The Great Reveal at Fawnridge Winery is Set for July 24th!

"The Great Reveal"--in celebration of Fawnridge Winery's remodeled winery & award winning wines will take place on Saturday Evening, July 24th from 5-8 pm at Fawnridge Winery at 5560 Fawnridge Road, Auburn.

The evening kicks off with live music by local guitarist Will Moorebeck, ballads & bluegrass, all you can eat brick oven pizza & salad, the release of 2 new wines, and they will serve their new award winners.

There will be a release of a rescued and rehabilitated screech owl at the event, as well as vineyard tours, a cork chipping golf contest & ring toss game for prizes.

Please contact the winery for reservations: 530-887-9522 (Please RSVP by July 14th!)

Priority $25 tickets to wine club members; $45 non members (as space is available). Wine Club Members please contact us ASAP as priority reservation space is limited until July 14th, then opened to non members.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Owl Rescue organization.

I recently visited Fawnridge to try some of their wines. My favorites were the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc (I purchased), the 2006 Old Vine Zin, and the 2007 Primitivo. I have to tell you also about the Port (non-vintage). It was quite possibly the best port I have had in a long time, and I am not even much of a port drinker. If you are anywhere near Sacramento and enjoy wine, you should make a point to visit Fawnridge soon. Places that produce wine like this make me really proud of our local wines. I was very pleased I stopped into Fawnridge and I think it's one of the Placer County Wine Trail's best.





About Fawnridge:
Stewart and Stephanie Perry have been avid wine lovers for thirty years. After living in North Lake Tahoe for 15 years, they moved to Auburn in 1989. Upon learning that local grape growers were bringing back the grape and wine industry as it was during the historic Placer County Gold Rush era, they decided to develop vineyards on their property. With the help of their friends, they planted Barbera and Syrah in the summer of 2002. Stewart and Stephanie are personally involved in every aspect of the vineyard management and winemaking process.

Winner of Zinfest Tickets

Congrats to Tina, you won the pair of tickets for Zinfest on Saturday. I will contact you with info on where to meet for the tickets and the shuttle to Lodi.

Have a great time and thanks to everyone who entered. More contests coming soon!

Hail to the Chef: Elaine Baker, Pastry Chef at The Grange, in the Citizen Hotel

This week's Hail to the Chef salute is Elaine Baker, pastry chef for The Citizen Hotel/Grange Restaurant in downtown Sacramento.

1. What made you want to become a chef?
Simple - I am happiest when I’m in the kitchen.

2. Where did you receive your training?
I graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, CA with a Baking & Pastry Arts degree.

3. Who have you worked with that you have really admired?
My first pastry chef, Sharon Rosenthal, at the El Encanto Hotel in Santa Barbara. Chef Touhy [Executive Chef at the Grange], of course. Jonathan Kierkseck.

4. What is a typical day like for you at the restaurant?
We also make all desserts in-house for the hotel, and a typical day is 11-12 hours long. It starts with taking inventory of the desserts and components, checking banquet orders, writing up the production list, getting the Grange dessert line stocked for lunch and dinner, ensuring that all banquet desserts are ready for that day, checking to see if any amenities (such as truffles) are needed for hotel guests, and ordering pastry supplies and produce––and in between all of that we do heavy production. The only thing we don’t do is actually plate the desserts on the line––the pantry cooks do that for us.

5. What are/who are your primary cooking influences?
My cooking has always been seasonally influenced, but until I came to Grange I hadn’t seen it practiced so consistently in a restaurant kitchen…it’s very inspiring.

6. What are your favorite and least favorite foods to prepare/eat?
My favorite––anything that has to do with baking and pastry…I love it all. Least favorite––fussy, pretentious food and raw seafood.

7. Please tell me about your most overwhelming moment in the kitchen.
Shortly after the hotel opened we had a banquet that called for about 60 chocolate mousse desserts that were piped into martini glasses. The glasses were filled, the glass racks stacked one on top of another and a banquet cook started to wheel the entire stack down the hallway to the elevator. I turned away and heard a huge crash. One of the wheels had caught in a crack in the floor and the entire stack went over. The banquet chef and I had about 15 minutes to come up with another dessert for 60 people, plate it and get it up to the banquet room…but we did it, and the guests were happy. That’s all that matters.

8. Who are your favorite chefs or famous chefs?
Alice Medrich, Sherry Yard, Gale Gand, Pierre Herme, Johnny Iuzzini, Nancy Silverton.

9. White wine or red wine? Do you have a favorite wine varietal/label?
I prefer red, usually Zinfandel or Cabernet. I also love sparkling wine, port and Madeira.

10. What is your "can't live without" kitchen tool and why?
A small offset spatula and my 8” Henckels chef’s knife––I use both constantly.

11. Please tell me how you go about planning your dessert menus.
First, what’s in season? Second, do I want to use the seasonal ingredients as main or secondary components? Third, how can I vary the textures and/or temperatures in a dessert? Fourth, is there a good balance in the overall menu with chocolate, dairy, fruit, nuts, gluten-free etc? Fifth, does the overall menu fit the Grange concept? Fifth, will Chef Touhy like it?

12. If you had a different career choice, what would it be?
Landscape designer––I love to garden.

13. What are the most important things to remember (can be relative to anything) while working as a chef?
Quality and consistency are everything … it starts with selecting ingredients, follows through to the production and finishes with the plating. And nothing matters more than pleasing your guests.


