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USA Food & Wine Festivals for 2013

Love food & wine as much as me?  Well here is a list of some USA food, wine, drink and all things consumable festivals and shows for 2013 that caught my eye.  Let me know which you plan on attending, and I look forward to seeing you there.

January
Fancy Food Show West - San Franciso, CA
Key West Food & Wine - Key West, FL

February
Boston Wine Festival - Boston, MA
DC Food & Wine Show - Washington DC

March
New England Food Show - Boston, MA
NYC Beer Week - NYC
Outer Banks Food & Wine - Outer Banks, NC
Coffee Fest - NYC
NYC Vegetarian Festival - NYC

April
Austin Food & Wine Festival - Austin, TX
Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival - Pebble Beach, CA

May
New Orleans Food & Wine - New Orleans, LA
Food & Wine Festival - Atlanta, GA
American Food Show - Chicago, IL
New Orleans Vegetarian Show - New Orleans, LA

June
Summer Fancy Food Show - NYC
Food Festival - Monclair, NJ
Aspen Food & Wine - Aspen, CO
Bar & Restaurant Show - NYC
Coffee Fest - Chicago, IL

July
Colorado Veg Fest - Golden, CO

August
Litchfield Festival - Litchfield, CT
LA food & Wine - Los Angeles, CA

September
Hampton Beach Festival - Hampton Beach, NH
Newport mansions Food & Wine - Newport, RI
Denver Food & Wine Festival - Denver, CO

October
Vegas Food & Wine - Las Vegas, NV
NYC Food & Wine Festival - NYC
Coffee Fest - Seattle, WA

November
Chicago Food & Wine Chef Showcase - Chicago, IL
NY Vegetarian Show - NYC

Abergavenny Food Festival (Wales, UK)

This year's Abergavenny Food Festival was a big success.  With an amazing selection of chef demos, speakers and food based companies from around Britain and beyond, it was a weekend to remember.

Take a look at all our photos on The Abergavenny Food Festival Album 

Here are TSO's standouts for the weekend:

Best Demo

The Fabulous Baker Brothers

Brothers Tom and Henry are now filming their 2nd season of their successful show, and it is clear why.  Their personalities and humor just radiate off the stage throughout the demonstration.  The crowd participation with kneading the bread, singing of Unchained Melodies and a special way of measuring out flour made the demo beyond entertaining and these two a certain household name in the culinary world for many years to come.

Best Stand
hada del cafe
Martina truly is the Coffee Fairy, and her enthusiasm for all things wonderful shows in everything she does.  Her company was founded in 2007 from delicious coffee beans harvested in northern Nicaragua, but it is the inspiration behind the coffee that makes her story special. She raises money for better education and improving the community in the towns she works with. 

The coffe doesn't fail on any level, winning Great Taste Awards in 2009 and now being carried in Harvey Nichols.  We wish her much success now and in the years to come!

Best Talk

The Food of Spain
Claudia Roden with Michael Jacobs

Claudia Roden talks to the Andalucian-based travel writer Michael Jacobs about her five year immersion in the regional cuisines of Spain which has produced yet another extraordinary volume in her chronicle of the food and peoples of the Mediterranean basin. Claudia Roden fascinating story fuses together food traditions with cultural heritage and history.  

Italians Know How to Live

Last month I spent the best 5 days exploring Tuscany, and the final conclusion I made is that the Italians sure know how to live!

Our trip started in Pisa which is such an easy airport to fly into and usually some awesome deals.  The train takes you one stop into Pisa Centrale and the city is at your disposal then.  The Leaning Tower and cathedral is about a 20 minute walk on the other side of the city, but it's the best way to explore the non-tourist sections.  Pisa is a great place to explore from and we used it as our hub to tour around Tuscany.

Just an hour train ride away are the 5 cliff towns of Cinque Terre.  We started in Riomaggiore and walked La Via Dell' Amore to the next town of Manarola.  The views over the cliffs were so beautiful, that it was quite clear why it is deemed Lovers Walk.

Each town is just a short distance between them where you can walk, jump on a ferry or hop on and off the train.  All the bouncing around does get your appetite going, and there are plenty of cafe's and restaurants to try, but instead of a sit down mean, we opted for a picnic.  Pop into one of the fresh veggie stands and pick up vine tomatoes. Then over to the deli for proscutto, fresh buffalo mozzarella and bread.  For under 10 euros and it couldn't have been more delicious!

Back to Pisa for a restful night, but then off the next morning for a few days in Florence.  Florence is in my top 5 cities that I have travelled to thus far.  The whole city is full of culture; art and music all around you ever corner that you turn.  Between the shopping and site seeing, there are amazing restaurants throughout the city, but the best are down the hidden streets and pop out into the smaller piazza's.  I found out on day one not to order a Neopolitan pizza, because in Italy it comes standard with anchovies.  Aside from that little mishap, we rebounded strongly with a lovely fresh gnocci and PLAIN pizza that evening.

There are certain memories that Italian food triggers for me, my first job in a Pizzeria, Christmas Eve dinners at Carmine's in NYC after seeing the tree and my first trip there with my high school at 15 where I first fell in love. Between the fantastic meals, romantic scenery and bottles of wine, you can't help but to fall in love with Italy over and over again.

