We had a spectacular time at the NJ Food and Wine Festival Saturday night at the magnificent Crystal Springs resort in Hamburg, NJ. Many thanks to Chef Antonio, from one of our favorite restaurants, Fiorentini. We were just at Fiorentini Friday night, and Chef Antonio mentioned that he will be working at the Festival the next day. He said that Crystal Springs offered him tickets at 50% off to give to friends and family. He very generously offered them to us. So instead of paying $175 each, I was able to get the 2 tickets for $175 ($87.50 each). We went to the Grand tasting which included amazing bites from around 30 of the top chefs in NJ, and some great wines and spirits, including our favorite wines from Caymus. This was a food lovers paradise. There was live entertainment, and a magnificent ice sculpture by the raw bar, which had real whole fish and bottles of wine encased inside of the bricks of ice. I don’t think we had one bad bite all night. It was nice to talk with some of the talented chefs including David Viana from Heirloom Kitchen and Lita, Bryan Gregg from Blue Morel, our friend Antonio and his lovely wife Brenda, from Fiorentini, and others. A couple of the more creative presentations were Chef Robbie Felice’s (from Pasta Ramen) Teriyaki Wagyu short rib with pickled fennel and parmigiano served in a mini ice cream cone!, Chef Andre (from Andre’s) ‘Duck in Doughnuts’ which was made to order. It was both sweet and savory with the duck stuffing. Our friend Antonio (from Fiorentini) made a crispy phyllo tartlet with melt in your mouth wagyu tartare, onion veloute, and sea urchin.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any pictures due to the large crowd.
Below is a link to the grand tasting menu with all of the chefs and the bites that they prepared.
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