Here is a shot of Elaine's Lime Tart with a Chocolate Cookie Crust, Lime Curd, Whipped Cream, and Fresh Citrus


14. What is the most important thing you have learned in your culinary career?
Don’t try to be everything to everybody. Find the style of cooking that you love and stick with it. And don’t ever compromise the integrity of your food, especially when your name is on the menu.


To read more about Elaine's life in the kitchen, you can follow her blog: Elaine's Pastry Playground. Elaine says her blog is named Elaine's Pastry Playground because "that's how I view my workplace - I get to come in every day and play with the most wonderful ingredients to create beautiful, delicious desserts." You can also keep up with Elaine on Twitter here.

For New Year's Eve Dinner this Thursday at the Grange the featured desserts will be: Chocolate Chambord Mousse Cake w/White Chocolate-Cranberry Bark & Chambord Sauce and Warm Quince Tatin w/Champagne Sabayon & Champagne Gelee. Click here for their New Year's Eve menu.

And to celebrate Dine Downtown Week from Friday, January 8 - Sunday, January 17 the featured desserts at the Grange will be: Guinness Ginger Cake w/Caramel-Braised Pears & Guinness Sauce and Apple-Cranberry Strudel w/French Vanilla Ice Cream & Apple-Brandy Syrup.

To download a current dessert menu for the Grange, you can click here.

Zin...tastic Saturday!

Yo ho ho and a bottle of Zin!

Saturday I attended the Lodi Zinfest for the first time with my gal pal J, along with hundreds of other thirsty thrill seekers. It was a pleasant drive and a beautiful day. I tasted (and dumped) several new labels (new to me, but not new to the winemaking world), and tried some better than average (for a festival) fare. Saw one of the state fair wine judges there and said my hellos. :)

Upon arrival, J and I were greeted (skwawked at) by this fine young lady. A proud member of the Lodi Red Hat Society!

She was giving everyone a mini-loaf of Cottage Bakery ciabatta. I call this "damage control sustenance" for anyone who was there to drink (guzzle).

Met a winemaker by the name of Layne Montgomery. He is the owner of M2 Vintners. You can find several of his wines in Sacramento area wine shops and restaurants. I brought back a bottle of their Old Vine Zinfandel for Garrett and I to taste and review during our podcast taping next week.

Some of my other favorite winemakers of the day included Van Ruiten (I will particularly point out their Old Vine Zinfandel for its subtlety! Very mild and approachable to someone who might not normally like the boldness of a zinfandel), Stama, and Mettler. I did taste some white wines upon our arrival, and one prior to leaving, but for the most part I tried the zins all day long.

The food worked on a (kind of lame) ticket basis. An average event attendee paid $25 admission, and then was charged extra for any food they wanted to eat. I do want to point out though, that the food was reasonably priced.

Since I had access to the VIP tent, there was no way that J & I would go hungry, but we wanted to try foods from the different vendors and support them for being there. The most interesting thing we tried was a fruit cup with lemon and chile powder from Las Tapatias of Stockton. The cup contained slices of pineapple, melon, cucumber, and mango and was doused liberally with lemon juice and sprinkled with chile powder. It was delicious and paired wonderfully with some of the crisp white wines we tried when we first arrived. The fruit and the wine were also a welcome treat to ward off the heat and any annoyance from the very thick crowd. :)

Then it was onto the Wine and Roses booth... most recently (in)famous for being the former home of Top Chef 2 contestant Michael Midgely.
Wine & Roses (not to be confused with Guns & Roses... "Sweet Child O Mine" plays in my head everytime I hear the W & R restaurant name) sold their Waldorf Salad and Vegetarian Sandwiches on Whole Wheat Bread. The sandwiches were a great vegetarian option, packed with marinated eggplant, portobella mushrooms, and roasted red pepper.

A taco platter from Black Tie Gourmet. Delicious, fresh corn tortillas.

Charm N Candy Bouquet sold their "Wine Fudge". A few fudge varieties were merlot and white zinfandel. I think they also had a cab flavor as well. I tried the merlot fudge, and in theory it is a good concept. However, I did not really care for it. What I did not like about it was that instead of a varietal or even any kind of wine flavor, I tasted a lot of... well, heat/alcohol...

THESE balsamic vinegars were terrific! I am sending for a sampler pack to also review with Garrett on The Kitchen Exchange.

This vendor (Sima's) sold jams, perserves, and jellies such as Quince and Pomegranate, which he was sampling on pita bread strips. He also had rice and spice mixes for sale.

Chef Robert Ray of the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco prepared Seared Salmon with Butter Beans, Pancetta, and Balsamic Reduction during a cooking and wine pairing demonstration.

We ended our Lodi visit to the tunes of the Smithereens. They took the stage from 5-7pm, and several people were spotted shimmying like they hadn't since the high school prom. One man even thought he was an airplane. Well, you know how the song goes... "Red red wine, you make me feel so fine, you keep me rockin' all of da time..."

If you missed the Zinfest, there are plenty of other events coming up this summer at the individual wineries. Do take note that some of the wineries do not have tasting rooms, but plenty of them do (if you have already been to Napa, Amador and El Dorado, get in the car and drive down for the afternoon!).