When Claire Wadsworth and Nikki Hill first met on International Women’s Day in 2009, neither imagined their journey together would eventually lead them to a quiet stretch of desert highway in Flamingo Heights—or to one of California’s most celebrated destination restaurants.
“We met on International Women’s Day in 2009,” Wadsworth recalled. “We’ve been together for 17 years, but we started cooking together right away on the night that we met.”
Their first meeting happened at an intimate Philadelphia dinner party where Hill had been hired as the chef while Wadsworth performed with her band.
“She and her sister were in a band, and they were doing these music cabarets at their house in Philly,” Hill said. “So kind of a speakeasy, multi-course dinner from a local chef with music played in their basement. That’s how we met.”
The partnership quickly extended beyond their relationship.
On weekends, they launched La Copine as a DIY food cart in Philadelphia, spending Friday nights preparing everything from scratch inside their apartment before serving customers the next day.
“We were just having the best time ever,” Hill said. “We loved hanging out. We loved doing everything together, cooking together.”
Everything changed during a trip to the High Desert.
While visiting the Integratron near Landers, someone casually mentioned that a nearby restaurant was for sale.
“We knew right away,” Hill said. “We were standing right outside of the Integratron, and we were told that a restaurant was for sale, and in that moment, we knew that we would be doing it.”
Neither knew exactly how it would happen.
“It has this pull that you just feel,” Hill said. “When you know, you know.”
That leap of faith led them to Flamingo Heights, where they opened La Copine in 2015 with a simple vision: create a welcoming gathering place where everyone felt at home.
“We wanted something where everyone is welcome, all walks of life,” Hill said. “People can come as they are.”
The local community embraced them immediately.
“People would just stop by and say, ‘What are you making? What’s happening here? Is there anything you need? Can we help you?’” Wadsworth said.
Those early acts of generosity—from helping paint to lending equipment—helped shape not only the restaurant but their connection to the High Desert.
Over time, La Copine evolved from a neighborhood restaurant into an internationally recognized culinary destination. Hill points to one milestone that changed everything.
“Once we made the Eater Essential 38 Restaurants of California, we realized, ‘Oh, this is a destination restaurant.’”
Today, visitors from around the world make the drive to Flamingo Heights, often pairing dinner at La Copine with visits to Joshua Tree National Park and the Integratron.
But the desert has influenced more than where they cook. It has shaped how they cook.
Hill describes La Copine’s cuisine as “French inspired, New California”—comfort food viewed through Mediterranean, Latin, North African and Asian influences while remaining grounded in fresh, seasonal ingredients.
Living in the Mojave encouraged a lighter, vegetable-forward approach.“You crave plants that have more water in them,” Hill said. “It’s veg forward. You just feel better.”
The landscape also introduced the couple to ingredients they had never worked with before.
During a visit to a nearby farm, they learned the property was surrounded by walls of nopales cactus that protected crops from wild donkeys.
“They said, ‘Is there anything you could think of to cook with the nopales?’” Hill recalled.
The result was a cactus hot sauce that eventually found its way onto La Copine’s menu. Other local ingredients—from foraged stinging nettles to neighborhood-grown apricots—have inspired seasonal specials throughout the years.
“It’ll inspire the dish,” Hill said. “Which is really cool.”
Now, after a decade in the High Desert, Hill and Wadsworth have captured that journey in their debut cookbook, La Copine: New California Cooking from an Oasis in the Desert.
The project began unexpectedly when a literary agent visited the restaurant and suggested they write a cookbook.
Over the next three years, they developed a proposal, received offers from multiple publishers and ultimately chose Abrams because, as Hill explained, the publisher wanted to tell the story of La Copine itself—not simply produce another regional cookbook.
“It was very much about our story and the kind of food that we like to cook and our menus,” Hill said.
The process proved as demanding as running the restaurant itself.
“It was as hard as I thought it would be,” Hill admitted.
The challenge wasn’t just testing recipes. It was revisiting more than a decade of shared memories.
“She remembers a story a certain way. I remember a story a certain way,” Hill said. “So we really had to come up with what’s the La Copine version of the story.”
When the finished cookbook finally arrived, the accomplishment represented something larger than a publishing milestone.
“We made this together and it felt like permission to keep going,” they shared.
For readers, they hope the cookbook offers more than recipes.
“We hope it inspires people to be bold and to not be afraid.”
For those cooking from home, Hill recommends beginning with La Copine’s fried eggplant.
“It’s our most requested recipe and the most surprising.”
The cookbook’s release came full circle with a sold-out celebration inside the Integratron—the same place where the couple first learned about the restaurant that would change their lives.
“It’s where it all began,” Wadsworth said.
Looking back over the last decade—from a Philadelphia food cart to one of California’s most beloved desert restaurants—Hill and Wadsworth hope their story resonates with readers whether or not they ever visit Flamingo Heights.
Their message is simple:
“Follow your dreams.”
WEB: www.lacopinekitchen.com
SOCIAL: @lacopinekitchen