The Sun Valley Food & Wine Festival returns for a second year with a few more wines to taste, several more meals to cook and lots more culinary events to lure food and wine connoisseurs for a divine weekend of sensational treats.
This year the festival has joined forces with the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation. Incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2002, the foundation serves as a tribute to the chef for whom it is named. The organization celebrates Palladin's relentless journey to seek the finest and best ingredients by mentoring chefs and encouraging creativity.
"Jean-Louis was all about ingredients way back before it was the thing," said foundation Executive Director Ann Brody Cove. "He changed the paradigm."
Palladin died in November 2001. Friends and supporters had been holding benefit dinners around the country to raise money to cover his medical expenses before he passed away. Since there was a surplus of funds at the time of his death, the money was used to start the foundation.
"He would be thrilled that people are paying attention to food," Bove said. "This is what he started. In the early '70s and into the '80s, there were far fewer vegetable and produce selections. No one paid careful attention to harvesting and they were not interested in raising grass-fed beef and pork."
The foundation develops programs to increase understanding and appreciation of high-quality ingredients among emerging chefs and food professionals. In addition, it supports growers and producers, and fosters the exchange of ideas between French and American culinary life.
"Partnering with the Sun Valley Food & Wine Festival gives us more exposure, and the chefs that are coming out, such as Chef Larbi Dahrouch of Agua from the One & Only Palmilla resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, he worked with Jean-Louis for five years in France," Bove said. "Chef Jimmy Sneed of Carena's Jamaican Grill in Richmond, Va., who is also appearing at the festival, worked with him as well."
Bove said that from the chef's perspective, coming to Sun Valley is a treat because they get to see a new area of the country and the food that is available in Idaho.
"Chef Anne Callaghan from Charlie Palmer's Aureole Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino was one of our interns and went to Bordeaux and had an experience in Bordeaux where she saw French cooking, which she had never done before," Bove said. "Jean-Louis was a chef's chef, and he shared information and crossed the divide with classic French training and the development of American products and food."
The festival will also feature guest chef John Tesar, executive chef at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, Texas. The restaurant is well known for its contemporary American cuisine and is considered one of the country's most celebrated restaurants.
Tesar has overseen some of New York City's highly acclaimed restaurants, including Vine, 13 Barrow Street, The Supper Club and The Inn at Quogue in the Hamptons. His training at the prestigious La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in Paris not only prepared him to run and establish fine dining excellence, it has also landed him in positions of running the 15,000-square-foot restaurant rm, also at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Tesar will present "Farmers' Market Produce and Sustainable Seafood" at CIRO restaurant in Ketchum on Saturday, June 7, from 2-3:30 p.m.
Returning as the festival's headline chef, Chef Cat Cora has been devising a menu to wow festival goers once again with a mouthwatering demonstration to include pan-seared filet of beef and a "black and blueberry" clafouti with candied ginger and dark chocolate shavings at CIRO restaurant on Saturday, June 7, from 9-10:30 a.m.
Making television food history as the first and only female Iron Chef on the "Food Network's Iron Chef America," Cora's career has skyrocketed.
"I am doing more Iron Chef, which is bigger than ever with a big video game," Cora said. "It's huge and we are just branching out and starting to gear up for a sixth season."
Cora is beyond motivated with restaurant ideas in the works with Disney and Macy's as well as creating a Cat Cora product line. Cora said it's a great time to be a chef and she cannot wait to see what her e-mail brings her every day because it's always something new and exciting.
"It takes a village, believe me, and I have a good team around me," Cora said. "I am talking to Disney about a long-term plan and I am the executive chef of Bon Appetit magazine and so thrilled to be a part of that. We have solid long-term plans, and it's nice."
Cora is also working on a third book to follow up her popular "Cooking from the Hip." It will include classic recipes with a Chef Cora twist. In addition to her everyday jobs and future project planning, Cora is also very close to her non-profit organization Chefs for Humanity.
"We are the leaders in food," she said. "How we can create a sustainable world is a big, broad topic, but we can start on the local and regional levels."
Cora said people could help out farmers with composting and think about never having an empty vehicle and always make sure something can be hauled or carried.
"I have a composting program with my restaurant, and farmers drop off and take my compost back," she said. "At least you are doing something."
Cora tries not to be removed from her fans and is inspired by a sense of obligation to them. She said she loves Sun Valley—the lifestyle and the people—because it reminds her of her home in Santa Barbara, Calif.
"I never leave until every book is signed and everyone who wants to speak with me gets to," Cora said. "I live by that. I need my fans to keep me going."
For more information, tickets and event locations for the second annual Sun Valley Food & Wine Festival, visit sunvalleyfoodandwinefestival.com or call (866) 305-9798.
Chef Cat Cora from Food Network’s "Iron Chef" enjoys meeting fans and foodies. She returns for her second visit to the Sun Valley Food and Wine Festival.
Photo by Sabina Dana Plasse
