On Friday, the day after Valentine’s Day — what I like to refer to as Beer & Chocolate Day — Beef Chef Bruce Paton held his annual beer and chocolate dinner. There was a great turnout and many new faces discovering how well the two pair together.

Our first course was roasted quail with glazed parsnips and ginger chocolate port sauce paired with the Dutch Trappist beer, Koningshoeven Bock.

A table of friends. Clockwise from bottom: The Celebrator’s Japanese correspondent Bryan Harrell and his sister, Dave Edgar, founder of Mountain West Brewery Supply, Mike White (White Labs’ Chris White’s brother), Jodi and Christian Kazakoff, from Triple Rock Brewery, Yuko Tanaka and Quentin Falconer, founders of the Glen Hay Falconer Foundation.

Our dessert of Ménage au Quatre in Chocolate, a fancy way of saying four different chocolate treats. They were paired with Urthel’s Samaranth.

Bruce will be featured on the cover of the next issue of the newsletter put out by the Chef’s Association that he belongs to and asked me to take some photos for it. This is my favorite, by far, as I think it nicely captures Bruce’s spirit and his great love and passion for what he does with his cooking and beer.