A Day at the Food and Wine Festival

On Sunday Lee and I spent a day at the Disney’s California Food and Wine Festival, so I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on that experience.

Our day began with the very first Sweet Sundays event at the California Food and Wine Festival – Festival director Jim Ames attended one in Florida and liked it so much that he wanted to bring it here. I was very happy to see it on the schedule this year because it’s always been one of my favorite events at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. (Apparently I’m not the only one, since these are the only events that sold out even before the Festival started!)

I’ve posted a Sweet Sundays Review, but here’s a few thoughts and comments. The event was held outside at the Lower Patio of the Golden Vine Winery – the same venue they use for the wine tastings. It’s not very big, and only accommodates 60 people when they set it up with tables for dining instead of tasting. They had a buffet breakfast for us, but because it was outdoors the food had to be covered except when it was being served, so Cast Members served it to us. It’s a little odd telling someone else exactly what pieces of fruit you want! (“I’d like two strawberries, some blackberries, a piece of honeydew…”)

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There are trees over part of the seating area, and they were shedding some seed pods – most of us were covering our wine glasses to keep the debris out. But really, for the most part it was very pleasant being outside. They had set up big umbrellas so that most of the tables were in the shade.

They had two different sparkling wines available to us – the Fairy Tale Cuvee, which we like, and another Disney-exclusive wine called Magicale. This is a lightly sparkling refreshingly sweet red wine from Italy – very similar to the Rosa Regale that we have enjoyed at Epcot (and at home!). They were really generous with both, and kept filling our glasses throughout the presentation.

We had two guest pastry chefs from Sweet Cheeks Baking Co. in San Diego, and they demonstrated three different desserts – and we received three full-sized servings of each one. Oh my. (They had to-go boxes available at the end!) There was the Tosca Cake, which was sort of a pound cake with a caramelized almond topping, a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin with cream cheese frosting, and a banana cake with chocolate ganache and peanut butter mousse. Two of the three were very good – unfortunately I don’t care for bananas or peanut butter, so the last dessert was disappointing to me, but Lee said it was excellent. I wish there had been more chocolate desserts, though!

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Chef Jamie Gwen was the host of the event, and she was really good – really a lot of fun. And the two guest pastry chefs were interesting as well – though to look at them you’d think they were aerobics instructors and not pastry chefs! 🙂

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The event ended about noon, and we met up with two other friends – ASK and CL, who had flown in earlier in the week just to attend the Food and Wine Festival. (A couple of you have asked me about the World Celebration dinners this year – ASK attended the Lafite Rothschild event and enjoyed it – it was similar to the Winemaker dinners in that it was a multi-course dinner with wine pairings. Sounds like they had an amazing dessert course for the kickoff dinner: “Chocolate Around the World”, with multiple small chocolate desserts. I’m sorry I missed *that*!)

Chef Jamie had invited all of us at Sweet Sundays to come and see her cooking demonstration at 12:30. Since it was already 12:00 we figured there was no way we would get in but that we’d check anyway – and yes, we were right. They had run out of tickets a while before – I think that on weekends you have to be there at least an hour in advance to make sure you get a ticket, and longer than that for one of the celebrity chefs – ASK and CL had waited for two hours to see Cat Cora on Saturday. (Which they said was great – she demonstrated and served three different things!)

While we were over there by the demonstration area we saw this duck family in the Sunshine Plaza fountain – dad had taken several of them swimming, but most of them were napping with mom. So cute!

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We wandered over to the Pacific Wharf where Lee did the Beer Walk. For $10.88 (including tax) he got a “passport” entitling him to tastes of 5 different beers. They had beers from all over the world – France, Italy, Germany, China, Japan, Singapore, the UK, Mexico, and the U.S.

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While he was doing that the three of us got in line for the Remick Ridge wine tasting at 1:15. We were in line about 35-40 minutes prior to the start, I’d say that anyone who arrived 10 minutes after us was turned away. We ran into Sean and Pamela from RADP on the way there, and they kept us company for a while while we waited.

Remick Ridge is owned by Tom and Marcy Smothers (yes, as in the Smothers Brothers). Marcy Smothers was the presenter. They produce certified organically grown grapes and use only their own grapes to make their wine. Their wine is 100% of the varietal, rather than a blend of different grapes. So, at this point they only make one wine, the Remick Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon, so that’s what we had to taste. Their winemaker is Richard Arrowood, who was featured at the Winemaker dinner that Lee and I attended the week before. It was an interesting presentation since Marcy was an animated speaker with lots of good stories, but it was disappointing to only have one wine, since usually there’s three or four at these things.

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Afterwards we went up to The Lounge to get something to eat. There were quite a few people up there, but no tables in the shade, and even though it wasn’t an overly hot day it was still pretty warm to be sitting in full sun. Finally someone left and we were able to get their table. At The Lounge there is table service, and our server moved one of the umbrellas so that we were all in the shade. It was really a very nice and relaxing experience to be there (once we got into the shade!). Our server kept our water glasses filled and we tried some different foods and drinks.

CL had the Flight Around the World, which included four different wines from Spain, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina. And I had the Riesling Flight, which included two different German rieslings and a third from Washington state. It was kind of comical having 7 glasses on the table, though! 🙂 I really prefer white wines to red wines, so after having so much red wine over the last week or so between the various wine tastings and the Winemaker dinner it was VERY nice to have something that I really liked.

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We tried several different food items on the menu. Since the Lucky Fortune Cookery is closed, the offerings at The Lounge this year are really the closest that this year’s Festival comes to having the more unusual “tapas” kinds of foods that many of us have enjoyed at previous Festivals. Though they are higher-priced than I’d like. But it is table service, and everything is nicely plated and presented on real plates with real stainless flatware. CL had been looking forward to the Kimchi Bulgogi Tacos (Kimchi and BBQ Beef Tacos), and she was very pleased with them. They were served on warm tortillas with fresh Cabbage, Korean Hot Chili Sauce, Kimchi, Mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses, and she said they were quite spicy, which she really liked. I think her only “complaint” was that for $11 they could have been a bit larger.

