on-our-radar-march-2018

On Our Radar: March 2018

Emily Chavous Foster Restaurants

on-our-radar-march-2018
Valerie Gordon will demonstrate dark chocolate artistry during Palm Desert Food + Wine, March 23-25.
PHOTOGRAPH BY THINKSTOCKPHOTOS.COM

We asked the experts helming three Palm Desert Food & Wine events to dish on their favorite C-word. For tickets to these or other PDFW happenings, visit palmdesertfoodandwine.com.

CHEESE

James Beard Award winner Laura Werlin, one of the country’s foremost authorities on cheese, hosts an intimate experiential seminar on cheese pairings at a PDFW pre-party March 22 at On the Mark in Palm Springs. Why cheese? “I fell in love with cheese the minute it entered my mouth at age 4,” Werlin says. “It came in the form of a grilled cheese sandwich, and from that moment on, there was no turning back.”

CHOCOLATES

Renowned L.A. chocolatier Valerie Gordon, owner of Valerie Confections, demonstrates her artistry with the dark stuff March 25 in the PDFW Grand Tasting Tent at The Gardens on El Paseo in Palm Desert. Why chocolate? “As a little girl,” Gordon says, “I would flip through the Swiss Colony catalog admiring the petits fours while my peers were paging through the Sears catalog for toys. It was my calling in life.”

CAKES

From disco-dusted to drip cakes, pastry guru Zac Young shares his hacks for perfectly decorated made-from-scratch desserts March 24 in the PDFW Grand Tasting Tent. Why cake? “Cake is the fifth food group,” Young enthuses. “Not only does it celebrate nostalgic memories, it is a blank canvas for flavor and texture, a visual and architectural medium. If only I could live in world made of cake, while eating … cake.”