by Judith Salkin
With the many festivals, art fairs, golf and tennis tournaments that already fill the desert’s calendar, finding room on the schedule for one or two more major events could be a bit of a tight fit. Never mind trying to attract the crowds needed to make them successful.
Unless, of course, we’re talking about Fashion Week Palm Desert and Food + Wine Palm Desert, two separate events that have combined to take advantage of El Paseo’s many fashion houses and dining opportunities. The parallel events are bringing in destination vacationers from around the world to catch the latest in fashion and give foodies a chance to taste their way through some of the best food the desert has to offer and learn a little (or a lot) about great food and wine.
Food + Wine Festival Palm Desert
“Four years ago, combining forces with Fashion Week for the Food + Wine Festival Palm Desert seemed like a natural pairing,” said Executive Producer Jeff Hocker. “Food and fashion seemed like they should go together.”
With the Aspen Food and Wine Festival as his inspiration, Hocker is well on his way to making the desert’s food affair another destination event. “Food and fashion are both big trends,” Hocker said. “It’s great to join the two events together because both often appeal to the same audience. And now we have people who are returning year after year and who plan their time in the desert around our events.”
While most food and wine festivals offer a wide variety of flavors to appeal to every taste profile, Hocker is going one step further with what seems to be a no-brainer idea: pairing participating restaurants with wineries to create the perfect tasting at every station. “A lot of thought goes into the pairings,” he said, which has helped to attract a number of national and international sponsors such as Stella Artois and Kerrygold cheeses.
Over the course of the three day event, which kicks off with a three-hour gourmet luncheon on Friday that includes chef demonstrations by chef Sara Moulton, Luciano Pellegrini and Bradley Ogden, guests will sample the work of dozens of local and celebrity chefs, wines from nearly 80 wineries, chef demonstrations and six wine seminars spread out over Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s a lot to pack in over three days,” Hocker said.
A woman in the kitchen: Chef Profile- Joane Garcia- Colson, Owner/Chef at Dish Creative
Working with Les Dames d’Escoffier, Culinary Institute of America and the James Beard Foundation, one of the goals of the event is to feature not only local chefs but women in the kitchens of restaurants across America, like Joane Garcia Colson, who ditched a law career for the heat of the kitchen.
Garcia Colson grew up cooking, at first to help out her working mom and later, “as a retreat from the acrimony and in-fighting you find in the law,” she said. After a career as an attorney, Garcia Colson decided to give up the big paycheck and risk it all by going to culinary school at the Arizona Culinary Institute in Scottsdale.
At 52, she says, “It was the best choice I could have made. Food is my passion and I am so much happier.” Garcia Colson creates her labors of love at Dish Creative Cuisine in Cathedral City.
Knowing that food can nurture both the soul and the body, “I get my greatest pleasure when someone gets what I do and why I do it,” she says. “When I see someone’s face light up, that’s my goal.”
On Sunday Garcia Colson takes the next step in culinary career when she participates in the first wine seminar of the day that pairs her food with sparkling wines from Iron Horse Winery.
“I’m nervous,” she says. “It’s the first time I’ve done something like this. I’ve been to food and wine festivals before, but not as a presenter. My perspective is going to be very different. Before I was there to taste; on Sunday, I’ll be there as a professional, watching everyone’s reaction.”
Food and Wine
From the opening gourmet luncheon with celebrity chefs Sara Moulton, Luciano Pellegrini and Bradley Ogden on Friday at the Big White Tent on Larkspur Lane to the final wine seminar on Sunday, the Food + Wine Festival Palm Desert offers three days to taste the best of the desert. And learn about the food and wines to take home to your own kitchen.
Tickets can be purchased at the box office for available events or through the website at palmdesertfoodandwine.com. Because beer, wine and other spirits will be available, all attendees must be at least 21 to be admitted to the festival.
Friday (March 22)
Food and Wine Festival Palm Desert Gourmet Luncheon
11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Tickets: $125, reservations required
Along with demonstrations by chefs Sara Moulton, Luciano Pellegrini and Bradley Ogden, the four course luncheon includes paired wines from the champagne from Caposaldo and premium wines from Fuedo Maccari, Tenuta de Salviano and Michele Chiario. Emcees are Jeff Hocker and Patrick Evans, with catering by Scott Robertson of New Leaf Catering.
