Sprinkles and Allium Straw

Savory Seafood Sundae

Chef Jeremy Tummel of Stillwater Bar & Grill took the best aspects of a traditional ice cream sundae (the frozen, creamy ice cream against the hot caramel sauce) and did the unthinkable. He applied them to a savory seafood dish. Lobster gelato, scallop whip, trout roe, a warm unagi sauce, and abalone crunch made this one contradiction worth scooping up.

1 / 10

Chocolate Entomology

Ben Spungin chocolate covered a variety of edible bugs. I can attest that they are utterly snackable. With a crispy texture and roasted flavor, chocolate-covered bugs may be better than nuts.

2 / 10

Beef Jerky Bucatini

Jonathon Sawyer of The Greenhouse Tavern wowed our taste buds with his bucatini, spun generously around a fork. The carbonara-like sauce featured beef jerky bits rather than the traditional bacon. Upon service, the chef grated a bar of smoked and aged egg yolks (resembling bottarga) to amp up the umami. Chef, please start selling bars of that stuff online.

3 / 10

Bold Burricotta Toppers

Never has one bite represented so many flavor profiles. Bitter grilled radicchio, sweet honeycomb, spicy walnuts, and herbaceous rosemary: these bold ingredients married well atop a heaping bite of burricotta, thanks to chef Nancy Silverton of Mozza Los Angeles.

4 / 10

Liquified Popcorn With Caramel Froth

Chef Mario Perez at The Lodge at Pebble Beach liquified popcorn to create a sweet-savory soup, garnished with caramel froth. It tasted similar to cream of corn soup — but in the best roasted way possible.

5 / 10

Crab Aspic

Justin Cogley of Aubergine deconstructed aspic in his dish of Dungeness crab, beach succulents, and a jelly made from the heads of the crab, seaweed vinegar, and honey.

6 / 10

Scallop Crudo

You’re probably familiar with the white, cylindrical flesh of the scallop, but Chef Jonathon Sawyer of The Greenhouse Tavern took all the parts (tripe, foot, coral, abductor, and the flesh) of West Coast scallops and formed a crudo, dressed in carrot vinegar, crunchy radishes, lemon zest, coriander blossoms, and pink peppercorn.

7 / 10

Konnyaku Gyoza

Chef Elizabeth Falkner created a gyoza (dumpling) out of konnyaku, a Japanese yam. Reminiscent of mochi, the gelatinous dumpling had a rose-flavored center that complemented the macerated raspberries and Mexican wedding cookie crumbs.

8 / 10

Fermented Tomatillo Salsa

Justin Everett of Cavallo Point in Sausalito, CA, fermented tomatillos and blended them into a salsa with habanero and banana to go with his duck and rainbow chard tamales. It was a strange but oddly satisfying sweet-spicy-acidic combination that we’d love to re-create at home.

9 / 10