an 8-course meal to 14 people by myself. I’m cooking all week, not just the day of, and I know exactly what I’m doing because I have it planned out in great detail. No detail is too small!
We saw that the May Backyard dinner party will be your last. Can you give us any details on what you're up to next?
May is our last dinner for now…I’m having a baby this summer, so we will need a few months to figure out what running a micro restaurant out of our house will look like with that new addition. I also published a magazine called Cooking Stuff. I’m working on my second volume now, set to come out this summer. While we take a break from Backyard, I’ll be working on those. We did a special launch dinner when I published the first volume. Guests came, I served them the recipes inside, and they took a copy with them to make the recipes at home. It’s TBD but we may have another launch dinner in June for volume two of Cooking Stuff…
What's a signature Marcella dish that always makes an appearance at your table?
Something I didn’t expect to love so much is sorbet. I'm fully obsessed. I don’t like to do too much to the fruit but instead highlight what’s naturally bursting with flavor. I have been so into sorbet that we now incorporate a sorbet course at the end of every meal before dessert.
I know it's impossible, but if you HAD to choose, what are your favorite glazes and forms?
Easy, I have been obsessed with Soapstone since I started my collection. I have a few pieces and I’m patiently waiting for East Fork to bring it back. A new favorite color is Lamb’s Ear! I love the soft curve of the low bowls. Breakfast and everyday bowls are my favorite form to use.
