Pebble Beach Lexus Food & Wine Festival

Foodies, wines, friends, and lots of sunshine, what a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon indulging ourselves.

Jan Allen ATA West Coast Sales Manager

Ken, Charlotte, George, & I attended the Lexus Grand Tasting Event at the 2011 Lexus Food & Wine Festival held at Pebble Beach Saturday. 
The venue was held as a fund raiser for the Boy&Girls Club of America and CASA (a child advocates organization).  

Interacting with the Wineries

I had a great time tasting wines from various vineyards like Acacia, Bridlewood, Chalone to Signorello, Trinchero, and Wente vineyards to name a few out of the 192 wineries that was represented there.
 

Jacques & Claudine Pepin

Don't ask me anything about the wines because after the 1st couple of glasses of wine and drinking some exotic mixed drinks in between, I don't remember anything about the wines. 
If I did then the Stella beer washed it all away. 

Michael Ginor

I did noticed that when the chefs had a break, I could find them in line getting a Stella!

I am not a foodie but I enjoyed talking to some of the 84 Culinary Masters in attendance there and tasting their food. 
I can easily become a foodie after tasting some of the food at the event. 

Andre Bienvenu

Some of the Chefs represented there were Jacque & Claudine Pepin, Tyler Florence, Masahara Morimoto, Rick Tramonto, Gale Gand, Roy Yamaguchi, Michael Schwartz, Michael Ginor, Daniel Joly, Andre Bienvenu, Michael Chiarello, Akira Back, and Miguel Garcia to just name a few. Celebrity Chef Guy Fieri was also there.
 

Rick Tramonto & Gale Gand

Daniel Joly

Michael Chiarello

Akira Back

Michael Schwartz

Miguel Garcia

Besides Lexus, the event had at least 54 major sponsors attending including Aruba Tourism Board. Aruba's booth had Master Chef Miguel Garcia and he had his college intern, Ever De Pena, created a very delicious meat dish which Ken thought was very yummy! 
I enjoyed mine with some red wine from J. Lohr. The dish was a Crispy Fried Chicken with Aruban Creole Sauce and Macadamia Nut Crusted Grouper with Tropical Relish. 

Ever De Pena

For the On-Line Auction fund raiser, Aruba had donated a trip for two to Aruba. 

Lin, Charlotte, & George enjoying wine

The trip is a 5 Days and 4 Nights at the Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort & Casino. It includes Round Trip Coach Airfare for 2 and an online Activity Package for 2. 
As an extra bonus, this includes an Island Tour with  Sail & Transfers courtesy of Red Sail Sports and dePalm Tours. This has an estimated worth of $4000!  
I would love to go to Aruba too!


Overall, we had a great time!


Lin can be contacted at lin_travels@sbcglobal.net