Photo by Bloomberg

Ever wanted to rub elbows and chit-chat with your favorite chef?  You could have had your chance a few weeks ago, in scenic Pebble Beach, California.

More than 3,000 people attended the four day event, paying as much as $4,750 per person to eat and meet one of 133 world’s famous chefs and sommeliers.

You could have watched Thomas Keller glaze vegetables, maybe see Jacques Pepin slather caviar on a blini, and get up close and personal with the Mondavi family.

This was the first-ever Pebble Beach Food & Wine event, triple the size of its long-running predecessor, the Masters of Food and Wine at the nearby Highlands Inn.

“People are more educated about food and wine than ever before,” says organizer David Bernahl.

Epicurean obsession may have started with the Food Network, which he calls “a gateway drug,” but now “people have surpassed Rachael Ray and Paula Dean. They’ve moved on to the hard stuff – they’re making foam at home or at least know how to order it in a restaurant. I have more friends who discuss their culinary experiences than what happened at the basketball game.”   Full article

Thomas Keller is a world famous chef. At the age of  52-years old, the French-American chef has won countless awards. His restaurants have been top ranked in Michelin stars including the highest three stars for the  French Laundry in Napa Valley, California, and the gourmet New York eatery Per Se.

Keller participated in an interview with Reuters. He spoke about his cooking philosophy, favorite dishes and the most difficult thing about being a chef.

When asked what was his cooking motto, Keller replied, “One of our overriding philosophies is the law of diminishing returns, which is: the more you have of something the less you like it. We establish our compositions based on the view that when you are finished with a dish, you wished you had one more bite. That way you have reached the highest flavor for that dish and it becomes memorable.”  Full article