Savor The Season: Food geeks rule

The first week in October is tough when you're a tasting event. Memories, if not indigestion, are still fresh from the American Food & Wine Festival the week before. However, Savor The Season found a way to stand out with a collection of full-on food obsessives -- people who, in an earlier time, would probably have been locked away to protect the public from their single-minded geekdom. We are fortunate to live in a more accepting age.

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The monomaniacal foodies were kept out of view in the Wallis Annenberg building, in an upstairs area dubbed the Tasting Garden. It cost an extra $50 for access (tickets were $100); unlike the VIP package, which cost $250 (early entrance, you get to sit at a table), this was worth it. (VIP tickets sold out, anyway. Break The Cycle is a good cause.)

Christina "Beer Chick" Perozzi poured six beers, including a warm beer, Quelque Chase, which tasted like the best mulled cherry cider you've never had.

Across from her was Saltistry, which paired a dozen flavored salts -- tangerine, truffle, mushroom, smoked -- with tangerine slices, roasted potatoes, cherry tomatoes, seared tuna and a few things I've forgotten. Trendwatch: Salt parties. (The saltisans are Joni Fay Hill, former executive chef at BOA Sunset, and Denise Daclan, a former celeb caterer/photographer.)

Bonnie Graves of Girl Meets Grape poured three Chardonnays, ranging from steely to buttery, for a quick wine primer. Cheese Impresario Barrie Lynn Kirch exalted over the combination of cheddar and candied hibiscus blossoms (available at Trader Joe's and delicious, like a better-looking dried cranberry). And family business Madame Chocolat rules, if only because they sell white- and dark chocolate-covered Rice Krispies and cornflakes (that looked suspiciously like Cocoa Pebbles). Making Rice Krispy squares with them would cost a fortune and would probably be worth it.