What Pebble Beach Food & Wine tells us about what we’ll be eating all year.

Even though it’s a week from the Sixth Annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine’s April 4 opening reception blowout at Spanish Bay ($250) – and its two dozen Peter Armellinos, Anne Burrells and Cal Stamenovs, and apparently all of the 200-plus wineries which will pour at the Saturday-Sunday grand tastings – like many holidays, the PBFW season has been fully in swing for a while. 


Lexus courtesy vehicles are purring around town. David Bernahl II and Rob Weakley have completed their dragonfruit cleanses. The grand tasting tent already looms into the sky. 


On Saturday, it was flavored by a number of star local chefs who will play into Coastal Luxury Management’s first – and still best – event as it enters its sixth year. They were there for the Comics for Kids, as was Martin Short, who told the audience it was a thrill to be there (“but more of an obligation”) and that theirs was the best looking group he’d performed for (“Are you all wearing Spanx?”). He also asked Bernahl “Why did God give men nipples if weren’t not meant to breast feed pets?” Bernahl’s bizarre reply: “Nancy Grace.”


But the biggest indication the season of salivation is in full swing is also the most revealing: Chef orders for all the Fabio Viviani demos and Omakase Lunches – with guys named Morimoto and Yamaguchi – have landed, 340 order sheets all told. They furnish a reminder that Pebble Beach Food and Wine is a lot like New York’s Fashion Week.


At least that’s the case culinary liason Dorothy Maras-Ildiz makes, and she would know. She has handled the infinite ingredient and cooking equipment procurement for half a decade, long enough to be known as “the chef whisperer.” What they ask for demonstrates not just what gastronomes will be eating for PBFW, but for the coming months.


“It forecasts food styles, equipments, even menu styles,” she says. “It changes constantly! It’s food fashion!”


Here are some of the trends she spotted (and describes personally):


1 • Heading East


Throughout the last five years there has been a notable shift from Mediterranean flavor profiles – Spanish, Italian, French – to incorporating more and more Asian influences. Two-Michelin-star Chef Dominique Crenn, for example, is preparing “smoked shima aji, lardo, pickled onion and seaweed” as well as “uni, licorice, white chocolate and yuzu.” Two or three of our chefs are making congee.


2 • Animal Styling


This year I see a more varied animal proteins than before: buffalo, elk, rabbit, duck neck, pigs’ ears and pigs’ tails, and more utilization of the whole animal than in previous years.


3 • Indulging Differently


Due to California’s ban on foie gras many chefs have shifted back to previously popular “luxury dishes,” like escargot, sweetbreads, caviar and bone marrow.


4 • Savory Sweetening


Desserts are incorporating more and more savory components. Bill Corbett from Absinthe in S.F. has a “roasted white chocolate cremeux, beet-fennel compote, blood orange, cocoa nib”; Angela Pinkerton of Eleven Madison Park in NYC has a “poached rhubarb with oregano-coconut ice cream and honey brittle.”


5 • Trippy Equipping


Evolution of equipment… there isn’t a dinner or lunch menu that does not include the use of an immersion circulator. Six years ago, we used two throughout the entire event. 


6 • Appetizing Downsizing


Microgreens, tiny vegetables and petite vegetables are more and more popular. They pack a more powerful punch tastewise than their larger counterparts and require no prep time/cutting. I anticipate that we will be purchasing between 600 and 800 4-ounce clamshells of microgreens from Fresh Origins this year. They have an incredible array of products and it keeps growing as demand increases.


7 • Tempting Fermenting


Pickling of everything! Kimchee is the new darling for sandwiches, to offset oysters, etc. Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto is prepping a “kimchee oyster explosion” to be served at the Omakase Lunch and Chef Adam Mali of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel has a local albacore “bulgogi” with kimchee vinaigrette and charred scallion. And Chef Adam Keough has a coriander-crusted big-eye tuna, avocado-pickled vegetable salad with kumquat vinaigrette.


