Welcome to Vintage Affaire

2009 Guest Chefs

Each year, several outstanding local chefs contribute their talents to Vintage Affaire with special food and wine pairings to be featured during the silent auction. All are on hand to talk about the hors d'oeuvres they serve and the wines that best compliment their creations.

- Alessandro Cartumini, Quattro Restaurant and Bar
- Xavier Salomon, The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay
- Cal Stamenov, Bernardus Lodge
- Daniel Patino, Michael Mina's Arcadia

We would like to acknowledge the assistance of our 2009 Guest Chef Advisor, Michele Mandell

Executive Chef Alessandro Cartumini
Quattro Restaurant and Bar
Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley
2050 University Avenue, East Palo Alto
(650) 470-2889

SERVING LIBERTY FARMS DUCK RAVIOLI, MANGO NECTARINE, CANDIED WALNUTS, BELLWETHER PEPATO

Executive Chef Alessandro Cartumini brings more than fifteen years of culinary experience including work in several five-star hotels to the Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley. Chef Cartumini oversees Quattro Restaurant and Bar which showcases contemporary Italian cuisine, accompanied by a selection of boutique wines from California and around the world.

In addition to heading up Quattro, Mr. Cartumini oversees all of the hotel’s food services, including 24-hour in-room dining, refreshments for the rooftop pool, and the Four Seasons’ renowned catering menus. “But my focus is on Quattro, ensuring that it offers the premier dining experience that food-savvy locals and discerning visitors alike deserve to enjoy here in the world’s high-tech capital,” he says.

Mr. Cartumini comes to Silicon Valley from the Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he served as Executive Sous Chef for the award-winning Acacia Restaurant. He has worked in culinary positions in Milan, Berlin, London and San Diego.

Born in Italy, Mr. Cartumini grew up in a family devoted to food. His father was a pastry chef, and his grandfather worked in the culinary field as well. He learned much of his trade by reading cookbooks as a boy, and by emulating his family’s talents in the kitchen. At age 14, Mr. Cartumini started his apprenticeship with the award-winning Italian chef Sergio Mei.

Following graduation from the Hotel Restaurant School E. Maggia in Stresa, Italy in 1990, Mr. Cartumini received a hotel and restaurant operator’s certificate from the Hotel Restaurant School Carlo Porta in Milan in 1992. He then worked in the kitchens of several five-star hotels in northern Italy, before joining Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Executive Chef Xavier Salomon
The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay
One Miramontes Point Road, Half Moon Bay
(650) 712-7000

SERVING SEA SCALLOPS CARPACCIO, WITH ORANGE CHILI VINAIGRETTE AND AVOCADO SORBET

Fourth in his family and second in The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company to earn the title Maître Cuisinier de France (French Master Chef), and a fifth generation restaurateur, Xavier Salomon’s passion for food began at his family’s kitchen table in Savoie, France. His European tenure includes training under Jo Rostang at his Michelin three-star restaurant La Bonne Auberge in Antibes, France. Chef Salomon continued his education at Le Bateau Ivre in Courcheval and graduated from Thonon les Bains Culinary Academy. In 1991 he joined The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company as the executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton, Aspen and in 1996, he moved to Atlanta as executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead.

Chef Salomon joined The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay in July 2001, where he oversees all dining experiences at the resort including the signature restaurant Navio, The Conservatory Lounge, The Library, and 17,000-square-feet of banquet and wedding suites and ballrooms.

EXECUTIVE CHEF CAL STAMENOV
Bernardus Lodge
415 Carmel Valley Road, Carmel Valley CA 93924
(831) 658-3595
reservations@bernardus.com

SERVING GARDEN MÂCHE WITH WILD MUSHROOMS, FINGERLING POTATOES AND BACON VINAIGRETTE

Cal Stamenov has created an innovative culinary concept for Bernardus Lodge featuring California country cuisine in the main dining room, Marinus at Bernardus Lodge.

