Culinary heavyweights kick off Newport Beach Wine and Food Festival

Chef Richard Blais dripped soon-to-be-frozen horseradish ice cream into liquid nitrogen.

“You have signed the liability waiver, correct?” Blais joked as he poured some of the liquid over the front of a small stage where it evaporated in a freezing cloud at the feet the men and women in the first row.

The grounds of the Newport Beach Civic Center had turned into a celebrity chef kitchen Saturday afternoon.

Attendees at the inaugural Newport Beach Wine and Food Festival were watching Blais demo a dish he serves in his San Diego restaurant Juniper & Ivy.

Blais, of TV show Top Chef fame, added the instantly frozen ice cream pearls to his sous vide steak and porcini mushroom–dusted onion rings.

He finished the dish with a “bonus ingredient.”

Blais pumped smoke unto the plate, holding it in place with a glass dome.

“Here’s our Instagram moment of the festival folks,” he said, pulling off the dome and letting the smoke waft away past his face.

In its first showing, the Newport Beach Wine and Food Festival attracted culinary world heavyweights like Blais, Las Vegas restaurateur and chef Rick Moonen and Sue Zemanick, executive chef of Gautreau’s Restaurant in New Orleans.

“This is a first-year event and they got a lot of cooperation of a lot of big names,” said the event’s emcee, Peter Dills, known for his Orange County food scene radio show “Dining with Dills” on KLAA.

Beyond the celebrities, the event showcased Orange County’s local food culture, Dills said, pointing to local favorites like Montage Laguna Beach and the Oak Grill in Newport Beach’s Island hotel.

Their booths were peppered among the dozens of stations offering wine, cocktails and foods ranging from pork-belly sliders to gourmet doughnuts.

In all, 36 local chefs will showcase their skills during the event that runs through the weekend —$195 tickets are still available for Sunday.

At that price, Dills only expects the event to grow.

“My feeling is this event is going to take three years to really take off,” he said. “This was really nice today. I can’t wait to see what happens two years from now because it’s going to get better and better.”