Pebble Beach Food and Wine

Just doin' our job! Photo by Interface Visual

Like Woodstock, it was held in a field. And like Woodstock, there were rockstars.

But in this case, the rockers were the stars of the cooking world—and the attendees were a joyous throng of food and wine aficionados under a giant white tent at the Pebble Beach Food & Wine’s “Grand Tasting” on April 15th.

The culmination of the four-day epicurean extravaganza, the Sunday afternoon event featured the culinary creations of celebrity chefs along with wine, beer and spirits from over 200 purveyors.

And I will testify: a fine time was had by all.

Since we were in a brunch kind of mood, we started with spicy chicken hash and a perfectly poached egg atop a sweet corn cake courtesy of the godfather of Nuevo Latino cuisine, superchef Douglas Rodriquez.

From there on it was a delicious blur of tasty bites in a sea of champagne and Chardonnays… until we graduated to the Pinots and Cabernets, that is.

Pebble Beach Food and Wine

Photos courtesy of Interface Visual

Belvedere Vodka poured tempting summery cocktails, while in the Stella Artois corner, many raised the chalice in praise of their excellent brews (including our snap-and-sip photographer Wayne Capili of Interface Visual, who happily reported that Stella comes in not one, but THREE flavors).

The Patron lounge beckoned like a dangerous daydream—but knowing that someone had to drive—I resisted. (Friends reported sampling a silver tequila steeped in fresh cucumber that was to die for, though.)

Our last “main” course was fried arancini with lamb bolognese created by the chefs of REDD, the Yountville restaurant everyone’s talking about. No wonder.

And then we dove recklessly into as many mini-desserts as we could sample, like a dreamy chocolate mousse/coconut pudding/chewy almondy-roca concoction that made us want to wear disguises so we could grab a second one.

But the winner: a small-but-deadly square of exquisite chocolate ganache served on a thin cracker by Ethan Howard of Sausalito’s Murray Circle. Washed down with a velvety swish of 2006 Duckhorn Cabernet Sauvignon, I submit: does it get any better than this?

Guess we’ll have to wait till next year to find out.