One of the stand-out evenings was In Defense of Food: A Spoken Word Affair. If you were there, we know you’ll agree. If not, we’re planning on posting some video clips from the evening to share, but in the meantime, you can read a review by Leah Binkovitz of Slow Food San Francisco here.

The Festival will honor film icons including Robert Duvall and Roger Ebert, open with Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s dazzling caper Micmacs, feature the original score and live performance of Stephin Merritt to the silent epic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, celebrate a comedic legend on Closing Night with the documentary Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work, with Rivers in attendance-and so much more.

sf|noir is proud to be a Community Partner of the Festival and invites you to attend 2 powerfully stellar films during the 53rd: Rejoice and Shout, and Night Catches Us.

For tickets and information, visit sffs.org or call 925-866-9559.

Sunday February 28, 2010
11:00AM-2PM

Hibiscus
1745 San Pablo Avenue
Oakland, CA 94612
510.444.2626

Miss Pearls Jam House
Jack London Square
1 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94607

Some of the wineries participating include:

19th Hole Wines
Sonoma

Adastra
Napa Valley

Arcadian Winery
Santa Maria Valley

Barber Cellars
Sonoma

Clary Ranch Wines
Sonoma County

DeGrendel
South Africa

Diablita Wines
Healdsburg

Diemersfontein
South Africa

Donum Estate
Sonoma

Esterlina
Mendocino

Frias Family Vineyard
Napa Valley

Grey Stack Cellars
Bennett Valley

Hagafen
Napa Valley

Handley Cellars
Napa Valley

Heart O’ The Mountain
Santa Cruz

Heintz Vineyards
Occidental

Iona
South Africa

J. Moss Wines
Napa Valley

Jazz Cellars
Sonoma

Joseph Phelps
Napa Valley

Keefer Ranch Wines
Russian River Valley

Kendall Jackson
Sonoma

Kendric Vineyards
Shenandoah Valley

Kiamie Cellars
Paso Robles

Kokomo Wines
Healdsburg

Krupp Brothers
Napa Valley

La Petite Ferme
South Africa

Landmark Wine
Sonoma Valley

M’Hudi Wines
South Africa

One World Wines
Santa Barbara

Patz & Hall
Sonoma

Peju
Napa Valley

Quady Winery
Madera, CA

Raka Wine
South Africa

Ridgeback Wines
South Africa

Robert Stemmler Winery
Sonoma

Rosenblum
Healdsburg

Row Eleven
Russian River Valley

Seven Sisters Winery
South Africa

Winery Collective
San Francisco

Our father believes wine making is all about the land and vineyard cultivation. Esterlina’s careful vineyard selection is the start of exceptional wines. Special attention is paid to the climate, soil conditions and geography of each vineyard site. We prefer the “small quantity, high quality” style of winemaking, and we use fruit from premier appellations—appellations well-suited for growing the various wines we offer.

Unique to Esterlina Vineyards is our 253-acre Cole Ranch appellation – the smallest appellation in America. There, we grow Riesling, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes. Our vineyard is the sole vineyard in this unique appellation.

The gravelly soils of the Esterlina Alexander Valley Ranch produce some of the finest Cabernet Sauvignon in the region. One taste of this luscious cab with an up front cherry flavor and a silky finish verifies that the vines chosen for this soil are a perfect match.

Our Sterling Family vineyard, in the cool Russian River Valley was chosen to produce a classic Burgundian-style Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Many of you have enjoyed our award-winning Estate Pinot Noir from our Anderson Valley property. We also grow a bit of Chardonnay on the Esterlina Estate property.

We appreciate the loyalty our customers have shown us over the years. We are particularly heartened that Esterlina’s growth has come from word-of-mouth marketing.  We hope you–our customers–will continue to enjoy our California wines.

Michael’s latest endeavor, “Picán,” captures his vision of sharing the African-American, Southern cultural experience through food, beverage, art and music — the tastes, scents, sights, sounds, textures of the South — a dream this New Orleans native has carried with him for decades.

