January 10, 2017 – Carmel’s trendy Affina Food and Wine restaurant has been tapped to prepare one of the prestigious James Beard Foundation dinners in New York City. The 10-course feast—set for February 25—will feature the cuisine of Affina exec chef Nico Izard paired with local wines from Richard Oh’s Otter Cove and Folktale.
“We’re going to promote local produce and keep the same farm-to-table bistro style as the restaurant,” says chef Nico.
The dinner, dubbed ‘Carmel Chic,’ will use ingredients flown in directly from the Monterey Bay area. Eighty tickets are available for $175/public and $135/members.
The Beard Foundation website promotes the dinner as showcasing “Monterey Peninsula’s cornucopia through the lens of the culinary heritages of the bistro’s chef and owners.” Affina partner Dexter Salazar says they may try to reproduce the meal locally after returning from New York.
Salazar says the rare Beard Foundation invitation was not something they had sought. “I was kind of shocked when the director called,” he says. “I almost fell off my chair.”
He says the City of Carmel’s shutdown of music at the restaurant over the past six months may have been a blessing in disguise, as it forced them to focus on the food and may have resulted in the Beard invitation.
“I want to thank the community, all our followers and the City of Carmel for supporting us over the past months,” he says.
Salazar wants the 10-course dinner to tell the story of Affina and to include Asian dishes that reflect his Indonesian/Filipino heritage, along with French dishes from the chef’s native country and Californian cuisine.
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At Edible Monterey Bay, our mission is to celebrate the local food culture of Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties, season by season. We believe in sustainability, and we believe everyone has a right to healthful, clean and affordable food. We think knowing where our food comes from is powerful, and we hope our magazine, website and newsletters inspire readers to get to know and support our local growers, fishers, chefs, vintners and food artisans.
