A conversation about cooking with heart, feeding sheep arugula, and why the chef’s board is her favorite thing on the menu.
If you’ve sat down at the Trellis, sipped a glass of Traminette, and reached for something off the farm table, there’s a good chance Becca made it. She runs the kitchen at Doghobble Wine Farm in Dahlonega, Georgia, and the food she puts out is as rooted in the place as the vines themselves.
We sat down with her to learn a little more about who she is, how she cooks, and what it means to feed people on a working wine farm.
How she found her way to the kitchen
Becca came up through the service industry, starting at Dominos and eventually spending three years running a restaurant in San Antonio, Texas. She discovered early that she was built for it. The heat, the pace, the pressure of a commercial kitchen, none of it rattled her. But it was her wife who opened the door to something deeper.
“She taught me how to have fun with ingredients, that you don’t always need to play by the book, and to throw out the measuring spoons. She cooks with her heart and has taught me how to do the same.”
A day in the kitchen before service
It starts with music. The genre depends on the morning, oldies, early 2000s alternative, folk, or what Becca calls her “classic sad girl music.” From there it’s the prep list: slicing cucumbers, baking focaccia, dicing tomatoes. Coworkers drift in and out while they open the wine bar, and the conversation is easy.
Her favorite days are the ones with cucumbers, basil, or parsley on the list, because the scraps go to the chickens on the farm when she’s done. And when the arugula doesn’t meet her standard for service, the sheep get a treat.
Her favorite thing on the menu
The chef’s board, without hesitation. It’s the one item with the fewest rules, which means she gets to play. She might make a last-minute decision to add something unexpected right before it goes out. That freedom is the point.
What matters most when creating something new
Uniqueness. Becca isn’t interested in putting out food you could find anywhere. If a dish doesn’t feel like it belongs specifically to this place and this experience, it doesn’t make the cut.
Cooking on a wine farm
Everything Becca develops has to pair with Doghobble’s wines, that’s the first filter. From there, she looks around the property. When pawpaws are in season, it’s time to experiment. When persimmons come in, they find their way onto the chef’s board as the seasonal fruit.
There’s also a practical consideration. Seating at the Trellis is relaxed, and guests are often exploring or standing. So Becca keeps ease of eating in mind, most things are designed to be enjoyed without a fork and knife, or with very little use of them.
What she wants guests to feel
“I want guests to feel like it all just makes sense. I want the food to go hand in hand with everything they’re seeing, exploring, and tasting.”
The food isn’t meant to be the main event. It’s meant to complete the story of Doghobble, the view, the wine, the land, so that when guests reach for a bite, it feels like exactly what was missing.
What she’s working on next
Becca has been experimenting with chocolates, working toward the right truffle to add to the menu. The goal is to eventually infuse Doghobble wine directly into the chocolate, blending the farm’s flavors into the food in the most literal way possible.
What Doghobble means to her
Exploration. Family. Coworkers who feed her heart and soul. Regulars who walk through the door and offer a hug. She describes it as finding her place in the world, and it shows in every dish that comes out of her kitchen.
