Solbar Chef Gustavo Rios wins ‘best bite’
The culinary team at Solage Resort and Spa in Calistoga knows they only have one opportunity to make a positive impression on their diners, and to do so, they rely on three core tenets: use the freshest ingredients, the proper techniques and the perfect seasonings.
That mindset paid off in full at Pebble Beach Food and Wine earlier this month, where executive chef Gustavo Rios and his team prepared Wagyu beef tartare hand rolls garnished with sesame, furikake and trout roe. The dish outperformed the competition of established chefs to win the “People’s Choice” award for the perfect bite of food at the Sunday evening event.
“The stars lined up for us,” said Rios, who went into the weekend unaware awards would be handed out. “We walked in as underdogs and came out on top.”
Despite his 20-year tenure as a chef at prominent Napa Valley restaurants, this was the first time he had been invited to participate in the Pebble Beach event, which he called a “bucket list” item.
Photo courtesy Solage
At a Calistoga Food and Wine event held at Solage in November, Rios was approached by Bryan Anthony, Pebble Beach Resorts’ vice president of food and beverage, who invited Rios to participate.
Pebble Beach Food and Wine is one of the country’s top culinary events, bringing together Top Chef competitors, Michelin-star and James Beard award winners and winemakers each April.
Nearly 40 events were held over four-days to showcase more than 150 wineries and spirits and 135 chefs, including Stephanie Izard, Kwame Onwuachi and Alice Waters. Napa Valley was represented by more than two dozen local chefs and wineries.
On Saturday, Rios, with the help of Solage chefs Jaime Romero and Julio Villeda and Rios’ wife Laurel Rios, prepared Solbar’s signature dish, a bluefin tuna crudo with cucumber salad and avocado – their take on a “canned tuna.” The dish was well-received by the 400 or so people who attended, easing Rios’s nerves.
“People loved it,” Rios recalled. “They were very, very happy, which makes us really happy. We definitely went in with an element of nervousness, for sure, knowing the caliber, not only of winemakers and sommeliers, but also (the chefs).”
The next evening, Rios and his team was one of roughly 50 groups of chefs preparing “bites” of food for more than 1,500 guests who voted for their favorite dish of the night.
Rios knew their Wagyu tartare handrolls were a success when people, taking a bite of food as they walked away from the booth, stopped and turned back for seconds.
“Sometimes, with these kinds of events… people grab the food and they keep walking; it’s a big expo and there’s so much food,” Rios said. “The most fulfilling compliment that weekend was people’s reactions when they were eating our bite. The best part was when they would just turn around and look at us like, ‘What was that? I need another one of that.’”
Attendees voted for their favorite dishes using QR codes, and by the end of the night, the Calistoga chefs had been designated the winners of the “People’s Choice” award for the best bite.
“The judges were the people, and it is the people that we serve every day,” Rios said. “The idea is that you go there to show off, you go there to represent. I was very happy to represent not only Calistoga but also to represent Solage and Auberge on a big stage, in a way.”
Rios was born and raised in Ensenada, Mexico, and as a teenager moved with his family to Virginia, near the Chesapeake Bay where he attended a vocational school and began taking culinary classes. He was the only Latino student in the program, and he didn’t speak English. Food became his language, providing comfort and a way to express himself.
Unable to afford to attend culinary school despite winning multiple scholarships, he began working, first at The Peninsula Beverly Hills in Los Angeles and then back in Virginia at The Inn at Little Washington under acclaimed chef Patrick O’Connell.
In 2005, the appeal of Napa Valley’s food and wine scene brought him back to California, where he first worked at Bouchon Bistro in Yountville. Under the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group umbrella, Rios was part of the team that opened Ad Hoc.
He joined the Solage culinary team in 2007, as it was opening Solbar, led by executive chef Brandon Sharp. At Solbar, Rios was part of the team that earned the restaurant its first Michelin star in 2010, a designation it retained for seven years.
Rios left Solbar in 2014 to open Evangeline in town with Sharp, and in 2018, he returned to Solage as the executive chef. In 2021 the resort expanded its dining options, and added a second restaurant, Picobar.
This month, Rios and his Picobar team are reviving their “Head Tilt” dining experience, which originally launched last fall. The “head tilt” was a term coined by his eldest daughter, Sofia, now 9, for the position people’s heads take when enjoying the tacos. Offered on Tuesdays, the omakase-style tasting menu comprises eight tacos served at the 12-seat bar.
For those curious to try the winning Wagyu beef tartare dish that was served at Pebble Beach, the “best bite” is, for the time being, featured on the Solbar menu.
