GourmetFest brings chef Walter Manzke back to Carmel and the dining scene he helped mold 15 years ago.

In 2004, Walter Manzke and girlfriend Margarita packed up life in Los Angeles and moved north. Local restaurateur David Fink had wooed the pair from LA’s famed Patina restaurant to open a new project in Carmel: Bouchée.

“It was so spontaneous, really,” Manzke recalls. “We opened Bouchée without much of a plan. It was supposed to be a casual bistro, but it turned into something more, something that had a big impact on us and on the Monterey Peninsula.”

Manzke was right: Bouchée helped define a new era in Carmel dining. “It was an extremely ambitious project. We made almost everything ourselves: bread, ice creams, pastries, pasta. It was very exciting, but also very challenging.”

He returns this week for GourmetFest – a four-day celebration of world-class food and wine. Manzke speaks highly of the festival founded by his former boss, Fink. “It’s not about trends or hype. It’s about great food, wine and people. I’m excited to go back and cook in Carmel again.”

During his stint on the Peninsula, Manzke helped Fink open Aubergine at L’Auberge Carmel and, a few blocks away, Cantinetta Luca. “Aubergine was a new experience. Doing a prix fixe menu was ahead of its time, and now it’s what a lot of restaurants are doing. It’s great to see how Justin [Cogley] has made it his own, made it even better.”

Walter and Margarita returned to Los Angeles in 2007, but their time on the Central Coast left a lasting impression professionally and personally.

“Marg became a pastry chef at Bouchée, where she learned to bake out of necessity,” he recalls. Now, she’s now considered one of LA’s top pastry talents. Her hotly anticipated Baking at République cookbook comes out on April 2 and last month, she landed a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef. The pair also got married, and now run some of LA’s hottest restaurants: République earns praise for its French-inspired cuisine, Petty Cash taqueria showcases his San Diego roots, Sari Sari Store brings Filipino rice bowls to the bustling Grand Central Market. The Manzkes also have 15 restaurants in the Philippines.

Still, Walter has praise for the Central Coast as a culinary hub: “It’s a place that has a lot of everything right at your doorstep: The ocean gives you seafood, the grapes give you wine, the Salinas Valley gives you the best farms in the world.”

Manzke will be at Thursday’s Welcome Party at La Playa Carmel (6-9pm March 14, $250). On Friday, he’ll join celebrated Bay Area chefs David Kinch and Michael Tusk and the Aubergine team for the Rarities Dinner, which carries a whopping $4,995 price tag. A cooking demonstration and lunch on Saturday, March 16, at La Playa Carmel are more accessible (11am-3pm, $225).

For more information and tickets, visit gourmetfestcarmel.com. And visit mcweekly.com/food_wine for an in-depth look at this year’s GourmetFest throughout the event.