Austin Food & Wine Festival 2013

Who’s having the best week ever? This girl! I had the pleasure of attending the Austin Food & Wine Festival 2013 last weekend thanks to an invitation from my friends at KitchenAid. (Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!) Two days of noshing, imbibing, and celebrity food demos…who wouldn’t enjoy this spectacle of gluttony!?

VIP baby! My cohort Jasmin and I arrived a little before 10 AM and set out immediately for the vino. L’chaim!

I could only attend the event Saturday since I worked Sunday, but definitely enjoyed myself!

After we whet our palates, the demos were set to begin! Here are the lovely and always energetic Susan Feniger sharing a global approach to food and the studly and stylish Brian Malarkey wowing the crowd with his unpretentious but still impressive dishes. 

And freaking adorable Marcus Samulsson bring the sexy back to leftovers.

I didn’t participate in Tim Love’s interactive Tailgate Time grill demo, which admittedly looked awesome. Though I considered manning a grill for an hour and a half in the hot Texas sun learning how to cook a perfect steak, Veuve Clicquot trailer was calling my name instead.

Hello lover!

Suddenly we realized we were famished! Which you would think would be impossible at a festival with enough food to feed nearly the entire fine country state of Texas and enough wine to tranquilize a heard of donkeys. Bring on the Grand Tasting! The first thing you notice when entering the tent is a rainbow of KitchenAid mixers. Hello heaven! If you close your eyes slightly, you can almost see Jewnicorns frolicking about. Here I am auditioning for the role of mixer model. Fingers crossed!

Onto the food!

These Smoked Beet Tacos with Goat Cheese from Hickory Street must be recreated on my blog soon! The crunch sunflower seeds and tangy grapefruit vinaigrette made it.

Pâté de Campagne from Letelier Food Company.

Crispy Chicken Skin, Mushroom Puree and Dried Cherry from Simi Winery in my belly! A winning mix of sweet and savory.

These fried brisket fritters from the Austin Sheraton were insane! Only in Texas, people.

More mixer porn! Bow chicka wow wow.

Lemon Shortbread from Cake & Spoon.

Strawberry ice cream.

Strawberry Panna Cotta from Vespiao/Enoteca. Creamy and subtle in flavor!

Tim Love signed my friend Lisa’s arm. Never wash that arm again!

So much fun! Thanks to C3 and Food & Wine Magazine for putting on an awesome show and again to KitchenAid for letting me participate! Please ignore my cray cray hair here. Humidity and Jewfros are not friends! But wine and Jews are. Let that be a lesson to you.

I attended the Austin Food & Wine Festival on behalf of KitchenAid, but was not required to blog about it and all opinions are my own. And my opinion is that this festival was freaking awesome.