Soup’s On! Wine, Chocolate & Soup Celebration Benefits Pacific Wildlife
“When’s Soupabration?” Mr. Spice keeps asking me as we close in on this special foodie event Sunday afternoon November 1, 2015 in Morro Bay, California. Having enjoyed this tasty benefit for Pacific wildlife since its inaugural year in 2011, my soup-expert sweetie knows it’s an event not to miss. Given its friendly competitive nature, the Soupabration just keeps getting better every year from the diversity of artworks for auction to the inclusion of chocolate activities—yes!—not to mention the wildlife ambassadors, the Zero Waste masters, and all that delicious soup.
With fancy feathers, beads, and Mardi Gras flare, Soupabration strikes a carnival theme this year in a benefit at the Morro Bay Community Center for Pacific Wildlife Care, a local non-profit that has been challenged to provide care to the increasing number of distressed wild animals feeling the effects of our harsh local drought. Team Soupabration and all the volunteers and limited staff at Pacific Wildlife Care thank you for your generosity in supporting their important and professional work, especially this very difficult year.
Morro Bay Community Center: 1001 Kennedy Way, Morro Bay, California
Soupabration started out in Cambria
Soupabration 2015 invites guests to enjoy soup tastes from a number of San Luis Obispo County restaurants all assembled in one place. Eleven local chefs will each bring their soup A-game as they compete for top honors including People’s Choice, Best Vegan Soup, and Best Soup Overall. While this event would be worth it just for the competitive soup largesse alone, there’s so much more to this event that makes it a must for those soup lovers visiting San Luis Obispo County on November 1: wine-soup pairings, a chocolate-making demonstration, a cookie competition, and more to “tangle with your tastebuds.”
Every year, organizer Charmaine Coimbra arranges for celebrity judges to help determine the winning soups. Her daughter—Top Chef Season 9 participant Chef Dakota Weiss—contributed her culinary skills and expertise to this pro-wildlife event in the early years and brought along her many foodie friends. Chef Dakota won’t be able to attend this year’s Soupabration because she’s enjoying the crazy honeymoon of the October 2015 opening of her newest restaurant, Estrella Sunset in Los Angeles. We will miss Chef Dakota: maybe she sends her amazing foodie popcorn samples as a tasty stand-in?
This year’s special chef guest is Chef Chad Minton of the edgy and authentic TrueCooks.com brand of accessories for hardworking chefs and anyone else who takes food very seriously. He also spends his time as executive chef at Pacific’s Edge Restaurant at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands Inn just north of Big Sur. Morro Bay Mayor Jamie Irons, cookbook author Brenda Hock, and Chef Matt Beckett of Cambria’s Linn’s Restaurant round out the panel of judges.
Listen to our “X Marks the Spot with Central Coast Foodie” live radio interview with Charmaine Coimbra from October 9, 2015 via EsteroBayRadio.org, KEBF 97.3 The Rock:
X Marks the Spot: Soupabration, a Foodie Benefit for Wildlife [aired Oct. 9, 2015, KEBF Morro Bay] by Mzrad on Mixcloud
We highly recommend this special, one-of-a kind foodie event to residents and visitors alike. Soupabration VIP tasting starts at 11am with regular admission at 12noon. Celebrate the Central Coast’s bountiful foodie harvest season with an array of soups all vying for top honors at the 5th annual Soupabration Sunday November 1, 2015 in Morro Bay.
This event concludes at 4pm, which leaves guests a few daylight hours to get some exercise on the pleasant and numerous public pedestrian and bicycle byways in the greater Estero Bay region. Great short hikes abound in Los Osos, Morro Bay, Cayucos, and Cambria so you can easily work off the decadent tastes from earlier in the day. Enjoying nature, with SOUP!
birding above the Morro Bay estuary at sunset
