Charlie Palmer Wows With Inaugural Morgan Hill Food & Wine

November 1, 2024 – Morgan Hill doesn’t look much like it used to. There’s a real sense of citification to downtown lately, with its huge new parking garage, farm-to-table eateries, Alara wine tasting room and many more retail shops. The town boasts some really good restaurants, among them Odeum, Noah’s, Rosy’s at the Beach, Maurizio’s, Craft Roots, MOHI Farm, Ladera Grill and Willard Hicks.

In addition, there’s a new hotel going in. It’s a joint project of developer Frank Leal—winery and event center owner and Morgan Hill resident—and renowned chef Charlie Palmer, whose hospitality group, Appellation, is building several hotel complexes, including one in Healdsburg and another in the dreaming stages for Petaluma. 

Based on its many wineries and rich agricultural history, Palmer sees the potential to make Morgan Hill a tourist destination. Appellation also has a Sun Valley, Idaho, project under construction, and recently passed the daunting hurdle of getting their Pacific Grove project at the site of the old Tin Cannery, approved by the Coastal Commission after 4 years. They are working on finalizing the design and can then pull permits. Meantime, the 83-room Morgan Hill Appellation project is well underway and should open by Fall 2025, with an onsite restaurant. 

The fact that celebrity chefs and wineries coming from out of town had to stay at places like Comfort Inn, La Quinta, Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn and Courtyard, underscored for the need to upscale accommodations to lure in wine visitors who might want to spend a few days exploring the rapidly growing wine region of south Santa Clara and San Benito counties. 

One of the main attractions at the inaugural Morgan Hill Food & Wine event last weekend was the impressive MOHI Wine Trolley, which seats up to 30 and is ready to take visitors on excursions to various local wineries on the weekends. Weekdays it visits select wineries, and is used for corporate outings, weddings and private parties. 

Trolley owners Heather Gallegos and Christina Perez greeted people as they entered the event, and Chandon ambassadors stood ready to make their Chandon Brut the first thing attendees quaffed from their commemorative wine glass.

Then it was on to explore the mostly well-informed food and wine pairings at over a dozen stations set up in booths along the three-block section of 3^rd Street that had been closed off for the event. The mostly sunny, moderate weather was perfect, with enormous clouds occasionally throwing shadows, and the well-dressed crowd drank in the electric atmosphere that accompanies something new. It was well-staffed with red-tee-shirt-wearing volunteers who whisked away empty plates and kept the place tidy. A visible police presence provided a subtle reminder to drink responsibly. 

The highlight of the event for me, besides seeing all the wonderful wine and food people gathered, was to meet chef Tyler Florence in person and have him sign a copy of his latest cookbook American Grill. Yes, it’s his 17^th cookbook, but it’s also his favorite. His aim in curating the 125 recipes in the book was to avoid unnecessary complexity.  “Anyone can throw more stuff into the sauté pan, but what you don’t throw on the plate shows restraint,” Tyler said. “We strip it down to exactly what you need to make a dish shine.” 

Reverse sear for chicken is among his favorite techniques. 

“Use your oven as a mock sous vide,” says Florence. “Break the chicken into 10 pieces and dry brine it, then bake low and slow until it’s not all the way done, but it still has fat and the protein is set. Then when you grill, it’s only 7 to 10 minutes. The exterior crust comes out very salty with a lemony flavor, and it’s so deliciously wonderful! I am so proud of this recipe!” The book is filled with great techniques and tips for cooking over fire. 

At the festival, Florence served up Steak Diane, with grilled Australian wagyu, buttered brioche, black truffle cognac sauce and crispy onions, a popular dish at his Miller & Luxe restaurant in San Francisco. It was served with a Duckhorn Cabernet Sauvignon—a truly spot-on pairing.  

Almost all the dishes, cooked up by local and celebrity chefs on Big Green Eggs donated by one of the primary sponsors, were worthy and for the most part, the wines were good matches. 

Among the standouts were chef Elizabeth Falkner’s grilled oyster and king mushroom salad with an intriguing caper-date vinaigrette, served with an outstanding 2019 Calera Ryan Vineyard Pinot Noir. 

Chef Nicola Cavicchini of Cordevalle served up a lightly grilled scallop with sour apple emulsion and bacon bits with pickled apple that was a lovely pair with the splendid 2023 Bricoleur Vineyards Chardonnay made by old school winemaker Bob Cabral. Another impressive pairing was chef Thomas Bellec’s perfectly encrusted smoked salmon with brown butter, cauliflower mousseline, verjus-Pommery mustard and sauce vierge, served with Lion Ranch 2021 Viognier that sees some skin contact, giving it the weight to tackle the grill and smoke on the salmon. 

Slighlty less smokey was chef Lance Ramhurst of MOHI Farm’s grilled Lions Mane mushroom with smoked ricotta and tomato jam served on a sourdough baguette and paired with the Leal Vineyard Estate 2015 Carnavál Meritage.  

Chef Michael Mina served up a very tender Hawaii spiced beef short rib with olive oil-herbed sweet potatoes, matbucha purée and red wine jus accompanied by Leal Vineyard Godsend Cabernet Sauvignon. Quite tasty. The display of massive beef ribs looked more like a mastodon. He was selling his latest cookbook, Egypt. 

Speaking of mastodon, one of the most impressive tables was that of local legend chef Todd Fisher of The Meatery in Seaside. His smoked and grilled Santa Carota beef Tomahawk, served with bone marrow, and roast garlic bordelaise was truly a massive hunk of tender beef, served with a gorgeous Harney Lane Vineyard 2021 Old Vine Zinfandel from the Lizzy James Vineyard. There is nothing like the texture of old vine Zinfandel planted in sandy Delta soil and done in French oak. 

Odeum chef Sal Calisi served Spanish-style grilled octopus, sautéed escarole, cannellini beans, toasted garlic and chili to accompany the very svelte Alara Cellars 2021 Grenache from the Adelaida Hills, while chef Lou Zulaica of Cellar Door Catering presented succulent New Zealand lamb chops with crispy herb polenta, smoked tomato vegetable ratatouille and a cabernet bordelaise, accompanied by Guglielmo Winery Syrah, as thick as an Agatha Christie plot. 

I felt truly sorry for Lynn Giacomni Stray, co-owner and COO of Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company who was serving up some fantastic Point Reyes Blue cheese infused with fennel, as it was melting in the strong sun. It might have simply been falling apart due to the intensity of the speaker system employed by the adjacent band, a vivacious kickass group more suited to a tailgate party than a $200/pp food and wine pairing benefit. 

I’d be remiss not to mention the beautiful floral display and the nicely framed IG photo backdrop which Coline Le Conte, editor and publisher of the newly revived Edible Silicon Valley, and I took advantage of, because it was there.

Overall, the food was great, the wine was good and Palmer was gracious, sharing his Palmer Blanc de Noir from Reims, as he shook everyone’s hand, the epitome of hospitality. The best part was that the event directly benefited the Morgan Hill Unified School District’s culinary programs that dovetail with a range of hospitality specialty tracks at nearby Evergreen College. 

“We met with people who run the culinary and hospitality programs at the local high schools,” Palmer told us. “These programs give young people at an early age the opportunity to see this as a career possibility. Out of 7 to 8,000 kids in the system, 170 kids are involved, a good start. When I was a junior in high school, I myself was introduced to the culinary world. It really opens up your mind. Not everyone knows what they want to do, or can say, ‘this is my dream,’ at that stage.” 

A salute to those who serve us daily, and to those who help make those dreams come to fruition.