Pinot & Paella Festival to donate proceeds to youth arts center 

18 Annual festival raises $40,000 in 2023

– The Paso Pinot Producers, now humorously known as “The Beaune Rangers of Paso Robles,” announce that the 18th annual Paso Pinot & Paella Festival proceeds will be awarded to the Paso Robles Youth Arts Center, on Monday, June 26 at 4 p.m., at 3201 Spring Street in Paso Robles. PRYAC will be awarded $40,000 from the 2023 event proceeds. This year’s event was attended by more than 500 pinot noir and paella lovers along with 27 pinot producers and 15 paella chefs.

The festival is a celebration of the Paso Robles appellation’s pinot noir. Paso Robles’ local pinot noir has a storied history, growing from originally being planted in the early 1960s by Dr. Stan Hoffman of Hoffman Mountain Ranch to the present-day count of 20-plus pinot noir producers. Since the first Paso Pinot & Paella event 20 years ago at Windward Vineyard more than $500,000 has been given to Paso Robles Youth Arts Center.

Participating chefs. Courtesy photo.

All wineries donate wine, and most of the chefs donate both their time and the cost of ingredients for this event. The festival once again had an official judges’ prize award and the people’s choice award. The three judges, all local Paso residents included cookbook author Brigit Binns, an accomplished food writer, cooking instructor, and culinary personality, William S. Bloxsom-Carter, co-proprietor and Chef at Canyon Villa in Paso Robles, who also held a 30-year position as an executive chef and the food and beverage director at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, and Pandee Pearson, who has been a professional chef for 36 years, heading up some of Central Coast’s most popular restaurants during her tenure.

While there were many creative versions of paella represented, the judges’ final decision for first place was Chef Trish Jacobs of Paso Catering, for her Basque paella of Valencia rice layered with duck-four-ways which included duck confit, fat, crackling, and sous-vide duck breast along with smoked leg of lamb, smoked chicken thighs, local J&R Meats’ chorizo, olives, green beans, peas, and roasted peppers.

First place for the People’s Choice Award was Chef Jeffry Wiesinger, owner of Jeffry’s Wine Country BBQ.

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The news staff of the Paso Robles Daily News wrote or edited this story from local contributors and press releases. The news staff can be reached at info@pasoroblesdailynews.com.