ASK tried the Succulent Shrimp Flatbread, which was Artisan bread topped with shrimp, cheese, onions, and capers. She liked it.

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I tried the Cheese Plate, which came with smoked cheddar, Camembert, Manchego, and Gorgonzola, though I requested more cheddar in place of the Gogonzola. It also included about half a loaf of sliced bread, some pecans and a raisin and currant conserve. A little pricey at $15, but it was pretty filling.

Lee arrived later – he had been attending the World Beer Styles demonstration, which he enjoyed. They sampled two beers, a Stella Artois from Belgium and the Kona Firerock from Hawaii. He finished off my cheese plate, and then he ordered the Duo of Pepper-Crusted Beef Tenderloin Sliders for $12. One was topped with a roasted red pepper aioli, and the other with blue cheese and fried onions. They were both good, but he really enjoyed the blue cheese and onion slider.

We wandered around the Paradise Pier area of DCA. There have been big changes in the Bay area even since last week. Looks like they have put the fountain heads for the World of Color show in place, though CL took a look and said “What’s with all of the Ewoks?” 🙂 We’d thought about riding something, but the park was crowded and the lines were long – 40 minutes for California Screamin’ and probably closer to 50 for Toy Story Mania. They were actually running all three towers of the Maliboomer, and even had a queue set up for the Orange Stinger! I guess all of the various ticket incentives they have been doing this year (the 2fer ticket, everyone plays for the kid’s price, get two days free) have been very successful, because the parks have been VERY busy the last two weekends. And it certainly didn’t look like the Swine flu threat had any affect on attendance.

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The other three had never visited the Blue Sky Cellar preview center, so we went there. It’s in need of some updating, since there are a few things in there (like Games of the Boardwalk) that are now open, and I think dates have changed on some other things.

We tried to get into the “Celebrate Scotland” cooking demo, but it was only 30 minutes away and it was already full. (Who knew that haggis was so popular? 😉 ) So we went to see the Aladdin show instead. I’ve never seen such a huge line for that – we arrived about 20 minutes before the show and ended up on Standby. We did get in, but were up in the balcony on the far left – not the best viewing. But we were mostly there to see if the Genie had any topical comments – and he did. 🙂 Bailout money and the swine flu.

After the show we said goodbye to ASK and CL – it was fun spending part of our day with them! They headed back to their hotel and we went to the Pacific Wharf Cafe to try the Festival menu item there – the White Cheddar Cheese Soup in a Bread Bowl. This has been a very popular item at past festivals when it was served appetizer-sized in a small bread bowl. I think it’s a lot better in the small size – it’s so rich. Lee and I split this one, and we still didn’t finish it all. It was good, but as I said, it’s just too rich for me to eat very much of it. It was very popular, though – we saw lots of people ordering it.

As usual at Pacific Wharf Cafe the line was to the door (though better than at lunch time when it was out the door!), but it moved pretty quickly – still took about 15 minutes, though. We found a table outside, and we could see the Pixar Play Parade going by in the distance. I noticed when Deb and I saw the parade last week that the Ratatouille float is gone, and it was still missing – apparently it’s been gone for a while.

Lee had talked to a Cast Member earlier about the construction at the former Lucky Fortune Cookery – the plan is for Cocina Cucamonga to move into that space. Since it’s larger, that will allow for an expanded menu – they are talking about bringing some menu items similar to those at Rancho del Zocalo to the new location. I hope they will keep those yummy Chicken Tamales (the Festival food item) on the menu! Eventually an Asian-themed quick service restaurant will move into the former Cocina Cucamonga space. It will be nice to have some other food options in the Pacific Wharf area – the lines get so long now! (I do have to say that the lines at Cocina Cucamonga seemed to be a lot shorter and moving a lot faster than they did when I was in line for 30 minutes last weekend, so hopefully they addressed whatever issue they had.)

We went into Disneyland after that to do a little shopping at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique – our niece has a birthday soon and is crazy for both princesses and pink. So where else would we shop for her? 🙂 In the Boutique we saw a couple of older ladies getting their own Boutique makeovers – so it’s not just for little girls, but also for big girls who are young at heart! 🙂

What’s wrong with this picture???

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Yes, no Astro Orbitor! Looks more like they are removing it than refurbishing it.

There were lots of people over at Disneyland, too, though we were only there to shop and didn’t even try to go on any attractions. We did see the 40-minute line for Buzz Lightyear, though interestingly enough Star Tours only had a 10-minute wait.

It was a great day, though it would have been nicer if the parks hadn’t been so crowded! I’m disappointed that I still haven’t been able to attend a cooking demonstration – maybe this coming Friday when I visit with my friend Kristin.

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Laura Gilbreath is a native of San Diego, CA. She has been making the trek up Interstate 5 to Disneyland since she was a small child and terrified of talking tikis and hitchhiking ghosts. She and her husband Lee enjoy trips to Disneyland and Walt Disney World, as well as sailings on the Disney Cruise Line.

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2 Replies to “A Day at the Food and Wine Festival”

  1. Hi Laura – We met you in line at Sweet Sundays and we totally agree with your review of this event. The desserts were too simple and too sweet – I didn’t really like #2 or #3. We preferred the event at Disney World.

    We did 3 events over 3 days but still didn’t get to everything. So, thanks for doing that for us. 🙂 We enjoyed reading your reports.

  2. Laura…thanks for the Sweet Sundays review; have considered doing this at WDW and will definitely sign up this year!!