Kick off Car Week 2022 in style with the inaugural Motorlux party at the Monterey Jet Center on Wednesday, August 17 starting at 5pm.
Edible Monterey Bay is proud to partner with event host Hagerty on this new celebration of cars, craft and community in the tradition of the legendary McCall’s Motorworks Revival.
Our role has been to carefully curate an elevated dining experience that allows guests to experience the very best local chefs preparing the very best ingredients the Monterey Bay area has to offer. Edible Monterey Bay has always been #loyaltolocal and lucky Motorlux guests are about to find out why.
Showcasing Top Local Culinary Talent
David Baron | Seascape Beach Resort
David Baron has driven some souped-up culinary programs with the same precision and performance as, say, his classic Corvette C4—which happens to be insured by Hagerty.
Running through the powerhouse chef names, destinations and Michelin stars he’s known along the ride can get dizzying.
He was there at Aqua and Coi at their peaks in San Francisco. He spent time working with star chef Chris Cosentino at multiple stops. He staffed top 100-level spots in big wow Bay Area restaurants and tiny French towns.
The start of COVID brought him to Seascape, not as chef (though he’s itching to cook more), but as food and beverage director. He kept learning and kept yearning.
As pandemic paralysis gradually lifts, he has big visions for the 50-acre property and its 20 fire pits, three swimming pools and miles of uncrowded beach, including a high-end eatery, an Italian restaurant and an approachable bar.
For Motorlux he’s working on a dish to complement all the meat and seafood, like a clever Mediterranean skewer with a range of North African spices and prime local vegetables.
And something that is easily eaten without sauces that might stain the fine threads his fellow car enthusiasts bring to the party.
“Whatever I feed you, you’re not gonna spill it on your shirt,” he says. “No sauces dripping all over your fancy dress. Something neat, light, refreshing.”
Matthew Beaudin | Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey Bay Aquarium Executive Chef Matt Beaudin and his team welcome the world to their table every day, to the tune of nearly 2 million visitors a year.
His mission on Cannery Row is to showcase the area’s best local bounty, with an emphasis on seafood and conscious sourcing, and that will extend to Motorlux.
“An event like this is a real opportunity to showcase Monterey Bay and its sustainability efforts,” Beaudin says. “We represent a national, if not global, hub for sustainable practices, and I find it rewarding to inject that.”
With his Aquarium restaurant, Beaudin features more than sustainable seafood choices like the Ōra King salmon in the poke bowl or Monterey Bay rock cod in the Baja fish tacos. He seeks out every local purveyor and partner possible, from new neighboring businesses like Rock-N-Roll Donuts to time-honored spots like Sakura Sushi.
For the Aug. 17 event at The Monterey Jet Center, he’ll deploy things like kelp from Monterey Bay Seaweeds and seasoning from Big Sur Salts.
“Visitors will know they had a truly Monterey experience,” he says.
Brad Briske | Home Soquel
There are restaurants where everyone wants to eat. Then there are restaurants where chefs want to eat.
Briske broke onto the Monterey Bay culinary scene by making la Balena in Carmel one of the latter. His recipe for flavor earned a flood of awards including Best New Restaurant: homespun Italian recipes, fastidiously sourced local product from farmers markets or the farm itself and an allegiance to snout-to-tail resourcefulness.
“It was different food than what had been going on there,” he says. “I wasn’t a white chef coat kinda guy.”
He’s since launched his own place across the bay in Soquel. While COVID threatened to choke off the restaurants everywhere, Home flourished.
For one, its half-acre working garden/backyard serves as a sizable and well-spaced outdoor area to eat. On top of that, the plunder it produces couldn’t be fresher.
“The garden is epic,” Briske says. “I’m pretty proud of it.”
While he and his wife and her brother have been constructing a greenhouse, raising rabbits, and growing peppers, heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers from seed, they also cultivate close relationships with Monterey Bay area ranchers, farmers and fishermen.
“That’s our thing: few ingredients, let them speak for themselves, and that extends to seafood,” Briske says. “We want to do a limited amount of things really well. It’s about community and taking time to grow these plants—and relationships—with love.”
Todd Fisher | The Meatery and Bear + Flag Roadside
Chef Todd Fisher and his wife Ada have pulled off a range of food-driven feats, all while raising a small flock of kids. Award-winning restaurants? Yup. Pebble Beach Food & Wine executive leadership. Check. Corporate chiefdom for a wildly ambitious winery/restaurant family. That too. TV show based on bacon? Believe it.
Despite the lofty heights of those endeavors, their current projects present their most meaningful. Chef Todd has navigated big visibility and leadership, but he’s never owned his own operation.
That all changed mid-pandemic, when the couple acquired top-shelf butchery The Meatery in Seaside and teamed with longtime foodie friends Emily and Arlen Frew on boutique deli Bear + Flag Roadside not long thereafter.
“The goal has always been to work on things I own and partner in,” he says, “to do something for us, to build our own family empire, even if it’s a very small one.”
Both spots display the Fishers’ flair for full-bodied fare—note the flagship 18-hour brisket sandwich, a pork belly Vietnamese banh mi, the Seaside torta ahogada (or drowned sandwich) with pork shoulder, ham, Oaxacan cheese, white onion and avocado, doused in chipotle consume.
