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Top Cheffer and ex-Myth Cafe honcho Ryan Scott works the room at the after-party.

Yesterday, we shared the mainstream take on the first annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival, and now as promised, we're happy to share the local highlights and sights from the event, as witnessed by Eater LA:

On Ryan Scott: "Ryan Scott, the San Francisco chef from the current season, was kept on a short leash by his publicist at one of the after parties. He couldn't say a peep about the show, but said he's been hanging out in LA and had dinner at fellow cheftestant Antonia Lofaso's Foxtail. And true: He's a hugger, because, you know, he's from California. "

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Over the weekend, the first annual Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival was held, and tickets to the picturesque seaside shindig were fetching up to $5K. Along with mega-name attendees like Thomas Keller, Tom Colicchio, Ming Tsai, Elizabeth Falkner, Gary Danko, Hubert Keller, Charles Phan, and Jacques Pepin (to name just a few), Eater LA was on hand for some first-hand accounts—including some candid shots of Father Keller (pictured, right). Please do head down to Eater LA for a full recap later today (complete with all your favorite Top Cheffers), but until then, kindly note that the place to be was the wine room, Iron Chef Morimoto is a master on the golf course and Big TK couldn't get a table at his own event. For now, we just have to point out the Chronicle's clever juxtaposition of quotes from the super chefs and their (rich) super stalkers fans:

Super Chefs: "[Thomas] Keller took all the attention in stride, but acknowledged that 'the groupie fan thing is sort of absurd.'"

Super Fans: "'I just want to shake your hand,' said 20-year-old Joshua Berman [to Keller], a Providence, R.I., culinary school student who traveled across the country to volunteer at the event and be in the shadow of his heroes."

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Some weeks ago, Food Network personality/chef Sir Robert Irvine was busted for fabricating a substantial amount of his resume, including the parts where he achieved knighthood and made a fruitcake for Lady Di (really). Once the story made the blogosphere rounds, his bio was pulled from the Food Network site and he was banned from the South Beach Food & Wine Festival. Scandalous, yes? Well, Irvine's demise reminded us of a little tale we heard ourselves, about a chef down in Riverside named Brein Clements, whose restaurant Omakase just got two stars from the LA Times. In the review, S. Irene Virbila touts Clements' "stints" at several notable Bay Area restaurants, including Manresa, Gary Danko and Daniel Patterson's now-defunct Elisabeth Daniel. Funny thing is, no one up here seems to remember Clements.

Let's see what Eater LA, David Kinch and Brein Clements have to say about this >>

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[Photo: Flickr/bubbletea1]

· Manresa Announces Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve Dinners [Manresa Blog]
· "It's Time For a New Kind of Yelp" [Metroblogging SF]
· Bars Must Have Italian Bitter Aperitifs On Hand [Chron]
· Top Flight Wines Take To Half Bottles [WSJ]
· Donald Trump Leaves $10,000 Tip... [Eater LA]
· And Then Denies Leaving $10,000 Tip [NYP]

Telegraph Hill's very own castle [Photo: Flickr/queenkv]

· Julius' Castle: Firmly Entrenched in Mediocrity ... But Those Views! [SF Station]
· Marco Pierre White, Thomas Keller and William Grimes Discuss Their Craft [Epi Log]
· Bay Area Fish Are Full of Toxins [Chron]
· Brace: the Farm Bill, On the Senate Floor This Week [The Grinder]
· This Is Why Los Angeles Is Los Angeles [~ELA~]

From Eater LA:

When one door closes, another opens. Top Chef is over, but the Food Network's Next Iron Chef debuts on Sunday at 9pm. What's in store for episode one? Three words: Tripe ice cream. Mmm-mmmm.

Eight chefs compete for that blue Iron Chef jacket to stand alongside Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto and Cat Cora. And these aren't unheard of up-and-comers, here. We're talking John Besh, Chris Cosentino, Jill Davie, Traci Des Jardins, Gavin Kaysen, Morou Ouattara, Aaron Sanchez and Michael Symon ...

More at the LA branch: "The Chairman is as dramatic as ever. What's not to love." >>

TELEVISION—At long last, the big night has arrived, so do remember to pry yourself away from Law & Order and/or set your TiVo for the Top Chef season finale, tonight at 10pm. The interwebs have been chock full of Bravo goodness all day, and throughout the season, there's been no better coverage than over at our SoCal colleague, so we recommend checking out her preview. For the last minute thoughts by the final three cheftestants, Zagat has a nice little pre-finale interview. Oh, and Frank Bruni thinks the whole thing is going downhill. [Eater LA, Zagat]

SOMA—Ms. Tablehopper touched on this, but more deets are trickling in on the goings-on at the Our Place-turned-Balompie at 525 7th Street (at Bryant). It's not a complete overhaul, more of a slight tweak with new management: "I went in and saw the changes. In terms of the facility, it's subtle. You now order from the counter. All the chairs along the counter are gone. There's an espresso machine installed ... The menu has been heavily simplified to emphasize Salvadoran platters, although you can still get a burger there." [Chowhound]

This special peek comes via our Southern California contingent, so put aside the whole SF-LA rivalry, for now.

You didn't think you could squeak by without some Top Chef rambling this week, did you? It's the finale people. The end is near. In fact, it's tomorrow and 'tis a doozy. Thanks to the kind folks at Bravo, Eater LA has this EXCLUSIVE clip of the finale. We admit, we watched it a few times to look for signs of the outcome, and we've got nothing. Damn them. But here's what we have: Casey, Hung and Dale get into the kitchen and start prepping for their final competition, the last supper, the one that takes it all. But if it really is the final meal, where are all the sous chefs? In previous teasers we're told there's a "big twist" this season, other than the live winner announcement, and we see the final three act shocked at something...OK, so we'll bite...

Continue reading at Eater LA. >>