Enter the Guilt-Free Zone

Celebrity sightings aren’t new at Rancho La Puerta, but a cooking school is.

By Judith Morgan

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THE NEWEST EXCITEMENT is a culinary school, La Cocina que Canta (The Kitchen That Sings—yes, it does sound better in Spanish), which just opened at the northern edge of the Ranch. Sixteen guests at a time can sign up for hands-on lessons with Chef Jesus Gonzales— a member of the Golden Door team for 14 years— and an evolving galaxy of celebrity chefs.

The Szekelys’ daughter, landscape artist Sarah Livia Brightwood, designed the 4,500-square-foot tile-roofed building, wrapped in holly hocks and climber roses, and the adjacent 6-acre organic garden of fruits, vegetables and pungent herbs —rosemary, lavender and the incomparable lemon verbena. Spanish colonial doors were brought from San Miguel de Allende—one carved with a rising sun (“sol”), the other a moon (“luna”); heavy antique chests came from Oaxaca. High arched windows frame ethereal views of Mount Ku - chu maa—even from the open kitchen, where participants learn the secrets of such specialties as braised scallops with tomato and garlic and delectable, sin-free lasagna.

I find the Ranch version of low-fat guacamole a delicious deceit: The amount of mashed avocado is halved and bolstered with puréed broccoli flowers, asparagus spears or in-the-pod soybeans—whichever is in season. After a dash of lime juice, jalapeño and cilantro, the taste and chunky texture is irresistible; stone-ground baked chips add to the crunch.

MY FIRST RANCH VISIT WAS WITH my sister—a getaway soon after the death of our mother. We laughed and healed, we stretched and sweated. Each evening we swore we would rise for the dawn mountain hike, but most often we slept in, enjoying the mourning-dove murmur of the passing faithful. “Poor blighters,” my sister would say, eyes still closed.

My second was with my husband, who finds no joy in aerobics class or yoga yet savors a game of killer volleyball as much as sitting alone on a terrace, deep in a spy novel. He thought he recognized a Chicago film critic, serving on the opposite side of the net.

Regular guests far outnumber celebs, yet one cannot resist scanning the scene.

When former California governor, now state Attorney General Jerry Brown shows up in the dining hall with his bride, former Gap CEO Anne Gust, his read-the-crowd eye catches that of former California first lady and Ranch regular Gayle Wilson. No matter that her husband, Pete, trounced Brown in the 1982 race for the U.S. Senate, the three share a table.

A veteran Washington lobbyist observes this from a shadowy corner and shrugs.

“Politics make strange spa-fellows, too,” he says, waving an imaginary cigar—a habit he is there to try to break.

If You Go

RANCHOLAPUERTA.COM lists seasonal rates, programs and special theme weeks. Rates, starting at $2,690 per person for double occupancy, include casita, meals, snacks and a wide array of fitness classes. Beauty treatments and massage are extra. Cooking school classes cost $125 each or $425 for a four-class package; signup and payment take place at the Ranch. Free bus transportation is provided from San Diego’s Lindbergh Field four times each Saturday.

From San Diego, drive south on Interstate 5 to the Highway 94 turnoff; continue eastward on 94 for 40 miles to the Tecate turnoff (County Route 188), just 2 miles from the border. A tourist visa can be purchased at the border. Two photo IDs are required for travel between the United States and Mexico.