View of Main Building
The annual Hearst Castle Dinner was help the 12th of July. The dinner is part of the Central Coast Wine Classic and is in its 28th year. The evening begins with 225 guests enjoying a private tour of the Hearst Castle and is followed by a reception around the Neptune Pool. Dinner follows on the north terrace with views of the main building and the expansive oak forests of the Hearst cattle ranch that surrounds the Castle.
This years crop of chefs featured a cadre of California based chefs that have contributed to the success of the Central Coast Wine Event over the nearly thirty years it has been held. Dinner at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, featuring the culinary artistry of Central Coast Chefs, Laurent Grangien of Bistro Laurent in Paso Robles, Kurt Grasing from Grasing's in Carmel, Michael Hutchings from Michael's Catering in Santa Barbara, Ian McPhee of McPhee's Grill in Templeton, Frank Ostini from The Hitching Post in Buellton and James Sly from Sly's in Carpinteria, coordinated by Chef James Sly's Team, six courses with matching Wines from Vintner Dignitaries
In a departure from the norm, I contributed only one hors d'oeuvre, Gruyére Cheese Soufflé served on a cocktail spoon and followed with a first course offering of Cultured Abalone. The cheese soufflé is a riff on Chef Albert Roux's signature dish. Usually, it is two cushions of airy soufflé some three inches in diameter set on a pool of reduced cream. My hat trick is to miniaturize the whole thin and make a bite-sized offering on a cocktail spoon.
Castle View
Farmed abalone had been part of my culinary bag of tricks since 1981 when I stgarted using 1-1/2 inch "cocktail abalone" that John McMullen of Ab Lab was growing to reseed the depleated abalone beds in the Santa Barbara Channel. My source now is The Cultured Abalone farm in Goleta, CA. They grow the red abalone in several sizes, from 1-1/2 inch to 6-8 inches. The rule of thumb is a growth rate of one inch per year. We used the 3-1/2 inch size for the dinner. The presentation featured caviar limes and the seaweed used as ablone feed.
Abalone Preparation and Presentation
