Planning for Food & Wine is always exciting and at the same time a bit daunting…
- How many special events do we want to do?
- How many special events fit into our schedule (we always seem to have lots of visitors during Food & Wine, and isn’t a given that they want to go to Epcot when we want to go to Epcot)?
- What about culinary demonstrations (our past experiences are really touch and go with these)?
- Or beverage seminars (we’ve pretty much taken these off of our to-do list, disappointments)?
- Or mixology demonstrations (even more disappointing over the years)?
- Which friends are going to be around that we want to do Food & Wine specific things with?
After Food & Wine ended last year, we tallied up what we’d done in recent years and what we really liked (here)…
And here are our plans…
First of all, our niece (DrJ) is coming to see us the first full week of Food & Wine! This is her first visit to Walt Disney World since we brought her down for her 21st birthday. Since that time, she’s graduated from University, went to Vet School, and become a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. Even though Nora has a minor in vet med, we’re both in awe that she cuts animals open and makes them better… we’re so proud, it’s like she’s our little girl. She wants to enjoy our company, going to Disney World, and getting some good food and drinks… with that in mind, we have 2 Food & Wine Events and 3 animal related events planned for her visit…
- Italy Beer and Food Pairing
- Mexico Tequila Lunch (you know that we LOVE this event)
Then at the end of Food & Wine, our friends Lisa and Andy are coming to town. We really enjoy doing special events with them. Andy takes photos of the food and makes notes just like we do, so Lisa just grins and bears it. Their comments and knowledge about wine are much appreciated. And Lisa’s wit and laser-like comments are a breath of fresh air. And, it doesn’t hurt that Andy says “eating and drinking are my favorite attractions at Disney World”!!
- Chef Cib’s Pasta Making Class, Swan & Dolphin Food & Wine Classic (not exactly part of Epcot Food & Wine Festival, put what the heck!)
- Bootcamp “I’ll take Manhattans!”
- Italian Food & Wine Pairing at Via Napoli
- French Regional Lunch – Alsace
- Sunday Morning with Alex Guarnicelli
In between all of that we plan to do a few things on our own, without any visitors (excepting we are hoping Walter will go with us to one culinary demonstration)…
- Kevin Dundon’s Culinary Demonstation
- Raglan Road Signature Dinner (we haven’t done a Signature Dinner in a while, but it’s Kevin Dundon!)
- Tequila Lunch at La Hacienda (need to do this twice a year because it’s so d*mn*d good)
- Andrew Zimmern Culinary Demonstration (we haven’t followed his bizarre foods stuff on tv, but we’ve seen some of his regional food shows and are really interested to see how he is live and in person)
- Tokyo Dining Sake and Food Pairing (it’s a tradition for the two of us, plus we’re curious how things will go with only 1 hour 15 minutes for this event, we don’t think it’s enough time, but we’ll see!)
- Emily Ellen Culinary Demonstration
- Dining Through the Decades: A Tribute to Walt Disney (this is the only thing we plan to do in the World Showplace, not always a good venue for the two of us; I really want to do this and Nick is indulging my wish to do something really different)
Okay, so early on Friday morning, I grab both of our phones and start making reservations! Wish me luck!