When Flavor! Napa Valley was announced in April, there were two small hitches. First, the news did not include the line up of exactly what the four-day food and wine festival would include when it took place Nov. 17-20 at the Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa and the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena. As its first year in existence, specifics were still being hammered out.
Second, tickets weren’t available, since prices and sales arrangements hadn’t been set up yet.
Yet it was understandable that its organizers were eager to spread the word about the ambitious project, just the latest in an array of opportunities to celebrate how the North Bay has developed into the food and wine capital of the west.
Now, tickets have finally gone on sale, with more detail released about what those tickets will buy you.
First off, Flavor! is a significant undertaking, with some truly big name chefs involved, who, along with partnering vintners and sommeliers, will preside over dinners, seminars and tastings.
Events include up-close and personal cooking classes and demonstrations with celebrity chefs Michael Chiarello of Bottega, Thomas Keller of the French Laundry, and Christopher Kostow from the Restaurant at Meadowood. A highlight will be the once-in-a-lifetime gala dinner prepared by Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto of Morimoto Napa, with CIA alum and Food Network personality Scott Conant from Scarpetta restaurants in NY, Miami, Beverly Hills, Toronto, and Las Vegas; Jeffrey Jake from Silverado Resort and Spa; and Cindy Pawlcyn of Napa Valley’s Mustards Grill, Go Fish and Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen.
For an ultimate wine and food pairing, the Napa Valley Appellation Trail Tasting will feature more than 120 wineries from Carneros to Calistoga pouring their best examples from the individual appellations, paired with dishes created by the Valley’s most sought-after chefs including Tyler Florence of Rotisserie and Wine, Ken Frank of La Toque, Brandon Sharp of Solbar at Solage, Robert Curry from Auberge du Soleil, Bob Hurley of Hurley’s Restaurant, Curtis DiFede and Tyler Rodde of Oenotri, and Stephen Barber from Farmstead.
For more on the wine side, master sommeliers and wine experts such as Karen MacNeil, Andrea Robinson, Fred Dame and FOOD & WINE’s Executive Wine Editor Ray Isle will lead guided tastings through some of the Valley’s most iconic wines. To cap it off, a curated wine dinner will showcase many of the Napa Valley’s most prominent winemakers in food pairings at the “Dinner with the Napa Valley Winemakers.”
As a finale, a Terroir-to-Table Brunch hosted by Steve Carlin, a master of the eat-local movement and founder and managing partner of Downtown Napa’s Oxbow Public Market, will celebrate the heroes of the area’s food scene – the growers and artisanal producers who supply the Valley’s restaurants with their organic and sustainable raw ingredients. Chef Todd Humphries of Kitchen Door at Oxbow Public Market will lead a talented lineup of chefs to create a menu based on the country-lane freshness of the Napa Valley.
Individual event tickets range from $95 To $250, with most events ticketed at the $95 level. Special Flavor! Napa Valley festival packages are available at $475 and $750.
And it’s all for a good culinary cause: to support programs and scholarships at the CIA’s Greystone Campus.
Details: flavornapavalley.com.
Tip: Plan your four-day excursion into food and wine and worry not about a designated driver. Pure Luxury Transportation offers convenient Town Car and limo service, or, for larger groups, can provide a private chartered shuttle.
Hey! If you liked this article, subscribe to our blog and “Like” us on Facebook!
