My-WoodenSpoon: San Francisco Chefs 2010

San Francisco 2010 Chefs Show CIA Culinary Team

This past weekend I along with a few CIA classmates had the opportunity to help chef Almir DaFonseca prepare and serve the food for the San Francisco Chefs 2010 event after party. It is San Francisco's version of Aspen's Food and Wine Spectacular. It is one of the only events in town where the entire food and beverage industry come together to celebrate itself, and to make everyone in attendance very full and very drunk. The week kicked off with some seminars and smaller parties, but the centerpiece of the weekend were the grand tasting events in the tent on Union Square, featuring a rotating cast of notable chefs around town, several karaoke acts, and ALOT of food and alcohol.

After being voted the top booth at the 2009 show Chef Almir was invited back to be the headlining chef. It was a great night. In between preparing we had the opportunity to attend the event that many top California chefs including Top Chef Masters Chef Hubert Keller attended. A major trend I noticed was corn. From sweet corn icecream to corn chowder it was well represented. There were also many breweries and wineries there to show off their best products. It was a great opportunity to not only eat great food, but to do a lot of networking.

Food highlights included Bar Bambino's arancini with risotto, lamb and cheese, Chris Cosentino's pork-liver-filled chicharrone, Banks White's braised pork with johnnycakes and Hollandais, Matt Accarrino's lamb dumpling with sage brown butter, Chef Almir's Mediterranean inspired Lamb with couscous salad and fried garbanzo beans, and Chef Almir's Latin style braised pork on black bean puree topped with cabbage pico de gallo slaw and lime cilantro creme.