A local’s take on the increasingly national Pebble Beach Food & Wine.

It wasn’t the fiendishly genius duck dog on a gooey donut bun with truffle mayo from Todd Fisher of Sticks (647-7470) that almost broke me.

Or even the crispy sweetbreads with shaved truffles and wild mushrooms and Sonoma duck confit ragout from Tim Wood of Carmel Valley Ranch (626-2599), who added the ranch’s own sea salt.

No, it was a simple mission. One man, one Pebble Beach Food & Wine grand tasting, one taste of every chef’s mini masterwork.

While it brought me to the brink, it also brought me a reminder: The tastiest things at PBFW are not feats of overindulgence. They are the surprises.

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It was a GM’s dream. An all-star lineup of A-list tastemakers in your restaurant all at once. And it was a GM’s nightmare. Famed S.F. Chronicle critic Michael Bauer, pioneering tastemaker Charles Phan (Slanted Door Group), national cooking legend Cecilia Chiang (the Julia Child of Chinese) and maybe the most popular chef in the country, Daniel Boulud, all independently coming by Restaurant 1833 (643-1833) for dinner at the same time. Surprise!

“One could happen to come in to any restaurant any given night,” 1833 GM Tobias Peach told me when he surfaced at PBFW for the first time all weekend. “They’re never all in one restaurant at same time. It’s badass, but at same time it’s crazy. Any other time you’d stack the deck, with your best server, busser and so on. With this, no stacking possible.”

A few weeks ago Peach got another surprise: His wife Samantha is pregnant… with twins.

Many were surprised the best tastes from the grand tastings weren’t from visiting James Beard winners and established superstars like Susan Spicer or Dean Fearing or Angela Pinkerton, but area chefs who deserve to join those ranks. (It would be insincere to say I was surprised by the local luminescence, though, as I’ve petitioned everyone from Bauer to Michelin to grant our stars the stars they deserve.)

Justin Cogley of Aubergine (624-8578) did a roasted banana and Vietnamese coriander take on his signature aw-yes Dungeness and young coconut dish – exceedingly fresh, creative and simple – that helped earn him a Best New Chef nod before the festival from big PBFW sponsor Food & Wine Magazine. 1833’s Levi Mezick balanced a pretty little poached quail egg, arugula and pickled onion on a mini truffle brioche. John Cox of Sierra Mar (667-2800) eclipsed his already insane sourcing sorcery history by spending months tracking down a farm who could supply a super-rare female sturgeon with six pounds of premium caviar still in her to scoop directly into tiny crispy potato cups with wild onions and wild sorrel.

Then there were the locally invented dishes that ranked up there on taste but soared highest on sheer imagination, like Fisher’s duck donut deal – to which he added smoked peanut brittle bacon and seared lamb loin with spring pea hush puppy and pulverized kale salad – and Wood’s sweetbread towers. Ben Spungin of Bernardus (658-3595) went most inspired on presentation all week, reimagining the school cafeteria line with hairnets, food trays and a choice of typically tasty treats like his chocolate-goat cheese-beet-and-hazelnut number.Cy Yontz of Rio Grill (625-5436) was the bravest on spice all weekend, slow-smoking a buffalo tenderloin with heat from his alchemist-esque command of borderland peppers, ollallieberry marmalade and hominy gratin. Cannery Row Brewing Company’s new Chef Daniel Furey overachieved with a smoked short rib slider smothered with pimento cheese and pickled spring vegetables and on a yum toasted pretzel bun.

Other surprises laid in wait: Cowboy Sausage (261-0540) renegade Butch Francis is giddyupping through qualifying for billionaire iconoclast Mark Cuban’s Shark Tank business competition TV show take on The Apprentice.

Jeff Rogers – the longtime farm-fresh Carmel Valley tastemaker who’s teaming with Cindy Pawlcyn (Mustards Grill) at the Monterey Bay Aquarium restaurant juggernaut – paused on his way to the kitchen to key me into the overdue-but-suddenly-here opening of the new MBA restaurant Cindy’s Waterfront April 27, ahead of the only local epicurean event that rivals PBFW all year, May 17-19’s Cooking for Solutions.

Host of new Cooking Channel show How To Live to 100 Jason Wrobel waxed enthusiastic about chipotle seitan he was using from Moss Landing’s Sweet Earth Foods (375-8673) in a vegetarian fajita with avocado coconut cream dusted with smoked paprika on homemade masa: “More protein than beef!” he said.

