Set at arguably one of the most naturally beautiful spots on earth, The Pebble Beach Food & Wine Classic just needs to exist to draw a devoted crowd of epicures from the world over. Who wouldn’t want an excuse to spend a couple of days overindulging along 17-mile drive, basking on the Pacific’s edge? The event doesn’t need to have Tyler Florence, Guy Fieri, Todd English or Anne Burrell to coax money from the wallets of the well-to-do, but it doesn’t hurt, either. A celebrity chef hot dog tasting would easily command $350 a pop. Pebble appeals to the epicures of the world, offering the opportunity to snap a photo with, say Michael Chiarello, and slap it on Twitter. It also offers the chance to sample wines from all over the globe, along with cuisine from some of the top chefs from famed local restaurants, like Roy Yamaguchi of Roy’s (At Pebble Beach), Jason Fox of Commonwealth (San Francisco), Two Star Michelin Chef Josiah Citrin of Melisse (Santa Monica) and Sherry Yard, pastry chef extraordinaire, who created the desserts menu for Wolfgang Puck. This event grew out of the Master’s of Food and Wine, which, in 2008 was taken over by Robert Weakley and David Alan Bernahl, II, who transformed what was a small, intimate celebration of the marriage of food and wine into a larger, more extravagant event, with an international yacht club party feel. Except it’s not on a dock, even though you almost always have a view of the ocean.From 25 chefs, 75 wineries and 10 events in 2008, the event has grown to four days, 75 chefs, 250 wineries and 50 events, sprawling out into locations in Monterey, including restaurant 1833, owned by Coastal Property Management, producer of Pebble Beach Food & Wine.In prior years, wineries were invited to pour without a table fee: this year, it was a $1500 buy-in, plus the wines to be poured. Naturally, this changed the complexion of the event. There were far more Napa and Sonoma wineries this year, along with a significant international presence, and there were fewer local (Monterey) wineries by far, although Bernardus, Boekenoogen, Scheid, Joyce, Pisoni and Parsonage were in attendance.Among the seminars offered were: Napa’s Cult Cabs (featuring Dawnine Dryer of Meteor, Celia Welch of Scarecrow, Jason Exposto of Futo and Austin Peterson of Ovid), Pairing Cheese & Wine with Laura Werlin (The First Lady of Fromage), Rare Wines and Perfectly Paired Cheeses (with Kent Torrey of Cheese Shop Carmel), Swine and Wine: the Marriage of Pigs & Pinot, Sommelier Secrets (with Ian Cauble of Rizt-Carlton Half Moon Bay, Andrea Robinson and Greg Harrington of Gramercy Cellars), Legendary Stickies, Caymus and the Wagner Dynasty, 1982 First-Growth Bordeaux (including Lafite, Margaux and Latour, with Ray Isle, Executive Wine Editor of Food & Wine magazine), Pretty in Pink: Rosés from Around the World, White Burgundy 101 with Anthony Giglio of WineWise LLC, and a tribute to La Grande Dame, Celebrating Clicquot’s Great Lady. An abundance of themed lunches and dinners starred celebrity chefs from around the globe, with the most exceedingly popular, and expensive, by far, being the dinner with Thomas Keller himself, although the Farewell to Foie Gras lunch (with Chris Cosentino of Incanto and Michael Ginor of Hudson Valley Foie Gras) might well have been the most calorically decadent. There was even a Best of Belgium Beer luncheon, featuring Mark Estees (chef/owner of Moody’s Bistro and Burger Me! in Truckee and Reno). Jenn-Air hosted a series of packed to the grills cooking demos by Jacques Pepin, Todd English, Michael Chiarello, Anne Burrell, Guy Fieri and Tyler Florence, where you could watch the chefs put their subs to work, cooking up a storm of tantalizing aromas that made you salivate. Lindt Master Chocolatier, Ann Czaja, thrilled chocolate lovers with sensational chocolate and wine pairings. For those who signed up for all four days of this affair, detox was hopefully included.TOP TEN HIGHLIGHTSWith so much decadence to spoil even the jaded, narrowing down the highlights to just ten might be almost as hard as it was for the Almighty to give Moses only 10 commandments – perhaps that was all that could fit on the tablets. Luckily, “Thou Shalt Not Consume Cocktails Before Breakfast,” did not make the original list. 1. The Santa Lucia Highlands Kings retrospective tasting with Gary and Jeff Pisoni, Paul Lato (Paul Lato Wines), James Hall (Patz & Hall), Gary Franscioni (ROAR), Sean Capiaux (Capiaux) and Jon Bonne, moderator. With vintages ranging from 2006 to 2010, Gary explained, “You can do a vertical, you can do a horizontal, and you can do a diagonal, whatever that is!” However you chose to taste them, this rare, deep dive into pinots made from the Pisoni vineyard clearly showed off the fiercely indomitable voice that that shines through, regardless of winemaker. No matter what orchestra plays Beethoven’s 9th, it is still immediately recognizable. So, too, is the Pisoni Vineyard: dark, haunting, intense, surging with energy and rather like a caged animal ready to set itself finally, eternally, free. Gary Franscioni noted that 30 years later, this vineyard still “lives on the edge. Just like the man who planted it.”2. The