Food, wine and old fashioned competition. Not much else is necessary to bring people together, as the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society proves year after year with its annual food and wine festival Fête Rouge.
When marveling at the vast spread of gourmet food at the awards banquet Thursday night or the expo-like Food and Wine Fête Friday night, it can be easy for attendees to overlook the weeks of preparation participating chefs and restaurant teams put into the annual culinary competition.
Coming up with an idea, testing it out, conducting run-throughs, and finally doing mass bulk prep takes at least two weeks to months depending on the dish concept.
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The awards dinner Thursday will feature a menu prepared by chefs Don Bergeron, Ryan André, Nathan Gresham, Joseph Dicapo, Jeremy Langlois and Jared Tees.
For Friday’s Food and Wine Fête competition, more than 40 local restaurants are competing. Plates prepared by the local chefs are evaluated by judges in a blind taste test with the winners announced at the end of the night. While the judges critique the dishes, attendees are free to try as many as they like along with more than 200 different wine samples.
225 Dine spoke with a couple of chefs participating in the Fête, and though they couldn’t share specifically what dishes they were making, they did talk about the experience of prepping for the event.
Newcomer Cocha is known for its farm-to-table fare and emphasis on seasonal and local flavors. While this will be Cocha’s first year at Fête Rouge, Chef Jourdan Fulbright has participated on other teams in recent years.
“For us, it’s an exciting opportunity to get to meet more people who are interested in the food scene in Baton Rouge,” she says. “I just want to put out a plate that people enjoy and that I’m proud of.”
Longtime participant and Stroubes Seafood and Steaks Chef Mark Reilly says Stroubes’ dish this year has a simple prep process, but the devil is in the details; namely, the time-consuming finishing touches.
“The hardest thing is the hours of hand-squeezing fresh juices and [garnishing the] peppers and shallots,” he says.
FÊTE ROUGE CHEAT SHEET
Fête Rouge is this Thursday and Friday at L’Auberge Casino and Hotel.
Thursday, Aug. 24, award dinner: The six-course award dinner honors the recipient of the Grace “Mama” Marino Lifetime Achievement Award and is produced by a collaborative effort of multiple chefs. This year’s dinner celebrates former Advocate food editor Tommy Simmons.
Friday, Aug. 25, Food and Wine Fête: Features 40 participating restaurants and more than 200 wines to try, Fête Rouge can be a little overwhelming for the casual food lover. During the Food and Wine Fête, local chefs channel their culinary creativity to make innovative dishes to compete for Best in Show, while also making enough food to feed 1,300 people.
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What the event benefits: The Baton Rouge Epicurean Society is a nonprofit organization, and funds from the event will go toward supporting childhood nutrition initiatives, educational programs and scholarships.
The full list of participating restaurants: Find the list and purchase tickets to the event here.
Where to buy the wines after the event: Tasting one of the (literally) hundreds of wines, and think you’ve found the one? Wines tasted throughout the event can be ordered at Calandro’s Supermarket or Hokus Pokus Liquors.