JUSTIN Food & Wine Blog

Guest Chef Kent Rathbun

Justin Baldwin presents Chef Kent
with a Barrel Head Plaque

Another successful Zinfandel Festival weekend and Guest Chef dinner are behind us! Zinfandel Festival is one of Paso Robles’ busiest weekends, and the JUSTIN tasting room and event staff always ends the weekend tired but satisfied. We had a lot going on this weekend, but I’m going to start with our Guest Chef Dinner.

Chef Kent works on his Scallop Ceviche Appetizer

Five times per year, JUSTIN invites an award-winning chef to display his or her culinary talents away from their restaurant. We have been hosting guest chefs for the past twenty-one years! We started off 2011 with a bang, featuring Kent Rathbun of Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen in Dallas, Texas. Chef Kent is a James Beard Nominee, and his restaurants are highly rated by Mobil and Zagat. My favorite of his accomplishments, however, is that he and his brother beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America: Battle Elk! 

Spring Beet and Creamy Goat Cheese Salad with Gulf Crabmeat and Arugula Sprouts

Although the rest of the event staff and I don’t get to sit down and eat the meal, there are usually extra plates that we all share. What I loved about Chef Kent’s meal was that his culinary and regional influences were clearly visible in his cooking.  His first course, a Goat Cheese, Beet, and Gulf Crabmeat Salad, illustrated his ties to the Gulf Coast – one of his early cooking jobs was at Mr. B’s in New Orleans. 

Grilled Pacific Ahi Tuna, Crispy Mango
Rice Blocks, Yellow Curry Butter

Chef Kent has spent a lot of time in Thailand – in fact, he was there the week before he visited JUSTIN – and you can easily see the Asian influences in his food. For example, his second course was an Ahi Tuna with Mango and Curry. The Crispy Mango Rice blocks were so innovative that the JUSTIN Wine Staff had a hard time pairing the dish with a wine! (They decided on our Reserve Tempranillo). 

Garlic Crusted Lamb Ribeye with Rosemary Jus and
Roasted Fingerling Potato, Asparagus, and Shaft’s Blue Cheese Hash

Of course, we were all expecting a hearty Texas-influenced dish as well, and Chef Kent’s Garlic-Crusted Lamb Ribeye certainly delivered! The lamb was fantastic, but I really loved the Hash and was thrilled to have the pleasure of watching them make it: it was as simple as mixing hot roasted potatoes and asparagus with Shaft’s Blue Cheese and julienned basil and spinach. Definitely a side dish I can’t wait to recreate at home!

Chocolate Caramel Crème Brulee,
Citrus Sea Salt, Candied Orange

And what’s a fantastic meal without a fantastic dessert? During the Q&A session that followed dinner, several of the guests raved about the Citrus Sea Salt that topped their Caramel Crème Brulee. Chef Kent revealed that the Falksalt is made by a friend of his, and there is a large variety of flavors available on his website.

We have four more Guest Chef dinners this year, and we’d love to see you at one! The dinners each feature a different chef and coincide with Festival weekends. Please check out the JUSTIN Winery Guest Chef page for more details, and call me (Laura) at 805-591-3223 to make a reservation.

Photos in this post by Jamie Foster Photography

Rex Pickett Visits JUSTIN

About five years ago, following the release of Sideways, author Rex Pickett visited JUSTIN as our honored guest. He had the complete JUSTIN experience – dinner in Deborah’s Room, a night at the JUST Inn, and a book signing in the barrel chai. His first experience with us inspired him to incorporate our property into his new novel Vertical, the sequel to Sideways. This past weekend, Rex and his assistant, Todd, visited us for another book signing, this time for Vertical, and also attended our annual ISOSCELES Pre-Release Dinner as our Guest of Honor.

In Vertical, characters Miles and Jack spend a wild night at the JUST Inn. I won’t spoil any details, but I will tell you that each and every JUSTIN employee’s mouth dropped when we heard what Miles and Jack got into. Knowing that Miles is based on Rex himself, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Rex, but he turned out to be charming - a perfect gentleman.

Rex and Todd arrived on Friday afternoon after driving up from Malibu and doing an interview for our local radio station, Krush 92.5 (click to listen). That evening, after getting settled in to the JUST Inn, they joined 45 of our Wine Society members for a book signing and dinner in the barrel chai. Rex was our guest of honor, and diners enjoyed a “Vertical” (ha) of ISOSCELES with their main course, a 24-hour braised short rib.

The next morning, Rex set up in the barrel chai once again, this time to sign books for members who attended our ISOSCELES Pre-Release Party that day. Rex was incredibly gracious and genuinely interested in chatting it up with each of his fans – he spent many minutes with each of them, answering their questions and writing funny inscriptions in their copies of Vertical.  The fans enjoyed passed hors d’oeuvres and sips of our new 2008 ISOSCELES while they chatted with Rex. 

The JUSTIN staff was thrilled with Rex and we’re secretly hoping that we will soon be arranging for a movie crew to come shoot some Vertical shenanigans in the Sussex Suite (just so I don’t start any rumors – no movie sequel is confirmed, yet!). We are all looking forward to Rex’s next project, as well as the next visit from the author and his assistant.

To read Rex’s blog post about his time at JUSTIN, click here.

To read Todd’s account of the weekend, click here.

Visit our tasting room to purchase a signed copy of Vertical, or buy online here.

Photos: Joseph Dominguez Photography