Special Report: 15 Takeaways from Pebble Beach Food & Wine 2024

April 12, 2024 – Free association: I say Pebble Beach Food & Wine. You say: _______. 

Bold guess: Subtle isn’t the first word that springs to mind.

That’s relevant here because part of reporting on something as ambitious as PBFW 2.0 Year 1 is to observe details both dramatic and discreet. 

So here come telling takeaways from 2024’s PBFW—the first since 2019, and the inaugral with Pebble Beach Foundation as the host and a21 handling programming.

They’re more or less ordered from the most obvious observations (though the lessons they reveal might not be so clear) to, yes, the more subtle.

(Editor’s note: This special report temporarily takes the place of my normal Friday Found Treasures column, though many FFT-grade gems occupy this rundown, my favorite among them Pacific Grove-born Blue Strike Environmental, formerly Offset Project. FFT returns next week.)

It’s good to be back.

As the eclipse mania brought into dramatic focus, there’s something about participating in a communal bit of history. Like the totality, a world class event’s rebirth only comes once a generation, goes fast, and makes some participants emotional. 

Space helps.

At the pre-festival media lunch, the only real announcement, strangely enough, was that the Grand Tastings would now be called Tasting Pavilions, and that they’d be bigger than in years past. While the previous scale seemed expansive enough, the two football fields’ worth of astroturf between tasting super-tents, and square footage within, added literal and figurative airiness. The bigger layout also furnished room to approach and engage vintners and chefs without waits. The only two lines I saw all weekend were for rum brand Ron Zacapa Centenario’s cotton candy machine and the classic French omelets by John Tesar of Michelin-starred Knife. 

The title may need an update (Pebble Beach Food & Wine &…Spirits).

Second most striking item from The Obvious Department was the sheer number of liquor tasting stations, many of them more trade floor design displays than tables (in a good way)—one had its own tap spigot, another a boutique train car setup. That diversified the layout on the eye and the palate, which a21 CEO Brett Friedman says is intentional. “We want to keep ensuring it’s one of the best wine programs in the country, but we also know some people don’t enjoy wine, or tequila, or whiskey, so you gotta bring them all,” he says. “To create a near perfect experience, you have to give guests a diversified playbook.”

Throwing heat helps.

Singer-violinist Razz and her custom 7-string electric Viper violin did a relentless slate of 12 different events over four days. And come Sunday she was still smiling from her perch at the center of the pavilion’s huge courtyard, under the Monterey cypress that was transported there for the event. She reported she tried to honor the requests of chefs who approached, often with a taste of their creations. “They asked for a lot of EDM [electronic dance music], hype-up music,” she says. “It’s a high energy crowd, and chefs want to go hard.” Club at Pasadera Chef Colin Moody needed no such inspiration. He has a gift for absurdly creative tastes at special engagements, and his vegan “bone marrow”—with torched parsnip “bone,” local mushroom duxelle filling and pickled candy caps—more than qualifies. “It was hilarious when guests would scoop out the middle, fully convinced it was a real bone marrow,” he says. 

The Pavilion experience drifted more corporate.

One wine pro called the Port showcase “a cash grab,” which felt unfair. After all, a major part of the financial foundation is sponsors. There were plenty of other targets for her arrows, like the Coke Zero corner or Disney-esque fake glacier in the other tent. Still, people were drawn to those, and I was among many thankful for the Icelandic Glacial Water.

The wine’s doing fine. 

While the quantity of wineries pouring at the Grand Pavilion proved stout, I found myself pining for more collector-level wines. And don’t take my word for it. Edward Mackauf attended 18 of 20 Masters of Food and Wines before PBFW 1.0, for which he and his wife had perfect attendance. He wished for more European eye catching wines too, though he did shout out Dalla Valle for a “perfect” Cabernet. “Not a word I can remember using for wine,” he says. Speaking of vino authorities, let’s leave further analysis there to Edible’s wine columnist and veteran judge Laura Ness, and her textural look back at PBFW 2024, including her “wine crush” from the tasting pavilion.

Pebble as venue doesn’t suck. a21 gets that.  

Venues like Fairway One Complex (with its broad course-side terrace) and Stave Wine Cellar (itself a max comfort and class lounge) rose to the level of the featured flavor makers. “We’re grateful Pebble Beach empowered us to take the landscape we were given,” a21’s Friedman says, “and gave us a chance to introduce something new, something about sense of place and something eye-catching.” While a21 would love to lock PBFW in as a partnership long-term, it also has its eyes on other high-profile, high-society Pebble events like Concours d’ Elegance.

More locals is top of the to-do for 2025.

Key organizers observed the opportunity to bring in more of the immediate area’s epicures. “We realize we need more locals, and price points might’ve overreached what we thought was palatable,” says Friedman, who adds immediate evaluations after each event are already being examined. Other to-dos for ‘25: upgrade the pavilion VIP area, bring in more international chefs, improve flow between tents, particularly for ADA. “We keep 80% of events and fine tune, always building,” Friedman adds, “and change 20.”

Waste needn’t accompany taste.

