Gilroy Garlic Festival: One of the country's largest food festivals—and considered by fans to be the world's best garlic festival, bar none—the Gilroy Garlic Festival is held annually in late July. More than 125,000 attend, chomping on oddities like garlic ice cream and familiar garlic-heavy goodies like stuffed mushrooms, pesto pasta, garlic bread, and garlic fries. There's also live music on three stages, strolling musicianas, a "garlic showdown" (a sort of Iron Chef competition), celeb cooking demos, arts & crafts displays, and vendors selling everything from garlic presses to ceramic garlic bulbs. The Miss Gilroy Garlic Queen and her court are crowned on the last day. The entire community gets involved in putting on this event, with around 4000 volunteers taking part each year.

San Diego Bay's Wine & Food Festival: Only in business since 2004, this Festival almost immediately became a "must" foodie event. In the organizers' own phrase, it's a "lip-smacking, glass-clinking, celebrity-watching, swishing-swirling, mouth-watering king of event." Who can resist that? The 5-day SDB Wine & Food Festival features seminars, cooking classes by award-winning chefs, olive oil competition, dueling chef competitions, winemaker dinners, auctions, celebrity cookbook signings, entertainment—and lots and lots of food and wine. More than 60 fine-dining restaurants and 160 worldwide wineries cook and pour.

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Fort Bragg—World's Largest Salmon BBQ: This event has been held each Fourth of July since 1971 in the small town of Fort Bragg, located on California's beautiful far northern coast. The World's Largest Salmon BBQ is sponsred by the non-profit Salmon Restoration Association, which uses the profits to help restore natural wild salmon runs to local rivers. The Library of Congress has included this BBQ as part of the Local Legacy program, which provides a "snapshot" of American life. Held in the town's busy Noyo Harbor, against a backdrop of music, fish stories, and the magnificent coast, the menu includes grilled salmon, fresh green salad, corn on the cob, and garlic bread.

Yosemite—the Bracebridge Dinner: Each December, Yosemite's Ahwahnee Hotel hosts the sumptuous Bracebridge Dinner. Styled after Washington Irving's 1718 tale of a Christmas celebration at Squire Bracebridge's Old English Manor, the royal pageant & feast was initiated in 1927 (much of the script was written by a young photographer named Ansel Adams). The squire and his lady, a jester, operatic singers, minstrels—more than 100 players dressed in elaborate Renaissance dress—join guests for an extravagant, eight-course banquet in the Ahwahnee's majestic dining room, which overlooks Yosemite Valley. The Dinner is so popular that, for many years, a lottery was held to choose guests. In recent years, however, the number of Dinner nights has increased, making it easier to get a reservation. It's an expensive treat, but it's hard to think of a more spectacular Christmas pageant.

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Other Notable California Culinary/Wine Fests:

California Strawberry Festival (Spring)

Riverside National Date Festival (Winter)

World Beer Cup (Spring)

Tomato Festival (Summer)

Stockton Asparagus Festival (Spring)

Napa Valley Mustard Festival (Winter)

Artichoke Festival (Spring)

Aspen's Food & Wine Classic: Each June since 1982 Aspen has hosted this renowned three-day event with its fabulous food, incredible wines, demonstrations, classes, a wine auction, and lots of schmoozing. Some of the biggest names in the food business lead seminars and engage in Q&A sessions with the audience (among recent stars: Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse, Jacques Pépin, Wolfgang Puck). Back-dropped by beautiful mountains, participants wander through large tents sampling a bounty of glorious food and wine from hundreds of international exhibitors. And Aspen itself has a great deal to offer every season of the year.

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Lake Buena Vista—Epcot International Food & Wine Festival: For six weeks each year, from late September to early November, Epcot (part of the Walt Disney World Resort) shows off tantalizing bites and sips from around the planet. Epcot's IFWF is huge, offering not only dozens of spots dishing up food, but cooking demonstrations, seminars, dinners, wine/beer tastings... You can walk from one pavilion or "marketplace" to another, sampling food, perusing native crafts, listening to music. Each Saturday night a party takes place: entertainment is provided, while you visit food stations where dishes have been prepared by Disney and visiting chefs. Some events are free with Epcot admission/parking; other events—let's face it; they're the really good ones—require a fee. It's all mostly about food, and it's all mostly fun.

