'Dare to Pair' Food & Wine Challenge, with Cabrillo College Culinary Students and the Surf City Vintners

Vote on your favorite food and wine pairings in the 4th annual 'Dare to Pair' food and wine challenge with Surf City Vintners and Cabrillo Community College's culinary students.

Teams of culinary students showcase their skills to prepare delicious appetizers paired with wine from the Surf City wineries in a competition that you judge for the 'People's Choice' Award.  Walk from winery to winery to sample the appetizers and the wines they are paired with. The wineries are all within two blocks of each other off of Swift and Ingalls Streets in Santa Cruz.

The competition takes place 12:00-3:30pm,  with an After Party 3:00-5:00pm at Equinox Champagne Cellar when the awards will be announced.

In addition to these ‘People’s Choice’ awards, local chefs and restaurateurs will judge the competition. Celebrity judges this year are Josie Cowden, Good Times; Sheri Moise, Johnny’s Harborside Restaurant; Ann Parker, Santa Cruz Sentinel; Leslie Fellows, Artesana Winery; Byron Gravell, chef, Café Carbonero, and former student of the Cabrillo College culinary program. 

Tickets are available at Pino Alto Restaurant on the Cabrillo College campus, or any of the Surf City Vintners wineries, or by calling 831-435-3000. For more information and tickets: see the website at www.pinoaltorestaurant.org (click on “Dare to Pair"), or go to the Surf City Vintners website at www.surfcityvintners.com. All proceeds will benefit the Cabrillo Community College Culinary Arts program.

About the Surf City Vintners: The Surf City Vintners group of boutique wineries and tasting rooms offers a vibrant urban wine tasting experience. The individual wineries are in close proximity on the Westside of Santa Cruz on Ingalls Street, Swift Street, and the Old Sash Mill, most in renovated warehouse spaces. The area has become a hip example of urban renewal. The wineries showcase the wines of a group of leading winemakers of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and are small, family-owned and operated local businesses. Visitors often meet and talk directly with the winemakers. The Surf City Vintners wineries include:  Bonny Doon Vineyard; Equinox Champagne Cellar; MJA Vineyards; Odonata Wines; Rexford Winery; Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard (including Quinta Cruz); Silver Mountain; Sones Cellars; Storrs Winery and Vineyards; Trout Gulch Vineyards; Vino Tabi. For more information, see the group website at www.surfcityvintners.com 

Cabrillo Community College's Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management program provides students with basic culinary food preparation and service, advanced a la carte and buffet food production and service, as well as food service management training for the industry. Cabrillo College offers both a Certificate of Proficiency and an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management.