Scenes from SF Chefs Food Wine 2011
To kick off the start of the third annual SF Chefs Food Wine extravaganza last Friday night on Union Square in San Francisco, no simple little ribbon-cutting ceremony would do.
Instead, Pastry Chef Lori Baker — who owns Baker & Banker in San Francisco with her husband, Chef Jeff Banker — created an astounding devil’s food cake cityscape complete with chocolate buildings to depict the Transamerica pyramid and an assortment of other iconic landmarks, including her own restaurant.
On their marks, a who’s who of celeb San Francisco chefs — including Chris Cosentino of Incanto, Emily Luchetti of Farallon and Waterbar, Mourad Lahlou of Aziza, and Russell Jackson of Lafite, as well as famed New York restaurateur Drew Nieporent, who flew in just for the occasion — grabbed knives to cut into the cake to signal the start of the three-day food and wine celebration.
That was preceded by the traditional sabering of a champagne bottle, as Cosentino looked on with knife envy, having sabered a champagne bottle with a Russian sword at his own wedding.
When the doors opened to the enormous tent pitched on Union Square, 1,200 folks piled inside to sample wines, cocktails and gourmet noshes prepared by 35 Bay Area chefs and to groove to the sounds of Chef Joey Altman’s band.
