Bon Appétit: A Taste of Capella Returns to Los Cabos
Although best known for its luxury resorts, pampering spas, championship golf courses, and superb big-game sportfishing, Los Cabos has also become a world-class destination for fine wine and fine dining. Proximity to México’s finest wine region, Northern Baja’s Valle de Guadalupe, and an influx of talented chefs have helped transform the region into one of the country’s most progressive culinary enclaves and the home base for what is known as Baja Mediterranean cuisine.
A Taste of Capella runs July 10–14, 2013.
Anyone seeking evidence of this phenomenon need only count the number of comestible festivals that have popped up around Baja California Sur in recent years. Both Sabor a Cabo, in San José del Cabo, and Gastrovino, a food and wine fest in Todos Santos, have showcased local, organic, and artisanal fare to great acclaim, and some of the area’s top-ranked resorts are bringing in top chefs from around the globe for annual epicurean fiestas.
Tourist Corridor resort One&Only Palmilla’s annual Mexican Culinary Festival was held last November, and in Cabo San Lucas Capella Pedregal will be hosting its second annual food and wine extravaganza, A Taste of Capella, July 10–14, 2013.
The event will include wine and cheese tastings, tequila seminars, and dinners prepared by highly regarded chefs.
Kitchen gods scheduled to attend this year’s event include Capella’s executive chef Yvan Mucharraz and pastry chef Lauren Sung Wong Tee; Kent Rathburn, founder of Abacus in Dallas, as well as a half-dozen other highly regarded Texas-based restaurants; Dean Fearing, founder of Fearing’s Restaurants, the original of which was once ranked as Esquire’s restaurant of the year; Tim Hollingsworth, winner of the prestigious Bocuse d’Or and James Beard Rising Chef of the Year awards for his work at the famed French Laundry; and Philippe Schmit, Master Chef of France designee, former executive chef at New York fine dining landmark Orsay, and chef-owner of Houston’s Philippe Restaurant + Lounge.
Last year’s inaugural event was a delight for gourmands, who were treated to culinary treasures and Brillat-Savarin maxims like “a meal without some cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye.”
A Taste of Capella admission is limited to 120 lucky folks, who in addition to four days and five nights of luxury accommodations in Cabo San Lucas, will also be invited to wine and cheese tastings, tequila seminars, and several hugely anticipated dinners featuring courses from the various visiting chefs. These include the kick-off party, a gourmet beach barbecue at El Farallón, one of the signature on-site restaurants at Capella, and a grand finale feast. The latter will be followed by an after-party attended by the master chefs. A Taste of Capella vacation packages also offer round-trip transportation, and all the gift bags you might expect from a lodging recently ranked by Travel + Leisure as one of the best in México.
Capella Pedregal, 1 Camino del Mar, Cabo San Lucas 23455, (624) 163-4300, www.capellahotels.com/cabosanlucas/.