Saturday (March 23)
Food + Wine Festival Palm Desert Saturday Grand Tasting
11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Tickets: $75
Ticket includes grand tasting with participating restaurants and paired wines, chef demonstrations, book signings, wine seminars (each requires a separate ticket for Saturday seminars).
Demonstrations
11:45 a.m. Deborah Scott, San Diego food trucks and Vintana restaurant, Stage 1 Green Room
12:15 p.m. Jan Boydston, Kitchen Kitchen, Stage 2 Garden East
12:45 p.m. Sara Moulton, Gourmet Magazine/Food Network, Stage 1 Green Room
12:45 p.m. Adam Gertler, The Next Food Network Star and Gertler‘s Deli, Stage 4 Main Tent
1:15 p.m. TBA, Stage 2 Garden East
1:15 p.m. Sean Kanan, actor and cookbook author, Stage 3 Garden West
1:45 p.m. Luciano Pellegrini, Valentino Restaurant Group, Las Vegas, Stage 1 Green Room
1:45 p.m. Alejandra Schrader, Master Chef season 2 finalist, Stage 4 Main Tent
2:15 p.m. Chris Mitchum, Executive Chef Hyatt Grand Resort, Stage 3 Garden West
2:45 p.m. Mark Peel, Campanile, Los Angeles, Stage 2 Garden East
2:45 p.m. Martin Yan, Yan Can Cook, Stage 4 Main Tent
3:15 p.m. Maria Sinskey, Culinary Director, Robert Sinskey Vineyards, Stage 3 Garden West
Wine Seminars
Grapes and Regions You Probably Don’t Know — But Should
Noon, $25
Wine expert Michael Green on the world of wines that explores the under-appreciated grapes and regions. Features Alsatian and Hungarian whites and little known Italian reds.
A Day in the Life of a Winemaker
1:30 p.m., $25
Looking to kick your day job? From choosing barrels to tasting the product, Jeff LeBard talks about the day-to-day life of a winemaker.
Hot! Hot! Hot! Cool Wines From South America
3 p.m., $25
Marcos Mizzau, CWS, Import Wine Specialist for Young’s Market-Estates Group Hess Collection (Bodega Colome) takes participants on a tour of Sauvignon Blancs and Cabernet from Argentina and Chile. Includes tastings of these outstanding wines.
Sunday (March 24)
Food + Wine Festival Palm Desert Saturday Grand Tasting
Noon to 5 p.m.
Tickets: $75
Ticket includes grand tasting with participating restaurants and paired wines, chef demonstrations, book signings, wine seminars (each requires a separate ticket for Sunday seminars).
Demonstrations
12:15 a.m. Andrew Copley, Copley‘s on Palm Canyon, Stage 1 Green Room
12:45 p.m. Drew Davis, Catalan, Stage 2 Garden East
1:15 p.m. Tanya Holland, Brown Sugar Kitchen, Oakland, Stage 1 Green Room
1:15 p.m. Warren Cordoba, Noble House Hotels and Resorts, Stage 3 Garden West
1:45 p.m. Maria Schmidt, Chef de Cuisine Distrito, Philadelphia, Stage 2 Garden East
1:45 p.m. Daniel Joly, Mirabelle, Beaver Creek, Colo., Stage 4 Main Tent
2:15 p.m. Sharone Hakman, Master Chef, Season 1, Stage 1 Green Room
2:15 p.m. Mark Van Laanen, Trio, Stage 3 Garden West
2:45 p.m. Julie Pech, chocolate therapist, Stage 2 Garden East
2:45 p.m. Andre Carthen, The Fit Chef, Stage 4 Main Tent
3:15 p.m. Jesse Souza, Executive Chef, La Playa Resort, Stage 3 Garden West
3:15 p.m. Jamie Gwen, chef and food correspondent, Stage 1 Green Room
3:45 p.m. Martin Yan, Stage 4 Main Tent
Wine Seminars
Sparkling Wine, The Most Food Friendly Wine on the Planet — An Afternoon with Iron Horse
1 p.m., $25
Iron Horse Winery owner Barry Sterling, DISH Creative Cuisine executive chef/owner Joane Garcia Colson and moderator Michael Green present sparkling pairings from the Sonoma County winery and Garcia Colson’s inventive cuisine.
