6 Enticing Bites and Sips at the 2017 Atlanta Food & Wine Festival

Now celebrating its 7th year, the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival has become one of the most anticipated annual events for foodies in the region. At the recent June event held at the Loews Atlanta Hotel and Piedmont Park, award-winning chefs, bakers, roasters, mixologists, sommeliers and other creative people in the food industry came to present new dishes, offer tastings and party with the attendees. 

A typical day at the festival goes like this: you start with breakfast hosted by some of the guest hosts and then learn some new tricks of the trade in a full afternoon of cooking classes, demonstrations and tastings. At night, all the attendees and guests retire to tasting tents in the park for a spectacular cocktail/dinner experience is usually the highlight of each day. 

Some of the emerging trends in Southern cuisine that were spotlighted this year:

1. Crabfat
2. Soul Food Vegetables
3. Pinot Noir and Gamay
4. Barbecue and Bourbon
5. Eggplant Innovations
6. Peanuts Are Big
7. Appalachian Stack Cakes

These were the most memorable tasting highlights for me which give an indication of some food trends you might find turning up soon at your favorite cutting-edge restaurant:

1. Soft-Cooked Farm Egg & Braised Pork Jowl Cuisada

Sponsored by the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau, Arkansas chefs served up this hearty and succulent breakfast entree which was served over stone ground cheese grits with crumbled pork crackling, Ozark muscadine hot pepper jam and micro greens. 

2. Carpetbagger Cocktail

Amari, a class of bitter herbal liqueurs that have been popular in Italy for centuries, is being discovered by bartenders in the U.S. who are creating unique cocktails using Amaro as an ingredient. This one from South Carolina mixologist Jayce McConnell fashioned a blend of whiskey, sweet vermouth and Averna (a type of Amaro) and served it in a cocktail glass lightly rubbed with orange oil. Smoky, complex and wondrous.

3. Crabfat Rice

What is crabfat? It is actually crab roe. When cleaning crabs, most people discard it but you’d be making a big mistake. Chef Isaac Toups of New Orleans showed us how to take the crabfat and make a richly flavored liquid base, adding butter, garlic, ginger, lemon zest and chopped green onion bottoms. The final result, poured over and mixed with white rice, was a fantastic taste sensation that had a light, delicate crab flavor followed by after notes of each fresh ingredient that was added.

4. Gazpacho Bloody Mary

If you like gazpacho, you’ll really love it in this innovative twist on the Bloody Mary that combines Arkansas Rock Town Vodka, roasted peppers and olive oil from Bentonville, Arkansas to create a refreshing and subtly spiced cocktail that is ideal for brunch.

5. Salted Caramel Pudding Cake

When did salted caramel become the new favorite flavor in desserts? In the past several years we’ve seen it emerge as a prime flavor in ice ream, candies, cupcakes and cookies. But I have to say this mouth-watering concoction which is served with Rock Town Young Bourbon Chantilly and spicy candied pecans might be my favorite recipe yet.

6. Slow-Smoked Alligator Sliders

Deep fried alligator bites is not an uncommon appetizer in Louisiana and Florida restaurants but in that form I don’t find that it has much of a distinctive taste. Florida chefs Kenny Gilbert and Greg Baker demonstrated a much more flavorful way to prepare and serve it. They brined a whole alligator, rubbed it with cajun spice and refrigerated it for a day or so. Then they smoked it for about 3-4 hours until the meat was literally falling off the bone. The final verdict: mounds of juicy white meat with a slight seafood flavor. It makes a superb gator slider with dill pickle or a stand alone dish with your favorite barbecue sauce.