Epicurean Classic Announces Featured Guest Artisans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    

Epicurean Classic Announces Featured Guest Artisans

      Nation’s Finest Gathering of Cooks with New Books  

Traverse City, MI, July 11, 2008:  The Epicurean Classic has announced its guest list of food and wine artisans for the annual gathering held in Traverse City, MI at Northwest Michigan College’s Great Lakes Culinary Institute, September 11 - 13, 2008.  Kim Sunee, author, Trail of Crumbs will be this year’s literary Guest of Honor and will be joined by several Featured Guest artisans and authors including Joyce Goldstein, Joey Altman, Martha Foose, Jennifer McLagan, Raghaven Iyer, Diane Morgan, Leonardo Curti, Brian Smith, Danyel Couet, Cree LaFavour, Laura Werlin and Matthew Kenney. 

“Our recipe for assembling an incredibly talented roster of national and international artisans highlighting fresh trends in food and wine thought, coupled with our stunning venue on Lake Michigan, has enabled us to gain an enviable reputation among the nation’s finest food and wine events,” notes Mark Dressler, event co-founder.   “Best of all, it is the accessibility to our guests that food and wine lovers really enjoy.  Everyone comes away with a greater appreciation for gathering around the table with family and friends.” 

Featured Guest Artisans at the 08 Epicurean Classic include: 

Joey Altman, Food Network host, James Beard Award winner, chef and author, Without Reservations: How to Make Bold, Creative, Flavorful Food at Home

Joyce Goldstein, Bay Area restaurant pioneer, James Beard Award winner, chef and author, Mediterranean Fresh: A Compendium of One-Plate Salad Meals and Mix-and-Match Dressings

Matthew Kenney, chef/proprietor of several NYC restaurants, James Beard Rising Star Award nominee, author, Everyday Raw

Leonardo Curti, executive chef/co-founder, Trattoria Grappolo, Santa Ynez, CA, author, Trattoria Grappolo: Simple Recipes for Traditional Italian Cuisine

Jennifer McLagan, James Beard Award winner, author, Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes

Diane Morgan, author of twelve cookbooks including the newly released Grill Everyday

Laura Werlin, James Beard Award winner and nationally acclaimed cheese expert, author, Laura Werlin’s Cheese Essentials

Danyel Couet, executive chef, Michelin-starred restaurant Fredsgatan 12, Stockholm, Sweden, author, The Paris Neighborhood Cookbook: Danyel Couet’s Guide to the City’s Ethnic Cuisines

Raghavan Iyer, former IACP Teacher of the Year, author, 660 Curries: The Gateway to Indian Cooking

Martha Foose, executive chef, Viking Cooking School, author, Screen Doors & Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook

Wendy Rahamut, Caribbean Flavors TV host, consultant and author, Modern Caribbean Cuisine

Cree LeFavour, author, The New Steak: Recipes for a Range of Cuts plus Savory Sides

Don Yamauchi, recipient, America’s Best New Chefs, executive chef, Forte, Birmingham, MI

Brian Polcyn, chef/owner, Five Lakes Grill, author, Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Preserving Artisan Foods, a James Beard Award nominee

Bob Paulinski, MW, former Chief Wine & Spirits Merchant, Sam’s Club

Deborah Schneider, chef/author, Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta

Carlyn Berghoff, chef/principal, Artistic Events & 17 West at the Berghoff, Chicago, IL, author, The Berghoff Family Cookbook

Brian Smith, Professor of Wine Studies, CIA & author, Wine Wise

Jacquy Pfeiffer, chef/founder, The French Pastry School

Shawn Loving, Chairman, Schoolcraft College Culinary School, chef, 2008 U.S. Olympic basketball team

Mark Molinaro, executive chef, New England Culinary Institute, co-author, A Master Class: Sensational Recipes from the Chefs of the New England Culinary Institute

Ted Reader, award-winning chef and food entertainer, author, Napoleon’s Everyday Gourmet Grilling 

In addition to the expanded onsite demonstration and tasting venues, organizers have instituted a new Day Pass, simplifying the attendee registration and Classic experience.  Thursday’s Opening Reception theme is Great Lakes Mise en place, featuring Great Lakes-grown produce, game, and wine, as well as the regional artisans who shape the Great Lakes trends and tastes.  Friday will feature Kim Sunee, author, Trail of Crumbs, at an evening Champagne reception, and Great Chef dinners - which benefit the Great Lakes Culinary Institute - throughout Traverse City.  Saturday ends with the signature Grand Reception, featuring a plethora of tastes from Classic guest artisans.   Over a two-and-one-half day period, attendees will choose from over 40 cooking demos, 24 wine/cheese/beer class-style tastings, eight Great Chef dinners and three receptions.  Complete event and program details can be reviewed at www.epicureanclassic.com   

Day Passes for the Epicurean Classic are $129 or, $229 for both days.  To register visit www.epicureanclassic.com  

Sponsors of the Epicurean Classic include: KitchenAid, Meijer, Saturn of Traverse City, Passageways Travel, Great Lakes Culinary Institute, Traverse Magazine, Cherry Republic, General Cigar

Epicurean Classic Website Loaded with 2008 Program

We’ve completely updated the Epicurean Classic website with details about all cooking demonstrations,wine tastings, receptions, and superb dinners taking place over the course of the 2008 Classic scheduled or September 11 - 13. Please find an opportunity soon to check out the incoming talent and peruse the class offerings. We’re celebrating our fifth year and we think you’ll agree, this may be our best program ever.