8 • Losing Loquaciousness


Minimalist menu descriptors are BIG with the upper-echelon chefs. Three-star Michelin Chef Christopher Kostow is preparing “red abalone/bean/nasturtium” and “tendon/hamachi/sorrel” and “sturgeon bacon/peas/caviar.” This is in contrast to a few years ago when nearly every item on a menu included the name of the farm who grew it as well as the name of the farmer and his kids’ names too and we could hardly get it all to fit on the menu. Now we have an abundance of space!


9 • Capturing Mastery


With the advent of Food Network, Top Chef-, Iron Chef – and Hell’s Kitchen-type shows, the mystique of what goes on behind the kitchen doors has become not just a fad but part of the American culture in a much larger way than anyone could’ve predicted 10 years ago. The consumers are now very savvy to food/restaurant terminology and feel more involved with the inner workings of our business than ever before. This is good and bad: It takes away some of the mystique, which can be a little tarnishing at times. It’s good because they have a deeper appreciation of the skill sets chefs have to possess to become successful. This will, in turn, garner a deeper respect for our industry on the whole. 


QUICKBITES


• He disappeared. Now he reappears. Like magic. To fall back under his sausage spell get after PigWizard on Facebook or email pigwizard@pigwizard.com. When I called him he had just tubed out 400 pounds of sausage in two days and was hoping to open a deli-butcher shop by next spring. The only swine thing more divine than eating his orange poppy pudgies this weekend was seeing Coach Katie Eitzen, Chelsea Belle Davey, Claire Harris and Greg Tomascheski do their pig-in-shit impersonations at the Big Sur Mud Run. Like Team Weekly, Wiz’s manchego-artichoke chicken sausage ($9/pack) remains my gold-standard.


• If Tupac was an organic chef, he might have a Tumblr like Thug Kitchen. Check it. 


• Montrio Bistro (648-8880) and ace barkeep Anthony Vitacca have a new drink menu. Hit the blog for info and recipes.


•Carmel’s Caraccioli Cellars (682-0973) hosts a free Authors & Wine event Thursday, March 28, this one featuring Dr. Stuart Brown, whose National Geographic cover piece on the power of play was riveting.


• Quail Lodge is back after five years dark, which is awesome. On-premises Edgar’s (620-8910) never shuttered, but it has a new menu. More on the blog. 


• Aubergine (624-8578) prepares a surreal meatless meal on Tuesday, April 2, as a part of their inspired Food for Thought dinner series. $85/person with wine pairings. 


• Come 5-7pm Thursday, March 28, Rich Tanguay unloads Bordeaux varietals to taste along with some paired snacks at Heller Estate Organic (659-6220) for $25.


•Speaking of adventures, my second favorite, Monday night dinners at Cachagua General Store, has a more nuanced BYOW policy than I reported, and one that sounds very fair: $10 corkage unless you made it yourself and are willing to share, you are a two-top sharing a bottle on a romantic date, you are a regular or you are a friend. I heart Cachagua. Also, Pat Clark plays steel guitar, not banjo. My bad.


• La Balena (250-6295), fresh off its Best New Restaurant win in our readers poll, just launched lunch: rustic Italian charcuterie, pastas, salads ($15 max).


•Oldtown Salinas Association is taking over the Oldtown Salinas Farmers Market. Joe Aliotti had been running it, but the OSA board formed a committee to address complaints, and take it back toward more produce and less flea-market “stuff.” Saturday the new era starts; the goal is to move it to Gabilan Street. Community members can chirp in at 7pm at City Hall Tuesday, April 2. Vendors can call 758-0725 or email director@oldtownsalinas.com.


•Jacks Restaurant (649-2698) makes a nice addition with long-time local chef Borris Ilabaca coming in as chef de cuisine to help Jason Giles.


•Breakthrough Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi on ingredients: “Humor is one of the best ingredients of survival.”