Michael was among the first African-Americans to graduate from Duke University, earned an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and went on to become the first African-American corporate officer at Polaroid. His remarkable 26-year career with Polaroid allowed him to travel the globe. He lived in Hong Kong for four years while running Polaroid’s Asian operations and left as the highest-ranking African-American in the company’s history. As president of Polaroid Asia Pacific, a territory encompassing 12 countries, Michael worked closely with Polaroid’s American and European divisions and was instrumental in achieving Polaroid’s tremendous financial growth of the mid-90’s.

Eager to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, Michael then co-founded Brothers Brewing Company in Oakland, California, producing critically acclaimed beers as the first African-American brewing company in the country.

Picán is not only Michael’s latest business venture but a labor of love that brings together a lifetime of business acumen and the genuine passion to share with Bay Area diners the warmth, creativity and distinct cultural milieu that has shaped, sustained and inspired him throughout his remarkable life.

Picán Photo: Michael Macor/The Chronicle

This February, sfnoir brings food and wine together in a unique event as part of the Ninth Annual San Francisco Black History Month Celebration to highlight the region’s best in Black Cuisine.

Experience this unique event that brings top Bay Area Black chefs, premier restaurants that feature Black cuisine, as well as premier chefs from top San Francisco and Bay Area restaurants who will thrill us with their own personal interpretation of traditional soul food dishes combined with some of the best wine producers this region has to offer!

A soulful tour-de-force of culinary delights await you at The sf|noir Wine & Food Event this February as part of the Ninth Annual San Francisco Black History Month Celebration, February 24-28, 2010!

Michele Wilson is a self-taught chef who has owned and operated 3 restaurants serving creative, delicious southern favorites. She is the chef personality who brings Real Food for the Soul to life, a Radio One program featuring the best in modern and traditional African American cuisine. Michele has been featured in numerous TV, magazine and radio spots and has a vast clientele including celebrities such as the Golden State Warriors, R&B star Eric Benet and many others. She started Full Circle Hospitality L.L.C. to open her newest venture Gussie’s Chicken and Waffles on Eddy Street in the Western Addition.

David Lawrence is Executive Chef and Managing Partner of 1300 on Fillmore, a restaurant and lounge that draws on the rich cultural history of San Francisco’s Fillmore Jazz district. Located in the revitalized Fillmore Heritage Jazz District, the restaurant serves “Soulful American” cuisine, accompanied by a list of the finest California wines and a full bar. The restaurant opened in October, 2007 to rave reviews.

At 1300 David Lawrence combines classic French cooking techniques with hints of southern flavors using fresh, California seasonal ingredients. Lawrence received his formal culinary training at Westminster College in London. In 1982 he joined England’s most celebrated and honored culinarians, Albert and Michael Roux, the chef proprietors of the world-renowned Le Gavroche and the Waterside Inn (both three star Michelin restaurants). Lawrence worked at five of the Roux brothers’ establishments, rapidly advancing from apprentice to sous chef in four short years. In 1986, Lawrence was appointed as chef de cuisine at London’s chic Interlude Restaurant where he had the honor of preparing meals for the Prince and Princess of Wales; Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon; and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Notable chef, Robert Dorsey, has been a part of the Bay Area restaurant scene for over two decades. A Berkeley native, Robert’s passion for great food, locally grown ingredients and an eclectic palate have afforded him the opportunity to work in some of the Bay Area’s finest kitchens. Fascinated by food at an early age, he talked his way into his first restaurant job at the ripe age of 14. To date, his culinary pedigree includes stints at many of the Bay Area’s favorite spots and previously his own restaurant in Oakland called the Blackberry Bistro.

Robert is a personal chef as well as a consultant to a number of restaurants that have drawn upon his knowledge and expertise in both front and back of the house operations. His expertise includes restaurant concept development, menu and kitchen design, staffing and vendor sourcing. He is currently working on a new venture slated to open in the spring of 2010. His new venture will again highlight the cultural diversity of the San Francisco Bay Area with a focus on sustainable practices, bold flavors, and a hip scene. Be on the look out as Oakland is in for a treat!

Locally-grown Chef Peter Jackson always knew he was a little spoiled. “My parents both cooked a lot when I was a child,” Jackson admits, “so shopping and dining in Berkeley were always important to me. I grew up around the corner from Chez Panisse, so I thought all restaurants were creative, fun places to work and that they all used local, sustainable, and organic ingredients.

