Press Releases
Tv Food Celebrity Rachael Ray Films at the Sardine Factory
MONTEREY, Calif. - March 31, 2006 - Food Network star Rachael Ray, Oprah Winfrey's personally appointed heiress to daytime talk, visited Monterey's own Sardine Factory restaurant last week. As part of a show focused on the Central Coast, Ray brought her "Tasty Travels with Rachael Ray" to the renowned restaurant on March 20 and 21. Ray's Sardine Factory visit was her only personal visit to a Monterey Peninsula restaurant.
Ray was filmed tasting several of the Sardine Factory's innovative recipes while Chairman and CEO Ted Balestreri and CEC and COO Bert Cutino looked on. Ray's production team also filmed restaurant specialties being prepared by Cutino and diners enjoying the ambiance and award-winning cuisine and wine list.
During the shoot, Balestreri shared the historic restaurant's humble beginnings as a cafeteria for sardine cannery workers and its significant role on Cannery Row, to which Ray replied, "Blue collar start, I like that."
The restaurant's groundbreaking culinary heritage includes one of the first offerings of calamari on a restaurant menu, back in 1968 when the Sardine Factory first opened for business. Ray went straight for the calamari puffs in her tasting session, joking, "I never met a squid I didn't like!" She also commented that the halibut encrusted with macadamia nuts served over coconut mashed potatoes was something "...my mother would go nuts over."
While filming in Monterey, Ray enjoyed the hospitality of the Monterey Bay Inn on Cannery Row, where a $2.5 million renovation recently enhanced the ocean view guestrooms with custom furnishings, marble bathrooms, and a secure wireless internet connection.
A broadcast date for the Sardine Factory's appearance on "Tasty Travels with Rachael Ray" has not yet been announced.
The Sardine Factory, established in 1968, combines fresh seafood, USDA Prime meats, and produce with impeccable service, an award-winning wine cellar, and four distinct dining rooms. Promising guests the dining experience of a lifetime, the restaurant has received the Distinguished Restaurants of North America (DiRoNA) Award and Wine Spectator's Grand Award, among many other honors. The Sardine Factory is located on historic Cannery Row at 701 Wave Street in Monterey. For more information visit www.sardinefactory.com or call 831.373.3775.
About The Sardine Factory
Established in 1968, The Sardine Factory is known for its impeccable service, wonderful décor, extraordinary wine collection, fresh locally grown produce, delicious sustainable seafood, and USDA prime beef. Over the years The Sardine Factory has hosted celebrities, movie stars, sports legends, and public figures from all over the world. The restaurant was also one of the locations for the first film directed by Clint Eastwood, Play Misty for Me. The Sardine Factory has received virtually every culinary, wine list and service award possible in the industry, including the Wine Spectator’s Grand Award, Restaurant Hospitality's Best Wine List in America, voted the Best Restaurant in Monterey by readers of the Monterey County Weekly, Monterey County Herald, and Carmel Pine Cone newspapers, named Top Ten Most Romantic Restaurants on the Central Coast by Open Table, in addition to many other honors and awards. For more information, please visit sardinefactory.com.