It takes a top chef to whip out a dish like foie gras with passion fruit and liquid nitrogen grapes, diver scallops and fried green tomatoes in 25 minutes — along with three other dishes. But that’s exactly what former Top Chef contestants Hosea Rosenberg, Ryan Scott and Chris (CJ) Jacobsen did, along with the day’s ultimate winner, Kendall Jackson Chef Justin Wangler, on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010 during the Kendall Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival.
It’s an annual chef-off that’s all about the camaraderie and sweating it out under the summer sun with a glass of Riesling and several thousand of your best friends. Here are some of the amazing dishes from the chefs…
And congrats to Justin!

Though many of Sonoma County’s chefs, purveyors and winemakers receive accolades far beyond Wine Country, the annual Harvest Fair Awards are a purely local commendation of the region’s favorites.
So whet your whistle, then head to Sept. 25th’s Awards Night Gala to taste, sip and celebrate all of the winning food and wines selected this year. Here are the winners in the food categories…
Dairy: This long-overlooked category was revived in 2010, spearheaded by local cheesemaker and caterer Sheana Davis. “I felt it was time to revive the Dairy competition, since we we have so many amazing dairy producers joining in the cheesemaking production of Sonoma County, which includes artisan butters, farmstead cheeses and so many unique and regional new dairy products. In our judging of more than 30 entries, we tasted raw goat milk cheeses, aged cow milk cheese, fresh goat milk cheeses, yogurts, butters and yet this was just the beginning,” she said. Petaluma Creamery took top honors in the aged cow cheese category (Monterey Jack won gold); Redwood Hill Farms in the fresh goat cheese category, rined goat cheese (Cameo) and aged goat cheese (smoked cheddar). Valley Ford Cheese Company won Double Gold for its Estero Gold Montasio and Highway 1 Fontina. Spring Hill Jersey captured Double Gold and Best in Show for its Peppercorn Goat Farmstead Cheese. McClelland’s Dairy won top awards for its European Style Organic Artisan Butter, while Green Valley Organics and Redwood Hill Farm both took medals for their yogurts.
Olive Oil: Ferrari-Carano Vineyards Vintners Inn Estate Olive Oil was  named Best of Show Olive Oil. According to Cheryl McMillan  of Ferrari-Carano Vineyards, the winning oil is a blend of all the olives grown on the Vintners Inn Estate:  coratina, frantoio, leccino, maurino, and pendolino.  The judges were impressed with the balance of fruit,  bitterness and pungency of the winning oil.
Desserts: Brasserie at the Hyatt took Best in Show and Beset use of Local Products for its Swedish Cream Cannolis, while Oliver’s Markets won the Sweepstakes Dessert Award for its desserts. Oliver’s also won Best in Show for its decorated wedding cake and honey caramel nut tart in the pastry division.
Best of Show Wine List: Carneros Bistro at the Lodge. Dry Creek Kitchen won Best Sonoma County Wine List.
Best Deli/Charcuterie: Newcomer Yanni’s Sausage won Best Charcuteries for its Loukaniko Pork Rustic Country Sausage, while Bear Republic Brewing won Best of Show Delicatessen for its Wild Game Chili.
Appetizer and bread categories have a variety of classes, but top contenders in the Appetizer category included Brasserie at the Hyatt for their Best Use of Sonoma County Cheese, BBQ Smokehouse Catering for the BBQ Beef Brisket (Best use of SoCo Beef) A La Heart Catering for best use of Seafood and Poultry and Grapevine Catering for Best use of Lamb and Wine. In the breads category, Costeaux French Bakery won Best in Show for its Ciabatta and Multigrain breads. Winning double golds were Franco American Bakery for their Sweet French Roll and Nightingale Breads for their Forestville French Baguette.
The 2010 Sonoma County Harvest Fair takes place October 1-3 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. More information click here.

Since the demise of Plaza Farms in 2008, Sonoma County’s olive oil fans have been chomping at DaVero Olive Oil owner Ridgely Evers to open another retail outlet for his ever-growing selection of locally pressed oils, preserves and estate wines.
This week Evers (who is notoriously obsessive about his small-batch products) opens his long-awaited tasting room/vineyard/biodynamic farm on Westside Road near Madrona Manor. There’s been lots of buzz about the space, which Evers has been planting and renovating for the last two years. Aside from filling your 30 Weight (DaVero’s sturdy cooking oil) there, Evers makes about 300 cases of wine including a Sangiovese Rosato and his personal fave, Sagrantino, a rare Italian varietal, both for sale in the tasting room.
The space utilizes reclaimed wood, fixtures and steel — from fallen trees to lights from one of Evers’ old start-ups. He’s also rescued several olive trees and reclaimed stumps for use as decor.
As the space ramps up, Evers plans to sell local produce ( Nathan Boon of Tommy Boy Potatoes is growing produce on a corner of the 5-acre property) and make the tasting room the exclusive retail location for his olive oils.
DaVero Tasting Room: 766 Westside Road, Healdsburg.

Thanks for all the great recommendations. I had a blast. I’m overwhelmed with work the next couple days, but i promise to circle back with me recommendations.
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BiteClub is heading to fab Las Vegas for the long Labor Day weekend. Call it an excuse to pretend I didn’t just turn 39 (+1).
Other than reservations at Joel Robuchon’s Atelier on Saturday night (thanks Justin and KJ kitchen crew for the reco), I’m fancy free. What are your favorite Vegas eating adventures? Any great cheap eats on the strip? Anything I absolutely shouldn’t miss? I’m looking to you for recommendations. I’ll post my adventures next week.
Look forward to your ideas!

