Kate Krader

For the past 18 or so years, Kate Krader has been the restaurant editor at Food & Wine magazine. If there is anyone who knows about dining trends, it's Kate! After she candidly described a day in her glamorous life, she spoke with us about cocktails, menus, and more. Here's how the conversation went down:

YumSugar: You recently came out with Food & Wine Cocktails 2011. What's your favorite drink in the book?
Kate Krader: There's a bunch of awesome cocktails. Phil Ward's old-fashioned with tequila. The new drinks that are made by chefs are cool. More chefs are getting involved in cocktail programs! Linton Hopkins's sidecar is really good. Wylie Dufresne's sake drink is the best one I've ever tasted.

To see if Kate prefers a short or long menu, keep reading.

Goat, pork desserts, and grilled cheese weren't the only trends we spotted at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. I also attended a seminar devoted to what's hot (and what's not!) in the world of mixology. At The Cocktail Guide, New York's most famous bartender Jim Meehan, of PDT, and Food & Wine's Kate Krader discussed top trends when it comes to drinks. Wondering what you should seek out and stay away from the next time you hit up your local watering hole? Read on.

Welcome to our new series A Day in the Life, where we examine at what it's like to be a professional in the food industry. In honor of the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, we look at a day in the life of Kate Krader. As the magazine's restaurant editor, Kate is a girl about town and friend to many chefs. Here's what she did yesterday, Thursday, June 15.

Disclaimer: This is not a normal day in my life. This is the first day of Aspen.

6:30 a.m.: I woke up at 6:30, which is earlier than normal for me at my house in Brooklyn. There was a car waiting to take me to the Westchester airport. I don't normally go to this airport.

7:30 a.m.: I was in the car for one hour, which is too much time to be in the car. Last year for the Classic, we got two private planes that flew direct from New York to Aspen with a bunch of chefs. This year it was the same, so I boarded a Bombardier Global with Michael Symon, Jonathan Waxman, Daniel Boulud, Paul Grieco (he's a sommelier at Terroir), Michael White, Danny Meyer, Marcus Samuelsson, and a bunch more people.

10:30 a.m.: Wheels were up at 10:30, and the plane was super deluxe. This is going to sound obnoxious, but it's true: the Krug wasn't chilled, so we had to wait for it to chill. They had these great vegetables and dip and an awesome caprese salad with burrata. The tomatoes were really ripe. You can do whatever you want on a private plane. You can watch TV or hang in the bedroom. The cool thing about the Bombardier plane is that they can change the pressure in the cabin so that the food actually tastes really good. When you fly in a normal plane, the cabin pressure changes the way things taste; food tastes duller, bad. But in a private plane, they can change it so it tastes good.

To find out what fabulous things Kate did when she arrived in Aspen, keep reading!