(c) Studio Chambers
May is food lover’s month at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. If you’re looking to combine a weekend getaway to Monterey or Carmel with some serious gourmet indulgence and education, now is the time to buy your tickets and book your hotel rooms!
This weekend, Alton Brown, Thomas Keller, and dozens of other celebrity chefs and food experts will descend upon the Monterey Bay Aquarium for the annual “Cooking for Solutions” event. Brown, Keller, and many others will receive awards for their work in sustainable cuisine, then many of these great chefs will fight it out in Iron Chef-style contests or simply cook up delicious fare for the guests. (That’s you!)
Because “Cooking for Solutions” draws so many visitors from across the country, many of the single-event tickets are already sold out. But according to the event details web page, you can still sneak into the fabulous Gala on Friday night by purchasing a package that includes a Food & Wine Adventure or tickets to Saturday’s Cooking Demonstrations. Call soon to grab those seats! Expect to pay $190 and up for packages and tickets to events that are still open. The Sustainable Food Fair on Saturday is included in a standard ticket to visit the Aquarium.
With so many dignitaries of the food world crowding into Monterey, plus their legions of fans, you might have trouble getting a room at the walking-distance-to-the-aquarium waterfront hotels on Cannery Row this weekend. But if you’re prepared to deal with a teensy bit of parking hassle to attend this extraordinary food faire, you can still find rooms only a few miles away from the Aquarium. For economy lodgings, my favorite town is Seaside, north of Monterey proper. You’ll find clusters of plain-jane (but usually clean and reasonable) chain motels. The Holiday Inn Express at Monterey Bay sits close to the beach but costs more, while I usually find that the America’s Best Value Inn Seaside South provides clean, comfortable rooms.
When I can afford a little bit more luxury I get a room in Carmel-by-the-Sea, which abounds with quaint hillside hotels and posh B&Bs. I love the funky, casual Hofsas House, which still has rooms available for this weekend (for under $200 per night).
While you’re soaking in the sustainable food scene and learning about the world’s fisheries from the Seafood Watch program, stop by the Aquarium’s deep water tank and say hello to the Tuna Overlord and Master for me. The giant tuna that rules this tank has been part of the display since the Aquarium opened, and even the fierce looking hammerhead sharks steer clear to avoid its wrath. After seeing this bully of the sea, I’ve never looked at a can of tuna in quite the same way again!
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