Today is a great day for anyone who loves cooking, whether they do it themselves or appreciate other people’s. Why? Because it’s National Culinarians Day!

National Culinarians Day was created to celebrate all of the great food and cooking in our lives, as well as the wonderful people, whether they are our mothers, spouses, or the chefs at our favorite restaurants, who put so much time and love into preparing great food for others to enjoy! To celebrate, you could thank your favorite cook, go out to eat, or explore by cooking something new and exotic that you have never tried before!

As my contribution to Culinarians Day, I wanted to take some time today to let you all know about the culinary section of our Cambria website. For those of you who haven’t checked out any of the recipes from the Food and Wine section of our website, you should! Chef Taki Laliotitis prepared some incredibly delicious recipes just for us, each of which our winemaker Denise helped him to pair with one of our wines!

Here are links to our recipes! In particular, I’d recommend the Pancetta Pizza with the Julia’s – yum!

 Pancetta and White Asparagus Pizza - Serve with Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir

Thyme Scented Seared Scallops with Morels - Serve with Katherine’s Vineyard Chardonnay

Grilled Duck Breasts with Bing Cherry & Plum Sauce - Serve with Tepusquet Vineyard Syrah

Saffron Red Snapper - Serve with Bench Break Chardonnay

Pappardelle with Savory Beef Smoked Ribs Sauce  -  Serve with Bench Break Pinot Noir

Baked Pears with Blue Cheese  - Serve with Tepusquet Vineyard Late Harvest Viognier

Happy cooking!

Dungeness crab season started in Northern America last month, and so if you like crab, now is the time to have it! My family and I enjoyed our first crab of the season last week, and it was amazing. My brother-in-law had gone out crabbing with a friend of his early that morning, brought home the freshly-caught crab, cooked and cleaned it, and brought it over that same evening. The crab was delicious: so fresh it had that almost sweet quality to it, as well as this rich, succulent juiciness that is only found in crab that has just come straight from the ocean.

Some wine and food pairings are classics, and this is one of them. Chardonnay and Dungeness crab are a perfect match, and depending upon the way you cook your crab, any of Cambria’s Chardonnays would make a great accompaniment. Our Katherine’s Vineyard or Unwooded Chardonnay would both go beautifully with steamed crab, where the fruit of the Chardonnay will play with the delicate sweetness of the crab meat. Our Benchbreak Chardonnay has a little more oak and would be fantastic with fire roasted crab, which has a bit of a nutty flavor to it. But really, any Chardonnay will make a tasty combination with crab if it is something that you love and will enjoy!

We ate our steamed crab with Katherine’s Vineyard, melted butter for dipping, and warm, crusty French bread spread with butter as a side. Fresh, sweet crab + French bread + Chardonnay equaled pure deliciousness!