Pebble Beach Food & Wine 2010.
Pebble Beach Food Wine Grand Tasting with Morimoto
Pebble Beach Food and Wine 2010

Chef Masaharu Morimoto is about to make his grand entrance onto the Napa wine country cuisine scene. His latest, and much anticipated restaurant, Morimoto Napa is located at 610 Main Street along the Napa riverfront development and is set to open in mid July.

The restaurant represents Morimoto’s first on the West Coast. Napa is the perfect choice for chef Morimoto. It is an area renowned for great wines and with the focus on locally-grown produce by existing restaurants in the area, there is a healthy source of fresh ingredients so important to Morimoto’s style. The fish, though, will be shipped from Japan.

The restaurant’s menu is rumored to include some of his signature dishes such as the tuna pizza, but there will also be menu items exclusive to the Napa restaurant which reflect the rich culinary culture of the area.

Excitement for the grand opening is building. His Napa Grand Pre-Opening Celebration to benefit the Napa Valley Opera House this Sunday July 11 is already sold out. Tickets are $95 which includes a sampling of sushi and menu specials paired with wine. Chef Morimoto will be personally at this event and hold a book signing for his book, ‘Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking’.

I was fortunate to have met Chef Morimoto at the Pebble Beach Food & Wine event this year. His ‘Red Miso Pulled Pork’ dish was a standout. It was richly flavored yet simple. I remember it both for what was on the plate and what was not. The dish captured the essence of the concept, “when less is more”.

Pork with red miso by Chef Morimoto was wonderfully executed and exemplifies the saying that "less sometimes is more". The flavors exploded in my mouth.

For now, visiting the website for Morimoto Napa will also give you this experience. There is a simple splash page with the logo of the restaurant. I guess all of us on the West Coast will need to be patient.

Loni Stark
Loni Stark is an artist at Atelier Stark, psychology researcher, and technologist whose work explores the intersection of identity, creativity, and technology. A self-professed foodie and adventure travel enthusiast, she collaborates on visual storytelling projects with Clinton Stark for Stark Insider. Her insights are shaped by her role at Adobe, influencing her explorations into the human-tech relationship. It's been said her laugh can still be heard from San Jose up to the Golden Gate Bridge—unless sushi, her culinary Kryptonite, has momentarily silenced her.