The 15th Annual Guys Can Cook Too! wine and food extravaganza proves what most of us already know: That there is some serious amateur culinary talent in Sonoma County. More than 25 home cooks and 20 restaurant chefs plan to participate in the Rotary Club of Sebastopol’s annual fundraiser. The May 4 event will be held at the Santa Rosa Junior College’s Shone Farm from 4-8p.m.. Tickets are $75 per person, details at guyscancook.com.

BiteClub’s got word that Sonoma barbecue legend Rasta Dwight Jones has returned. Old timers may remember his lovingly crafted Carribean-inspired jerk pork, spare ribs and tri-tip along with Burn Your Face hot links from the days before his Cotati ‘cue shack closed. He’s set up shop in Rohnert Park at Quincy’s Pub and Cafe (6590 Commerce Blvd.) and is currently serving up lunches only.

BiteClub got an exclusive peek at the forthcoming menu for Chalkboard, the casual dining restaurant that’s replacing Cyrus in Healdsburg’s Les Mars Hotel. The menu will source much of its produce from the legendary Chalk Hill Gardens (part of Les Mars owner Bill Foley’s portfolio), so expect lots of seasonal specialties on the menu like microgreens, squash blossoms, stinging nettles, nasturtium greens, peas, leeks and asparagus this spring.

Chef Shane McAnelly does a mix of low and high-brow comfort plates that range from warm pretzels with cheddar cheese and “stadium mustard” ($6) pork belly buttermilk biscuits ($8), veggies with Green Goddess dressing ($7) and marinated sardines ($9) nest to tonier beef tartare with a quail egg ($11), duck confit pasta ($12) or buttermilk fried quail with fava beans ($14). When it comes to his Dungeness crab tater tots with creme fraiche?

We’re ready for a taste-testing tot-off with Stark’s Steak House, who also offer the crabby bites. Chalkboard is slated to open in early May.

The best thing since sliced bread? Winning the second annual Battle of the Brews ‘Wich Hunt, of course. Judged to be the best of breed at last week’s cheflebrity-studded event: John Ash & Co’s “What the Duck”, a duck meatball slider with caramelized onions made especially for the competition. In second place (again) was Awful Falafel, a local food truck and catering biz who wowed voters with fried chicken and bacon nestled between two waffles. Healdsburg Bar and Grill took a solid third with a coffee-infused pork slider with fried onions.

For the Peoples Choice: The Farmers’ Wife with a homemade chorizo, cheddar and egg sandwich took first, La Rosa Tequileria got a commendable second with their Sloppy Jose (a crowd fave) and John Ash & Co won third.

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Bloomfield Farms’ Nick Papadopolous holds a perfect head of baby lettuce in his hand. Grown organically on his family farm with patience and care, its crop-mates have gone to some of the best restaurants in the Bay Area. But like most farmers, Papadopolous ends up with boxes of perishable produce — including the baby lettuce —  that go unsold after farm markets and pick-ups each week.

The clock is ticking on these perishables, which often end up being fed to livestock instead of people. So Papadopolous created CropMobster — a social-media alert system that instantly connects locals with food-gleaning events, “flash sales” and work-trade opportunities to take advantage of produce (and plants) in need of an immediate home. On a recent Monday, I nabbed a box loaded with kale, greens, herbs and seed potatoes for $25 after a friend picked up a pallet from Bloomfield.

Papadopolous is working to bring more farmers and ranchers into the fold as well as social agencies (which are often too overwhelmed to pick up and use large amounts of left-over produce each week). Want to get in on the Mob Alerts? Check out CropMobster.com.

After a lengthy renovation, Michelin-starred Sante Restaurant (at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn) reopened Friday. Expect to see more natural light and “sleek, minimalist design” as well as 56 additional outdoor seats. A new lobby bar is expected in early July.

The re-opening menu is a mix of new and old dishes including poached Maine lobster, braised rhubarb duck breast, bacon-wrapped rabbit loin, Niman Ranch beef “tasting”, warm donuts and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

100 Boyes Blvd., Sonoma, open nightly from 6-9p.m., reservations at 939-2415.

If you were to pick the best meal of the week, it would obviously be Sunday brunch — that lazy mid-day feast that remixes the best of breakfast and lunch into a single, gut-busting repast. And if you were to pick the best place to do it for the best cause imaginable, it would be the April 13, 2013 partnership of Zazu Restaurant + Farm and the Ceres Community Project.

From 9a.m. to 2p.m., teen chefs from the Sebastopol non-profit will help prepare and serve bacon waffles, gourmet mushroom bruschetta, breakfast tostadas, wild salmon and grilled asparagus and flat iron steaks with Chef Duskie Estes and Ceres’ mentor chef, Rob Hogencamp.

All proceeds for the brunch event will benefit the Ceres project, which has provided more than 150,000 free, nourishing meals to families in medical crisis. The program relies on more than 600 teens to help prepare the meals. Three courses, $39. Reservations at 523.4814.