The Food and Wine Classic in Aspen celebrates its 40th anniversary this weekend with thousands of attendees, hundreds of chefs and winemakers, and dozens of seminars from Friday to Sunday.
The event has a reputation for abundance — but it’s also a hub of reunions, friendships and close-knit connections among some of the industry’s biggest names and emerging stars.
Local food writer Amanda Rae has been attending the Food and Wine Classic for about a decade.
“To have this amazing gathering of chefs and winemakers and producers and celebrities and people who are just passionate about food, … it's a delightful mélange of ingredients that combine to produce just this mind-bogglingly amazing event,” Rae said.
Rae has been attending the Food and Wine Classic since 2012, when she was working for a restaurant featured inside the Grand Tasting Tent. She also covered the event during her eight-year tenure as a food columnist for the Aspen Times Weekly, and this year, she gets to attend just for fun: Rae earned a pass by winning the Aspen Chamber Resort Association’s Wintersköl slogan contest.
Even though Rae is off the clock this weekend, she says she’ll still be taking plenty of notes at this weekend’s seminars, and recommends others do the same.
“It's like going over to a friend's house for dinner and watching how they prepare a meal,” Rae said. “It's like, everyone has a different style, and a different way of doing it, so being able to watch from the best in the country and get inspired.”
Festivalgoers can choose from more than 60 seminars this weekend, generally split into two categories: food courses, which are more like sitting in the live audience at taping of a cooking show, and alcohol courses, which involve more tasting (of wine and of other offerings, like whiskey, beer or tequila.)
Sessions spotlight Top Chef winners, big-name celebrities and notable experts like Mark Oldman, whose offerings are particularly popular among Classic crowds. The sommelier has been called one of “the world’s greatest wine showmen,” and he treats his seminars like performances starring $1,500 bottles and once-in-a-generation wines.
Oldman acknowledges the thrill of prestige, celebrity and parties at the Food and Wine Classic. But at the heart of the festival, he says the excitement comes from the ability to share extraordinary experiences with other people.
“When you strip it down, most of us get off on showing people or the amazing transcendence that comes with things … that smell good, that taste good,” Oldman said. “It's a very kind of sensual passion that we all have.”
Oldman has been coming to the Classic since 2006, and he has a special appreciation for the hospitality on display. After all, the people here do tend to be “people pleasers” as well as gourmands, he said.
“There's faith that in this giving community, you'll always get it back,” Oldman said. “I mean, you'll always be able to taste and smell good things and have really good experiences, but I think there's this kind of generosity of spirit that I don't find in a lot of other communities.”
Oldman is leading seminars on “The World’s Best Special Occasion Wines” and wines from Australia on both Friday and Saturday. And for those who want to experience “transcendence” without a festival pass (or those who don’t manage to snag a seat in one of his sessions in Paepcke Park), Oldman offers virtual “Bevinars” throughout the year.
Passes to the festival are sold out, and volunteer registration filled up, but there are plenty of opportunities to participate in other extracurricular activities like pop-ups and people-watching for those who don’t have access inside the tents.
Plus, you can tune into Aspen Public Radio at 4:30 p.m. today for a live broadcast from inside the Grand Tasting Tent.
David Greene, former “Morning Edition” host for NPR and the founder of Fearless Media, will interview some of the Classic’s biggest stars for this hour-long program, broadcasting on 91.5 KAJX in Aspen, 88.9 KCJX in Carbondale and online at aspenpublicradio.org.
