Scott Clark knows a little about being on the coast. His restaurant, Dad’s Luncheonette, is a train caboose parked on the Pacific Coast Highway in Half Moon Bay. This casual destination, which serves simple but thoughtfully prepared sandwiches, bowls of soup, and slices and pie, overlooks the Pacific Ocean.

“That’s the water I’m in every day of my life, fishing and kayaking, foraging and surfing,” Clark writes in his recent cookbook Coastal: 130 Recipes from a California Road Trip. It is a decidedly different life than the one he was leading as chef de cuisine of Saison in San Francisco, a restaurant with three Michelin stars and ranked 27 on the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants while he was there.

The grueling workload of fine dining doesn’t leave much time for surfing in the Pacific Ocean or, as the name of his train caboose restaurant suggests, being a parent. The recipes in Coastal illustrate Clark’s decision to leave behind fine dining in 2017 and embrace a more casual lifestyle with his family, without forgetting the knowledge and skills that made him a great chef.

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This recipe, which Clark calls “Pre-Surf Fire Cider” shows both sides of his personality. It’s the perfect companion to an early-morning beach trip, when you need a sip of something to warm you up and get you ready to dive into the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean. It’s also a sophisticated, cheffy spin on the health-conscious fire cider trend, which leans on insights from folk medicine to boost the immune system.

“This is a digestive, immune-boosting ripper. I go nuts for it. I chug a hefty pour before surfing because it gets me loose,” Clark writes. “You can also slam it into cold water, pour it over ice, make a tea with it, whisk it into salad dressing, or if you’re feeling real frisky, blend it into a Bloody Mary. But beware: It’s not the easy sipper you’re looking for; it’s a shot of nature’s high-octane fuel.”

Pre-Surf Fire Cider

Ingredients

2 cups unfiltered raw apple cider vinegar

½ cup unpeeled, chopped fresh ginger

½ cup peeled, chopped fresh horseradish root

½ cup garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

¼ cup peeled, chopped turmeric

3 Tbsp honey, plus more as needed

2 serrano chiles, halved lengthwise

Peel of 1 lemon, preferably Meyer, pith removed

Peel of 1 navel orange, pith removed

Peel of 1 grapefruit, pith removed

½ tsp black peppercorns

½ tsp pink peppercorns

¼ tsp fine salt, such as Maldon

Instructions

In a large mason jar, combine all the ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to push the solids down to submerge them in the vinegar. Crank a lid on the jar, give it a good shake, and store it somewhere dark and cool for 4 weeks. Pour the cider through a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth into a clean mason jar. Discard the solids. Taste the cider and add more honey, as needed, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it’s perfect for you. The cider keeps, in the fridge, for a few months.

Excerpted from Coastal: 130 Recipes from a California Road Trip by Scott Clark with Betsy Andrews, © 2025. Published by Chronicle Books.

Weather.com copy writer Wyatt Williams is exploring the relationship between weather, food, agriculture, and the natural world.

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