Upon graduating from the California Culinary Academy, Stamenov began his career in 1982 at New York’s famed Four Seasons restaurant. He is steeped in the European tradition of culinary artistry and has spent years in the most demanding kitchens of the world’s most renowned chefs. His stellar credits include working with Alain Ducasse of the three-star Michelin restaurant, Louis XV at the Hotel de Paris, Monaco; Pierre Gagnaire in St. Etienne, France; Masa Koboiashi at Masa’s Restaurant in San Francisco; Jean-Louis Palladin at Restaurant Jean-Louis in Washington D.C.; and Michel Richard at Citrus Restaurant. Stamenov worked as Executive Chef for the Highlands Inn in Carmel, and served as Chef de Cuisine of the highly regarded Domaine Chandon Restaurant in Napa Valley.

Marinus at Bernardus Lodge resembles an Old World wine country estate and is graced by a dramatic 12-foot wide European fireplace with a raised hearth, offering spectacular views of the garden, majestic pines and nearby California Oaks. An inviting outdoor terrace and fireplace offers guests a relaxed and scenic setting. Marinus’ signature dishes include Monterey Bay Red Abalone prepared with a tonka bean crust, white asparagus, candy cap mushroom, and bergamot mousseline; Bacon & Egg with soft poached duck egg, duck prosciutto, and black truffle; and Meyer Lemon with poached meringue, lemon cream cannoli, pistachio, meyer lemon sorbet.

Marinus at Bernardus Lodge has been enjoying high praise since the resort opened in 1999, and has won Wine Spectator magazine’s highly coveted “Grand Award” for its wine cellar since 2001. Since 1981, only 89 restaurants from 12 countries have earned the Grand Award, an honor bestowed every three years. The cellar houses 1,850 different wines and a total of more than 35,000 premium bottles, including 10,000 bottles from the affiliated Bernardus Winery & Vineyard near the resort. Since 2001, the Zagat Survey has noted Marinus as one of the Top Restaurants and Most Romantic places south of San Francisco.

Cal’s philosophy and style of cooking, is built on three central pillars: the relationship between food and terroir, the superiority of handcrafted, artisanal products over mass-produced, and the common sense of glorifying food when its flavor is at its peak. The Central Coast provides him with access to an inspiring range of ingredients whose essence and flavor is appreciable in every bite. These come to him by way of the relationships he has forged with growers, fisherman and foragers. He also has his own organic herb and vegetable gardens, and vineyards at Bernardus Lodge. With a treasure trove of impeccable products, Stamenov is able to cook with the seasons and rarely has to look further than his own backyard for inspiration.

EXECUTVE CHEF DANIEL PATINO
ARCADIA, Michael Mina’s Modern American Steakhouse
100 West San Carlos Street, San Jose, California
(408) 278-4555

SERVING SEARED DAY BOAT SCALLOPS, PASSION FRUIT, CAULIFLOWER, TEMPURA

Daniel Patino developed his passion for the restaurant industry while cooking at the historic U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego during his enlistment with the U.S. Marine Corps. After earning a Purple Heart serving in Somalia, Patino decided to officially launch his culinary career, and he enrolled at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. While in school, he cooked at nearby Stars restaurant, and upon graduation, he was named chef de cuisine, a position he held until moving to Seattle to open Stars there.

Following several years at Stars in Seattle, Patino moved on to Firenze, a small, family-owned restaurant in Kirkland, Wash. There, he learned about the traditional cuisine of Tuscany. After a year honing his skills, he returned to Bay Area to put his knowledge to work opening D’Asaro Trattoria in Redwood City, Calif., which earned three stars from Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle.

After two years at D’Asaro, Patino jumped on the opportunity to further round out his skill set by interning at two acclaimed restaurants: Daniel in New York City and Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago.

With new skills under his belt, Patino headed back to the Bay Area to reopen Kuleto’s in Los Gatos, which received three stars from the San Jose Mercury News. Patino, 34, now enjoys his role as executive chef at the San Jose Marriott and ARCADIA, where he works closely with Michael Mina and the Mina Group on the seasonally changing, contemporary steakhouse menu. Arcadia and Daniel were recently named Best American Restaurant and one of the Best Chefs in MetroActive’s 2008 list of Best of Silicon Valley.