Thousands of foodies crowded into the inaugural Atlanta Food & Wine Festival Saturday, where they ate, drank and learned from more than 100 of the South's most treasured chefs.
Demonstrations included everything from grilling pizza and pairing beer with cheese, to carving up and cooking a whole pig.
"You've got to think about a guy in a hut in the 11th century doing this," said Chef Linton Hopkins as he and two other chefs cut up a pig in front of a ballroom full of festival attendees.
While Hopkins focused on the whole hog, Atlanta chef Anne Quatrano served cured meats and chocolatier Kristen Hard discussed chocolate's "bean-to-bar journey." Those were just a few of the dozens of seminars going on in the ballrooms of the Loews Atlanta Hotel, the epicenter of a festival that spilled into nearby food tents, street carts and events at local restaurants.
Hungry attendees crammed into the festival's food tents Saturday afternoon, where high-profile chefs prepared a selection of Southern-themed bites, including catfish nuggets with bourbon BBQ sauce, peach cobbler cupcakes, crisp pork belly with peanut slaw and corn grits, and corned ham with a green tomato relish.
The tents also offered samples of gourmet varieties of beer, wine, bourbon, vodka -- and some Coca-Cola, too -- ready to be poured into everyone's festival glass.
"The food in the tasting tents was phenomenal," said Mary Ann Golden, who came from South Carolina for the festival with her husband, Hugh. "And the champagne seminar was excellent -- we did a blind tasting."
Taylor Lindsay, who came to the event with her chef boyfriend, raved about the tater tots served at one of the late-night street carts.
And while event co-founder Dominique Love had little time to eat, she said she did sample an incredible gourmet hotdog served with chunks of brie Friday night. "It was so good!" Love said during a break Saturday.
"I can't even put into words how excited and proud and happy I am about this," Love said.
The event was programmed by more than 60 of the South's top chefs and sommeliers, hailing from the District of Columbia to Texas, who are on the festival's Founders Council.
Tickets for the event start at $75, but those with fat wallets got something special. South Carolina Chef Mike Lata mingled with attendees Saturday in the event's most exclusive setting -- the Connoisseur Lounge, which was accessible only to those who bought the event's most expensive tickets at $2,500 for the weekend. Lata said the event offered the region's chefs a rare opportunity to get together to cook, eat and drink.
"There is a camaraderie in the South among chefs," said Lata, who gave the festival good marks. "The hospitality is overwhelming."
Avarita Hanson of Atlanta was preparing for a full day at the festival Saturday. "We love food and we love wine," Hanson said. "It's a good opportunity to learn some new cooking techniques and experience the kind of things we watch on the food channel firsthand."
The festival continues through Sunday afternoon. Tickets are available at the welcome center at 10th and Peachtree streets.
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