Recently I returned to the beautiful town of Mendocino on the northern California coast. For the second time, I was invited to be a judge at the Mendocino Crab and Wine Festival. This annual event raises much-needed funds for the Mendocino Coast Clinics. As a judge, my mission was to select the best wine and crab cakes that were submitted for consideration.
I tasted 30 local white wine varieties to select the best one to pair with the Dungeness crab cakes. The winning entry wine was Husch Vineyards Renegade sauvignon blanc. Chef Sebastian Kaplan of The Little River Inn won for his fresh crab meat morsels, with just enough breadcrumbs to bind the crab together. You’ll notice that fresh breadcrumbs are added to the crab cake mixture, while Japanese panko crumbs coat the outside of the crab cake. The following recipe is my reinterpretation of the winning crab cake.
