For the past three weekends my husband and I have gone to Disney's California Adventure (DCA) for the Food and Wine Festival.

Sunday April 13th we did the early culinary demonstration with Cat Cora. Absolutely loads of fun and the food was great. Cat Cora was great and was talked alot about the new season of Iron Chef, can hardly wait. Despite the hot weather we enjoyed the demonstration and hope Cat Cora comes back next year.
We did not care for the appetizer/bite size food items that you could buy. I had the pepper crusted beef tenderloin slider and my husband had the lobster lollipop and the choclate dessert was good, I think it was the same as last years.
Because the weather was hot and miserable we decided to just head home.

More to come later

Sunday April 20th the weather was much cooler and more enjoyable. We did the 11:15am demonstration of Meet the Ghirardelli Chocolatier. This guy was great and had loads of info regarding chocolate and coco beans but for me I really just wanted to started tasting the samples. My favorite which has not yet hit the markets is the chocolate with peanut butter (Reeses you have competition) but I did go to the Ghirardelli website and you can buy them on the website YUM YUM.
Next up was Stockton Asparagus at 1:30pm. I think the chef was a little nervous at first (he is the night time chef at Steakhouse 55) but he certainly did his homework regarding Asparagus and the Risotto was excellent. Wish disney would put the recipes up on the Food and Wine Website like they did last year.
We decided that we would not try the appetizers again and waste the money instead we opted for an ice cream on the way to do Tower of Terror and then to see the Aladdin show which we have not seen in a very long time. The Aladdin show is just hilarious and enjoyable. From there we headed home.

More to come later

April 26th 3rd weekend of attending DCA Food and Wine Festival. This would prove to be the most challenging of the two previous weekends. Plan: Attend the 11:15am Culinary Demonstration Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen, meander around DCA until about 1:30pm or 2:00pm and get in line for Celebrity Chef Guy Fieri from the Food Network (Diners, Drive-ins and Dives)
Made it to the Ralph Brennan's Demonstration after spending about 1 hr in line, in the sun. We could see our plans dwindling for Guy Fieri. Disney had the culinary demonstration line staged on the Pacific Wharf Bridge, Guy Fieri line was being staged on the other Bridge crossing from Pacific Wharf over to California Screamin, 10:30am cast members already staged for the Guy Fieri line. Both lines in the HOT HOT SUN, no umbrellas, no shade just bright HOT Sun.
I passed up the opportunity to have breakfast in hopes that they would be demonstrating/serving Bananna Foster's. Just my luck they are demonstrating/serving Bar B Que Shrimp (YUK) I don't do shrimps, I don't do fish and to top it off the heads are still attached sooooooooooo the little eyeballs are still staring at you, legs are still attached and the chef says "Make sure you suck the heads of the shrimp, that's where all the flavor is" You've got to be kidding me :) I am about to toss my cookies, ughhhhhh no cookies to toss remember I passed up breakfast. Husband got two shrimps, but he did pass on the shrimp heads said he just could not do it. and me I am disappointed, I wanted the Bananna Foster's.
More later

After Ralph Brennan's Demonstration we met up with some friends and decided to White Water Snacks at the Grand Californian. We pretty much gave up on waiting in line for almost 4 hours in the HOT HOT sun to see Guy Fieri (Sorry Guy). My husband and I split the chili cheese dog and fries. The atmosphere was pleasant, was cool and the food was not half bad.
We finally headed back to Bountiful Valley Farm for the 2:45pm Culinary Demonstration of Cafe Orlean's Monte Cristo at least the line was in the shade and we got a good laugh watching the kids and some adults play in the water in the bugs life area. Monte Cristo was great and the chef was awesome. (Any one wanting the recipe let me know and I will e-mail to you)
We then debated on going over to D-land or waiting for the Gilroy Garlic Demonstration which at the same place of the Monte Cristo. Hot weather, a tad bit sticky we opted to stay at DCA and treat ourselves to a Cookies Ice Cream Shake from Sam Andreas Shakes, again a place I never visited always closed when I am there.
In between the shake and the Garlic Demonstration I meandered over to Pacific Wharf to see if I could catch a glimpse of Guy Fieri, lots of people surrounding the venue so I did not get a good glimpse of him but bought one of his aprons in hopes that I would make it back to the line for him autograph after the garlic demo. :)
Garlic Demonstration tomato soup, made with roasted red peppers, leeks other stuff I can't remember. I am not a tomato fan and besides 90+ temp who the heck wanted soup. I did take a bite, flavors were good but I don't think I would order it in a restaurant. Maybe the hot weather was making me cranky.
Headed back over to the Pacific Wharf got in the stand by line for autograph signings and was really hoping that Guy would make time for the people that were in the stand by line. Several times the cast members would come up and say that Guy was running short on time and there was no guarantee but the die hard fans waited around, personally I think it was a polite way of Disney hoping to get rid of some of us NOT. After waiting in line 1 1/2hrs it was well worth the wait because Guy did make time for us. Thank you Guy Fieri. Hope he returns next year along with Cat Cora and others.
Was pretty much wilted and tired by now so we made our way to the car. Why is it when you arrive the walk to the tram from the Mickey and Friends parking structure is short or seems short but at the end of the day its like the parking structure just keeps going and going and going and your car is never to be found.
Well this plan is to attend on May 4th weather is to be much cooler this weekend.

testrack, thanks for posting about your experiences with the Food & Wine Festival! How lucky of you to meet Guy Fieri. His shows on the Food Network rock. I should have emailed you about trying to meet up at the parks on one of these weekends. That would have been fun, even in the heat. LOL! I hope you and mr. testrack are doing well. :)