Foodies and gourmands alike will delight in the return of one of the top gourmet\u00a0events in Southern California: The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, hitting America\u2019s Finest City Nov. 16-20. The eighth annual festival will offer an array of cooking classes, wine tastings and banquets hosted by top chefs from across the country.\u00a0 “Our lineup of culinary and wine tasting classes this year is truly exceptional,” said Michelle Metter, a partner in Fast Forward Event Productions, organizers of the weeklong celebration of all things food and wine. “The festival brings the wine country into the backyard of San Diego, giving close access to celebrity chefs, legendary winemakers and sommeliers.” Metter said the festival drew more than 10,000 people last year from every state in the U.S. and some visitors from Canada, Europe, Australia and Mexico,\u00a0highlighting San Diego as a food and wine destination on par with\u00a0other major\u00a0cities. The festival\u2019s cooking classes, held during the week downtown and in Mission Valley, provide opportunity to learn from leading\u00a0food and wine talent from across the country. Classes this year include instruction on Belgian beer tasting and pairing, an Italian Master Class by chef Suzette Gresham of Acquerello in San Francisco,\u00a0a Super Chef All Stars seafood class featuring former contestants from Bravo\u2019s “Top Chef,” and a taste of the Mid East by chef Billy Strynkowski, executive chef of Cooking Light Magazine and\u00a0a veteran of the festival. Strynkowski\u00a0is an East Coast chef\u00a0whose cooking classes are as entertaining as his food is delicious. A 1930s\/40s vintage jazz-themed reserve wine tasting will be held at the San Diego Air and Space Museum Nov. 18. Also new this year is a day excursion to Rancho La Puerta Resort and Spa in Mexico. The package includes round-trip transportation, use of spa facilities, a culinary class and dinner.\u00a0 The Grand Tasting, the festival\u2019s culminating event, will be held Saturday, Nov. 19 at Embarcadero Park North behind Seaport Village. It will feature 170 wine and spirit purveyors, live entertainment, food from dozens of San Diego\u2019s leading restaurants and a “Chef of the Fest” competition, where chefs compete live for $50,000 worth of cash and prizes, as judged by a panel of celebrity and professional chefs. Last year\u2019s winner was chef Robert Ruiz of Harney Sushi. Following the Grand Tasting event is the All-Star Mixologist after-party to be held at the US Grant Hotel from 8 p.m.-midnight \u2014 another new addition this year. Featuring the city\u2019s top mixologists from Grant Grill, Prohibition and Nobel Experiment to name a few, the party will benefit the San Diego Bar Guild, a member organization of mixology professionals. Bartenders will donate their time and talent for the evening, the proceeds of which go toward “making better bartenders and increasing the standards of the industry in San Diego,” said Jeff Josenhans, who directs food and beverage at the US Grant. “It\u2019s the only time that you will be able to see the best bartenders in the city working at the same bar helping each other out. It\u2019s really an incredible pool of talent and they will all be doing their own style.” The festival concludes on Sunday, Nov. 20 with the Celebrity Chef Luncheon and American Institute of Wine & Food (AIWF) Big Bottle Auction, a six-course luncheon and wine pairing held at the Marriot Marquis. Proceeds from the event, including live and silent auction items, go toward AIWF scholarships. To date, the festival has raised more than $180,000 to help culinary students in San Diego advance their education. Tickets for the Grand Tasting event range from $125-$175 and can be purchased in advance online.\u00a0The event\u00a0sells out so presale is\u00a0strongly encouraged.\u00a0Cooking classes range from $45-$85 and are held at the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center, 200 Harbor Drive, and the Macy\u2019s School of Cooking located in the Macy\u2019s Home Store in Mission Valley, 1555 Camino De La Reina. Tickets for the All-Star Mixologist after party at the U.S. Grant\u00a0will be sold at the door. Weekend getaway package deals are available with several participating hotels downtown and in other areas of San Diego. For more information about the festival lineup or to purchase tickets, visit www.worldwineevents.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Foodies and gourmands alike will delight in the return of one of the top gourmet\u00a0events in Southern California: The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, hitting America\u2019s Finest City Nov. 16-20. The eighth annual festival will offer an array of cooking classes, wine tastings and banquets hosted by top chefs from across the country.\u00a0 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":271794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11556","_seopress_titles_title":"Food and wine on the bay","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11556,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-downtown-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}