Pebble Beach Celebrates 100 years with 12th Annual Host Food & Wine Festival

By Molly Sanders | April 4, 2019

Here in Southern California, we are spoiled with some of the best wine, beer and food festivals in the country. Boasting with the latest culinary trends and wine education, California is fortunate enough to simultaneously access a bounty of agricultural diversity (read ‘beef’ into that) and the freshest seafood, making our cuisine one of the most delicious in the nation. We have worked to bring you all of them; from San Diego’s massive Wine & Food Festival in November, to Eat Drink SF in the summer, and many other similar events. And coming up in the beautiful city of Carmel is the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival taking place on April 11-14, 2019. This premier epicurean lifestyle event returns for a 12th year this spring with four days of culinary decadence.

Coinciding with Pebble Beach Resorts’ year-long centennial celebration, the 2019 event is pulling out all the stops as 100 of the world’s top celebrity chefs and 250 acclaimed wineries come together on the spectacular central California coastline. Event-goers will enjoy rare access to an amazing array of talent in both the food and wine worlds—from newly-recognized rising stars to James Beard and Michelin-star award winners— at a series of wine tastings, cooking demos, and some of the most exclusive and original dining experiences in the world.

Among this year’s luminaries are names like Masaharu Morimoto of Morimoto restaurants from New York to Napa, internationally renowned Argentinean grill master and featured chef on the Netflix original series Chef’s Table Francis Mallmann,DAMA’s Antonia Lofaso, Richard Blais of Trail Blais, Michelle Bernstein of Café La Trova, Dean Fearing of Fearing’s Restaurant, and the chef dubbed “The Last Magnificent,” Jeremiah Tower. A prime opportunity for event-goers to rub shoulders and snap photos with a veritable “who’s who” of culinary legends will take place at the Lexus Grand Tasting Tent on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, which will feature 30 chefs and more than 300 wines from some of the top-notch producers around the world.

For a more intimate dining experience, you might want to check out an exclusive, aptly named Decadence Dinner with Chef Alain Passard of the three-Michelin-starred L’Arpège in Paris, whose high-risk gamble to embrace an all-vegetarian menu paid off in spades and was documented in Netflix’s Chef’s Table docuseries. For a more casual rendezvous, culinary legend Jeremiah Tower will be hosting two events – a Fireside Chat complete with champagne, bites, and storytelling by “The Father of California Cuisine,” and a Power Lunch at Casa Palmero with Chef Tower and his proteges Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier of Maine’s critically acclaimed MC Perkins Cove. Don’t miss Wonder Women in the Kitchen —a Power Lunch with some of the nation’s gutsiest female chefs who have survived the trenches to rise to top of their industry: Tanya Holland of Oakland’s Brown Sugar Kitchen; Top Chef Masters Alumni Elizabeth Falkner; Antonia Lofaso of L.A.’s white-hot DAMA, Scopa Italian Roots and Black Market Liquor Bar; and pastry chef Kelsey Larson from Bernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley. Guests will also have the chance to enjoy Dining with The Michelin Stars. This over-the-top dinner will blend the talents of out-of-this-world chefs into one kitchen. Michelin starred culinary greats, including Peter Armellino, Rogelio Garcia, Janina O’Leary and Rupert and Carrie Blease, will serve up a memorable meal at this one-of-a-kind event.

Wine lovers can enjoy the Ridge Monte Bello Wine Seminar. This epic event features five decades of one of the world’s most legendary wine producers. Led by winemaker Eric Baugher, guests will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to sample vintages dating back to 1975 as well a barrel tasting of the unreleased 2017 vintage. 

The four-day long festival will also offer attendees an exclusive opportunity to share a bucket-list golf experience with the top masters of food and wine at the Celebrity Chef & Winemaker Golf Tournament held at Pebble Beach Golf Links. This Players compete for 18 holes of Team Scramble tournament play, fueled by food, wine and beverage stations strategically placed along the course.

Those are just some of the highlights. This year’s event is shaping up to be truly one of a kind, as Pebble Beach celebrates 100 years. For those of who want to learn more about all of the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival, check out the full event listing here.