Pebble Beach Food & Wine, mystery chefs edition

I got home from Pebble Beach yesterday.  It was a fun weekend full of fun and food, not to mention all the wines and the gossips.  I might need a few days to recover before I can even post about them!

Meanwhile, here's a few mystery chefs for you guys to guess. 

Who is this mystery chef who came out of retirement to cook here?  He doesn't run a kitchen anymore but still uses his culinary artistry to make fabulous olive oil.

And who's this putting herbs on huge scallops?

This is a well-known chef in his own rights, who didn't even have a course that night but was found eagerly folding up his sleeves and helping everybody on the line.  A chef sans ego.  C'est rare. ;-) Do you know who he is?

Of course that's Thomas Keller.  I'm not letting you off that easy.  Who's that in the picture with him?

Comments

[jai]

I don't really care who the chefs were, never been the "Star Struck" type, but do want to know how the scallops tasted, and what that French Laundry guy (yes, everyone should know who he is) made. Off on my own culinary adventure for six to eight months traveling the country and eating what's local and traditional. Farmer's markets, here we come!

[Bob]

when is that damn book coming out?

[Greg]

Im not going to lie, im a pretty big food dork, and Ill say I was stumped here...so Im going to throw out some guesses, first pic, Jeremiah Towers? Second, I have no clue...Third, Joel Antunes? Fourth, Definitely Claire Clark the pastry chef of TFLG.

How did I do???

[Robert R]

Is the first Fredy Girardet?

[Laurent]

I would say Gerard Boyer on the first one. He used to be the executive chef at Les Crayeres in Reims before Didier Elena took over. I had one of my first 3-star culinary epiphany with his chausson aux truffes (truffle turnover). Tell me it's him!;-)

[Laurent]

Is it Alain Passard on the second picture?

[Laurent]

And I'm going to try Ressul Rassalat and Claire Clark on third and fourth. Sorry for the chain of posts by the way...

[Laurent]

...That said, after a bit of thinking, it might well be Joel Antunes on the third one. I swear it's my last shot ;-)

[Marge]

Pic 1: Gérard Boyer
Pic 2: Charlie Trotter (guessed from the big double chin)
Pic 3: Ressul Rassallat
Pic 4: Claire Clark

[Robert R]

I take Fredy Girardet back please.LOL

It's Gérard Boyer.

[KB]

I think the second shot is of Charlie Palmer?

[Michi]

-

Michi
www.glimpseofnewyork.com

[kiki]

4. Thomas keller

[Brian]

Well that is definately the Beach Club Kitchen. And I can make out that Monogram Film wrap in the background.
1> Gérard Boyer the master perfumer of olive trees.
2> Charlie Trotter
3> From Club XIX Ressul Rassallat
4> Claire Clark, Exec Pastry Chef The French Laundry.

[Dot]

1. Gerard Boyer, who was charming and elegant and laughingly refused to sign his menu course for print approval in 'rouge ink.'
2.Alain Passard
3. Josiah Citrin-very generous person.
4. Claire Clark - who deserves to have her name above Keller's for being gracious. She also shared her amadei chuao chocolate with me while signing off her menu course for print.
** Extra Credit Points - the silver haired gentleman in the background of pics 1 & 3 is the imcomparable Stephane Clasquin, manager of Club XIX at the Lodge.

[Pim]

You guys are pretty good!

Here are the answers:
1. Gerard Boyer
2. Alain Passard --neither he nor Charlie Trotter is going to be happy about the double chin commnet!
3. That's Joel Antunes.
4. Claire Clark, the pastry chef at the French Laundry

[Laurent]

So I guess I won, right? Took me a couple of attempts, though ;-) All of them are great artists. Claire Clarke's recently published "Indulge" book is highly recommended for pastry lovers by the way.

A little anecdote: I met with Gerard Boyer face to face when I was living in Reims 10 years ago. I was a relationship manager for small/medium size companies at a French bank and his restaurant was a prospect of mine. We had a nice chat (mostly about food as you would expect) and a great Ethiopian espresso. That was the first time I was served a cup of coffee with a cane crystal sugar lollipop in lieu of spoon. He never opened a bank account with us though ;-)

L'Assiette Champenoise was also one of my clients. At the time the restaurant had no star but Arnaud Lallement was starting taking over from his father and you could sense he would completely transform the restaurant's cuisine. We helped them finance their hotel and kitchen refurbishment / expansion. Arnaud now has 2 Michelin stars and was recently voted one of the 20 best French restaurants by a Liberation / Omnivore panel. I've never been so proud to be a banker ;-)

[Pim]

Laurent,

This is the second time in a week that I heard the name L'Assiette Champenoise mentioned. Interesting. I've never been there, but have been thinking about making it out to Didier Elena's place one of these days. Perhaps I should book a second dinner in that town.

cheers,
Pim
P.S. Yes, it looks like you won. Bravo!

[Laurent]

Pim,

Last time I ate at L'Assiette Champenoise was 8 years ago. Arnaud Lallement was just starting there as chef de cuisine. Since then, Le Carnet de Route Omnivore (the best restaurant guide ever in my opinion) has praised him for his "chic and sensitive" cuisine. So, it is certainly worth a try if you stop by Reims.

The top 10 restaurants of the survey I was mentioning in the previous post are listed at the address below:

http://next.liberation.fr/article/le-top-des-toques

Didier Elena ranked number 5.