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Longboat Key—The Stone Crab, Seafood & Wine Festival: Held near Sarasota at the Colony on Longboat Key each October since 1989, the 3-day Longboat Key Festival may be the country's most casual foodie get-together. You'll feel at ease attending a cooking class in your tennis togs, or strolling up to a buffet table—groaning with crabs, shrimp, and oysters—in your bathing suit. Dress it up a bit and hit the patio at dusk for a theme drink, and then work your way through a ten-course banquet. Casual, yes; but serious, too. Chefs come from the country's best restaurants to cook for you, and winery sponsors include the likes of California's Schramsberg, Far Niente, and Hogue.

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Miami—Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival: Definitely a "ya'll come" kind of thing—SOBEW&FF is a national, star-studded, four-day event showcasing the talents of the world’s most renowned wine and spirits producers, chefs and culinary personalities like Martha Stewart, Emeril Lagasse, Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay and Paula Deen (the latter two shown here). The Grand Tasting Village, wine seminars, cookbook signings, tastings, star-spottings, cooking competitions, the Food Network Awards Show—it's fun!

 

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Jekyll Island—Shrimp & Grits Festival: Set on this beautiful sea island—one of the Golden Isles of Georgia's Atlantic coast—the Shrimp & Grits Festival centers around two acknowledged stars of Low Country cuisine: shrimp and grits. It offers up tons of good southern seafood, cooking competitions, live music and other entertainments (e.g., a K9 Frisbee Dog Show), arts and crafts, shrimp boat excursions and eco trips, shrimp eating contests, and shrimp, shrimp, shrimp... Look for the Festival in early autumn.

Peach County (Fort Valley/Byron)—Georgia Peach Festival: The week-long Georgia Peach Festival (June) celebrates the famous Georgia Peach. The highlight is beyond any doubt the World's Largest Peach Cobbler, made with 90 pounds of butter, 150 each of sugar and flour, 32 gallons of milk and 75 gallons of peaches, and stirred with a boat panel. Best thing about the Cobbler? It's free! Also on the agenda is a parade, the Miss Georgia Peach Pageant, an art show, musical concerts, and a grand fireworks finale.

Maui—Kapalua Wine & Food Festival: Since 1972, attendees at Maui’s Kapalua W&FF have enjoyed four days of wine and food with celebrated winemakers, chefs, and master sommeliers.  Imagine Maui along with themed tastings, seminars, night-time events, cooking demonstrations, wine tasting seminars, and winemaker dinners—and there's even a golf event for those that like to swing.  If you stay at Kapalua Resort, take advantage of the Festival Package, which typically includes accommodations for two and passes to most festival events. You might opt to stay elsewhere, paying separately for the Festival events that appeal to you. 

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Big Island's Kohala Coast—Taste of the Hawaiian Range: The annual Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range, begun in 1996, features the state's finest culinary talents and showcases the abundance and diversity of Hawaii Island's agricultural products. Extraordinary dishes using locally raised meats are complemented by specialty products and fresh produce from local growers and artisans—natural forage-raised beef, locally-raised lamb and mutton, wild and farm-raised pig, fruits & veggies, and a wide variety of food products. Chef cooking demos, an agricultural trade show, live music, a cook-off, and tons of food are always on the agenda. Held in autumn, with a portion of the proceeds circulated back to the community.

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Big Island—Kona Brewers Festival: More than 60 types of craft ales and lagers served up alongside island cuisine created by two dozen chefs—as you'd expect, the Kona Brewers Festival is always a sellout event! Aside from the suds and food, you'll also find plenty of live music and entertainment (lots of hula). The signature event: breweries from Hawaii and the mainland "tap up" two types of beer each, which you get to sample to the accompaniment of island-style fish, barbecue, local produce, desserts. At the annual Trash Fashion Show, models pace the runway with attire made from recycled material like grocery bags and tires. And the Beer and Food Pairing Dinner is always a revelation. Other activities include a golf open, a 5K run, and the popular Homebrew Competition.

