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Credit: James Tran
San Diegans have long known that Valle de Guadalupe—with a vibe that’s equally rugged and elegant—is a big deal. Located 90-minutes south of the city, the region’s lack of wine making regulations have earned this slice of Baja California a reputation as a wild west wine country.
Both media and visitors frequently refer to the Valle de Guadalupe as having the scrappy, experimental, and DIY vibe of Napa 40-odd years ago, only drought-ier.
In the last decade or so, chic boutique hotels and glamping outfits among its vineyards followed. Their arrivals, along with a growing nightclub scene, marks a turning point for the region—the rustic playground has reached the mainstream wanderlust psyche, the relative lack of water notwithstanding.
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Credit: Jenni Hwang
In more recent years, music festivals have popped up across the Valle amid growing opposition to large-scale events by community members intent on preserving the delicate land as an agricultural region.
With the return of the Valle Food & Wine Festival, it’s fair to ask: Will a food and wine event, along with its bevy of bi-national chefs, help or hurt the cause?
Five years ago a group of friends – including culinary journalist and author Carolynn Carreño, Baja local superstar chef Javier Plascencia, and famous stateside chef Nancy Silverton – wanted a reason to give back to the region with a nonprofit tie-in. “Let’s start a food festival,” they decided after a little too much wine, Carreño recalls.
“Everything that’s happened has been a natural evolution,” Carreño, the director of the weekend-long festival, says of the years since. “We didn’t have a business plan.” Even so, attendance doubled in size every year. This year, after three pandemic-related years off, they’re back and debuting a more intimate affair.
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Credit: James Tran
“A lot of chefs, winemakers, and farmers of the region are against massive events,” Carreño says. A grassroots organization called Por un Valle de Verdad, seems to be leading this charge.The group has organized protests and spoken out against large events that weren’t wine or gastronomy-focused.
So things at Valle Food & Wine are getting smaller. Event organizers are capping attendance for each day of the festival at 1,000 people to comply with the organization’s wishes. “I’m not sure if it’s a wish or a law,” Carreño says, but they’re on board. As a guest, a smaller event has its advantages, such as fewer lines for food and restrooms.
Representing San Diego chefs will be both Erik Aronow, who leads the culinary team at Puesto and Marisi, and chef Brian Redzikowski of Kettner Exchange. Aronow is one of many chefs in awe of the region’s agricultural abundance, fresh seafood, and singular dining experiences in secluded settings. Like dining under a 200-year-old oak tree surrounded by wine grapes at Animalón, which is also run by Plascencia on the grounds of another restaurant of his, Finca Altozano.
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Credit: Jenni Hwang
Plus there’s more open flame cooking going on in the Valle than anywhere in San Diego, which Aronow admits he’s been doing more of thanks in part to having spent time in the region.
“There’s flavors that can’t be replicated no matter how expensive your pots and pans are, and how expensive your range is,” Aronow says of the ancient cooking technique. “Building and maintaining a fire is a skill and a labor of love. You don’t throw the food over the hottest part, it’s managing the heat levels and the smoke levels and the flames, it’s a really intimate process.”
And as developers and concert promoters continue to seek a presence in the area, Valle Food & Wine’s banking on the influence of the culinary community involved in this event. With exceptions, “The vast majority of the chefs [participating] have never been [to the Valle],” Carreño says. “In that way we are opening the eyes to a sophisticated gastronomic public and that’s what the region is hoping for.”
Valle Food & Wine Festival takes place October 21-23 at Bruma.
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