A Grand Tasting - The Best of Pebble Beach Food and Wine 2009

Here's a little video recap I just put together of my favorite bites from inside the Lexus Grand Tasting tent at Pebble Beach. It was foodie nirvana - literally hundreds of the finest wine markers shoulder to chef coat with some of the most talented gastronomes in the country.

As I methodically worked my way around the giant white tent, I was pleasantly surprised to find the star chefs were not only present in the booths, in most cases they were the ones making and serving the food.

This gave the attendees a rare chance to hear what they were about to taste as described by the dishes creator. As you'll see in the video, while describing these offerings, most of the chefs had a twinkle in their eye that only shines through when you are truly enjoying what you're saying.

My favorite description was by Chris Cosentino, who created the ingenious "Liver and Kidney Pie" pictured here. Chris was beaming over every single component, and after one bite I knew why.

For the sake of time, and several star chefs' reputations, this video is not a complete catalog of the food, but a collection of my favorite bites. I thought it was going to be hard to decide on a favorite - that was until I tasted what Chef Mark Estee called a BLT. It was transcendent.

The little homemade English muffin topped with tomato gelée, pork belly, and romaine ice cream was simply amazing. It was a truly brilliant bite from concept to cocktail napkin.

In addition to the Grand Tasting covered here, I attended a couple demos by Chef Michele Richard (Chef Richard and Santa Claus have never been seen in the same room). They were a lot of fun, and I'll post more content this week as time allows.

I want to extend a special thanks to my friends at Foodbuzz who made covering this memorable event possible. For those of you who don't know about Foodbuzz yet, they're the ultimate social network for foodies, and I highly suggest signing up. Enjoy!

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