They also reveal an attention to detail. The couple uses decades of culinary research and local connectivity to obtain their most prized proteins. They apply dialed in seasoning to the point that a line of chef Todd spices are under development. Seemingly every inch of the deli cases presents some tantalizing cheese or stuffed olive.
“There are 25 years of ideas that have been bottled up—and need to get bottled—pun intended,” the chef adds.
Klaus Georis | Maligne
The most daring new restaurant in the Monterey Bay area sits in a surprising spot.
Surprising because its exterior, with the exception of a striking vintage door, looks more Soviet Cold War Era than haute cuisine.
Surprising because it appears in Seaside, long the taquería and noodle shop sibling to finer dining in Carmel, Monterey and Pacific Grove.
Surprising because it occupies an intersection that weds ancient techniques (like open wood fire and homemade ferments) with modern interpretations in a clever way, seldom experienced this far from a major metropolis.
The focus is seafood roasted over oak in the open kitchen’s hearth, slow-smoked for days or dished from the substantial raw bar.
Chef-owner Klaus Georis draws from a savvy team of accomplished sous chefs and front-of-house pros, and from a family tradition he was born into. His dad, who helps where he can around the restaurant and whose paintings adorn the wall, co-created local institution Casanova in Carmel.
Klaus Georis also pulls inspiration from a far-reaching culinary odyssey the includes working in Michelin-starred spots from Belgium (In de Wulf) to San Francisco (Atelier Crenn).
On a recent visit, the sommelier summed up the overall effect of the striking atmosphere, compelling techniques and French-leaning wines. She was talking about the vegetal soul of the meadowsweet ice cream in lovage oil, but she might as well have been talking about the restaurant itself.
“There’s a shock factor,” she said, “in a good way.”
Ivan Guadarrama | Montrio, Tarpy's Roadhouse and Rio Grill
The three sister eateries that operate under Coastal Roots Hospitality leadership could rightfully claim spots on Monterey Peninsula’s Mount Rushmore of restaurants.
That’s how established and adored they are individually, with unique settings and memorable menus.
Ivan Guadarrama will represent all three, but will borrow inspiration primarily from Tarpy’s Roadhouse, where he serves as executive chef, and popular dishes include Sriracha-glazed ribs, chili-crusted chicken and grilled New York steak with truffle butter.
Honoring its identity as a contemporary steakhouse, chef Guadarrama and his team will prepare traditional beef Wellington with a slow-cooked mushroom duxelle, sourcing fungi from nearby Ortiz Farms and beef from Niman Ranch.
The chef got his start in the culinary arts as a kid, working for his family’s catering company. But it wasn’t until they prepared food for a 1,000-person event that it really clicked.
“When I experienced the excitement, to be a part of that pressure, that rush,” he says. “That’s when I said: I want this for my life.”
So he’ll be right at home with the crowd of car enthusiasts at Motorlux.
Dexter Salazar | Edwin's Carmel
It sounds preposterous, if not outright impossible. In a city where one square mile contains more than 50 restaurants, Dexter Salazar believes his unique blend of social scene, upscale pan-Filipino food and live music transcends any struggle for diners.
“If you look at the grand scheme of things, what we serve is great atmosphere, great food and great heart,” says Salazar. “We actually don’t have competition in Carmel.”
The heart behind his restaurant’s recent reinvention around contemporary Southeast Asian fare with California ingredients—think Balinese fried chicken, Shanghai lumpia and marinated Duroc pork belly that’s steamed and fried—is right there in its name, Edwin’s.
Dexter’s father, Edwin Salazar, was the first in his village in the Philippines to own a car. He would go on to enjoy success as an engineer and a competitive tango dancer, but more than anything, his family says, he was an inspired home chef.
When he passed away recently, the family nearly sold the restaurant, then decided to return to their roots instead. Today Edwin’s widow, sister and nephew all help Dexter plan and execute one of the Monterey Peninsula’s most eye-catching menus.
Event goers can anticipate something similarly dramatic at Motorlux, namely a whole roasted pig, done Filipino lechon style, complemented by island ceviche.
“Haggerty isn’t afraid to push the envelope and we draw inspiration from that,” Dexter says. “Walking away people are going to be saying, ‘That’s flavor I haven’t tasted before.’”
Jérôme Viel | Jerome's Carmel Valley Market
The chef who was born—and got his start in food—5,477 miles from The Jet Center knows Monterey Bay product as well as anyone in the area.
Jérôme Viel, a native of Brittany, France, honed his craft as a chef at Swiss spots awarded Michelin stars and slots on the list of the World’s Best 50 Restaurants.
But after that, from 1999 on, he’s been all Carmel Valley, helping launch celebrated Bernardus Lodge and directing the kitchen at its one-time sister spot Will’s Fargo Steakhouse.
From there he swapped out the fine dining setting but not the finer foods, acquiring and evolving a beloved local grocery now called Jerome’s Carmel Valley Market.
And while he stocks dozens of outstanding hyper local items, he doesn’t want to lose sight of the primary goal.
