Monday, April 11, 2011

Upcoming Event: Atlanta Food and Wine Festival!

One of the highest privileges of living in The South is the amazing delicacy that is southern cooking. It’s comfortable. It’s delicious. And it’s versatile – it easily can combine with many other regional fares to create delectable combinations like Tex-Mex and my personal favorite, Southern-Greek.

And now southern cuisine has an entirely new way to be appreciated and honored – coming in May, The Atlanta Food and Wine Festival will debut to highlight and celebrate everything about Southern food.

AFWFLogo - Square

“This event is all about highlighting the diversity of the Southern Chef”
– Chris Hastings, Hot and Hot Fish Club


Even though 2011 is it’s inaugural year, this festival has been exceptionally well planned and designed. They have a founder’s council of 63 chefs from 14 southern states (including four of Alabama’s top chefs, Frank Stitt, Chris and Idie Hastings, and James Boyce).

High Res DVL and EF Headshot Photo Credit Anna Collins Designs

The event founders, Elizabeth Feichter and Dominique Love, asked the chefs of the Founder's Council what they would want the event to look like. And by letting the experts guide the event, it is certain to be an amazing weekend.

[Having] the Founder’s Council is the dream approach – that’s what sets this festival apart.”
- Scott Jones, Jones is Hungry

The events of the weekend include many seminars and demonstrations, a la carte dinners at various restaurants around Atlanta (featuring out-of-town chefs), a Street Cart Pavilion to sample the South’s top food trucks, and Tasting Tents that take you through a tour of Southern Cuisine (imagine being able to taste every region’s barbeque, then walk to the next tent and taste all of the various forms of Southern fried chicken…YUM).

The three focus areas of the festival will be Old Traditions (soul food, barbecue, Cajun and Creole, meat and three, etc), New Traditions (the fusing of Southern food with Asian, Greek, French, Latin, etc), and Imports and Inspirations (“Other Southern” – food from other southern regions around the world, including Southern Europe, South Africa, South America, etc).

The event also supports Grow for Good, a national campaign to support sustainable agriculture and local farms – something that will most definitely benefit us all.

This inaugural year is certain to be a special year – if you love amazing southern food, this is a can’t-miss event!!


The dates of the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival are Thursday, May 19th through Sunday, May 22nd. They have every type of ticket package available – day passes, weekend passes, Tasting Tent and Street Cart Pavilion passes, VIP passes, and, for the true foodie, connoisseur passes.

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