Surprises made appearances beyond the tents, as California Caviar superstar founder and CEO Deborah Keane told the folks at a surprisingly enlightening and accessible caviar-vodka tasting, “Caviar doesn’t come from fish!” Fish have scales, she explained, and fin fish like paddle fish and sablefish are scaleless fin fish. More surprising – and delicious – she’s collaborating on the first truly sustainable caviar, ever, with marine biolotechnologist Dr. Anga Köhler.

Guy Fieri bellowed at his interactive dinner crowd that no, they hadn’t had too much to drink – “You’re not seeing double!” – that’s just spikey hair budding TV celeb himself Fisher co-hosting. Jacques and Hasty Torres told the packed crowd there for their fancy chocolate demo how they made specific body molds they, ahem, never thought they would for the Playboy Playmates of The Girls Next Door. Chiang shared stories of not being able to afford a cleaning staffer or a courier at the $1,250 Tribute to a Legend Dinner. “I didn’t have money to pay,” she said. “I was a janitor… I go to the produce market [too], carry supplies back to restaurant.”

Humility found its place amid the high life for me too. I folded up my quest, feeling otherworldly, bloaty and floaty, 16 dishes in. Seems Man v. Food isn’t my sort of show. I’ll stick with Monterey County, and PBFW, v. the World.

QUICKBITES

• Can a wine lover extend a toast to Carmel Valley? My count now has it at over 20 tasting rooms with Mercy Vineyards in an A-frame (659-4321) next to Chevron tasting folks on its Arroyo Seco Pinots and Chards. Also: Lodi-based Twisted Roots just uncorked one in LyonsHead Gallery (594-8282) next to Cafe Rustica (659-4444); $5 to try two Cabs, a Chard and a Petite Syrah. (The Zin from the 1918 vines isn’t on the tasting list.) There’s a Italy-esque patio in back for tasting too.

• While I was thinking it was a wrong Carmel was losing Best Dog Town to a place whose defining picture was dogs left tied to a post – and that voting was impossible on the Go Pet Friendly site – Flaherty’s Seafood (625-1500) was thinking my omission of it as a dog-friendly spot was wrong – or at least not up to date with the addition of an anything-Spot-wants-for-$8.95 menu, heaters on the patios and, yes, five types of dog bones. New full bar for Fido’s friends too.

•More C.V.: The Vintage Affair Fiesta 11am-4pm Saturday, April 13, at Chateau Julien (624-2600) looks like a great value: sun, new releases, library wines, surprise features, bottle markdowns, winemaker Q&As.

•And more: Appropriately enough, the all-natural trailblazers at Heller Organic Estate are celebrating Earth Day 5-7pm Thursday, April 18, with a magnum Cabernet tasting ($20-$25) at the tasting room (659-6220).

•Craft beer pioneering Stone Brewing Co. co-founder, CEO and OG brewer Greg Koch co-hosts a tap takeover starting 4pm Wednesday, April 17, at Post No Bills (324-4667): Nine different classic and rare Stone craft beers pouring till they’re dry.

• Very cool, conscious and different event: a free bee-release party at Carmel Valley Ranch (620-6427) 6pm Saturday, April 13 with lavendar lemonade, teas and… honey!

•North Monterey’s newest spot might also be its most sophisticated. Check out the menu and some tasting notes from The Market Restaurant (373-2200) on the blog.

•Schooners (372-BOAT) extends its three-course, one-year anniversary menu ($36; $54 with sparkling pairings) Sunday-Thursday through April with all sorts of sustainable seafood. They’ve also added some sexy new menu items.

• Tarpy’s Roadhouse (647-1444) happy hour is hot. Details on the blog.

• Last month I shared superlative foodie adventure meals like the Catfish Fry at the Retired Men’s Social Club. Three more that belong in the discussion: Drummond Academy’s big-hearted, student-cheffed, super-affordable Friday nights along the gorgeous limits of Salinas Valley (444-3521), which now enjoy shuttles leaving from Carmel; Pessagno Winery’s rockin’ 1645 River Road pop-up series (675-WINE); and Monday night L’ Avventuras in Cucina at il vecchio (324-4282).

•“They always say time changes things,” Andy Warhol once wrote, “but you actually have to change them yourself.”