Masters of Food and Wine: Chapter 1

I generate most of my posts from the San Francisco Bay Area, but I travel reasonably widely and search even wider-ly to find amazing ingredients. Think of me as an amateur David Rosengarten, who cares more about what you think than I do about what you think about what I think. My goal is a selfish one, to share what I am learning in the hope you will do the same.

This past weekend I visited the annual Masters of Food and Wine in Carmel, California--three days of culilnary demonstrations from great chefs, rare wine tastings, seven-course meals and over-the-top receptions. Best of all, you can by these experiences ala carte starting for about $100 and ranging up to about $300 per person--with the exception of a Friday night small group "rarities" dinner for $3,500. I cannot imagine what they are eating for $3,500, but I can guess what they might have been drinking. Still the rest of us invested about $200 in a 7 course extraviganza (with 7 wines) that did not disappoint.

The Masters of Food and Wine www.mfandw.com happens the third week of February every year. This year my highlight was talking with Alice Waters, Charlie Palmer and Rick Bayless during their demonstrations. In a subsequent post I will give you more details.