humility and sincerity of Chef Sang Yoon of Lukshon, one of the “Cooking Beyond Fusion” chefs, whose Short Rib Rendang, with Malay spices, red chile lemongrass rempah and coconut rice cakes veered an otherwise wandering lunch at Roy’s (Inn at Spanish Bay) back on course. He explained this was essentially a deconstructed Malay stew, with the short ribs having cooked for two days at 140 degrees in the super-tenderizing sous vides method. The texture of the meat was soft and just the right amount of dense, with the Malay spices enveloping it like a chenille blanket of lip-smacking heat. He admitted that working in such a beautiful environment, right on the water’s edge, was as distracting as having “a naked woman standing in front of you while you’re trying to cook.”3. Brilliant food and wine pairing #1: silkily divine corn flan with Peruvian quinoa and basil gremolata by Chef John Sendar, paired with the superbly poised 2010 Testarossa Rosella’s Vineyard Chardonnay, poured by winery owners Rob and Diana Jensen. Probably the most graceful, soaring expression of this site yet produced under the Testarossa label.4. Michael Chiarello’s heartwarming suggestion to “invite the older generation back to the table,” struck a chord with many in the audience. “Don’t let those family cooking secrets go uncaptured and unrecorded. Make every meal a sharing experience for the whole family.” As he rolled out pasta dough, he suggested that this should be a shared experience with your best friends. “Don’t ever make pasta alone. Make enough to freeze, bag it up and send your friends home with it. They’ll remember the experience long after. You’re not just making pasta, you’re making memories.” He suggested doing a party every two weeks for four months: “feed the people you care about.” As he whipped up a Callabrian dish of pork liver, Chiarello joked that the Calabrese are the Mexicans of Italy. “We’re the working class. Hey, I always say, respect the muscle that puts food on the table and wine in your glass.” All sentiments deserving pause, as well as applause.5. Napa Cabernets were in full swing at the Grand Tasting: this is where the heavy hitters come out to play. Two standouts were Bryan Page’s bombastic 2009 “The Stash” Cabernet Sauvignon ($109) under the Revolver label, and his more affordable and even more superlative “The Fury” Cabernet Franc ($50). But in a class by itself is the Cabernet from the Meteor vineyard in Coombsville. The 2008 shows brilliant balance, polish, graceful intensity and an elegant completeness that clearly comes from the vineyard. This, says winemaker Dawnine Dryer, is due to its elevation (1700 ft) and temperate climate. “When it’s triple digits elsewhere, we’re in the 90’s.”6. Brilliant wine and food pairing #2: 2010 Joyce Vineyard’s Tondre Grapefields Pinot Noir done in a lighter, more restrained style by winemaker Russell Joyce to bring out its high tones and racy fruit, mated nicely with Chef Christian Ojeda’s pork belly with chiles atop a corn tamale pancake. Simple, yet brilliant. 7. Celebrity Chef Anne Burrell, whose antics make boiling water qualify as entertainment, explained that you must make your pasta water (or rice water) as salty as the ocean, otherwise, what you’re cooking in it will taste boring. Salt is a flavor enhancer: make sure you salt your food as cook: you should never need to add salt at the table. Do you rinse pasta? someone asked. “What!” she replied. “That would be never! That removes the starch, which is what helps it bind to the sauce. The pasta and the sauce must be cooked together. You want the pasta to be hugged by the sauce.” Asked what her favorite ingredients were, she answered “Salt, olive oil and bacon: they’re the Holy Trinity for me!” 8. Most refreshing wine of the day: 2011 Carignane rose from LIOCO, made from old vine Carignane in the pressed, rosé-on-purpose fashion, rather than the saignée method. It’s brilliantly refreshing, with a steely knife-edged sharpness that makes it an ideal food wine, especially at 12%. This wine has a tinkling crystal bell clarity that gets your attention, in a very good way.9. Brilliant food and wine pairing #3: 2010 Adelaida “Pavanne” Grenache Blanc and Roussanne blend, a glorious ginger-peachy infusion, with guava, pineapple, key lime, oozing acidity and a graceful core of minerality. Well behaved, yet confident, this wine stepped up and made an instant friend of Chef Craig Van Foerster’s ravishing execution of raw shaved asparagus salad, dressed with ample shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano and citrusy olive oil vinaigrette. 10. Piles of fresh from the local fields strawberries, courtesy of Driscoll’s. Along with blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, these healthful antioxidant packed capsules were ever-present, as was the Fiji water, a constant reminder that overindulgence can be mitigated with the right amount of hydration and fiber. Sweet young ladies in skimpy turquoise attire walked the floor under the Lexus tent carrying trays of berry baskets and water bottles, weaving among the blissed out throngs. We’ve come a long way from the days of cigars, cigarettes and tiparillos. Or have we?