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Other Notable Hawaiian Culinary/Wine Fests:

Kona Coffee Cultural Festival (Big Island, Autumn)

Taste of Chicago: The annual mid-summer lakeside extravaganza called Taste of Chicago is a major highlight of the city's year. Nearly 4 million people travel from around the world to show up in Grant Park for this splendiferous blend of great food and fabulous fun—an incredible edible odyssey that dishes up delectable specialties like savory ribs, spicy gumbo, gyros, Chinese pizza, and lots more. Loads of music, activities, and special events are also on the menu. And it’s all served up against a summertime backdrop of free fireworks, a giant ferris wheel, and even a water flume.

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West Point—Sweet Corn Festival: Held each August since 1952, the four-day Sweet Corn Festival—the largest such celebration in Iowa—is about as corny as it gets. More than 25,000 people show up for the event, downing beaucoup bushels (over 15 tons) of all-you-can-eat free corn (chicken and pork chop dinners can be purchased). Also on the agenda: midway rides and carnival games, tractor pulls, Arts & Crafts in the Park, a corn-eating contest, an old-fashioned parade, crowning of the Corn Festival Queen, and lots of free musical entertainment.  Buy your own corn hat and join in the fun.

New Orleans—Creole Cookery: When it comes to Louisiana's Creole cooking, little more needs to be said than this: crawfish étouffé, jambalaya, seafood gumbo, red beans and rice, boudin, deep-fried catfish, shrimp bisque, oyster poor boys, crab meat ravigote, soft-shell crabs, blackened redfish, roast quail with dirty rice—and, to top it all off, pralines parfait and café au lait. To chow down on such vittles, head straight to The Big Easy. Many fine restaurants are open in the wake of Katrina, including Galatoire's, Emeril's, Arnaud's, Bayona, Bacco, Peristyle, K-Paul's, Antoine's...or dozens of mouthe-watering/high-character/low-cost places like this bright pink diner. Consider taking one of the twice-daily New Orleans Culinary History Tours. As you wind through the French Quarter you'll hear fascinating tales of food and cookery dating back to the city's earliest years.

 

Cajun Country Cuisine: Love Cajun food but don't want to spend your honeymoon in a city? Try the annual springtime CycleZydeco, a biking and eating extravaganza organized by the Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commission. It's the perfect way—perhaps the only way—to eat lots of scrumptious Cajun food and return from your honeymoon weighing the same as when you left. You'll stay in colorful towns like Breaux Bridge, take Zydeco dance lessons, listen to all the Cajun music you want, and feast Louisiana-style three times a day. It's an experience you'll never forget. Or try a four-day culinary adventure in Cajun Country with Chef Patrick Mould. You'll stay in a historic bed and breakfast in Lafayette (the Cajun "capital") and get hands-on cooking lessons with the award-winning Mould—an authority on Cajun and Creole cuisine. Each night you'll dine in local Cajun restaurants and visit dance halls rocking with great Cajun and Zydeco music.

New Orleans Wine and Food Experience: Held for 5 days on and around Memorial Day each year, the city's NOWFE attracts America's top chefs. The Experience offers culinary seminars, demonstrations, and most of all winemaker dinners in which local cuisine from top restaurants is paired with wines from nearly 200 wineries around the world. And it's all celebrated against a backdrop of New Orleans' art, architecture, music, people, and antiques. They bill it as a "five-day feast for all of the senses," and they're not exaggerating.

