Playing with culinary travel
By KAREN BOSSICK
The Wood River Journal~Ketchum
Sun Valley will become a playground for the epicurious this weekend as the second annual Sun Valley Food and Wine Festival takes the stage.
The weekend will feature 11 chef demonstrations by nationally known and local chefs, three wine pairings, several lavish vintner dinners and a couple new additions-a coffee talk about the importance of local, sustainable and organic foods, and a morel mushroom walk.
The weekend will be capped off with a Sun Valley/Ketchum Grand Tasting from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Carol's Dollar Mountain Lodge.
The number of out-of-town registrants has doubled over last year, says Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber spokeswoman Carrie Westergard, and she expects the number of locals attending events to increase this year, as well.
“We have some wonderful nationally known chefs, such as Iron Chef Cat Cora and the chefs from the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation, which honored Palladin's legacy of introducing the French way of cooking in the United States,” she says. “And the caliber of the local chefs is on par with those whom we're bringing in-it's just that they chose to live here, rather than a bigger city like New York.”
The festival plays off the burgeoning interest in participatory culinary travel, which has become one of the fastest growing trends in the travel industry, says Peter Greenberg, Today's travel editor.
On Saturday, guest chefs will share the secrets of preparing dishes such as wild mushroom fricasse and blueberry clafouti with candied ginger and dark chocolate shavings. Local chefs such as Cristina Ceccatelli Cook will demonstrate preparing crepes florentine, flambe desserts from the Lodge Dining Room and marinades, dry rubs and easy sauces to take grilling to the next level.
Frenchman's Gulch Winery will offer the first public tasting of its Gold Medal Winner-2005 Ketchum Cuvee-with local food pairings prepared by Courtney Burns from 3:45 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. Saturday.
The cuvee, a blend of cabernet sauvignon from Alder Creek, merlot and cab franc grapes from Chandler Reach vineyards, won Gold at the Northwest Food and Wine Summit held in April at Mt. Hood's Timberline Lodge in Oregon. The event is the Northwest's largest competition with 1,400 entries.
Wine Press Northwest magazine has also given the wine an “outstanding” rating, recommending it for grilled or roasted meats and hearty Italian dishes.
Cole Danehower, the wine editor of Northwest Palate Magazine, and Christine Hammond of Winebow will presents tasting talks of their own on “Wine Tasting and Food Pairing Demystified” and “Fine Italian Wines” on Saturday afternoon.
The weekend will end with the lavish Grand Tastings, which will feature tastings of wine, champagne, beer and vodka.
Last year, the tables sagged under the weight of well-seasoned elk steak, bison, quail, salmon quiche, Portabello mushrooms, Dolmades stuffed grape leaves, Cajun spiced shrimp, oysters in the shell, mussels and imported cheeses served up by Chef Paul Dean at Elkhorn Country Club.
And Westergard says she expects Sun Valley Chef Scott Wamsley and his colleagues to be just as extravagant.
“They're out to impress, to showcase what they can do,” she says.
A Festival Package, which includes admission to guest and local chef demonstrations, wine pairings and the Grand Tastings event, costs $190. A VIP pass, which includes all that plus a special reception Friday evening, costs $230.
Single tickets to guest chefs range from $50 to $65. Single tickets to local chef demonstrations cost $35 each; a pass good for three demonstrations costs $75.
The coffee talk Sunday and the morel mushroom walk are free.
For more information, go to www.sunvalleyfoodandwinefestival.com.
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