The beloved Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival has now become the Austin Wine and Food Festival. April 27-29, 2012 marks the beginning of a new era for the Austin food scene. Food and Wine Magazine is teaming up with C3 Entertainment to showcase big name national chef stars like Masaharu Morimoto, Marcus Samuelsson, and Andrew Zimmern alongside Austin luminaries like Tyson Cole, Paul Qui, Bryce Gilmore, and Aaron Franklin. The idea is to make a destination festival along the lines of the South Beach or Aspen festivals. How will the Austin chefs stack up? Will the Austin foodie community support a fest that comes with a $250 minimum price tag? How will the festival organizers deal with unforeseen issues that are bound to come up with a new huge event? I cannot wait to find out.
My name is Christy and I was born, raised, and still live in Austin, TX. I love to travel. I have been all over the US, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, etc. My second favorite place in the world is Negril, Jamaica where I have been 10 times and counting. I am a trained pastry chef but I am not currently working in "the industry" right now. I became a pastry chef in part to complement the fabulous dinners conjured up by my best friends Ethan and Michelle, who hopefully will be contributing to this blog as well. We went through a 2 year period of "Tuesday Night" dinner parties which were a smorgasbord of bloody meat and red, red wine. Friendships and laughter. The men did all the cooking while the women got tipsy, as all dinner parties should be. If I wanted to participate with food, I had to bring something and I became Dessert Girl. Eventually I attended the Le Cordon Bleu program at the Texas Culinary Academy and received a certificate in Pastry and Baking. I have had several baking jobs but found it hard to make ends meet, so I earn my living elsewhere for now. I have had the pleasure of working with several celebrity chefs including Rebecca Rather, Bronwen Weber, and David Lebovitz. I have also cultivated some amazing friends and resources in the Central Texas area and would like to share my knowledge with all who care to join me. My most recent honor was winning Best Sweet at the Bacon Takedown during SXSW 2011. As the culinary icon Ms. Childs' says, "Bon Appetit!"
***CONTACT ME at christy111luv@yahoo.com or twitter @christy111luv*** 
I was so excited until I saw the pricetag!
I wish they had an option for a 1 day pass. Sounds worth the money for all the great demos and stuff but especially in this economy, who can afford to do the whole thing? Hopefully I will get to get to see some of it through volunteer opportunities.