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Fly Fishing Fun

By Kristin Donnelly, Associate Editor
Related Categories: Aspen,Events

Fly fishing

© Emily Kaiser

I was thrilled to arrive in Aspen yesterday, a day before the real festivities start—it gave me time to adjust to the high altitude, which left me feeling  a bit  foggy (and very hungry for burgers). By this morning, I felt totally refreshed so F&W’s Emily Kaiser and I headed 12 miles or so outside Aspen to the bucolic Roaring Fork Club for a few hours of fly fishing with the great people behind Napa Valley’s Gamble Family Vineyards, Cliff Lede Vineyards and Coquerel. Both of us were complete novices but thanks to our guide, Steve, we were casting like pros in no time. In fact, we got more casting practice than anything else—in two hours on two different ponds, I got little more than a nibble, and never hooked a fish, even though we could see 12-inch-long trout just below the surface. Perhaps, with the Food & Wine Classic going on just down the road, the fish have gotten as picky as us food editors, and can spot faux meals from a few feet deep.


Posted June 18, 2009 at 6:57 PM EDT
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Rick Bayless's Kerala

By Ratha Tep, Associate Editor
Related Categories: Cooking,Chefs,Travel

© Rick Bayless
An elephant in Kerala

Star chef Rick Bayless just came back from an eight-day food tour through India with his family, Tweeting all the way. Yesterday, I shared a few of his best Mumbai Tweets; today, highlights from Kerala:

Headed to Kerala spice plantation. First a quick stop to help Mahout [elephant trainer] wash temple elephants in river!

Cooking class meal: chicken curry, cabbage thorin, tamarind fish curry w manioc, yogurt curry w Kerala rice, paratha [Plantation Home Stay, Mundackal Estate; 011-91-485-257-0717]

Kochi airport security: chiles are contraband, could be used as a weapon. Lost all my chiles from Mumbai market.

Check this blog on Monday for Bayless's Tweets from Goa.


Posted June 18, 2009 at 3:40 PM EDT
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Aspen's Burger-ific Ajax Tavern

By Emily Kaiser, Associate Food Editor
Related Categories: Aspen,Events

After braving a mild snowstorm on our drive up from Denver, my colleague Kristin Donnelly and I arrived in Aspen last night for this weekend's Food & Wine Classic. I'm pleased to report that things are off to a burger-ific start, thanks to our dinner at the Ajax Tavern at the Little Nell.  (If only F&W headquarters were in Aspen year-round...) Ajax’s version of the In-N-Out double-double burger was impressively tasty, as were the juicy and ridiculously immense Alaskan king crab legs. The truffle fries almost went perfectly with the 2006 Joseph Drouhin Puligny-Montrachet, though they probably would have been even better with the rich chocolate milkshakes that the kind Ajax servers brought at the end of the night. We slurped them down before dashing back outside. The ominous storm clouds made us consider going back inside to eat a few more burgers, but we decided to call it an early night.


Posted June 18, 2009 at 12:39 PM EDT
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It's Here: F&W Classic in Aspen

By Kate Krader, Restaurant Editor
Related Categories: Aspen,Events

Yesterday, I got a preview of the F&W Classic in Aspen: meeting legendary Italian winemaker Roberto Conterno in NYC. Now I'm here in Aspen and it's even more exciting. This is the 27th anniversary of the festival, which is a mix of genius chef demos, wine seminars and a whole lot of parties. Every minute there’s something amazing going on; I’ve made a huge effort to pick three of my most anticipated events.

Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton preparing dishes from Osteria Mozza: Batali’s seminars are invariably some of Aspen’s best and most entertaining; this year, the amazing Silverton will help him prepare dishes from their L.A. restaurant, including spaghetti with garlic and guanciale.

Sommelier Challenge: The great Lettie Teague, F&W wine columnist, pits four of the country’s elite sommeliers (including Bobby Stuckey of Boulder’s Frasca Food and Wine and Jordan Salcito of NYC’s Gilt) against each other to see who is best at selling wines. It’s not unlike watching Britain’s Got Talent, minus the singing and dancing.

Classic Quickfire: On Sunday morning @ 10.30 (not too early, thank goodness—Saturday night is party night in Aspen), Top Chef season 4 winner Stephanie Izard will face off against Top Chef season 5 winner Hosea Rosenberg. They’ll each have a superstar assistant. I have my own ideas about who will win; let’s see if I’m right.


Posted June 18, 2009 at 9:27 AM EDT
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