Las Vegas—Vegas Uncork'd: Did you know that most of the world's great chefs have restaurants in Las Vegas? Chefs that are household names to foodies—Thomas Keller, Mario Batali, Joël Robuchon, Nobu Matsushisa, Wolfgang Puck, Guy Savoy and many more. Consider that and then ponder what a food event in Vegas might be like, especially if organized by a trio of powers: Bon Appetit Magazine; a group of local hotels (including über hotels Bellagio, Caesars Palace, and Wynn Las Vegas); and the town's Convention & Visitor's Authority. What you've got is one big happenin' scene—Vegas Uncork'd! Four jam-packed days of famous chefs, workshops, dinners, tastings, wine. In 2008 Uncork'd included a Tale of Five Chefs Gala at Bellagio; a delicious weekend wrap-up brunch and a cocktail smack down at Wynn Las Vegas; and the Grand Tasting and a Masters vs. Rookies Pro-Am cooking competition, both at Caesars Palace. Oh, yeah: Wolfgang Puck was co-chair. It happens each May, so start planning.

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Southwestern Cuisine: There are so many reasons to visit New Mexico: cruising Georgia O'Keefe territory, exploring Anasazi culture at Chaco Canyon, hanging out in Santa Fe Plaza, and—not least—sampling one of the nation's finest cuisines at its source. Southwestern cuisine was born from the coalescence of four cooking styles: Native American, Anglo, Mexican, and Spanish. If you haven't tried this type of food, here are a few key words: jalapeno pepper, cilantro, salsa, and black beans. Count on finding excellent southwest-style eateries in towns like Santa Fe and Albuquerque, but the pickings get a bit slimmer when you hit the back roads. A current guidebook to regional restaurants will lead you past indifferent eateries, straight to dining experiences that will make you want to return for more.

 

Charleston's Food & Wine Festival: This popular  4-day southern festival gives you the chance to meet (and eat the cookery of) some of the nation's top chefs, food authors, and wine professionals. At more than 50 events held during the Charleston Food & Wine Festival you'll learn about southern cuisine in general and the Low Country's unique food styles in particular. Annual highlights include the opening night's Celebration of Charleston Chefs, the Restaurant Dine-Around, Bubbles & Sweets, the King Street Sip & Stroll, the Low Country Gospel Brunch, and BBQ, Blues, & Brew. An expanded Culinary Village takes over Marion Square Park in downtown Charleston with two Grand Tasting Tents, culinary competitions, cooking demonstrations, chef tastings, and lots more. This event is usually  held in late winter. More about South Carolina's Low Country

Other Notable South Carolina Culinary/Wine Fests:

South Carolina Peach Festival (Summer)

Yemassee Shrimp Festival (Autumn)

Low Country Oyster Festival (Winter)

Beaufort Shrimp Festival (Autumn)

Road Trips in Farm Country: In a beautiful state like Vermont, why not create a culinary driving tour geared to your interests? All you need is a good road map and a list of farms or producers open to the public for tours of maple sugarhouses, orchards, barns, corn mazes, cheese-making facilities—you name it. Make the trip even better by staying along the way at working farms, where you'll wake to big country breakfasts and spend the day fishing, swimming, strolling through orchard or, in winter, dashing around on sleigh rides.

Pictured here: lunch at the Mountain View Creamery Inn in East Burke. You'll find all the information you need at the Vermont Farms Association website.

Vermont Cheese Trail: A trail map from the Vermont Cheese Council offers a wonderful way to explore the state's back roads, small villages, and mountain scenery. Choose a region and then visit its artisan cheesemakers, who produce more than 150 varieties of award-winning farmstead cheese. ~ In the far northwest corner of the state, overlooking Lake Champlain, is Lakes End Cheeses, whose Jersey cows and Toggenburg goats provide the raw ingredients for original-recipe cheeses that include a 100% goat's milk Brie and a goat-cow blend, Misty Cove. ~ About 150 miles south, on Vermont's southeast edge, is Vermont Shepherd, makers of award-winning sheep and cow's milk cheeses since 1993. The flagship cheese, Vermont Shepherd, is made during warm months when the sheep graze pastures and fields. Aged 3-6 months in a cave, it's available August through April. ~ To learn about the other 148 Vermont cheesemakers, come visit the state or the site.

 

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