About Malibu Farm

Hi! I'm Helene. I started Malibu Farm in 2008, teaching cooking classes out of my home, and hosting farm dinners in my backyard.

In September 2013 I opened the original casual counter service cafe at the end of the Malibu Pier. In July 1015 I opened a second full service restaurant at the beginning of the pier. A few years later in Lido Marina Village, and in 2023 we flew north to outside San Francisco in Tiburon and south to San Diego at Seaport Village. We even ventured across the ocean to Lanai, HI, to the BIG APPLE, New York, NY and even sprouted seeds abroad to Japan.

Although we have grown like wild weeds we are still a locally owned small business. Our food is super simply prepared, there are no secret ingredients, and many of you have been to my home picking produce and cooked the very same recipes we use at all our locations.

The original Malibu farm cookbook as well as the second book Sunrise to Sunset is available online, and in bookstores. The original cooking class blog can be found here.

We use mostly whole wheat flours and whole grains. Lots of veggies, and fruits, I love arugula and I totally believe there is no such a thing as too much lemon. We use no fake food. Margarine, veggie butter, sugar substitutes? What is that stuff? If you don't know how to make it, or where it comes from, don't eat it. don't buy it.

I don't use non fat products, cause nothing makes you fatter than eating fat free. This is a fact. Eat the real thing, or don't eat it at all.

I grew up fishing, so I love seafood. But let's not deplete our treasures from the sea! Our portions are small, and we work hard to offer sustainable seafood only.

At my home we raise free range, fancy, feather-footed chickens, who all have names. We still eat chicken, just really super small portions of it. We have a pig named Arnold too, who is super cute, super hungry, and super fat. We still serve pork in our restaurants, but shh, don't tell Arnold.

I don't have any cows and I don't eat red meat. But we have been known to grill steak or grass-fed-beef burgers for our guests.

I have two goats. They love to walk on the beach and participate in the point dume 4th of July parade. We used to milk one of them, but wow that is a lot of work, so we no longer have fresh goat milk from my home.

In our early days operating out of my back yard, our mission of local, organic and fresh was easy. We even raised our own sheep that we served for a farm dinner and used produce exclusively grown on my property for farm events.

Once I opened the cafe, I hoped to continue using small farmers only, and supply from my own backyard farm. The first few months we used oranges and lemons exclusively from my own trees, and the eggs were from my chickens. I get about 30 eggs per day from my flock, which now is a drop in the bucket compared to the 500 eggs per day we use on the pier. However, if you are lucky, that egg you are eating may be one of mine!

We still strive to offer produce from as many local and small farms as we can. From our own farm we have occasional eggs, persimmons, figs, lemon’s, pomegranates, apricots, asian pears, carrots, beets, asparagus, and fresh herbs.

We buy from Larry Thorne, strawberries, oranges, kale, chard, basil, tomatoes and whatever else he has available. We are super lucky to have Kerri from Malibu Family Farms bring a farm truck full of local goodies directly to our back door twice per week. Our arugula and pea shoots come from Maggie's farm.

We have a rep every week at the Santa Monica farmers market, and seek to get the best products available at any given time. We also receive produce from Natures produce company, when we can not source all from smaller farms.

However we are proud of the products that we serve and believe we put the best possible produce available on every dish served.

Our other providers are as follows:

• Coleman Family Farms
• Kenter Canyon Farms
• California Family Farms
• Thorne Family Farms
• Peads and Barnet
• Tehachapi Grain Project
• Her Produce Farm
• Weiser Family Farms
• Sproutcraft Creamery
• Garcia Organic Farm
• JJ's Lone Daughter Ranch
• San Ysidro Seafood
• Eco Garden Farm
• Achadinha Cheese Company
• Autonomy Farm
• Milliken Farm
• Zuma Valley Coconut

* Please note that these providers can change at any given time, and not all locations source from the same vendors.

- Helene

PS: If you would like to make a dinner reservation, please visit our Reservations Page