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The Stew

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By JEFF HOUCK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 20, 2008

Updated: 05/20/2008 06:34 pm

CONSIDER THE PALATE UNLEASHED

It's safe to say that this year's Tampa Bay Wine & Food Festival, held last weekend at the Don CeSar Beach Resort in St. Pete Beach, went much smoother than last year's inaugural event, which suffered from canceled seminars and complicated parking arrangements. As a spinoff of the massively successful South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami Beach, it also suffered last year from expectations that the Tampa Bay version would approximate the same style and flair.

Food Festival by Side Salad, on Flickr">This year's festival wisely kept the seminars on the beach at or near the Grand Tasting tent, making it easier for attendees to remain close to the food and wine vendors. The shuttle service between the Don and the remote parking lot a half-mile north across from Dolphin Village also worked efficiently, despite heavy weekend beach traffic.

Some patrons who attended told me they thought the food-to-alcohol balance was skewed a little heavy toward the alcohol this year. They weren't complaining, just observing. It also may have had something to do with the fact that the tent was considerably larger than last year's version.

Several vendors (Dave Katz at Zyr vodka, especially) told me during the weekend that they liked the event because attendees were very inquisitive about the products they were showcasing.

"I like this better than South Beach," Katz told me. "They're asking questions. They aren't just guzzling."

Other highlights included:

Chef Challenge by Side Salad, on Flickr">•Watching as last season's "Next Food Network Star" finalist Joshua Adam Garcia (better known by his nickname "JAG") heckled a spike-haired festivalgoer who appeared to be unofficially impersonating Food Network star Guy Fieri. JAG, who competed against New Zealand chef Jason Roberts in the Titanium Chef Challenge competition Friday night, went so far as to call Fieri on his cellphone to tell him the guy was signing autographs. The doppelganger quickly fled. I liked JAG a lot. (He's cooking in the Carolinas, by the way.)

Robert Masson, executive chef at 717 South in Tampa, helped propel Roberts to Titanium victory as his sous chef for the night with a chocolate and red wine reduction that was crazy delicious.

•Seeing actress Lorraine Bracco, formerly of "The Sopranos," working the table for her Bracco Wines at the Grand Tasting.

Food Festival - Saturday by Side Salad, on Flickr">Food Festival - Saturday" align="right" border="0" />•Slurping the lobster bisque served by Chef de Cuisine Greg Howe of the restaurant Vernona at the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota. The bisque was served with popcorn, which, when added to the soup, gave it a great texture that was similar to lobster. Howe told me that the Ritz is the first in the hotel chain to serve only locally grown, organic food.

•Sampling the 2003 Wyndham Estate Hunter Valley Black Cluster Shiraz. Only about 400 six-pack cases were imported to the United States, so it's next to impossible to find. The Graffigna 2007 Pinot Grigio was a close second, followed by Graffigna's Malbec. The mojito made with the ginger-flavored Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur was a nice surprise, too.

Food Festival - Saturday by Side Salad, on Flickr">Food Festival - Saturday" align="right" border="0" />•Sipping a perfect daiquiri made by mixologist Francesco Lafranconi of Southern Wine and Spirits and Jeff "Beachbum" Berry, who joined to do a great session on tiki drinks. Berry even dropped a few mentions of tiki bars that had flourished in the Tampa Bay area in the late 1960s and 1970s.

•Chatting with Joshua Butler, executive chef at the governor's mansion in Tallahassee. Butler, who was showcasing wild Florida pink shrimp for the Department of Agriculture, disclosed that Gov. Charlie Crist isn't a big eater - he sometimes sticks to one meal a day - and that he tends to go for salads.

CHILI PEDDLER

My vote for most dedicated dinner party guest of the week goes to Jack Sweeney of Tampa. Sweeney, an electronic reference librarian and avid cyclist who goes by the name "Ghost Rider," carted a pot full of chili behind his bike in a Burley baby trailer. The reason:

He was attending the Seminole Heights Bicycle Club's Bike-In Movie Theater event Saturday night at cyclist and bike shop marketer Alan Snel's home on East Powhatan Avenue. Snel invited local cyclists to bring food and watch the movie "Breaking Away" (1979) on a screen in his backyard.

I tried to get Sweeny to give me the recipe for his wife's chili but to no avail.

"You know the old saying: 'I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you,'" Sweeney joked.

As if you couldn't tell by the chili toting, Sweeney is a proponent of bicycle commuting. You can read his blog at www.bikecommuters.com.

FOOD TUBE

Food Network viewers will start seeing some changes on the channel starting in the next few weeks.

Broadcasting & Cable magazine reports that Food Network is changing its channel logo to a translucent graphic with food-inspired colors and occasional flames, boiling water, steam or ice.

It also is remaking its "In the Kitchen" daytime cooking block. Rachael Ray has a new set on "30 Minute Meals." Sandra Lee will include home viewers on her "Semi-Homemade" show. Paula Deen's boys, Jamie and Bobby, will show up more on "Paula's Best Dishes." Ina Garten will throw cocktail parties rather than just cook for her own friends and family on "Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics."

New shows in the last six months of the year will include "Giada at Home," a new lifestyle/cooking series with Giada De Laurentiis.

TV Week reported this week that Food Network parent Scripps reached an agreement with YouTube to supply clips from its programming on Food Network, HGTV and DIY starting this week. The companies will split ad revenue sold for the videos.

The Scripps food content on YouTube will consist of recipe demonstrations from Food Network chefs Paula Deen and Bobby Flay.

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