A Foxwoods Food & Wine Festival Wrap-Up

Restaurants from New York City to Boston descended on the 4th annual Foxwoods Food and Wine Festival at MGM Grand at Foxwoods on November 5- 7, 2010. 

A weekend-long event, the Festival featured celebrity chef dinners, cooking demonstrations, and dozens of restaurants and wine vendors showcased at two “Grand Tasting” events on Saturday and Sunday.

We took dozens of photos of our evening when we weren't eating, drinking or chatting with chefs and friends (such as Courant photographer Nick Caito). Check out some of our photos below:

The food was universally delicious, but the real treat was being able to mingle with the owners and chefs of some places we know and love such as Thali’s Prasad Chirnomula and Bobby Q's Bobby LeRose – and others I look forward to visiting such as Heirloom’s Casey Savona. Savona’s upscale reuben studded with East Lyme beef was one of my favorite bites of the night. But it was Bella Bella Gourmet Food's foie gras terrine with date, pomegranate and fenugreek which literally made my eyes roll back in my head. I also got a chance to get up close and personal with a large bottle of Hendrick’s gin at the William Grant & Sons table and double-fisted Campari courtesy of John Ginnetti at 116 Crown. The wine, beer and spirit offerings were definitely the unsung hero of the evening. I came motivated by the food but left having enjoyed the depth all things quaffable, from dozens of wine and beer selections to strange yet tasty fizzy vodkas and apéritifs like Campari and St. Germain.

For my companion, the ultimate food network junkie, it was the reality food TV celebrities at every turn that kept us grinning. We had the pleasure of meeting Casey Thompson, a Top Chef Season 3 finalist who is now a spokesperson for Terrazas wine who was gracious with her time, chatting with us about travel tips to Argentina, her recipes developed with Terrazas, as well as: Kevin Cottle, corporate chef for Jordan caterers and a Hells Kitchen contestant who makes weekly appearances on New Channel 12; Tiffany Faison, another Top Chef Season 1 finalist and chef at Rocca in Boston; and Sunny Anderson, host of Food Network’s Cooking for Real.

The Saturday evening Grand Tasting concluded with a 'Bon Bon Boogie Bash,' a mind boggling array of desserts, cocktails, live music complete with a dance floor so we could work off our gluttonous evening.

Let’s just say we were all very grateful for the mountain of Fiji water strategically placed at the exit. See you next year Foxwoods Food & Wine Festival.