Tuesday, August 11, 2009

sf chefs.food.wine


Last week, I did four charity and tequila events and by end of the week I was pretty burned out. I thought I'd do my demo with Gary at Williams Sonoma in Union Square on Friday afternoon and that would be it! But after going to the Opening Reception of SF Chefs. Food. Wine Thursday night, I was hooked, it was the hottest ticket in town. Not only the hottest ticket for the weekend, maybe the year!

Saturday night's Urban BBQ was a very cool event. The event was simmering with heat and great food. We sipped cocktails by the likes of all my bartending favorites,- H, Joel, Marco, Dominic, Neyah and Reza and danced to the sounds of music by my buddy, Joey Altman, and the Back Burner Blues Band. Towards the end of the night, Hubert Keller put a spin on things as he DJ-ed. Chantal danced wildly to his techno beat.

The after party at Victor's was wall-to-wall industry. More dancing to the sounds of DJ Dukes. Loved burning off the chocolate calories late into the night! Almost felt like NY!

And by Sunday, I was back again... This time, the Grand Tasting tent. Grand, alright! It was worth going just to see how Union Square was transformed into the ultimate tasting room. Mary Edwards, yummmm, couldn't miss Navarro, Fred Peterson had a great zinfandel, Hall, Gargiulo, Farella-Park's Sauvignon and Flower's Pinot Noir. I hung out with Zardo and couldn't get enough of anything with the word Pisoni or Lucia on the label. And the food... sweet pea gaspacho by Joseph Humphrey. Reminded me exactly of a pea gazpacho I blogged months ago. Really liked the Palio D'Asti meatballs, kinda like what Gramma would make if mine was Italian, Graig Stoll's pappa al pomodoro, Hayes Street Grill's crab crostini with lightly-pickled vegetables and I loved Sean O'Toole of Bardessono's crostini with sweet summer melon, jamon Iberico, lemon thyme, piment d'Espelette, lemon zest and a drizzle of the most delicious Caselvetrano extra virgin olive oil. And isn't blogger, Amy Sherman, the best?

You simply cannot miss this event next year!

1 comment:

CHUCKIE said...

Hi Joanne,

I agree with you the SF Chef Wine/Food event was a great experience! There was lots of fabulous food & wine to taste, and I acquired lots of great insight about the event from the restaurants, wineries, and even the people who worked the event. I'm also looking forward to next year's SF Chef Wine/Food event!

Chuck