A pair of Napa Valley chefs bested their San Francisco counterparts in the first Chefs Challenge held at the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay over Halloween weekend.

Keith Luce, executive chef of Press in St. Helena, and Scott Warner, chef/partner of Bistro Don Giovanni in Napa, took top honors in a 60-minute cook-off that called for two chef teams to whip up a three-course meal based on a key secret ingredient.

Considering that Half Moon Bay is the world capital of pumpkins, it was no surprise that pumpkin was the secret ingredient the chefs were required to use in an appetizer, main course and dessert.

Luce and Warner trounced the competition -- San Francisco chefs Gregory Short, of Masa's, and Ron Siegel, of The Dining Room of the Ritz Carlton -- by preparing two dishes that the panel of judges preferred, both the main course and the dessert.

The Napa team picked three pumpkins for its dishes, all provided by Farmer John's Pumpkins of Half Moon Bay.

For the main course, slices of Apple Blossom pumpkin were roasted and topped with a ragout of veal, bacon, salsify and truffles -- a dish the judges maintained was the most creative of the competition.

Dessert consisted of a twisted pasta bag, called caramelle, stuffed with Georgia Candy Roaster pumpkin and toasted Kaki pumpkin seeds, napped with a vanilla-infused honey and brown butter sauce.

Although one of the judges raved about the Napa duo's appetizer -- grilled slices of Georgia Candy Roaster pumpkin with agrodolce sauce with shaved parmesan, celery, pear and toasted Kaki seeds -- the San Francisco team took the top place for its dish.

"It was a lot of fun," Luce said of the competition. "Although Scott and I had never worked together, we have played music together. (Warner plays guitar and Luce the drums in a chefs band that often performs at Bay Area charity culinary events.) I think we had a great plan going into the competition and came up with some really good dishes. And we happened to come up with a win. We'll take that."

Neither chef indicated whether the competition winning dishes would wind up on menus at Press or Bistro Don Giovanni.