EDIBLE: Cal Stamenov and Daniel Boulud highlight Pebble Beach Food & Wine and memorable week of food.

There is no shortage of eye-catching things to be seen at the new Lucia Restaurant & Bar (658-3595) and its re-swanked Bernardus Lodge home in Carmel Valley, now open after weeks of renovations. There are foie gras-apple pizzas and apple-beet soups, chicken-fried quail and smoked duck stew, chandeliers and mirrors, lush edible gardens and vineyard views, open layouts and superior inside-outside fluidity.

But none of these should excite eaters as much as an item that is neither structural nor caloric. And that would be the glimmer in Chef Cal Stamenov’s eye.

Stamenov, Monterey County’s wise elder of farm-fresh cuisine, is revved up. “It feels like a whole new restaurant,” he says. “It’s more bistro. It’s liberating and energizing.”

The most dramatic design upgrade was to take things away. Gone are the big white couches, old country feel and several walls. In their place are Restoration Hardware-esque iron and wood, a modern vineyard chic and a graceful connectivity between the back patio, bar, restaurant, new front patio and Ingrid’s Vineyard vistas created by accordion glass doors. (Visit the blog for a photo tour.) On the menu, 50 items between two restaurants (Marinus and Wickets) are replaced by 25 from one.

As new GM Sean Damery says, “It’s taking cool pieces – Bernardus service, culinary and wine – and giving them a new environment.”

Menu highlights include breakfast items like a chilled berry gazpacho with fromage blanc ($10), a black truffle omelet ($18), an alderwood-smoked salmon ($19) and pressed juice blends like the Snively’s with carrot, apple, ginger and cayenne ($10). Lunch zingers include local sea-bass ceviche ($18), big-eye tuna tartare ($18), Swank Farms asparagus salad ($15) and Bernardus garden pizza ($18). Dinner delivers roasted radicchio ($14), Pacific Gold oysters ($21), celery root-bronze fennel agnolotti ($18) and duck burgers ($38). There are insane pizzas like a clam-marscapone ($24).

Three types of prime beef run from sirloin ($32) to filet ($45) to Wagyu ($62). Stamenov also continues to do a tasting menu ($100). (The menus all appear on the blog too.) “We don’t want to prevent people from splurging,” he says, “but we want to attract a younger 30s and 40s demographic too.”

I took a thirty – and forty-something to see if we could piece together a visit affordably, which was difficult even at the dressed-down Wickets. Our steel table in the beautiful new bar, which enjoys sharp but spendy creations like the Quinceañera ($15), sat next to a wall opened to the patio and bocce ball lawns. It quickly filled with spot-on blistered Shishito peppers ($5), rosemary-citrus marinated olives ($3), pickled pigs feet in a truffle vinaigrette ($7), deliciously rich Dutch bitterballs ($5), onion focaccia ($3), must-try pork buns ($5) and a small assortment of pickled vegetables starring fennel root ($5). Even with a pair of draft beers (Mission Brewery Kolsch and Flying Dog Pale Ale, $7 each), the total came under $50.

Stamenov participates at Pebble Beach Food & Wine’s opening gala Thursday, April 9. He concedes it’s hard to leave Del Monte Forest during PBFW but hopes some will splinter off for reliable sunshine on the sweet new front patio, where the roof retracts. Savvy eaters and chefs-in-the-know certainly will, including Michael Ginor of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, who will trade goods for grub.

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Chef savant Daniel Boulud famously runs 13 restaurants from New York to Singapore. He qualifies as a tip-top draw in a Pebble Beach Food & Wine loaded with big names. He’s humble, but used to being an alpha. So the fact he’s stoked to come in second place is telling.

But such is the intensity and prestige of Bocuse d’Or, the “culinary Olympics” named for French legend Paul Bocuse. Twenty four national teams threw down last January in Lyon, France, as more Michelin stars assembled in one place than ever before, hundreds all told.

PBFW chief David Bernahl attended as Boulud’s guest and compared the national-song-singing atmosphere to a World Cup match. “Just crazy,” he says. This time things were different for the Americans, who unlike the other teams don’t receive a crumb of government funding. In 2008, Boulud started the Ment’or BKB Foundation with ThomasKeller and Jérôme Bocuse, the son of Paul, to close the gap. They came in with Keller’s top chef as their Michael Phelps/LeBron James/Gabby Douglas and medaled for the first time.

“We felt strong in what we could offer,” Boulud says, “but we had no idea who we were up against.”

Phil Tessier, executive sous at Keller’s French Laundry, and his hand-picked commis, Skylar Stover, had to quit their current cheffing gigs to train for more than a year in a special kitchen at the Laundry. In Lyon, they prepped the required guinea hen and trout ingredients for five and a half hours in front of an audience of 2,700, doing barrel-oak-roasted guinea hen with hen confit sausage, white corn mousse and black winter truffles – and threw in a boudin sausage of smoked guinea hen liver and, oh, black truffle consommé with a gizzard-and-heart ragout. They also did brioche-crusted (!) brown trout with American caviar, a tartlet of trout skin, celery root purée and a brown butter emulsion.

At PBFW, the same team recreates the dinner only the judges tasted, following a Friday cooking demo with the same theme. The events mark pinnacles among nearly 50 different peak experiences.

“It was perfect,” Boulud says. “We had the best performance we’ve ever done, and we can still come back for gold!”

QUICKBITES

• Arigato Sushi now rolls lunch and dinner daily at 1740 N. Main St. in Salinas.

• T&A Cafe reopens in Spreckels after its winter break with its popular fried chicken, bacon-wrapped meatballs and kitchen sink omelet.

• Nielsen Bros. Market in Carmel hosts Chalone winemaker Robert Cook for a complimentary tasting of six different estate wines 4-5:30pm Friday, April 10.

• Knuckles offers tax day relief Wednesday, April 15. A regular burger runs $10.99, domestic drafts $4.15.

• 201 Main staffers say they are proud to carry Salinas’ first cold brewed coffee.

• Peter B’s BrewPub now sells packaged beer at Old Monterey Farmers Market. They host a chefs mixer 6:30-9pm Wednesday, April 15, with tank tour and beer flight. RSVP ($25, 601-5895).

• Trashion happens with the second annual CimaCollina recycled runway show 2-5pm Sunday, April 12, at Hidden Valley in Carmel Valley. See p. 30.

• Thirty percent of proceeds at Pizza My Heart (656-9400) go to Monterey Public Library 4-9pm Thursday, April 16. Mention the fundraiser.

• Pacific Grove brewery Craft Artisan Ales snagged a gold medal and a 92 point rating from the Beverage Tasting Institute for Ricketts Lab IPA.

• TusCA Ristorante (657-6675) offers a TusCA for Two dinner with an appetizer to share, entrées, dessert to share and a glass of wine all for $60. Also, new spring menu launched April 8.

• Every flavor of Negranti Creamery’s all-natural sheep milk ice cream is now available at the Wharf Marketplace.

• Seaside High School Alumni Association hosts a scholarship fundraiser with live and silent auctions; wine tasting, pork loin carving, pasta and chowder stations and other butler-passed bites 5pm Saturday, April 18, at Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club ($35 in advance, $40 at door, 394-5594).

• Ribs are on the barbecue at Salinas’ Old Town Marketplace 11am-2pm Saturday, April 11, to help the Salinas Veteran’s Day Parade ($10, 449-1690).

• “Success is not final,” Winston Churchill said. “Failure is not fatal.”