Contra Costa College Food and Wine Event

Recently I was invited to attend the 9th Annual Contra Costa College Food and Wine Event. I am a lover of all food events, wine events, big, small you name it. I’m game. And my initial rundown?

It was very well done!

The Contra Costa College Culinary Arts department–students and staff–transformed the gym into quite the party venue.

When we walked in, straight ahead of us on our right, there was the main stage, where a dance performance was going on, then the GTS Band played, followed by a performance by the Hilltop Ukelele Lovers Academy.

To our left, there were tables and tables of silent auction items–this is a scholarship fundraiser after all.

In the center, and taking up the majority of the space in the gym, were rows and rows of food and wine samples. Forty local restaurants and businesses participated, offering samples of their delicious fare.

Special recognition goes to:

Yankee Pier of Lafayette for handing out oysters on the half shell. Keeping it classy!

Sasa of Walnut Creek for giving out delicious sashimi samples. Fancy!

Kinder’s for handing out whole ribs. I believe it was them, but I’m not 100% sure because they ran out before I could get one 🙁

Sunflower Bakery for their caramel cake…yummmmmmmm!

Purity Organic for their delicious juices. Orange mango paradise is my fave!

This is Filivino, so I have to tell you about all the wines I tasted. Hmm, let’s see. I could tell you that I tasted so many I can barely remember–haha! But that wouldn’t be true. What happened was I filled up on food and could only fit a few wine samples in my belly. I tried Fenestra Winery’s Verdelho, Rodney Strong’s Sauvignon Blanc and a sparkling wine I could’ve sworn was called D’Artagnan, but maybe my memory fails me because for the life of me I can’t find it on the internet. Oh well. Everything was fine, but nothing stood out.

Tips

Be sure to pick up those cards you see laying around on the vendors’ tables
I scored:
Complimentary tasting at Rosenblum Cellars in Jack London Square
2 for 1 Tasting Coupon at Fenestra Winery in Livermore
Complimentary Tasting for two at Nottingham Cellars
Complimentary Appetizer at Stanford’s (or any of the participating restaurants in the Restaurants Unlimited family).

Get there on time

The event starts at 11. The food starts to run out around 12:30. Strategy wise, it’s quite crowded, so it’s easy to want to get whatever you can. I did a couple of rounds, but the crowd is a bit of a bear. I went with my husband and three year old, so I stayed with our son while my husband went hunting for food, and he’d bring us back samples to share. I think this worked well. Once he had made the rounds, I ventured out while he stayed with the little guy, to see if there was anything else I wanted or anything I wanted more of.

Good to know

It’s a family friendly event. A little loud and not a ton of seating, but you can bring your kids.

It was so nice to see the community come out for this event. Special recognition to Roberta Gonzales for being there and co-emceeing the live auction (there were some cool items up for bid–autographed Warriors jerseys, pizza for a year, Giants tickets).

If you’re thinking about going to this event in the future, I highly recommend it, and let me share the event program from this year as well as a list of the participants, so you have some idea of what to expect.

Tickets were $35 in advance.

11:00-2:30 Food and Wine Tasting
11:00 Silent Auction Opens
11:30 Cake Raffle Every Half Hour
12:30  Live Auction Begins
1:30  Silent Auction Closes
2:00  Announcement of Silent Auction Winners
2:30  Closing of Event

Participants

Have you been to an outstanding local food or wine event? Let us know about it and maybe we’ll feature it next!

Cheers!