I was extremely excited to see that Epcot’s Food and Wine page has added much more detail as well as the full map and menus for all of the pavilions for this year’s 2011 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.
Festival highlights include:
- The Festival Welcome Center, with a Wine Bar, Authentic Taste Seminars, Authors Without Borders weekend conversations and more.
- More than 270 chefs including Disney chefs and culinary stars from across the country conducting culinary demonstrations and hosting dinners and tasting events.
- A complimentary Marketplace Discovery Passport to be stamped at each international marketplace visited for the perfect scrapbook souvenir.
- Popular returning events that include First Bites Opening Reception on Sept. 29; Kitchen Memories (formerly Celebrating Family and Friends in the Kitchen); Mixology Seminar; and “3D” Disney Dessert Discovery.
- The weekly Party for the Senses grand tasting event beginning Oct. 8 and with a new Saturday evening time of 7:30-10 p.m. featuring tempting bites from eminent chefs, more than 50 wines and beers and live entertainment presented by Cirque du Soleil.
There is a host of new delights for us to enjoy and many of our old favorites will be returning as well. I am in the midst of the 2011 Food and Wine app for the iPhones, Androids and other mobile devices and will post as soon as it goes live. Hopefully, this year’s web-app will be an Apple Staff favorite like last year’s was.
During the six-week festival, guests will discover:
- Three new tasting marketplaces — Hawaii, Caribbean Islands and Portugal — plus new menu offerings at popular returning marketplaces
- Celebrity chef appearances starring top culinarians like Jeff Henderson, Cat Cora, Alan Wong, Gale Gand, Suvir Saran, Jamie Deen, Rock Harper, Celina Tio, Robert Irvine, Andrew Zimmern, Buddy Valastro, Warren Brown, Art Smith, Keegan Gerhard and more.
- First-ever HGTV home entertaining seminars each Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
- The Cranberry Bog display by Craisins telling the story behind the venerable cranberry’s rich agricultural heritage.
- Daily wine seminars, bottle signings, author events and culinary demonstrations at the Festival Welcome Center.
- Eat to the Beat! concerts three times nightly at America Gardens Theatre.
Can you spot the difference?
Just an aside, while looking over the homepage for the festival, I noticed a few things awry with the header image. Take a look above or head over to their page to see what I am talking about. First off, there is no walkway, promenade or structure for those folks to be toasting above the bridge to France. I get it though, Photoshop is a wonderful thing that can make magic with the right photographic combinations.
Second, and more glaring, however, is the location of the Moroccan minaret over the man’s shoulder; the Morocco pavilion is on the other side of France and nowhere near its location in this photo. From this angle, you would be looking out towards the hotels with the Swan and Dolphin hotels most likely visible. I wonder why the folks at Disney would composite an image in a way that is entirely inconsistent with the actual layout of the park.
Wrapping it up
Regardless of the snafu, it is great to learn more about this great festival and I cannot wait to head over and sample the wonderful dishes the great chefs at Disney have cooked up for us this year. What are you most excited about for this year’s festival?
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