Mountain View’s A La Carte & Art will be a feast for all the senses as some of the area’s top chefs cook up everything from classic Caribbean curry to a “firecracker” sauce for spring rolls to brownies studded with bacon. Clearly this year’s event, May 17-18, will live up to its reputation for delivering nonstop culinary adventure. The demonstrations will take place from 11:00 a.m. through 3:30 p.m. at Civic Center Plaza, with recipes and samples offered to the audience.

Chef demonstration

The chefs tent is sponsored by Meyer Appliance/Kitchens by Meyer. “We’re delighted to be associated with A La Carte & Art event because it showcases so many local businesses,” says company co-owner Ray Meyer III, whose grandparents started the Mountain View company in 1946. Meyer will have a booth featuring a Viking kitchen equipment display, and kitchen designers will be on hand to answer questions.

Doug Hayden, president of the California Farmers’ Market Association and master of ceremonies at the chefs’ tent, will kick off the demonstrations with Bella Saratoga restaurant’s Warm Berry Sundae: freshly picked strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and vanilla ice cream splashed with warm triple sec.

Katia Essyad, owner of Casablanca Market in Mountain View, learned to cook alongside her mother and women friends in her native Morocco. “It was a like a ritual,” she says. “They taught me to use best spices and local ingredients, and I developed a wonderful relationship with food.” She will promote this love affair with Moroccan food by demonstrating how to cook in a tagine, the traditional clay pot with the pointed lid. She will prepare Chicken with Preserved Lemons and Olives, followed by Matboukha, baked red, yellow and green bell peppers with dried red peppers and garlic. Because they are slowly cooked and use a generous amount of spices, these dishes can be kept in the refrigerator for nearly a month and are versatile enough to be used over rice, couscous, and potatoes or in a grilled sandwich.

Chef Paul Wilson-Young honed his skills at such celebrated New York restaurants as Riverside Café, Baltazar and Nobu. Recently named executive chef at Mountain View’s Cantankerous Fish, he is bringing the restaurant a simple philosophy of California cuisine. “The elements of a dish should reflect its origins and preserve the integrity of its flavors,” he says. “Update it by simply presenting it in a different way.” A native of Jamaica, he will prepare a new menu item from the restaurant, his homeland’s classic Coconut Curry Shrimp with Red and Green Bell Peppers and Caramelized Onions. The audience will get tips on how to peel and devein shrimp and make a stock with the shells, as well as the secret to making caramelized onions sweet without sugar.

Chef demo tent

Everyone has heard about the perks of working at the top Silicon Valley companies: casual clothes, foosball in the halls. But it doesn’t stop there. Cecelia Garza and Travis Thomas are chefs for Bon Appetit, the company that brings high-end food to high-tech lunchrooms. Garza is catering chef at Intel and was recently named rising star chef in Gentry magazine. Her California Spring Rolls with Firecracker Sauce will be a colorful assemblage of poached shrimp with fresh vegetables and fruits accompanied by a soy-hoisin-chile sauce with a secret ingredient that creates a popping sensation in the mouth. Thomas, the pastry chef at Google, says he is “always striving for the balance between professional and prankster,” will push the envelope with his Naked Apple Pie and Bacon Butterscotch Brownies. He’ll build the “apple pie” with a confit made of 36 layers of apples, buttery lace cookies with a hint of citrus, chantilly cream infused with graham crackers, candied hazelnuts and micro mint leaves. Though the thought of bacon in brownies may be alarming, Thomas promises the rendered fat and bits of crispy meat impart a delightful smoky personality to the dessert. “The whimsical marrying of savory and sweet is gaining more success,” he asserts. “It’s a fun time to be a pastry chef.”

John Riemenschnitter is the coffee impresario at Red Rock Coffee Company on Castro Street in Mountain View, where coffee shares the bill with live entertainment and art exhibits in the city’s oldest building. After drinking a “life-changing cappuccino” in Italy ten years ago, he was driven to mastering the perfect coffee experience home. At the festival Riemenschnitter will demonstrate how to prepare gourmet coffee drinks at home without the need for specialty equipment.

The California Farmers’ Market Association has also invited several produce growers to create a mini farmers market in front of the chefs’ tent. Amazing Nuts of Escalon will have natural and flavored almonds, walnuts and pistachios. Rob Rodriquez Farm will deliver just-picked strawberries from Watsonville. Cipponeri Farms will bring asparagus and the season’s first cherries and apricots from the sun-drenched fields of the Central Valley. And honey, body care products and beeswax candles will be offered by Small Bees of Los Gatos.