“We definitely emphasize local, but at the end of the day, you want the best products that are truly special,” he says. “For a smaller market, we’ve got a lot of special products and specialty items you’re not going to see everywhere.”
Viel brings experience cheffing at the McCall Motorsports Gathering that preceded Motorlux, which is how he knows what will be truly special for his audience to experience: paella.
The key: quality saffron, the right Spanish rice and a technique that prioritizes slowly cooking all the ingredients together.
“That’s it,” Viel says. “It has to be done the traditional way. My food in general is simple, with the best ingredients I can find, and it pays off in flavor.”
Tim Wood | Woody's at the Airport
Local chef legend Tim Wood didn’t become a sustainability pioneer because he thought it would become popular, or because it would earn him a loyal following, or even because it was the right thing to do.
That’s just how things worked in his family.
“I was born into it,” he says. “Growing up, we made things. Everybody in the neighborhood wanted to know when we would finish the next batch of pickles.”
Yes, obsessive sourcing for his habit-forming comfort food with the likes of Swank Farms, Harris Ranch and Robbie’s Ocean Fresh Seafood—for memorable dishes like the burrata mozzarella caprese, 14-ounce New York steak and seared ahi Niçoise—presents its challenges. But that’s part of the point.
“I’ve found in life that you have to work for a little bit more meaning, but it is better in the long run,” he says. “Take the easy route and we won’t be able to feed our kids or our kids’ kids.”
He elaborates from there, adding a final reason he subscribes to the principles he does.
“Sustainability is work, and if you’re uncomfortable, you’re learning,” he says. “I am continuing down the road of sustainability because it tastes better.”
Timothy Woods and Adams Holland | Timothy Adams Chocolates
Timothy Woods and Adams Holland are clear about what drives their lives: culinary arts, fashion, design and—most relevant here—making people happy.
The primary avenue to that happiness: chocolate.
That wasn’t exactly their career plan. But after they made some hand-rolled mint bonbons for a party they hosted for legendary actress and singer Eartha Kitt they were all in.
“Kitt’s party helped us realize our place in the world of chocolate and lead us to a lifetime of seeking and creating exceptional chocolates,” they say.
The garden party was way back in 1993. Fast forward three decades and their handcrafted chocolates now stretch across a spectrum of lofty flavor permutations, 36 all told.
A partial list is enough to drive a chocolate enthusiast cuckoo: crème fraîche, Peruvian milk, Peruvian dark, raspberry, hazelnut praline, passionfruit, caramelized ivory, dark salted caramel, coconut cream caramel, sour cherry marzipan, lemon, mint and many single-source expressions from Ecuador, Dominican Republic and Madagascar.
The possibilities for Motorlux are expansive, but rather than bring them all Woods and Holland plan to curate a special lineup.
“We’re bringing a really cool selection,” Holland says. “And making sure we have something for everyone, whatever type of chocolate they love.”
Robbie Torrise | Robbie's Ocean Fresh Seafood
Robbie Torrise of Robbie’s Ocean Fresh Seafood might be the closest thing the Monterey Bay Area has to Poseidon.
Such are his powers for responsibly summoning the wonders of the sea—oysters, salmon and tuna, among other riches—for many of the area’s very best restaurants, connecting fisherperson to chef.
But he doesn’t let any divine abilities go to his head. Instead Torrise is as approachable as anyone in the industry.
He fields client calls personally any time of day, or at least until the seafood sells out. He will stop a brisk day of business at any given moment to help inspire a customer, for instance, to try a new way to assemble a fresh meal of salad from the farmers’ market and seafood from his tiny tucked-away shop on the northwest end of Monterey’s Municipal Wharf II.
He clearly loves the whole endeavor. Like he told his partners at the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust, which stewards local waters and the fisherfolk that depend on them, “I love the camaraderie, I love the work ethic, whether it be on a fishing boat or in a kitchen…I have a great relationship with chefs in the area. I’m their eyes and ears on the ocean.”
Tsar Nicoulai Caviar
The family-owned Tsar Nicoulai Caviar operation is so rare you might call it…the caviar of caviars.
Note the on-site hatchery and smokehouse, making it the only sturgeon farm like it in the country. Observe the Ecocert certification, awarded after the farm met more than 150 social and environmental standards. Check out the slick aquaponics system, which shrinks water consumption, filters the water for the fish and uses their waste to grow organic butter lettuce.
“The uniqueness of being able to process from A through Z—from spawning to harvest—is something people don’t always understand about us,” says spokesperson Marai Bolourchi. “Our food comes from a farm, and our caviar comes from an animal!”
She finds many are moved by their sustainable measures, which include efforts to use every bit of the fish after harvesting the eggs. The sturgeon, for instance, is smoked and sold at places like their Caviar Cafe in San Francisco’s Ferry Building.
Monterey Bay area caviar lovers are also surprised how local the production is, with the vast majority of the U.S. caviar being produced in the Sacramento area. Tsar Nicoulai, the second largest sturgeon farm in the country, is based in Wilton, Calif., population 5,224.
“We’re in their backyard!” Bolourchi says.
