This December will mark the eighth season, with past guests including Paris's David Toutain, Peru's Virgilio Martinez, San Francisco's Corey Lee as well as David Chang from Momofuku's international empire. This year's line-up doesn't disappoint, with Daniel Humm of New York's Eleven Madison Park, Christian Puglisi of Relae in Copenhagen, and Isaac McHale of London's The Clove Club to take part.
"This year, it's exciting to have a three-generation storyline," Kostow says. Early in his career, Kostow worked as Humm's sous-chef in San Francisco, before both went on to become three Michelin-star chefs in their own right. (Kostow is the youngest American chef ever to do so). Following in the same footsteps, Kim Floresca and Daniel Ryan were both Kostow's sous-chefs, now returning this year as Kostow's guest chefs. "It really shows my staff, perhaps, what awaits one who works hard and makes good decisions," Kostow says.
For the first time, an Australian chef – Matt Wilkinson of Melbourne's Pope Joan – is joining the mix. "I'm looking forward to collaborating with Matt because we're both very vegetable-forward cooks but in very different styles," Kostow says.
Wilkinson, meanwhile, is in a state of shock. "I've never been as honoured and scared at the same time," Wilkinson says. "He's got three Michelin stars and I own a successful cafe in East Brunswick that does 3000 meals a week. Ethically it's all in line with what Chris does; but day to day, it's totally different."
But while they may be mixing styles, their morals already match. "Chris and I have a shared understanding when it comes to food and a sense of place, an understanding of how things grow and taste, there and then," Wilkinson says.
Wilkinson plans to find the fine balance between representing Australian cuisine and keeping true to the Napa Valley's sense of place. Wilkinson and Kostow's menu will feature first press Yarra Valley caviar, first press Cobram Estate olive oil, and from New Zealand, raw clams from Cloudy Bay. "We can't use them here, but when I was in New Zealand, they're the most beautiful thing to eat raw," he says.
Wilkinson and Kostow are growing ingredients in the restaurant's garden especially for their dinner, and Wilkinson plans to floodlight the restaurant's veggie patch, so potatoes can be dug up there-and-then for one of his signature dishes.
Behind the scenes, months of planning goes into co-ordinating and collaborating with 11 chefs from across the globe, on 12 consecutive dinners, featuring a seven-course tasting menu and a champagne reception hosted in the restaurant's 280-square-metre kitchen, for $US495 ($670) a pop. But at the same time, restaurant director Nathaniel Dorn has learnt to expect the unexpected – whether that's Sean Brock from Husk in Charleston bringing a hip-flask of bourbon or close calls with the fire alarm.
"The Franks almost burnt the place down," Dorn jokes, referring to chefs Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli of Frankies Spuntino in New York. "They wanted to light pine cones to give everyone that feeling of where they're at," he says. "To me, that's a prime example of two chefs coming here and embracing the sense of place, embracing what we have to offer, but keeping true to their style.
"The opportunity to experience different styles, ingredients, techniques and plating gives both our chefs and front of house [crew] a much broader understanding of what's going on in the culinary world," Dorn says. "It's also why guests are excited to come four, five, six, nights. We even have a gentleman coming all 12 nights, as he did last year."
Now that's giving back at Christmas.
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The Restaurant at Meadowood
12 Days of Christmas, December 4 to 19, 2015