 At Miss Pearl’s Jam House, Jackson focuses on harmonizing his passions for regional cuisine. He describes his sensibility as a hybrid of Old World traditions and New World flair and adds, “My approach emphasizes the diversity of culinary influences we see in both the American South and in warm weather beach cultures,” said Jackson. At the same time, also present is a strong California influence from 20 years of cooking in the Bay Area. “Certain dishes, like my gumbo, I keep refining over the years.” Jackson honed his skills with Creole food with lengthy stages in New Orleans where he worked at such famed restaurants as August, with Chef John Besh.

Jackson brings a relatively new style of cuisine to Miss Pearl’s: “Gulf” cuisine is rich in cultural influences and intensely satisfying. It bears distinct accents from the North American Gulf Coast, the Caribbean islands, and the heart of Mexican cuisine. The menu spans the aquamarine waters of the Caribbean, the raucous parties and captivating streets of New Orleans and the local’s only hideaways of the Mexican coast. Jackson’s menu is both dynamic and casual, with throwbacks to the original Miss Pearl’s such as the Crispy Catfish Po’ Boy. New items include rich, complex dishes like the Jam House Seafood Jambalaya; Chicken Pontalba with housemade Tasso; and street food favorites like Pasteles, Puerto Rican style tamales.

Michael Anthony Law takes his professional development seriously. In an 18-year culinary career, this native of Winston-Salem has worked as cook, sous chef and pastry chef at restaurants in North Carolina, New Orleans, Tucson, Seattle, Larkspur, Germany, France and Spain before landing in San Francisco. He also draws upon his mother’s cooking from her Dominican Republic homeland.

Michael moved into top chef spot at The Front Porch, the popular restaurant located in San Francisco’s Mission District on 29th Street in 2009. Founded in the summer of 2006 by Josey White in partnership with Kevin Cline, the Front Porch attracts a diverse clientele of local residents and out-of-town visitors of varying ages and backgrounds, in search of home-style cooking in a warm and cordial atmosphere. Michael Law succeeds founding chef Sarah Kirnon who established the original menu and who recently opened the popular Hibiscus restaurant in Oakland.

Chef Edward Blyden was born in Nigeria. His father, a Harvard-educated diplomat from Sierra Leone, and his mother, a Columbia University graduate from Boston, raised their seven children on three continents. Dr. Amelia Blyden recalls her son as a creative child with busy hands and an active imagination. His sister remembers her ten-year-old brother inventing berry compounds at camp in Russia and announcing to all the children (in Russian) that he wanted to be a chef when he grew up.

Chef Blyden’s gastronomic education was as creative and deep as his love for natural, healthy food. His earliest memories are in his aunt’s kitchen in Sierra Leone where he learned West African recipes for jams, wines and confectionaries made of exotic tropical fruits such as star fruit, carambola, guava, papaya, tamarind and sunarian cherries. Later, he built on these traditional West African and Caribbean influences with formal culinary training in some of the world’s best restaurants from New York and Munich to Switzerland and the British West Indies.

Today, as Executive Chef of Henry’s gastro-pub, in Berkeley, California, Blyden continues to celebrate the slow food movement utilizing sustainable produce grown from local organic farms as well as natural and free range meat and poultry. His culinary creations honor tradition, reflect the many cultures he has lived in, and embrace the international tenor of the local neighborhood.

Chef Blyden’s philosophy is to “keep it simple.” In his words, “Food is like music. You can compose a simple song or a sophisticated symphony using the same musical notes. In the kitchen, you can combine herbs, flavors, colors, and the best natural ingredients to create a snack or a gourmet meal. All you need to do is build on the integrity of the ingredients to allow the simple elegance of the food to shine through.”

More Chefs will be participating in both The Shrimp & Grits Taste-Off and The Wine & Food Gala! like Chef Dean Dupuis from Pican in Oakland, Chef Sarah Kirnon from Hibiscus in Oakland and Chef Marco Senghor from Baobab in San Francisco. Bios were not immediately available, however.