Five takeaways from the 24th Annual Winemakers' Celebration.

Some chefs in Monterey County are loathe to be mentioned in the same sentence as celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, but it seems many who proffered their treats at the 24th Annual Winemakers' Celebration took his decades-old mantra to heart: “Pork fat rules.”

While chefs offered small bites of pork belly, pork and beans served on chicharrón, whole roast pig, rendered bacon fat Belgian waffles topped with prosciutto, the point of the May 7 festival was to celebrate the world-class winemakers who call Monterey County home.

With two blocks of Seventh Avenue and Dolores Street in Carmel closed for a Saturday afternoon, hundreds gathered to sample the vintages of more than 30 local wineries, while nibbling on featured fare from nearly 20 of the county’s top restaurants.

Here are five takeaways from the festivities:

1. Paella is not just delicious, its preparation can be an awesome spectacle.

Mundaka Chef Brandon Miller must not have gotten the memo that pork must be featured prominently in small bites offered to attendees to buffer wine being swilled.

Instead he provided squid ink paella with calamari and poached eggs.

It’s preparation caused crowds to gather as he cooked the dark rice in a paella pan more than a meter wide over an open propane flame. The dozen or so fresh eggs plopped into the mix during the late stage of cooking created a spectacular color composition with the egg whites and yellow yolks contrasting with the squid ink.

It was one of the most notable and delicious dishes presented at the celebration, and evidence why he's been making a habit of cooking paella al fresco in the Mundaka patio on weekends.

2. While owls are a recognized symbol of wisdom, an expert says they’re not that smart.

All of the animals presented were dead and for human consumption except Lois, an Eurasian eagle-owl who was chilling on the arm of Kathleen Tigan of Tactical Avian Predators.

There was a laugh in the crowd when Tigan admitted that the beautiful bird wasn’t that smart.

Hahn Family Winery, who invited Tigan to the event to display Lois, uses trained falcons provided by Tactical Avian Predators to scare small birds from attempting to eat the juicy grapes from the vines. Lois sticks to being the pretty public face of the company.

3. Foie gras is a desert food.

While the Weekly already complimented the foie gras ice cream at Carmel’s PortaBella in March, touting the bonafides of poultry liver for dessert is still appropriate.

Chef Fabrice Roux of his namesake restaurant in Carmel, Roux, served beignets topped with foie gras mousse on a bed of sugar. The sweet and fluffy balls of fried dough combined with the creamy earthiness of the mousse and went wonderfully with a tasting of Pinot Noir.

4. Pork is so hot right now.

Maybe it’s the fear that with Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel) leaving office soon the district might find itself facing a pork shortage, but chefs seem to be staying on the culinary wave until it crashes. Chef Todd Fisher from Tarpy’s Roadhouse in Monterey handed out ample portions of pork and Peruvian beans served on fresh chicarrón. Pork belly topped with a carrot-ginger purée, chile verde and pickled mustard seeds has served at La Bicyclette’s table and whole roast pig from La Balena’s.

All were delicious in their own right, but the pork overload made the ajo blanco sopa de cangrejo served by Pacific Grove’s jeninni kitchen and the citrus-beet cured local halibut by Carmel’s Cantinetta Luca standout savory favorites.

5. Monterey vintners are (still) doing what they do best—Pinot Noir.

The heat of the Salinas Valley combined with the cool, moist air from the Pacific make the Santa Lucia region perfect for the subtle and rounded flavor of Pinot Noir.

While the big and full bodied California reds found in Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon are the rage right now—falling in line with heavily hopped IPAs and all things pork—local vintners have stuck to their guns and have continued to focus on what they do best.