Even Better Kabobs at Cakebread, Napa

The Greek kabobs from Holmen Meat Locker, cooked outside on our green vintage George Stephen, were darn good, but when thinking of kabobs I'll never forget a couple of years ago when head chef Streeter from Cakebread Winery, Napa, told me to take it easy, that my cooking partner and I were on appetizers – mint pesto kabobs, the first stage of the sit-down meal to come – and that these would cook  quickly once we got them on the grill, so wait a minute until the other visiting cooks caught up.  

This was the coolest cookout set-up I'd ever seen. The entire valley surrounding a golden green, blessed as wine country is with that famous wine-producing microclimate that shields and shelters in all the right grape-growing places.

The twenty-odd other women and I (spouse program, vending trip) were partnered off and each duo given one portion of a restaurant menu to make, then serve to ourselves eventually in the Cakebread kitchen dining area.

My partner and I were assigned mint pesto kabobs,

a fairly simple recipe, but the pressure was hot because our appetizer was to signal the predetermined cooking and serving time of the rest of the menu.  We did good.  We ate the appetizers outside, glasses of Cakebread flowing,

the dry hot sun directly above, and I wondered at that moment if Chef Streeter, in his small little Napa kitchen, didn't have have one of the nicest jobs in the world.  Or maybe the grill on the deck at the cabin?