Who doesn’t know the Best-Kept-Secrets description used by travel gurus? As a September visitor to Greater Cincinnati, you are squarely in position to participate in a best-kept-secret of delicious and spectacular proportions.
This “secret” has a name: The Cincinnati Food & Wine Classic. The dates: September 12-13. The place: scattered, but primarily in downtown Cincinnati’s Washington Park, a city-block-large and beautifully rustic spot in Over-the-Rhine. The focus: Cincinnati’s restaurant, bar and wine scene, long established and also burgeoning, yet under-appreciated for its quality and depth.
“Cincinnati dining has been a flyover zone for the most part; not much national recognition,” said Courtney Tsitouris, co-founder of City Stories Company, and organizer of the first annual Cincinnati Food & Wine Classic. “We created this event to highlight the food scene in our area and bring national attention to a culinary tradition that holds its’ own with cities known for fine dining.”
She’s alluding to The Big Apple, Chicago, LA, and other metros of prominence in the fork and knife department. The national buzz will be provided by the likes of Andrew Knowlton, eats critique for Bon Appétit magazine; Keith Pandolfi, Senior editor at Saveur magazine; and Francis Lam, a writer focused on the hospitality industry, and also a Top Chef Masters judge. Inviting these foodie heavyweights is designed to tip the scales toward greater national recognition for a restaurant and bar scene that features outstanding performers.
“You can absolutely compare Orchids at the Palm Court (in the Netherland Hilton Hotel at 4th & Race Streets) to Daniel in New York City,” Tsitouris contends. “Todd Kelly (Orchid’s chef) offers dishes that are the same caliber of food as Daniel, but at a much more approachable price. And Kelly is just one of many chefs doing equally creative, imaginative, delicious cuisines in this city.”
The pantheon of chef stars featured in the event, and their extended bios, can be found at www.cincinnatifoodandwineclassic.com. Here, we’ll call attention to several who are leading the restaurant quality surge of the past 20 years or so, and are at the cutting edge of today’s dining craze.
In addition to the aforementioned Todd Kelly, some of the chefs include: Jean-Robert de Cavel of Jean-Robert’s Table, Daniel Wright of the Senate and Abigail Street, David Falk of Boca and Sotto, Paul Sturkey…Culinary Specialist of US Foods, Cristian Pietoso of Via Vite, Julie Francis of Nectar, Jose Salazar of Salazar, Michael Paley of Metropole at 21c Museum Hotel, Travis Maier of The Precinct, Steven Williams of Bouquet , Elias Leisring of Eli’s, Nick Marckwald of Hen in the Woods, David Cook of Daveed’s Next, Andrew Mersmann of La Poste, Jimmy Gibson of Jimmy G’s, Joel Molloy of Nicola’s, Renee Schuler of Eat Well, Paul Barraco of 20 Brix, Mike Florea of Maribelle’s, Joe West of The Palace in the Cincinnatian Hotel, Jackson Rouse of The Rookwood, Jean-Francois Flechet of Taste of Belgium, Michelle Brown of Jag’s and Adam Cobb of Enoteca Emilia.
Friday Classic:
Celebration of Pork, Porkopolis
Nearly 200 years ago, circa 1835, Cincinnati had developed into a destination for hogs, and pork on the hoof came streaming in from farms in all directions for hundreds of miles round. So great was the influx of hogs to be slaughtered here that the city’s nickname became Porkopolis—hog capital of the world.
The Porkopolis heritage has been celebrated in Cincinnati lore for generations. Most notable may be the City’s Flying Pig Marathon, held annually and attracting thousands of runners the world over. Walk the City and you’ll come across the occasional “flying pig” statuary from past pig celebrations.
Hence, pork is on the menu for Day One of The Food & Wine Classic, to pay homage to Porkopolis. Friday’s Grand Tasting event will feature dishes using pork as the primary ingredient. Called Pork Chopped, selected chefs will go head-to-head competing for the best pork-inspired dish in the tasting tent in Washington Park.
Other Day-One events will include: Speakeasy in the City, where passwords get you in and everything from bathtub gin to boozy popsicles will be available; French Bohemian Rhapsody, at Jean-Robert’s Table, where a French cabaret dance party will break out; and Cocktails with a View from high atop 21c Museum Hotel, mingling with Chef Michael Paley and downing craft cocktails made by mixologist Catherine Manabat.
Saturday Classic: Best of the Best
Saturday’s Grand Tasting will feature more than 40 chefs, craft brewers and vintners, participating in a tasting trail that will salute Cincinnati’s fine-dine (and drink) history. As an attendee, you will bite, sip and sample your way through the Washington Park tasting tent. The evening Grand Tasting will be followed by late-night parties, from the Sake & Sliders party at Kaze to a Retrosonic bash recalling themes of the 50s and 60s.
Before all that takes place, there will be plenty of activity in and around the tasting tent. Start with the Rising Stars Brunch at Zula in Over-the-Rhine, where sous chefs and chefs de cuisine will whip up a by-the-bite brunch. Throughout the day, the tasting tent will be the site of demonstrations on veggie charcuterie, perfect pie crusts, sweet and savory tastings with Paul and Pam Sturkey, Ohio’s bounty of seasonal produce, meat mastery, great craft cocktail making, a goetta smack-down with chefs competing for the best goetta dish, secrets in sauce-making with Jean-Robert, wines of Spain, inspired Italian dishes with the Food Network’s Vic Vegas, sommelier blind-tasting competition, hog and hooch dishes for tasting, a bourbon tasting and seminar with Molly Wellmann, a chocolate tasting with Summer Genetti, and fig fancies using figs in treats that go well beyond Newton.
See you at Cincinnati Food & Wine Classic September 12-13!