New Orleans Wine and Food Experience showcases America’s culinary capital

Story and Photos by Dwight Casimere

-Dwight The Wine Doctor and Bravo Network’s Top Chef Season 5 winner Hosea Rosenberg

-A Heritage pig or ‘Cochon’ as they say in New Orleans

-Mardi Gras celebrant at the Grand Tasting at the Louisiana Superdome

-Chef Emeril and Dwight The Wine Doctor

-Celebrity Chefs compete at the Louisiana Seafood Cookoff at the Superdome

Without question, America’s culinary capital is the City of New Orleans. That fact will be demonstrated with resounding clarity when The New Orleans Wine & Food Experience 2010 convenes in the Crescent City Tuesday, May 25 to Saturday, May 29.

More than a hundred New Orleans restaurants will serve samples of their delectable cuisine along with 15,000 glasses of wine poured by 200 winemakers will be served over the course of the five-day extravaganza.

Beginning with a series of wine dinners at New Orleans’ premiere restaurants, the event celebrates the pairing of the nation’s and the world’s finest wines with the imaginative cuisine of some of the nation’s most celebrated chefs.

Vinola! Tasting and Auction is one of NOWFE’s premiere events. It’s a rare opportunity for a ‘limited edition’ of 200 wine enthusiasts to mingle with elite winemakers and sample highly rated and collectible wines from around the world. Forty wineries will pour their most highly rated and revered wines followed by a live auction. This is a must event for wine aficionados and serious wine collectors!

Unique among all wine tasting events and a true centerpiece of NOWFE is the Royal Street Stroll. Its the biggest block party ever for foodies and wine lovers. They are surrounded by the sights and sounds of the biggest street party since Mardi Gras. For one night only, the French Quarter is turned into the world's biggest wine tasting! Wine glasses in hand, epicures stroll through the heart of the city’s historic French Quarter sampling wine and food offerings will meandering through the section’s unique antique shops, art galleries and boutiques. Live jazz from the city’s storied musical geniuses emanates from the quaint muses and cobble-stoned streets of one of the nation’s most fabled districts.

Louisiana Superdome is the setting for the ‘Super Bowl’ of all wine tasting events, the Grand Tastings Friday, May 28 and Saturday, May 29. 75 chefs and 1000 vintages are accompanied by some of Louisiana’s best musicians. The event is replete with local flavor and color, complete with Mardi Gras floats, ‘line’ parades and chef demonstrations and competitions. There’s nothing quite like it in the entire culinary world.

The 2010 seminar series brings celebrated local chefs and the world’s top winemakers to a series of intimate discussions in the private dining and meeting rooms of the French Quarter’s most esteemed luxury hotels. This is an opportunity to learn the hottest trends and cutting edge techniques from the experts of the culinary world. Topics include “Magazine, the Street of Dreams,” “Charmed by Charcuterie,” “Gone Gulfing” and “Wines with Altitude.” There is nothing stuffy about these informative and fun sessions.

The New Orleans Wine & Food Experience is a non-profit organization. The Board of the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience donates 100% of the events’ profit to support their programs and foundations. Proceeds from the 2009 event benefited University of New Orleans School of Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism, the Louisiana Restaurant Association’s ProStart Program, The Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, Delgado Community College Culinary Arts Program, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, Girls First, Cancer Crusaders, Animal Rescue of New Orleans, Coach Sean Payton’s Play It Forward Foundation and Fore! Kids Foundation. For information visit www.nowfe.com or call (504) 529.WINE (9463).

Next: The Great Chefs of New Orleans take center stage.