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How to Prepare For a BBQ Festival
Over the long weekend, while many of you were hosting barbecues of your own, I headed over to Sparks, NV, for the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off, one of the country's largest outdoor barbecue events. I was more than stoked to chomp down on award-winning ribs all day long, but — given the scope of the festival and its four-hour driving distance from my house — I wanted to maximize my first experience there by being as prepared for the event as Michael Phelps was for the Summer Olympics. If you're planning on heading to a major barbecue festival (or any food extravaganza, for that matter), I've got some tips to share with you.
Racking Up Ribs at Nevada's Best in the West Cook-Off
How much do I love ribs? I'd say that I was probably born with one in my hand, that's how much I love them — and grilling up a distinctive ginger-infused batch of my own recently only heightened my desire to indulge more.
I've always had the itch to go to the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off in Sparks, NV.
Cheese Lovers Battle It Out at SF Macaroni Cook-Off
Call it the daddy of all mac-and-cheese battles: Earlier this month, a new group, SF Food Wars, hosted its first-ever event, a macaroni and cheese cook-off. Twenty contenders — and more than 200 eaters — attended the inaugural event, which benefited the San Francisco Food Bank.
Among the cheesy plates of pasta?
A Sampling of Tastes From the Tent at SF Chefs
Whether it's Slow Food Nation or Aspen, one of the highlights of any major food festival is the tasting tent, where attendees have an opportunity to sample sips and bites from restaurants, featured food brands, and wineries. New event SF Chefs. Food.
Top Dishes From Food & Wine's Best New Chefs
Every event I attended at the Food & Wine Classic this year was incredible, but my favorite meal at the Classic was the annual Best New Chefs Dinner, bar none. At a gorgeous estate in Aspen, festival-goers had a chance to sample top bites from the 10 sensations who were crowned this year's Best New Chefs. Scope out both the chefs and the dishes that took center stage that night when you keep reading.
Guess Who Was in Aspen?
Aside from the entertaining seminars and enticing offerings at the Grand Tasting, one of the coolest things about the Food & Wine Classic is the fact that you're constantly running into celebrity chefs. Last year, we spotted Padma Lakshmi and got chatty with Rocco Dispirito; this year had its share of celeb chef sightings as well. Just about everybody in the culinary world — from Alex Guarnaschelli to David Chang — was in town.
YumSugar's Best of the Tasting Tents: Food
The biggest event at the Aspen Food & Wine Classic is the Grand Tasting, which took place five times over the span of three days. Inside several vast tents, attendees could sample a wide variety of food, from Peruvian tiradito to Cypriot soutzouko. As delicious as the offerings tasted, half the fun was eating with my eyes.
2008's Best Moments at Aspen Food & Wine
As I mentioned yesterday, Party and I are headed to Aspen this weekend for what is considered the food industry's biggest gathering of the year. Before we report back with inspiring moments and witty words from this year's gustatory fest, I wanted to take a look back at the best that Aspen had to offer last year.
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Dining Among the Redwoods at Sunset's Celebration Weekend
On a recent weekend, I had the opportunity to attend Sunset's Celebration Weekend, an outdoor event dedicated to all things lifestyle, from gardening to home improvement to, of course, food. The festival, which took place under a shining sun at Sunset magazine's headquarters in Menlo Park, CA, featured cooking demos from chefs like Cindy Pawclyn, Jamie Lauren, and Aaron McCargo, Jr.; composting seminars from Sunset editors; wine tastings; and vendors selling fresh greens, molés, and gelato. There was tons of food and drink to sample: I spotted everything from grilled sausages to watermelon beer to the tallest strawberry daiquiris known to man.
Happy Hour: Castillo de Maetierra Libalis
Last Wednesday, Yum and I found ourselves in a setting that resembled heaven on earth: We were at a Spanish wine tasting with handsome accented pourers and buttery melt-in-your-mouth jamon Iberico. What we could not get enough of was Libalis, a melodic white wine blend from Northern Spain's Valles de Sadacia region. The majority of the grapes are Muscat with a small percentage of lesser-known white varietals, Viura and Malvasia, mixed in.
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