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When it comes to the Kohler Food & Wine Experience, chef Jacques Pepin certainly has his priorities straight. This will be his third year attending, so I asked him, “What is your favorite thing to do at the event?” He didn't skip a beat before answering with a laugh: Drinking wine.
There will be plenty of opportunity for Pepin, one of this year's featured chefs, and attendees to sample wines from all over the world at the four-day event that starts Oct. 22. Set at the sprawling Destination Kohler Resort, the event celebrates all things food, wine, cocktails and chocolate. It's organized similarly to a business conference, with seminars and tastings taking place concurrently all day long—only this will be more fun you've ever had at a conference.
Seminars range from a class on how to effectively use a chef's knife to cocktail academies on everything from gin to Japanese whisky. (No worries, the knife skills class is in the morning before any imbibing.) And of course, there's the wine. Representatives from a number of wineries will be hosting tastings, including Morande in Chile, Valley of the Moon, Chappellet, and St. Francis, among many others.
If wine isn't your thing, there are also seminars and tastings on beer and liquor. Learn how to concoct the best old fashioneds and bloody marys, for example. This is Wisconsin, after all. Rum, gin and Scotch will also have their own featured tastings.
In between attending wine tastings, Pepin will be teaching two seminars himself, along with daughter Claudine Pepin. At each class, they will be demonstrating four dishes from Pepin's latest book, Heart and Soul in the Kitchen, which is his most introspective cookbook to date. “In this book I cook with my daughter, wife, granddaughter,” says Pepin. “I just wanted to do the type of food we cook at home. I hope that when people do a recipe from the book and it works, they get a smile on their face and be happy, that's it.”
Four other celebrity chefs will also be featured: Christopher Kimball from “America's Test Kitchen” on PBS, Jeff Mauro and Scott Conant from the Food Network, and Mindy Segal, owner of Hot Chocolate in Chicago. All will have individual seminars to attend.
Local Wisconsin chefs are not overlooked, though. Bradford Shovlin of MKE's Iron Horse Hotel, Lynn Chisholm of the Paddock Club in Elkhart Lake, Stefano Viglietti of Trattoria Stefano in Sheboygan, and Dan Bonanno of Pig in a Fur Coat in Madison will all be attending and giving seminars. Wisconsin companies will also get the spotlight at the Experience Wisconsin Market, where local food and beverage businesses will showcase their products each day. The Market, along with the Gourmet Marketplace of food vendors and cooking demonstrations in the Kohler Design Center are all free to attend.
Tickets for all other seminars, tastings and dinners can be purchased through the Kohler Food & Wine Experience's online schedule of events or by calling 800-344-2838. Ticket prices to non-complimentary events range from $19 to $189. Get your tickets soon, as most events sell out.
