Palm Dessert Food & Wine Recap

       The fourth annual Food + Wine Festival Palm Desert took place this weekend "Under the Big White Tent" in the El Paseo Shopping District. The festival, organized by Palm Springs Life magazine, gathered the brightest and most inspired chefs and culinary personalities from across the country for three extraordinary days of live cooking demonstrations, wine and craft beer seminars, and tastings from more than 50 restaurants and 70 premium wineries, spirits purveyors, and microbrewers. 

The festival kicked off with a four-course gourmet luncheon featuring James Beard award-winning chefs and continued through the weekend with Grand Tastings offering bites and sips from renowned chefs and purveyors. The festival also boasted cooking demos, craft beer seminars and interactive wine tastings. 

If you were following the #PDFW hashtag, you may have seen some of my favorite bites from the festival including this Ahi Tuna Wonton from Matchbox. 

Other fave bites included this Beet Burger from Two Bunch Palms. I mean, can you get a load of the color!?

After tasting dozens of dishes and sipping several wines it was hard to pick a favorite... but I did! Want to know what my favorite dish of the event was? Click here! 

As I mentioned the festival offered a number of interactive wine tastings including one presented by Sunset Magazine where a selection of wines were paired with new flavors of Emerald Nuts. Call me crazy, but the pairings were delicious! My favorite was the Rose paired with the Chocolate Almonds. It tasted like a chocolate covered strawberry! YUM!

Photo via @kaseys_kitchen

The event was packed with celebrity chefs including Roy Choi of Kogi, David LeFevre of Manhattan Beach Post, and the Fabulous Beekman Boys!

I was able to wrap up my festival experience by getting my cookbook signed by the Beekman Boys! That much closer to being Martha! :-)

I must express a huge thank you to The Saguaro hotel for hosting me during the festival. I have to say that it was by far the most colorful hotel I had ever been in. I had the chance to take in a cooking demo and a Selvarey Rum tasting. Again, if you were following my Instagram feed, you would have seen the results of the aforementioned tasting. :-P  I loved every single detail of The Saguaro, from the pink pool towels, to the signature cocktail. I can't wait to visit again soon!

Disclosure: I was not paid to attend this event. I received a hosted hotel room and press credentials to cover the event. All opinions and photos are my own.