The Four Noble Grape Varietals
2:30 p.m., $25
Richard Sowolsky, Director of Winemaking at Clos Pegase, on the backbone varietals of the world’s best wines.
The Beauty of Terroir: Discovering Important A.V.A.s in California
4 p.m., $25
Winemaker Jesse Katz of Roth and Lancaster Estates on the microclimates and the distinct flavor profiles that elusive term “terroir” is all about. Katz is the tour guide through wine country and classic viticulture of California.
Fashion Week Palm Desert
Go to New York, London, Paris or Milan for Fashion Week to see top designer runway shows, and you won’t see those designs in stores until the following fashion season. “Go to a runway show during Fashion Week Palm Desert, and the designer’s trunk show the following day and you can wear what you see next week,” said Susan Stein, Producer and Creative Director of the yearly El Paseo event.
“Most fashion weeks are designed for the trade, so that the buyers can see what they want for their stores next spring or fall,” Stein said recently. “With Fashion Week Palm Desert, we designed an event to work with the local stores and with the consumer who doesn’t want to wait to see the designs in stores six months later.”
In its eighth year, Fashion Week has become a must-see event for desert fashionistas, and a draw for fashion mavens from across the Southland, with at least 40 percent return customers each year. That means doubling attendance and drawing more attention from the industry every year. Part of that is the week’s attention to up and coming designers and the careful choice of the Designer of the Week. Not just the “flavor of the season” designer, but someone who draws inspiration from classic designs for their fashion-forward statements. “We look for emerging designers to showcase their work at El Paseo and try to feature as many West Coast designers as we can,” Stein said.
This year’s cadre of talents include Sue Wong whose work draws on classic design techniques combined with inspiration from some of fashion’s most elegant eras; Michael Costello, the young home-grown designer who has appeared on Season 8 of Project Runway and Project Runway All-Stars, who hosted a Project Runway show with eight of his fellow show designers; Katharine Polk of Houghton who debuted her ready-to-wear collection during Fashion Week 2012 at Lincoln Center; Parisian couturier Lloyd Klein; and Fe Zendi of El Paseo.
This year’s Designer of the Week is Gilbert Chagoury, who will close out Fashion Week with his runway show on Sunday night. Chagoury, Stein said, grew up in Paris, attended the Parsons School of Design and trained at Dior in Paris. Having the opportunity to see designers Polk, who combines the independence of Katharine Hepburn’s eye for fashion with the fierceness of Patti Smith rock’n’roll attitude and Chagoury, whose designs have a timeless elegance drawn from the textiles he uses, is why the event has grown so quickly. “This really is a consumer’s event,” Stein said.
The last fashionable weekend of Fashion Week
Available tickets for events can be purchased at the Great White Tent on Larkspur Lane, across from the Gardens on El Paseo. Information: fashionweekelpaseo.com.
Today (March 21)
Michael Costello and Project Runway Designers Trunk show
11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Designers includes Costello, Victor Luna, Fabio Costa, Seth Aaron, Mondo Guerra, April Johnston, Gordana Gelhausen, Bert Keeter, Joshua McKinley, Korto Momolu, Anthony Ryan and Elena Slivnyak
Sue Wong
Cocktail reception, 7 p.m.
Runway show, 8 p.m.
Wong always astonishes by combining age-old couture techniques of the finest fashion houses of Europe to evoke the allure and glamour of fashion ages such of Weimar Berlin, 1930s Shanghai, the Golden Age of Hollywood and Manhattan’s Jazz age.
Friday (March 22)
Sue Wong Trunk Show
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Houghton Designer Katharine Polk
Cocktail reception, 7 p.m.
Show 8 p.m.
Polk debuted her ready-to-wear line in 2012 at the Fall/Winter Fashion Week at Lincoln Center in New York City. She designs for the independent woman who wants a wardrobe that is effortlessly chic, with a strong, sexy look.
Saturday (March 23)
Designer of the Week: Gilbert Chagoury
Cocktail reception, 7 p.m.
Show, 8 p.m.
The Dior-trained, independent Beverly Hills couture designer was born in Lebanon and raised in Paris. He debuts his red carpet worthy 2013 collection. His designs have been worn by celebrities and socialites such as Milla Jovovich, Hayden Panettiere, Katy Perry, Eva Longoria, Edie Falco, Niki Taylor and Laura Vandervoort.
