Chefs shine at Sonoma Wine Country Weekend

<p>What do you think of when you hear the word Sonoma? A simple tomato? A rustic cheese? A picnic lunch with friends and a glass of wine?</p><p>As the vintners of Sonoma County prepare to loosen up bidders at the annual Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction with glasses of rosé and viognier, a team of eight chefs has been working behind the scenes to translate Sonoma's bounty into a lavish lunch that still speaks Sonoma-ease.</p><p>“For me, the auction is a little bit of Sonoma, in that it's really casual,” said chef John Toulze of Estate and The Girl & The Fig in Sonoma. “At the end of the day, the food is great, seasonal and simple.”</p><p>The luncheon is the grand finale of the Sonoma Wine Country Weekend, a three-day celebration of wine and food that kicks off today with a slew of winemaker dinners, continues Saturday Sept. 5 with the delicious smorgasbord known as the Showcase: Taste of Sonoma at MacMurray Ranch in Healdsburg, and ends Sunday Sept. 6 with the annual Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction at Cline Cellars in Sonoma.</p><p>Saturday's popular Showcase tasting event at the historic Russian River Valley ranch puts chefs and vintners under huge white tents — a tent for each of the major wine-growing regions in Sonoma County. Wandering the beautiful grounds, noshing and tasting, would be heaven by itself, but the day also includes wine seminars, vineyard tours and cooking demonstrations by chefs Douglas Keane of Cyrus and Jesse Mallgren of Madrona Manor, both of Healdsburg.</p><p>With the help of chef/owner Manuel Azevedo of La Salette in Sonoma, Toulze plans to create for the Sunday auction luncheon a height-of-tomato-season first course of Watermelon and Heirloom Tomato Salad with Feta Cheese.</p><p>“For me, the less ingredients the better,” Toulze said. “We're in this spectacular part of the world where there isn't any better produce. So we're not going to drizzle a ton of balsamic. It will get sea salt, herbs, extra virgin olive oil — and that's it.”</p><p>Toulze likes the way the tomatoes and watermelon play off of each other in the salad, even though they may seem at first glance to be an unlikely pairing.</p><p>“As we know, tomatoes are delicious but texturally, they can be lacking,” he said. “Watermelon is the reverse. It can be sweet and juicy but kind of one-dimensional. But it has that beautiful, crisp texture.”</p><p>Also, because the watermelon tends to be sweeter than tomatoes, the melon accentuates the tomatoes' acidity, he said. Throw in some French feta cheese, marinated in extra virgin olive oil, and you've got a dish that's as well-rounded as a Riedel tumbler.</p><p>“We'll use a French feta, because it's a sheep's milk cheese,” Toulze said. “It's not in-your-face feta. It's a bit more restrained.”</p><p>Pasta, duck</p><p>The Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction lunch will continue with two pasta dishes: an Italian crepe with Swiss chard and porcini prepared by chef Antonio Ghilarducci of the Depot Hotel in Sonoma, and a rolled pasta stuffed with rabbit and foie gras, courtesy of Carlo Cavallo of Meritage restaurant in Sonoma.</p><p>The next course will showcase a Liberty duck breast with a blackberry gastrique made by Josh Silvers of Syrah in Santa Rosa and a savory side of braised collard greens with apples and grits from Jeff Mall of Zin restaurant in Healdsburg.</p><p>“To make the gastrique, you caramelize sugar, then you add red wine vinegar and blackberries,” Silvers explained. “When that reduces down and starts to thicken, we add butter and a little salt.”</p><p>“I always like duck with greens,” Mall said. “I like the astringent aspect of collard greens, to complement the fattiness of the duck ... and I add apples, so you get a little bit of sweetness.”</p><p>It wouldn't be a Sonoma lunch without a few bites of luscious lamb and a sip of syrah. Janine Falvo of the Carneros Bistro & Wine Bar and Justin Everett of El Dorado will prepare a second meat course of Lollipop Lamb Chops and Braised Lamb with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce.</p><p>Rather than serve a dessert at the table, the chefs are going to set up a dessert bar, with cheese platters and chocolates — for those who have any room left.</p><p>“It's a nice, Italian-French pranzo,” said Cavallo, who is organizing the four-course feast. “The chefs really look forward to doing this. ... It's the one time of year we get together.”</p><p>Most of the chefs cooking for the 650-some guests at Sunday's auction will also be preparing bites of food for the crowd of 1,200 expected to attend this year's Showcase: Taste of Sonoma.</p><p>And a few select chefs, such as Toulze, will also be testing their mettle during the Steel Chef competition from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Taste of Sonoma.</p><p>Chef/owner Nick Demarest of Harvest Moon in Sonoma will square off against returning champion Thomas Schmidt of John Ash & Co. in the first round.</p><p>Large family</p><p>In the second round, Toulze will take on chef Ryan Fancher of Barndiva in Healdsburg, with the winners from each round going mano-a-mano in the finals.</p><p>“They've been asking me to do this for years,” Toulze said of the contest. “One reason I haven't done it is that I'm so competitive ... Second place is the first loser, in my house.”</p><p>Toulze honed his competitive edge growing up in a large French family whose members prided themselves on their natural “I know better than you” attitude.</p><p>“I may flatten his tires,” Toulze said of his opponent in the Steel Chef competition. “You think I'm kidding. As long as I win, I don't care what the method is.”</p><p>Last year, returning champion Mall said he was blindsided when he went up against Cavallo, who kept Mall's wineglass full, then went on to win the round.</p><p>“Some of the chefs get way too competitive, but I guess that's in everybody's nature,” Mall said. “I try to remember to have fun.”</p><p>Although he won't be competing this year, Mall will be dishing out bite-size versions of his signature blue plate special, the Zin Fried Chicken, with collard greens and grits.</p><p>“I'm going to take little pieces of boneless thigh, soaked in buttermilk and coating, and skillet fry it,” he said. “It will be a mini fried chicken dinner.”</p><p>When the Sonoma County chefs come together to cook the auction luncheon on Sunday, it's all about camaraderie and good times.</p><p>“We really enjoy working togerther,” Cavallo said. “And we're all really good friends.”</p><p>Surprisingly, the auction lunch is one of the few times that chefs from all over Sonoma get to work in a kitchen together, side by side.</p><p>“When we run into each other, it's usually at an event in San Francisco or Napa,” Toulze said. “It's rarely in Sonoma County.”</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com.</p>