Gourmet Magazine, April 2003
by Caroline Bates

If I were doing business with the technology firms in Carmel Valley, I'd be grateful for Arterra. It feels too drafty and impersonal for an intimate meal, but "art of the earth" fairly describes the first-rate provender from the Chinos and many other local producers--after all, the restaurant bears the imprimatur of Bradley Ogden, a champion of small organic growers years before others jumped on the farm wagon.

Carl Schroeder is a skillful chef, pairing a butter lettuce salad of pears and honeyed walnuts with a gorgonzola souffle; his seared diver scallops with sauteed sweet red peppers and bok choy in a sea of red curry are a kick. For rack of lamb, he makes his own fresh mint jelly, for goodness' sake.