By Clyde Noel

Fall Festival features Yan and his chopping block

Any chicken that lands on Martin Yan’s kitchen table is chopped, drawn and quartered before you can say “Los Altos Fall Festival.” The cleaver-wielding TV personality-chef can prepare a chicken to roast in just under 18 seconds.

Yan’s lively banter and versatile cleaver will be joined by Los Altos’ own Larry Chu of Chef Chu’s restaurant at 3 p.m., Sunday, in the Chef’s Galley at the 11th annual Los Altos Chamber of Commerce-sponsored festival. The event is scheduled 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, in the Plaza South parking plaza in downtown Los Altos.

The two chefs have not decided what they will do with a chicken, but Yan travels with two woks, two knives, two spatulas, two chopping boards and the famous cleavers.

Yan can cook and Chef Chu can, too, and between the two you will hear patter, patter, a quick flick of the cleaver, chop, chop, joke, more cleaver, a slurp of sauce, stir, stir, whip into wok, patter, another joke - and a three-gingered beef is ready for audience chopsticks.

Yan opened a new restaurant in Pleasant Hill two months ago and expects to establish a small chain he calls “quick dining” spots in California. He has hosted more than 2,000 cooking shows and written 25 cookbooks. He also holds a master’s degree in food science from the University of Califonia at Davis.

There’s something for everyone at the festival. More than 160 artisans will display their paintings, sculptures, ceramics, jewelry, textiles and holiday items in the annual fund-raiser for the chamber.

Local restaurants will offer favorite foods; Chinese chicken salad from Chef Chu’s, tri-tip from Armadillo Willy’s, and home-style Mexican dishes from Estrellita. Other booths will have community volunteers serving hamburgers, garlic fries, crab sandwiches, spicy shrimp skewers, Caesar salad, barbecue chicken and pork kebobs.

Booths featuring premium wines and microbreweries will be dispersed around the parking plaza, with volunteers from local community agencies doing the pouring.

The festival is a family event. Children and their parents can participate in the annual scarecrow contest or walk down Children’s Alley, where a variety of youth-oriented activities will keep them busy. Local schools benefit from the proceeds of the interactive games they provide in Children’s Alley.

Continuous musical entertainment is scheduled on the main stage, in two-hour segments starting at 10:30 a.m. both days. The featured musicians include the Los Altos Big Band, Almost Blue, Agnes Rock Band, The Beer Hunters, Blue Crocodiles and Deborah Thacker.

For the fifth year, the special attraction will be the Chef’s Galley with demonstrations by well-known area chefs.

The galley opens at 11 a.m., Saturday, with Chef Chris Ford from Left Bank restaurant in Menlo Park. He will demonstrate how to make oysters with mignonette, scallop and salmon mousse soufflé with lobster bisque sauce, and sole a la meunière.

At 12:30 p.m. Jocco’s owner, Jaime Carpenter, is giving up the first day of deer hunting to make macadamia nut brownies for festival visitors. He will also demonstrate how to make chipotle barbecue sauce for his famous pork ribs, which he never puts on the menu.

At 2 p.m. Chef Henri Delcros of Trader Vic’s will demonstrate Madras lamb curry with steamed rice, and at 3:30 p.m. Pamela Keith of Draeger’s Culinary Center will make her presentation.

Sunday the Chef’s Galley opens with Rachelle Boucher, from McPhail’s Private Chef/Savor the Moment, demonstrating sesame-orange crusted salmon.

At noon Gary Roth of Los Altos Golf and Country Club will offer specialties served at the club, followed at 1:30 p.m. by Dan Gordon of Gordon Biersch restaurants. Raised in Los Altos and a graduate of Homestead High School, Gordon calls himself the brewer who loves to eat. He will be making pork and cabbage pot stickers and braised and grilled marzen barbecue babyback ribs.

Since the festival started 11 years ago, it has included a classic car show. Each year the show becomes larger, and this year more than 100 vintage automobiles predating 1969 will be exhibited. There will also be pre-1976 cars for sale in the far end of the plaza. Awards for Best Car of the Show will be awarded 1:20 p.m. on both days.

More than 100 volunteers man the booths, serve food, greet attendees, help at Children’s Alley and provide the support and enthusiasm that fosters a dynamic community spirit during the two-day festival.

The festival usually has about 30,000 attendees. Admission and parking are free. For more information, call the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce at 948-1455.