WWW.EPICUREANCLASSIC.COM

One major change from years past: you’re no longer required to register ala carte-style for cooking demonstrations. Instead, the purchase of a Day Pass grants you access to nearly twenty cooking classes each day, and entrance into our expanded Tasting Pavilion. For most of you, that will add up to a huge savings. You simply need to keep track of the chefs you wish to see then beeline it for the appropriate demo stage. There will always be four demos going on at once. And, don’t forget to allow yourself time for an occasional pit stop into the Pavilion for an interesting nibble of food or to sample any of hundreds of wines from around the world, as well as craft brewed beers and spirits. General Cigar will be hosting their separate cigar tent with Leo the roller back again, and Traverse City’s own Habana Cafe serving cool apps and mojitos much the same as any lounge in Castro land.

Lastly, don’t ever think that we’ve forgotten our core philosophy. To reiterate, we believe the following:

1. Cooking is an essential skill, one of life’s sincerest acts of kindness, the most useful way to serve humankind
2. Chefs are rockstars of the highest order, knights in shining armor, and angels on earth all rolled into one
3. There is no better way to catch and maintain the cooking buzz than by learning from an accomplished chef firsthand
4. Love of cooking increases with experience and skill level
5. The optimum way to remedy mistakes made in the kitchen is to pour better wine

Leonardo Curti

The executive chef and co-founder of Trattoria Grappolo, the highly acclaimed Santa Ynez, CA restaurant, Curti is also the author of a superb cookbook based on recipes from his restaurant and authentic cooking from his native Italy. The cookbook is titled Trattoria Grappolo: Simple Recipes for Traditional Italian Cuisine.

Ken Bouche

After graduating Summa Cum Laude from the prestigious Johnson and Wales culinary school, Bouche launched his career under the tutelage of Food & Wine magazine’s Top Ten Best Chefs winner, Ted Cizma at Elaine’s in Chicago before moving onto Caliterra. He now is the executive chef at Cuerno in Atlanta, cooking some of the country’s most exciting Spanish cuisine.

Matthew Kenney

The author of Everyday Raw, recently released by Gibbs Smith and several other cookbooks including Matthew Kenney’s Mediterranean Cooking, Kenney has appeared on the Today Show, Food Network and several other talk shows. Over the years, he has been the chef and partner in numerous NYC restaurants and once was nominated for the James Beard Rising Star Award.

Chris Turano

Illinois native, and veteran of Elaine’s and Parker’s Ocean Grill in Chicago, Turano is currently the executive chef at Dine Restaurant in the Crowne Plaza Metro Hotel where diners and media alike are realizing he is one of the city’s hottest rising chefs.

Jacquy Pfeiffer

From his apprenticeship at the Jean Clauss Pastry Shop in Strasbourg, France, to exalted positions as the personal pastry chef to a French admiral, the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia, and the Sultan of Brunei, Pfeiffer lived the most worldly of lives before settling in Chicago and eventually founding the French Pastry School. He has won countless awards for his pastry skill both individually and as a coach / instructor a various international events.

Brian Polcyn

The nation’s leading expert on charcuterie, the craft of salting, smoking, and curing meat and fish, Polcyn is an award-winning chef, author, restaurateur, and Schoolcraft culinary school instructor. He created three of Michigan’s most talked about restaurants in the late eighties before opening the Five Lakes Grill in Milford in the late nineties.

John Manion

Midwestern at heart, with a substantial slice of his childhood spent in Brazil, Manion’s culinary interests and experience ranges from Carolina low country cooking at Chicago’s Savannah’s restaurant, to his executive chef position at the acclaimed Mas in the Windy City. He’s currently at work opening his own Chicago restaurant, no doubt pushing Nuevo Latino in yet unexplored directions.

Ted Reader

Through sheer force of cooking skill and personality - he’s drop-dead hilarious - Reader has parlayed his passion for food into a culinary tour de force that includes fourteen cookbooks, aisles of food products, and countless tv and radio cooking performances. Beginning his career at several of Toronto’s best restaurants, he currently travels North America towing a double-wide sized grill winning fans everywhere he goes.