The Main Event
Saturday and Sunday, October 1st and 2nd
Main Event Hours 10:00am to 5:00pm
Early admission for Breakfast with Katie Tamony 8:30am
Santa Margarita Ranch, Santa Margarita California
Ticket pricing:
General Admission
$85.00 General Admission, single-day pass
$150.00 General Admission, 2-day passes
The Marketplace
Prepare your palate for a grand tour of the Central Coast’s top wineries—from Monterey to Ventura—all in one stop. Arranged by sub-region, more than 100 wineries will pour their very best, paired with small plates from top chefs from the Central Coast and beyond. New for 2011, seminars at Winemaker Central in the main Marketplace pavilion.
Sunset Savor the Central Coast welcomes Washington State Wines , our 2011 guest wine region
From Farmers’ Market to Meal
Meet the Central Coast growers who feed California and the nation with the freshest, most flavorful produce. Bring your questions about their crops and methods and learn growing tricks and techniques. Then head to the demonstration kitchen for presentations by local chefs, farmers, and Sunset magazine editors. Sponsored by San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau.
Chef Central
Looking for inspiration in the kitchen? Fill your glass, sit back, and relax while Iron Chef Cat Cora, Sunset’s expert editors, and top Central Coast chefs show you how it’s done. Cooking seminars will be held throughout the day in the historic Asistencia at the Santa Margarita Ranch, so bring your thirst for know-how and your appetite for learning.
Sunset Kitchen Garden
With both practicality and aesthetics as guides, the Sunset Savor the Central Coast team has planned and planted a 2-acre kitchen garden on the grounds of the Santa Margarita Ranch. This 2-acre garden will be at its peak during the event, demonstrating how to mix fruit trees, vegetables, and flowers to stunning and useful effect, and showing the potential for a truly local agricultural experience that can translate to your own backyard.
Sunset’s Backyard Farm
Following the emerging trend of converting residential back and front yards into vegetable plots, Sunset Savor the Central Coast 2011 will create Sunset’s Backyard Farm. Visit the 1600 square feet of raised beds, chickens, and guinea fowl. Sunset beekeepers will be on hand to explain how to raise bees. Visit the goat pen for milking and cheesemaking demonstrations. Explore new growing methods, such as hay-bale planters, potato towers, and upside-down gardening.
Docents in:
- How to chose the best poultry breed for your backyard farm
- Beekeeping
- Composting with worms…let them do the work!
- Growing potatoes in straw
- Thinking outside the pot…new Sunset planting techniques
- Goats, Goats, Goats…How to Milk a goat and make cheese
Join host and executive producer of the fun and informative traveling cooking program Bringing it Home with Laura McIntosh. Watch her assist Happy Acres Family Farms Stephanie Simonin with milking goats and making cheese.
Following the event, the Backyard Farm will be moved to Lillian Larsen Elementary School in San Miguel as part of the National Farm to School program. Special thanks to Sandra Dimond with North County Farmers Markets for her incredible work in the agricultural community and for arranging our Farm to School partners.
Sponsored by Nick and Kath Tompkins.
Generous support for the Backyard Farm provided by Farm Supply Company, Mari Landscaping and Pacific Coast Lumber.
Tour Santa Margarita Ranch on a Historic Disney Train
Climb aboard the Pacific Coast Railroad and explore the storied Santa Margarita Ranch, the beautiful home base for Sunset Savor the Central Coast. Ride in one of the unique Disneyland coaches created by Walt Disney for his original theme park in 1955 or the train featured in the popular Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman TV series. This rail line—a throwback to the 1870s through the 1940s, when narrow-gauge steam trains crisscrossed the Central Coast——loops 2 miles around the rancho, capturing landscapes known by early Californians, Spanish explorers, and Father Junipero Serra’s missionaries.
Central Coast Pavilion
Central Coast Sponsor—Martin Resorts
Experience all 4 Central Coast counties—San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and Ventura—under one roof at interactive tourism displays. Then grab a glass of Sunset Western Wine Awards–winning wine paired with delicacies prepared by featured local chefs. The Central Coast Pavilion also features a General Store and a Bookshop filled with Sunset books and cookbooks by celebrity and regional chefs. Stop by to pick up Sunset Savor the Central Coast must-haves, including water bottles and hats. At the Central Coast Pavilion’s Book-Signing Stage, meet celebrity chef Cat Cora and many participating chefs and get an autographed copy of your favorite book. When you arrive, check the schedule for appearance times.
Vons Music Stage and Tasting Garden
Kick back with a brew and some tunes! Along with great music, you’ll enjoy wood-fired pizzas and grilled Open Nature sausages from Vons and samples from the award-winning local chefs of the Boutique Hotel Collection with their delicious bites paired with local beer.
Visit the Vons Music & Tasting Garden to sample two new craft beers from Double Take Brewery — Amber Ale and India Pale Ale.
Music Stage & Tasting Garden Featuring:
Saturday
- Black Market Trio (10:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.)
- Vons Chef Jeff Anderson with Sunset’s Editor-in-Chief Katie Tamony
Spanish ham and arugula with white sauce (11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.) - The Kicks - SLO (12:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.)
- Vons Chef Jeff Anderson with Chef Matt Beckett
Linn’s Restaurant of Cambria Ratatouille pesto pizza (2:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) - Blues at Eleven (3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)
Sunday
- Café Musique (10:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.)
- Vons Chef Jeff Anderson with Gregg Wangard Marisol at the Cliffs
Radicchio, strawberry and goat cheese with balsamic glaze (11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.) - Blue Latitude (12:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.)
- Vons Chef Jeff Anderson with Sunset President Barb Newton
Potato, goat cheese and fresh oregano pizza with olive oil and sea salt (2:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) - Zongo All Stars (3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)
