NYCWFF

In January, Southern cooking queen Paula Deen — who's known for recipes like deep-fried butter and burgers with doughnuts as buns — revealed that she'd been living with type 2 diabetes for years. Public outrage ensued. Since then, she's stayed busy trying to help confused fans reconcile her famous lowcountry cooking with a healthier way of living. She addressed this at a recent New York City Wine & Food Festival event, a TimesTalk hosted by The New York Times and moderated by Kim Severson. During the forthright (and at times bizarre) conversation, I was surprised to learn a number of surprising facts about Paula.

Talk about starting off with a bang: last night, the 2012 New York City Wine & Food Festival kicked off with a comedic roast of Anthony Bourdain by celebrity chefs and comedians, and it seemed like just about every star chef who's seen a camera was there to sling mud at the food personality who made his name slinging mud. As pal Sarah Silverman told Bourdain in a prerecorded video message: "There's gonna be a lot of great lines tonight, and you can't snort any of them."

Great lines indeed. It was a rare opportunity to see another side of the stars of Food Network, who puts on the yearly festival; everyone from the bubbly Rachael Ray to the modest Eric Ripert cracked a dirty sex joke (or 10). Although Bourdain was the subject of the roast, there were plenty of other subjects of interest, primarily Guy Fieri's douchiness, Mario Batali fat jokes, and Ray's inability to cook. Catch up with the best lines you missed from last night's shockingly irreverent, profanity-filled comedy roast of Anthony Bourdain.

We can't help but relive some of our favorite moments from the 2011 NYC Wine & Food Festival to gear up for the 2012 festivities, starting tomorrow, Oct. 11. Enjoy all of the goodness from last year's delicious long weekend, featuring food and insight from some of the biggest names in celebrity chefdom.

Giada De Laurentiis's Meatball Wisdom

Grand Tasting Favorites

The Basics of Caviar

Food Trends: Green Juice

Brazen Bites at Burger Bash

Mario Batali One-Liners

Duck Meatball Madness

Carts in the Parc

Anne Burrell on Being a Chef and Cookbook Writer

We're covering this year's festival from Oct. 11-14, so follow us on Twitter for real-time updates — it'll be just like you're right there.

New York City in the Fall only gets better when incredible food and delicious wine enter the picture. YumSugar is partnering with Food & Wine to make that experience possible, just for you!

Spend a weekend in the Big Apple exploring the New York City Wine & Food Festival alongside our YumSugar editors, discovering new delicacies and learning the art of wine pairing from experts. Your favorite personalities, chefs, culinary stars, and wine connoisseurs will teach you everything you need to know about your favorites and introduce you to new discoveries.

Enter to win — and spend a weekend changing the way you think about food. To whet your palate for the New York City Wine & Food Festival, check out YumSugar's coverage of the Aspen Food & Wine Classic!

Since day one, Alton Brown's been host of the competition The Next Iron Chef, and this star-studded season, which premieres tomorrow night at 9 p.m., the Food Network favorite will be back and bigger than ever.

Earlier this month, I ran into Alton at the New York City Wine & Food Festival, where he talked about what makes The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs different from previous seasons, and why he's not just any old TV host.

More on the show — including his opinion of the final outcome! — when you read ahead.

Michael Chiarello is no stranger to reality TV cooking competitions: he was a runner-up on the first season of Top Chef: Masters and has been a guest on Bravo's regular Top Chef series.

When I caught up with him briefly at the New York City Wine & Food Festival, I was curious to know what would compel the seasoned chef — who's a fan of YumSugar! — to put himself on the cutting board once again.

See what he had to say when you keep reading.