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Pebble Beach Food & Wine, one of the country’s premier food festivals, celebrated its tenth anniversary this past weekend at the ritzy California coast resort with headline chefs Dominque Crenn, Carlo Mirarchi, Guy Fieri, Rolland Passot, Stephanie Izard, Michael Mina, Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Naomi Pomeroy, and Curtis Stone all cooked and prepared dishes at the four day bonanza. The celebrations, tastings, wine seminars, and dinners were bigger and better than ever, with some of the country’s biggest talent coming out for a beautiful sunny weekend.
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There was a heavy L.A. lineup as well, with everyone from Neal Fraser (Redbird), Ryan Denicola (Chi Spacca), Nancy Silverton (Nancy’s Fancy, Mozza), Fabio Viviani, Bruce Kalman (Union), Walter Manzke (Republique), Jason Neroni (The Rose), Curtis Stone, Brian Malarkey (Herringbone), Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo (Animal), Alvin Cailan (Eggslut), Lincoln Carson, Fiorelli (Love & Salt) and Rebecca Merhej (Eater Young Gun, Love & Salt), Ted Hopson (The Bellwether), David LeFevre (M.B. Post), and Pawan Mahendro (Badmaash).
Dominique Crenn and Carlo Mirarchi cooked up a luxurious and elegant afternoon meal at the Lexus Chef’s Table lunch at the Equestrian Center, with a little over a hundred guests being served plenty of caviar, uni, and Mirarchi’s signature porchetta.
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Later in the afternoon, Eater contributing editor Kat Odell teamed up with Alinea’s Mike Bagale for a demonstration of daytime cocktails. We sipped on a refreshing pineapple strawberry tiki cocktail (with a fennel straw) while Odell mixed up some drinks from her forthcoming book Day Drinking.
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The next morning, Stephanie Izard (The Girl & the Goat Chicago) cooked up some international bites alongside Dallas’s Dean Fearing. The couple were goofy and having a blast on the newly built Dacor cooking stage. Later for lunch, we popped back over to the Equestrian Center for a full-on tasting with hundreds of festival guests.
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Later that evening, we ended up at Casa Palmero for a Grand Finale dinner with Lazy Bear’s David Barzelay and Edward Martinez, La Folie’s Rolland Passot, The Plumed Horse’s Peter Armellino, and The Modern’s Abram Bissell. The wine paired-dinner hosted each wine maker, as well as desserts from Che Fico’s Angela Pinkerton.
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The next day, the lunchtime tasting hosted the last major event of the weekend, with LA chefs Bruce Kalman, Pawan Mahendro, and Lincoln Carson preparing dishes. It was great to see New Orleans chef Alon Shaya at the West Coast festival serving a super simple tahini hummus with toast that was the talk of the tasting.
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Rumors, Intel, and Gossip
- Nancy Silverton, when asked about her latest Netflix episode of Chef’s Table, confessed that she still hadn’t seen the show. When I asked about why she hadn’t watched it, she thought it was strange to watch herself on TV. The introspective look at Silverton’s career was easily one of the show’s best episodes.
- Lincoln Carson, who’s been quietly wholesaling some baked goods at a Westside commissary, hinted that he ‘might’ eventually do his own project. There’s nothing confirmed at the moment, so we’ll be waiting on this one.
- When Eater asked The Bellwether chef Ted Hopson and partner Ann-Marie Verdi about any new locations, he said that they decided to just keep at it with one location, stating that it was better to refine what they had going. Seems like a smart move.
- Eater asked Pawan Mahendro about any details regarding Badmaash’s upcoming Fairfax expansion. They only said that they still hadn’t decided on a name, but that it would either also be Badmaash or The Good Boy. We’ll continue to ply the Badmaash teams for details on what should one of the most anticipated openings for the second half of the year.
- Eric Bost, who was recently seen cooking for Republique at a Bocuse d’Or celebration, hinted that he was working on a new Mid-City restaurant project. The Guy Savoy vet is partnering with Sprout Group on the upcoming project, which hasn’t released a location yet.