Thursday, November 17, 2011

Mac ‘n Cheese and Pinot, Yum


By Janene Roberts

The 2011 San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival had a gourmet Mac & Pinot Noir cooking class at the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center that I attended. Rich Sweeney was the presenting chef. I had first heard about him when I was told he had gone to the San Diego Culinary Institute that I’m the media buyer for, and that he had been a contestant on the Top Chef TV show.

While sampling Anglim Pinot Noir and three types of mac and cheese (one with bacon and provolone cheese, another one with smoked gouda that is on Sweeney’s R Gang Eatery menu and a dessert mac and cheese) we got the inside scoop on what really happened on Top Chef.

So, he was on Top Chef New York Season 5. He ended up getting kicked off because Dave Grohl, you know the lead singer of Foo Fighters, made a comment about the smore’s guy possibly spitting on his dessert because of the way it looked. Rich was the smore’s guy and said they had only toaster ovens and microwaves to work with. Anyway, if you watched the series you probably saw the whole thing.

By the way, all the macs were delish and the class has inspired me to check out Sweeney’s restaurant. R-Gang Eatery-3683 5th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92103.

The Pinots were pretty good too. A great combo with the pasta.
Anglim Winery www.anglimwinery.com

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