Food Town Cleveland
Gearing up for the Ultimate Festival

It's been said that Cleveland has more restaurants per capita, and more GOOD restaurants per capita, than most cities. Our summer festivals are popular enough that we can have two rib burn-offs in one weekend. We can get pretty much any ethnic food at some point during the summer at our many cultural festivals. Even our arts festivals feature food. So it's no wonder that the Fabulous Food Show is in Cleveland for the third year in a row. We need a place as big as the I-X Center to satisfy our food cravings, just as the summer festivals have disappeared.

The Fabulous Food Festival, a Time Warner Cable-sponsored event, takes over the I-X Center this weekend (November 14-16). Festival hours run from 10AM - 8PM on Friday and Saturday and 10 AM - 6PM Sunday. It's the event for food lovers. Foodies can sample wines, beers and spirits, try local restaurant food, pick up free recipes, buy some holiday gifts, learn from some demonstrations, and pretty much get filled up with anything having to do with food while music plays in the background.

The festival coincides with By Hand, Ohio’s Premier Indoor Art Festival, which will share space with the Food Festival and is included in admission. When you have reached your limit on the amount of food stuff you can take in, the pace can change when you move over to the art festival. The pairing of the culinary arts with the visual arts gives early holiday shoppers more gift choices.

The food demonstrations also take the pace down a notch as well. If it sounds like I’m trying to tell you things get a bit busy, I am. I attended the Food Festival a couple years ago and was impressed by all the booths and all the opportunities to try flavored oils and salsas and olives, but the I-X Center is huge and traipsing through the aisles and waiting in line for an opportunity to look at kitchen gadgets can get tiresome.

Cleveland’s own Iron Chef champion Michael Symon is among the celebrity chefs this year. He’ll be at the Festival demonstrating how he whips together his artistic creations of fresh and varied foods. He also hosts Cleveland’s Best Sous Chef Competition on Friday evening at 6:30, where Pier W’s Jack Ahern squares off against Justin Herl’s Momocho. The competition began weeks ago over successive Mondays, and Ahern and Herl are now the top competitors. The final competition is open to all attendees during the Fabulous Food Festival.

Other celebrity chefs, including Bobby Deen, Paula Deen, Guy Fieri, Curtis Stone, and Hayden Wood will be demonstrating their skills during the weekend. If you want to spend some time with these famous food and drink creative spirits, log onto the website and find the time when they will be appearing. You’ll want to become familiar with the chefs before you pick them off the list and schedule a time. We know who Michael Symon is—he’s the guy who can put together great food with fresh ingredients in a wollopping way, and fast. Most people know who Paula Deen and her son Bobby are, but you might want to check out Fieri or Stone. Hayden “Woody” Wood is the World Champion Flair Bartender and is considered an inventive “bar chef.”

Seven Hills native Andrew Carmellini will be promoting his new book Urban Italian. The James Beard Foundation award winning New York City restaurateur will be among the celebrities autographing their books in the Autograph Pavilion. He is scheduled to sign his books at 1:00 on Friday. Carmellini was named Best Chef in New York City in 2002 and 2004, which is mind-blowing with the number of restaurants that fill up Manhattan.

Taste of the Neighborhood, ongoing seminars of Cleveland’s finest culinary talent, also highlights Cleveland’s reputation as a food town. For example, on Friday at 3, one can choose a session on Homestyle Holiday Desserts with Rita Bolton or Setting a Lovely Holiday Table with Brenda Junkin. That evening, at 6, Making Sushi at Home with Catherine St John will show us how to use that sushi kit received as a Christmas present last year. Presented by the Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition, the seminars also include Marilou Suszko and Loretta Paganini, who will teach us how to prepare a local foods-inspired meal for six or how to make homemade soups, breads and pastas.

The Cleveland Wine School seems to be everywhere these days. The Wine Theater will present Cleveland Wine School seminars, free. Check out Hot Trends & Cool Regions: Wines from Chile & Argentina with Master Sommelier Matthew Citriglia or Wine School owner Marianne Frantz’s program on Austria’s Golden Grape Gruner Veltliner.

Go to http://www.fabulousfoodshow.com for recipes, schedules, tasting tickets, and advance admission tickets. Advance tickets are $25 for general admission and $40 for the reserved gourmet floor. Ticket purchase includes all day admission and one celebrity chef performance, access to all exhibitors and the Culinary Celebration Theatre, the Autograph Pavilion, Taste of the Neighborhood, The Chocolate Bar, Grand Tasting Pavilion, Restaurant Demonstrations, International Bubble Lounge, Wine Cellar, Wine Theatre, Shopping, and the Fabulous Bistro.

It sounds like an all-day excursion. I’m convinced it’s going to be good, so I’ll see you there.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia J. Taller ctallerwritesATwowway.com
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