One of the newest things in wine also happens to be the oldest: Doing nothing.
There’s a growing backward-is-forward movement afoot to simply let grapes do their thing when it comes to making wine. Defined as “natural wines”, they’re the kicked-back kin to biodynamic and organic wines (sustainably grown, minimal intervention) with one major difference — they’re fermented with only the wild yeasts in the air around them.
Like creating a bread starter without commercial yeast, it can be a dicey but exciting proposition that in the right hands makes for a truly of-this-place wine that never turns out the same way twice. These are the wines of 100, even 1000 years ago.
Here in Sonoma County, the Natural Process Alliance’s Kevin Kelley and his small winemaking crew are at the leading edge of the trend, garnering serious attention for their hyper-local sippers that are grown, bottled, er…canteened (more on that, later) and drunk all within 100 miles. Their explanation of natural wines goes even further: No additions or subtractions in the winemaking.
Unfiltered and unmanipulated, they’re like no wine you’ve ever tasted in that they smell and taste like the grapes they come from and are, well, alive in a way that wine usually isn’t. They have soul. Low in alcohol and high in drinkability, they’re the kinds of wines your grandpa would have made, assuming he had the kind of skills Kelley and his crew do. And the influences of Cake, Ween and Mark Kurlansky informing their vision.
[vimeo width=”350″ height=”200″ align=”left”]http://vimeo.com/10103518[/vimeo]”We strive to allow the character of the location and vintage shine. Our annual goal is to have a label that reads; Ingredients: grapes,” says Kelley.
If that sounds like a given, consider the fact that government regulators denied Kelley’s petition to have a label with exactly those words. In an industry that regularly relies on a combination of commercial yeast, enzymes, animal byproducts, filtration and/or specialized bacteria to produce viable wines, Kelley’s natural approach didn’t sound feasible. Grapes the only ingredient in wine? Poppycock!
“It got killed because they said you just couldn’t do that,” said Hardy Wallace, who’s serving as the public champion, cellar rat and delivery man for the fledgling NPA. Wallace, you may remember, won a six-month dream job at SoCo winery, Murphy-Goode as their social media guru. When that gig ended, he practically tripped over himself to join up with the NPA, whose trajectory he’d been following for months. “I’m here chasing a dream.”
Wallace compares the NPA wines to sashimi. Freshness is critical and it’s meant to be consumed quickly. “With sashimi, it’s all about just being a cut of fish. The best thing is that it hasn’t really been touched,” he said. “Like sashimi, this wine is meant to be drunk right now. Tonight,” he said. Immediate drinking means there’s no need for corks and glass bottles. Instead, the NPA is using refillable stainless steel canteens, much like you’d take to the gym. The bottles are delivered to restaurants or filled at their tasting room from taps — yes, actual taps.
“It’s the jug experience with wine that no one else is having anywhere else in the country,” Wallace said. The NPA limits its distribution to the Bay Area, with most of its restaurant clients in San Francisco and the East Bay. Only one Sonoma County restaurant, Scopa, currently stocks the wines.
As winemaker to traditional (and coveted) labels like Lioco and his own brand, Salinia, Kelley’s already got a following, but this new style of sippers at the NPA has a rabid sommelier and chef following. What’s surprising is that the wines — which admittedly need a bit of explanation — are still a hard sell in Sonoma County. Wallace just shrugs when it comes local restaurants accepting the wines. Our loss.
Currently, there are four wines on tap at the NPA: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, a red blend called Sunhawk and Pinot Gris. You can stop in for a taste of the wines, on tap, Friday and Saturday from 10:30am to 6:30pm Friday and Saturday or by appointment. 3350 D Coffey Lane, Santa Rosa, 527-7063.

Cobblers are such a homey little hug of a dessert.

I remember never being all that impressed with them as a kid. They seemed like such a Betsy home-ec thing to make. Something eternally stuck in a bygone era — like lime Jell-O with Cool Whip. Not to mention being scarred by versions using canned peaches and Bisquick, resulting in a gooey mess that smelled like an elementary school cafeteria.
This is an entirely different beast.
Peaches are at their juiciest right now, soft and drippy and sweet as a summer evening. A hint of lemon with a crisp, airy biscuit atop makes for a perfect cobbler for a warm September evening. Inspired by a collection of old and new recipes, caterer and bake Meloni Courtway knows a thing or two about cobblers, recently having made 40 for a summer event.  Here’s her can’t-miss recipe…
(PS: Meloni will be taking her baking skills to Olympia’s Orchard on Sept. 12 and Two Rock Ranch on Sept. 19 for Apple Pie workshops teaching the secrets to a perfect crust and all picking. Visiting TwoRockRanch.com for details.)
Perfect Peach Cobbler
recipe by Meloni Courtway
Serves 15
3 pounds peaches, peeled and pitted
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Juice of 1 lemon + two teaspoons lemon juice
Zest of half lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt (not non-fat or low-fat)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 stick unsalted butter melted and cooled
Heat oven to 350 degrees.Generously butter a large casserole dish. Peel and pit peaches. Slice into fairly large chunks. Place peaches, 1 1/4 cups sugar, cornstarch juice of 1 lemon and zest into large bowl.  Toss gently to coat, using a wooden spoon. You will be tempted to pull out several slippery peaches and pop them into your mouth at this point. Go for it.
Place sliced peaches in buttered casserole dish and into oven to heat until the juices begin to run – roughly 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine yogurt, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, and melted butter. Stir to combine. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Pulse briefly with paddle attachment. Add butter mixture to flour and pulse slowly to just combine. Do not over mix. This can  all be done by hand as well.
Pull hot peaches from oven.  Dollop tablespoons of the sticky dough over the hot peaches, distributing equally.  It will look like drop biscuits. There will be gaps where fruit shows through – this is good, as the dough will rise!
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.  Serve warm or re-warmed later the same day with vanilla ice cream!