Part of our series on cooking with Coachella Valley produce. See also: cooking with desert citrus and seasonal ingredients a private chef loves.
If you’ve driven Highway 111 past Indio you’ve seen them: rows of date palms with their fruit bunches bagged against rain and birds. The Coachella Valley grows more than 90 percent of the dates harvested in the United States, which makes them the most local ingredient a desert private chef can put on the table. This is how Chef Tien thinks about the main varieties, and how he uses them in dinners from Palm Springs to Thermal.
A short history in one paragraph
The USDA set up an experimental date station near Indio in 1904 because the valley’s heat and dry air looked a lot like North Africa and the Middle East. It worked. The Medjool, now the best-known variety here, arrived in 1927 as nine offshoots from a single oasis in Morocco, and every Medjool palm in the country traces back to those nine plants. A century later the valley is still the center of American date farming.
The varieties worth knowing
How a chef uses dates in savory cooking
Dates are sugar, and sugar needs something to push against. The best date dishes balance that sweetness with salt, acid, fat or heat:
- Salt and fat: wrapped in bacon or prosciutto, stuffed with goat cheese or blue cheese. Our bacon-wrapped Medjool dates with chèvre are the appetizer guests ask about before the main course lands.
- Acid: sliced into salads with citrus, shaved fennel and a sharp vinaigrette. Zahidi work best here because they don’t turn to paste.
- Heat: blended with chili, garlic and fish sauce into a sticky glaze for pork ribs or chicken wings, a natural fit for Tien’s Vietnamese side.
- Braises: stirred into lamb or chicken tagines with preserved lemon, a natural fit for a Mediterranean menu.
- Dessert: sticky toffee pudding, date shakes for a brunch crowd, or a cheese board with dates and toasted almonds.
When dates are in season
The harvest runs from summer into fall. Barhi start as early as July, Medjools usually come in around September, and other varieties wrap up by November. Fresh yellow Barhi are a short late-summer treat. Cured, dried dates keep well and are good all year, which is lucky, because peak private-chef season in the desert runs October through May.
Buying dates like a chef
- Buy from the valley. Roadside stands and small groves along Highway 111 and in Thermal and Mecca sell fruit far fresher than the supermarket.
- Look for plump, glossy skin with a little give. Avoid crystallized sugar on the surface, which means the fruit is old or dried out.
- Store them cold. Refrigerated, soft dates last months; frozen, close to a year.
Chef Tien’s go-to for jumbo Medjools is Desert Sun Dates, a small family grove on the Sky Valley side of the valley that ships straight from the farm. Full disclosure: the grove is run by a friend of Tien’s.
Want dates on your menu?
Dates show up across Tien’s menus, from a passed appetizer at a cocktail party to a winter salad course at a country club dinner. Tell him you’d like a local-ingredient menu and he’ll build it around what’s fresh that week. Browse sample menus.
Coachella Valley date FAQs
Where are most US dates grown?
In the Coachella Valley. More than 90 percent of dates harvested in the United States come from the valley, mainly around Indio, Coachella, Thermal and Mecca.
What’s the difference between Medjool, Barhi and Zahidi dates?
Medjools are large, soft and caramel-sweet. Barhi are small, round and often sold fresh and yellow in late summer, when they’re crisp and only lightly sweet. Zahidi are golden, firmer and drier, with a nutty, less sugary flavor.
When is date season in the Coachella Valley?
Harvest runs from late summer into fall. Barhi start as early as July, Medjools usually come in around September, and other varieties finish by November. Good dried dates are available year-round.
How do chefs use dates in savory food?
As a sweet note against salt, acid and fat: wrapped in bacon, sliced into salads with sharp cheese, blended into glazes for pork and chicken, or chopped into grain salads and Moroccan-style braises.
A desert dinner, cooked with desert ingredients.
Sources: Civil Eats on Coachella Valley date production; Coachella Valley Water District on the 1904 station and 1927 Medjool offshoots; California Farm Bureau’s Ag Alert on harvest timing.