Food & Wine events

[TBM]

So far I've made reservations for one of the culinary demonstrations, and I am looking through the list to see if I want to add any others or maybe one of the specialty dining and pairings.  

We did the Parisian Afternoon last year so I was trying to think of something different, but we enjoyed it so much that we wouldn't mind doing it again.  

Is anyone else booking anything?

[mmmomof2]

Last year I did one of the French luncheons. The food was decent, but not fabulous. The wine pairings were amazing though. The food was pretty carb heavy with not a lot of protein, looking back I guess that's how they saved money. If I were going this year I'd want to try one of the Italian ones, but it would be nice to be able to check the menu first.

[TBM]

Jul 23, 2016 9:14:48 GMT -5 mmmomof2 said:

Last year I did one of the French luncheons. The food was decent, but not fabulous. The wine pairings were amazing though. The food was pretty carb heavy with not a lot of protein, looking back I guess that's how they saved money. If I were going this year I'd want to try one of the Italian ones, but it would be nice to be able to check the menu first.

I would love to see the menus.  It would make my decision so much easier, since I don't eat meat, and even though I expect them to have meat, if they have something on the menu with seafood or fish than DH and I can trade then we can make it work.  They are great with special diets, but I just try to find events where it can work without it being anything requiring extra work on their part.

We went to a dinner event for one of the final nights of the Osborne family lights, and while in line to get in saw the chef making shrimp but it looked like it had meat in it.  When I asked what was in the dish (turned out to be sausage) he offered to make me some without the sausage.  He made a full pan without, and served me the entire amount.  It was nice of him, but I felt like I had to eat it all.  I shared with the table, and ate shrimp all night long, between other courses. lol

The Parisian event we did last year was like high tea.  The breads were great...really interesting flavors and the pairings of bread/fillings were unusual, but good.   They were quite generous and kept bringing us more of the sandwiches and everything else.  We loved the sparkling wine that they served.  We skipped mimosas and just had the never ending refills of sparkling wine.  A lot of refills.  We didn't pay attention to the label, which is funny because we are super picky about champagne and sparkling wines and if we like something we ask (I think we were distracted because we had the most amazing, fun tablemates), so when we thought of it a few weeks later, we asked at the festival center desk.  They couldn't get an answer for us then, but called me a few weeks later to let me know that it was Louis Perdrier.  I am not sure if it was the brut or the brut NV, but we found the brut NV at Total Wine for $8.99 a bottle, and it has been well received when we have served it.