At the Tales and Ales lunch in Aspen, Stella Artois master beer sommelier Marc Stroobandt led the beer tasting. I remembered the Belgian brew expert from a lamb luncheon he'd hosted the year before, where he championed a head on beer: "Don't be afraid of foam on your beer. If you're short on the foam, then you'll be short on some flavor." This year, Stroobandt demonstrated the perfect pour. He Read more

From Giada to Mario to Morimoto, there was no shortage of big food names at the Food & Wine Classic. But no one was more popular than regional Mexican expert Rick Bayless. When I attended his seminar one afternoon, I sat shoulder to shoulder with literally hundreds of attendees crowded under the cooking tent just to see the Top Chef Master in action. The affable TV host captivated the crowd Read more

Of all the demos I visited at the Food & Wine Classic, the seminar hosted by Giada De Laurentiis surprised me the most. I worried that it'd be too crowded due to the Food Network star's popularity, but it wound up being one of my favorites. Although the Italian bombshell did spill her secrets for looking great, she definitely demonstrated that she isn't just a pretty face. The lady can cook, Read more

Since I'm something of a home mixologist, one of the seminars I looked forward to attending at the Food & Wine Classic was Tony Abou-Ganim's Create Your Own Specialty Cocktails. While I make tons of drinks at home, I always follow a recipe, so I was curious to see what Ganim had to say. According to him, the key to a good cocktail is balance. Also, making drinks is like cooking; once you Read more

The final Aspen Food & Wine event is the Classic Quickfire, a timed cooking competition between the most recent Top Chef winner and an acclaimed chef (such as Jacques Pepin). This year, Top Chef champion Michael Voltaggio was up against stiff competition: Top Chef Masters winner Rick Bayless! Host Sissy Biggers announced the theme was "sexy vegetables." Just like on the show, the two Read more

I enjoyed her seminar a couple of years ago at the Artisan Cheese Festival, so naturally when I heard that Laura Werlin, cheese expert, fabulous girl-about-town, and author of Great Grilled Cheese: 50 Innovative Recipes for Stove Top, Grill, and Sandwich Maker, was hosting a demo at the Classic in Aspen, I knew I had to go. Not only did I taste some amazing cheeses, but I also enjoyed four Read more

When we arrived in Aspen for the Food & Wine Classic, one of the first things we did was browse the recipes in the Tasting Notes booklet. These were the dishes that the chefs would make during their demos. While some, like Tom Colicchio's homemade lamb sausage, sounded wonderful, others, say Art Smith's egg white fritatta, seemed boring. I had all but given up on the chef from Chicago when I Read more