With the opening of Dia:Beacon two years ago, Beacon, N.Y., has become a haven for large-scale contemporary art by Richard Serra, Michael Heizer, and John Chamberlain, to name just a few.

These days, Dia:Beacon is also becoming known as a haven for good food, drawing on the natural advantages of its location in the fertile Hudson Valley.

At the museum’s second anniversary party Saturday night, 400 art-world insiders, mostly imported from Manhattan, tasted the local bounty in dishes prepared by Shelly Boris of Fresh Company, with consultation from the food writer Barbara Kafka.

“This is a meal you can eat without fear. It is low-calorie, organic, and local – which means it is a financial support to the community,” Ms. Kafka said.

The Dia Art Foundation’s director, Michael Govan, boasted that guests were eating in “the finest dining room in these parts.”

The first plate was a medley of vegetables, including fiddleheads, ramps, radishes, beets, and chive flowers. The second course, striped bass, came with baby spinach, sorrel, and fingerling potatoes from Blooming Hill Farm in Blooming Grove. The sweet finale brought together rhubarb from Glynwood Farm in Cold Spring, and a biscuit generously filled with sheep’s milk cheese from Old Chatham.

Such a healthful and delicious dining experience isn’t just for the patrons and artists who attend parties at the museum. (This one, by the way, brought out artists Cecily Brown, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, and Leo Villareal, architects Richard Gluckman and Alan Wanzenberg, and patrons Donna Rosen and Frances Dittmer, and raised more than $380,000.)

The Dia:Beacon cafe also showcases local and organic ingredients in a revolving menu designed by the assistant cafe manager, Chelsea Tull, a 29-year-old force of nature who likes to have fun with flavor, especially sweet and savory combinations. Ms. Tull’s standouts include a Cuban-style sloppy Joe that combines ground beef and a tomato sauce with green olives and raisins. Cinnamon is the surprise ingredient. Another distinguished menu item is the roasted apple and cheddar wrap spiced with tarragon.

Apples also star in a carrot-apple-ginger soup, but don’t miss the others: roasted corn chowder loaded with fresh cilantro, cream of lettuce, cold vegan butternut bisque, and cold cayenne and cantaloupe.

Salads likewise bring unlikely items together. Honey and wasabi season a cucumber salad, while another features oranges and olives.

“It sounds and looks a bit strange to some,” Ms. Tull said, “but if you’ve tasted it, you know it’s a treat!”

The museum and cafe are open Thursday-Monday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Both the art and the food are good reasons to visit, but in the end, it’s the space itself, so vast and streaming with natural light, that inspires.

As the Dia Art Foundation’s chairman, Leonard Riggio, told guests: “I love the optimism I feel when I come here.”