Monterey-based Blue Strike Environmental works across the country to divert waste streams from massive events anywhere but the landfill. (BSE is currently out serving the Boston Marathon.) All the food waste goes to compost, building materials like carpet and wood paneling are upcycled and even corks were collected for Monterey County Youth Museum art projects. “Otherwise it would be one dumpster with everything mixed together, labeled trash,” California events division manager Emily Zumtobel says. “We’re trying to get everything a second life if we’re able to.” While they compile their sustainability report for PBFW24, the results from the latest AT&T Pro Am hint at Blue Strike’s effects: 6.3 tons of food was donated, 24.8 tons of food waste composted and 39.7 tons were recycled with help from partners like Shoreline Church and Last Chance Mercantile.

The nonprofit support is real. 

Ahead of the event, PBFW’s promotional focus on nonprofit partners like the James Beard Foundation, Roots Fund and Rancho Cielo felt like smart spin. But it wasn’t lip service. Friends of James Beard benefits director Izabela Wojcil told me she was thrilled with the PBFW relationship, the Roots’ sommelier team provided remarkable wine guidance (and overdue diversity), and Rancho Cielo hospitality instructor Laura Nicola sounded ecstatic for her students being celeb chef Andrew Zimmern’s entire kitchen crew for the five-course, sold-out Foundation Table benefit. “Zimmern had his own personal struggles with addiction and homelessness, so it was powerful for our students to see where he is now,” she says. “It doesn’t define you.” After Pebble Beach Foundation pays Pebble Beach Company and a21 for its staffing, lodging, venues and logistics, the margin goes through PBF to 90-plus area do-gooders.

Culinary stars say memorable things.

The iPhone eats first. There are also morsels for the ears. Sometimes it’s overhead gossip in the big tents, or these thoughts on mic from headliners. Chef, restaurateur and Chopped star Scott Conant: “I walked out of my room this morning, looked at the golf course and said, ‘Thank God…that I’m not golfing.’” Naoko Dalla Valle of the eponymous winery: “I don’t know if I really recommend going into the wine business.” Industry icon and Napa pioneer Tor Kenward: “The morning is when we taste wine!” Top Chef star Shirley Chung of Ms Chi Cafe in Los Angeles: “I am the dumpling queen of L.A.!! I also ship nationwide.” Celebrated chef Philip Tessier, of PRESS Napa Valley, which stocks more Napa wines than any restaurant on the planet: “The reward outweighs the work.”

Rubbing elbows is required. 

While he swears by the seminars (“Just that hour and a half with a principal and master sommelier is an incredible experience”), PB CFO Judah Matthews likes the interactions with chefs most. “It’s not the AT&T or US Open watching people play golf behind the ropes,” he says. “With food and wine you’re in the action. You’re not a spectator.” At one lunch, star chef Claudette Zepeda challenged eaters to “accost chefs for tips and tricks.” When asked for what makes her go, she told me, “I want to open minds to what Mexican can be! And put myself in each dish I do.”

Nibbles come with news nuggets.

Revelations to earmark cropped up regularly. To wit, Michael Rotondo and Coastal Kitchen—who did an incredible octopus-uni-charred mandarin tostada for the Tasting Pavilion—have a tantalizing new brunch going Sundays at Plaza Hotel overlooking the Pacific (three courses, “free-flowing” Champagne, $75). Rhys and its fresh and mineral-forward whites has a tasting room OTW to Los Gatos in coming weeks. Maya Dalla Valle (winemaker of Napa cult hit Dalla Valle) and Carlton McCoy (CEO-president of Heitz Cellar) are engaged to marry. James Beard Foundation is taking its chefs, who provided the outstanding tastes for Opening Night and beyond, on the road to 20 cities for its Celebrity Chef Tour. Rancho Cielo is starting its Friday sunset Tapas on the Patio earlier this year—5-7 today, April 12, running Fridays through May 24—with patio improvements and online reservations. (Its Friday Night dinners, meanwhile, are sold out through this year.)

Theft is good. 

One of my favorite writing mentors encouraged us to “read like a thief,” snagging tasty techniques and personalizing turns of phrase. That applies here—make salsa macha a secret weapon of your own (it made a hamachi crudo dish soar), try roe as a finishing element (it’s more reasonable and in some ways better than caviar), experiment with kumquat mustard (it’s a wonderful thing), add foraged nasturtium to salads and seafood alike (sorry not sorry arugula). Other strategies: Be selective with your opening sips, when your palate is brightest (thank you local Pinot champions Calera, Patz & Hall and Roar for making that possible); attend a lunch if you can, when the whole room is revved rather than dinner-weary after a full day’s romp.  

The big picture remains important, if subtle. 

Perhaps the most fundamental piece of all of this can be a little elusive. In the form of a question, it goes like this: What’s the point? I asked several prominent contributors, a21’s Friedman included. “I feel most Inspired by the smiling faces, and I really mean that. What I care about is the simplicity of word fun. I’m a steward of the hospitality industry, and take an enormous responsibility carrying forward what’s been laid by stewards before us.” 

Dorothy Maras, who managed chef-wrangling duties with a broken arm (“I still have another arm, and my brains!”), shared a similar message, while shouting out local chefs for exemplary contributions that elevate the Monterey Peninsula as a destination for food and drink. “The point is to see all these culinary heroes, experience all of what they create and do, all in one place,” she says. “When all the thousands of little pieces that go into this are woven into this big magical quilt, it is something awe-inspiring from so many perspectives and levels. Seeing it come together, and people enjoying it, is so gratifying. It becomes magical because it’s more than the sum of its parts.”