PISA

CINQUE TERRE

CHIANTI - WINE TOUR

FLORENCE

A Sweet Town - Abergavenny, Wales

When I'm in the UK I'm in Abergavenny nearly every week both for work and pleasure.  It is a sleepy town most of the time, but comes alive during the Food Festival which attracts over 40,000 people and some top chefs.  I'm looking forward to it in a couple weeks, and wanted to give tribute to some of the local individuals and businesses doing some great things in food.

I work with Chef Penny Lewis and her fantastic cookery school called The Culinary Cottage located just outside of Abergavenny in a beautiful rural setting.  Penny has cooked for the Queen and family on several occasions and personally teaches all the cooking courses herself.  All of her recipes not only taste great, but are a great addition to your home meal rotation.  If you live or visiting the area, make sure to say hello to Penny.  Support her on twitter @culinarycottage and visit her blog for her recipes.

My favorite cafe in Abergavenny is Cwtch, which means loosely means 'snuggle' for the local Welsh.  Graham is the owner and took over this cafe January this year, and has done some great things with the place.  Now the stand out part of the cafe for me has to be the cakes.  Graham not only runs the cafe but bakes all the cakes himself!  He is such a pleasure to chat with, which is the prefect accompaniment to the meal.



His raspberry chocolate cake was perfect so I couldn't attempt to replicate it but it did inspire me to put a NY twist and make this raspberry chocolate cheesecake. 

Raspberry Chocolate Cheesecake

• 180g graham crackers
• 75g melted butter
• 100g milk or white chocolate
• 300g light cream cheese
• 200ml double cream
• 75g sugar
• 150g raspberries
• icing sugar

1. Blend the graham crackers in a food processor and add the melted butter.  Mix well and place in a 20cm flan ring with a push-up base and pat down with the back of a spoon. 

2. Melt the chocolate in a microwave or a glass bowl set over a pan of simmering water. 

3. Mix the cream cheese, cream and sugar together until smooth. Add the raspberries and stir in, then add the melted chocolate and quickly swirl through. 

4. Spoon into the flan ring and smooth the top with a palette knife, then place in the fridge and chill for 2 hours. 

5. Serve dusted with icing sugar and a little melted chocolate if you like.

Sweet & Savory Inspired Dinner

Today I cooked pork & apple sausages, quinoa with red onions and a warm zucchini, yellow pepper, tomato with feta cheese salad.

Living in the UK for nearly 2 years now, my love of sausages has definitely been taken to another level.  Walking down the supermarket isle for meats, there are endless amounts of sausage options and I was inspired to make my own sweet and savory ones.

Quinoa is my new favorite grain, both healthy for you, easy to cook and has a great texture.  It is so versatile and can be spiced in so many different ways. This grain has lots of history dating back to the Incan civilization which is quite interesting.




Pork & Apple Sausages
Serves 4

1 kg lean ground pork  1 chopped onion 1 finely diced apple (cooking) 2 tsps marjoram 2 tsps sage (dried) 1 tsp fennel seed

grated nutmeg (eigth of a nut) black pepper (ground) sea salt (ground) to taste 100 grams breadcrumbs (white) A pinch of brown sugar 1 egg white sausage skin

1. Sautee the onions and the apples in minimal olive oil until the onions are translucent.  The apples should be tender with some crispness still in the center for the texture and put off the the side to cool 2. Add all the ingredients into a bowl and mix throughly.  Take a small meatball size and pan fry and check for flavor and season with salt according to preference. 3. Put your mixture into a ziplock bag and cut the corner.  Use a large icing tip if you have one, but you can do it without.  Fill the sausage casing, twist and tie off.  These are also great as sausage pattys if you rather skip the casing part. 4. Cook under medium grill for 20 minutes or until golden brown and middle is cooked through Quinoa with Red Onion and Raisins 1 cup of quinoa 4 cups of water 1 vegetable bullion 1/2 red onion diced 1/2 cup of raisins green scallions 1. Add the water, quinoa, vegetable cube, red onion  to a pot and bring to a boil. 2. Cover and leave on low heat for 20 minutes stirring occasionally until quinoa is tender 3. Add in raisins and chopped green scallions and leave off the heat for 10 minutes 4. Fork the quinoa to separate any clumps and to make fluffy just before serving Warm Zucchini, Tomato, Yellow Pepper with Feta Cheese Salad 1 long sliced whole zucchini 10 quartered cherry tomatoes 1 whole diced yellow pepper 1/2 cup of crumbled feta cheese 2 fresh mint leaves (or basil) 1 tbs of chopped parsley Fig balsamic vinegar 1. Blanch the zucchini in boiling water and drain.  Leave standing to cool. 2. Add all the chopped vegetables, cheese and herbs to a bowl with the zucchini, add salt and pepper to taste 3. Plate the salad and top with fig balsamic vinegar

My kind of cooking!

Every chef is inspired by their heritage, training and personal experiences.  My cooking style is just that, a blend of my Greek and Colombian background, growing up in New York with a fusion of cultures around me, and living in the UK for the past 2 years with European influence.

My food is full of flavor, easy to prepare and focuses on the presentation by adding in many colorful ingredients.  My mother's focus on health through good food has been a big part of the ingredients I chose and how I prepare the dishes also focuses on healthy lifestyle to boost energy, provide many vitamins an nutrients while keeping unnecessary fats and calories out.

I am based in New York City, Long Island & Wales, available for private dinners, small parties or visit my website for a list of upcoming cooking classes www.cookingwithjessiemarie.com that will be going live end of September with courses beginning in January 2013.  Food & hospitality marketing inquiries should visit my company TSO Creative for more information.