Palm Desert Food & Wine Festival to feature Curtis Stone, Carla Hall Leave a comment
Foodies, prepare to loosen your belts. After being canceled due to COVID-19 in 2020, then being forced to exist virtually in 2021, The Palm Desert Food and Wine Festival will once again fill The Gardens at El Paseo with fine food, wine and fun this week.
The event, which is presented by Agua Caliente Casinos in conjunction with The Gardens at El Paseo, will feature 16 award-winning chefs offering various gastronomical delights.
And it’s all for a good cause. The festival supports Coachella Valley’s FIND Food Bank, and for every ticket sold, the food bank is able to provide 35 meals to local recipients, so you can dig into the delicious offerings knowing that valley families in need are being helped.
This year, over 40 local restaurants, 16 celebrity chefs and 27 sponsors/partners are working to make the event come to life. The festivities bring industry professionals and amateur foodies alike to the valley for three days of diverse food selections, premium wines and hands-on cooking demonstrations by some of the nation’s best and up-and-coming chefs.
Palm Springs Life produces the festival, which recorded more than 6,000 attendees in 2019. This year’s ticket sales are expected to reach over 7,500, aided by the fact that many people held on to tickets that could not be used during the COVID-19 shutdowns.
Now that people want to get back to some semblance of normalcy, organizers are confident they’ll reach pre-pandemic attendance numbers.
“I think people really want to get out and do things again,” co-producer Tony Marchese said. “People love to watch a chef like Curtis Stone prepare something and then they get to eat what they just saw being made. Maybe they will try a wine that they would never have thought to try.”
He went on to thank Stone for sticking with the festival through all the delays and for honoring his commitment this year.
Marchese, who owns Palm Springs eatery Trio, was approached by festival coordinators six or seven years ago to get involved. He loves food and the hospitality business, so Marchese said he couldn’t think of a better fit. He has co-produced the festival ever since.
Marchese said nearly 75% of previous ticket holders return to the festival year after year.
This year, despite the lack of a city — or statewide — mask mandate or vaccination requirement, COVID-19 protocols will still be in place. All ticket holders will be required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 48 hours prior to entering the event, but masks are not required.
New events this year include the Morning Meet-Up with Food Network stars Carla Hall and Zac Young (of the show “Halloween Baking Championship”), which will include a Biscuit Bake-Off and Date Camp featuring Chef Aarti Sequeira and CV Harvest Box co-owner Mark Tadros.
“Carla and Zac are so great together on ‘Halloween Baking Championship.’ The biscuit bake-off should be a lot of fun,” Marchese said.
Organizers said the hardest part of this year’s festival has been finding volunteer workers, which is not surprising amid the nation’s pandemic-induced labor shortage.
“We need many volunteers to make the festival run smoothly,” Marchese said. ” This year, it has been tough to find them.”
However, Marchese promises this year’s event will still be a blast that has something for every foodie and wine enthusiast.
Although the event is set for March 25-27, programs started Thursday with a discussion on cheese making by Maître Fromager Afrim Pristine and an Under the Tuscan Moon dinner at The Toscana Country Club.
On Friday, ticket holders are invited to the James Beard Gourmet Four-Course Luncheon hosted by aforementioned chefs Hall and Young. Other celebrity chefs featured at the event will include Culinary Institute and Le Cordon Bleu graduate, certified sommelier, radio host and cookbook author Jamie Gwen; author, artist and winner of “Master Chef” season six Claudia Sandoval; and Michelin-starred chef and TV star Curtis Stone.
Friday will also include a book signing with Hall, who is promoting her book “Soul Food,” and Stone, who is promoting his book “Good Food, Good Life.” The book signings will take place directly after the luncheon. In the evening, guests are invited to meet the chefs at the Celebrity Chef Reception from 6-8 p.m. at The Prescott Estate.
Saturday kicks off with the aforementioned Biscuit Bake-off at 10 a.m., during which guests can enjoy morning bites and beverages followed by demonstrations from Hall and Young. Also at 10 a.m. is the Saturday Grand Tastings, which will feature bites from more than 40 restaurants, created by renowned chefs from across the Coachella Valley and elsewhere in California, as well as more than 60 premium and sparkling wines, beers and spirits. Tasting participants can interact with the vintners and chefs to discuss their offerings.
Date Camp is scheduled to begin at noon, when guests will join celebrity chef, television personality and cookbook author Aarti Sequeira along with date farmer and co-founder of Date Harvest Festival Mark Tadros as they present an informative session on the date farming process followed by a cooking-with-dates demonstration.
Close out your Food and Wine experience at the Sunday Grand Tastings, scheduled to begin at noon.
If you go
What: The Palm Desert Food and Wine Festival
When: Now through Sunday, March 27, various times
Where: Varies, but most take place at The Gardens on El Paseo, 73-545 El Paseo, Palm Desert
Cost: Varies, but tickets to individual events generally range from $75 to $200
More info: www.palmdesertfoodandwine.com
