During the last weekend in September, the
Cincinnati Food + Wine Classic will bring highlights from the Midwest culinary scene to the banks of the Ohio River. The event, which launched in 2014 at Washington Park, has relocated this year to
Yeatman’s Cove, and is expected to accommodate a crowd of 9,000 people over the three days.
Co-founders Donna Covrett, the former dining editor for Cincinnati Magazine, and Courtney Tsitouris, of City Stories, established the CFWC to bring more attention to Cincinnati’s growing reputation as a foodie destination.
“Since our launch, our mission has been to capture the energy and enthusiasm of the Midwest's dynamic food and beverage scene, and to position the region as an exciting culinary nucleus,” Tsitouris says.
The CFWC will feature tastings from over 100 local, regional, national and international chefs. It will also feature wine and beer tastings, live cooking and kitchen demonstrations, an artisan marketplace and live local music.
The event kicks off with the Grill Invitational signature event from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday. Thirty chefs from across the country will be grilling live for a panel of judges and a hungry crowd. Along with the grill showdown, patrons will be able to enjoy desserts from one of three specialty pavilions and sip on a variety of 40 beverage options from the Wine and Beer Pavilion. The evening will be set to a live soundtrack, provided by the
Northern Kentucky Bluegrass Band and the
Buffalo Wabs & The Price Hill Hustle.
The party continues on Saturday with two grand tastings, featuring dishes from 30 restaurants, including live demos, seminars, guided tastings, author talks, panel discussions and live musical entertainment from The Soul Refugees with guests Eugene Goss and Bethany Whitten.
Also on Saturday is the Recipes and a Dream cooking competition, which will feature the three chefs from
Soapbox's August Speaker Series. Mandira Jacob of
Oh Little Mustard Seed, Chef Dionne McCaskill-Alston of
All Day Kitchen and Pantry and Tyler Retyi-Gazda of
Grind on the Rhine will compete
Chopped-style for prize money.
The weekend wraps up on Sunday with the Rising Stars Brunch Grand Tasting, which is a brunch by-the-bite with dishes from about 24 up-and-coming sous chefs, chefs de cuisines, pastry chefs and spirits experts in Cincinnati. There will also be 12 different breakout sessions going on throughout the day, including the third annual Somm Slam, a competition and interactive blind tasting among five sommeliers.
Tickets are
on sale now and will also be available the day of. Tickets are $95 each for one of the four grand tastings. After standard price tickets sell out, the price will increase to $115.
The CFWC donates a percentage of event profits to
Freestore Foodbank and
Findlay Market. There will also be a raffle for an
ArteFlame Grill (valued at $1,850) during the event, with proceeds supporting Freestore Foodbank.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit CFWC's
website.
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