2009 Epcot Food and Wine Festival

The annual Epcot Food and Wine Festival allows Disney World guests to sample and experience both familiar and new flavors from around the world. Every Autumn, famous chefs, wineries, and food experts descend onto Walt Disney World to share their expertise through cooking and wine-tasting demonstrations, seminars, and special events related to food and drink.

This year, there are several new tastes to savor and new seminars to sample:

Celebrating Family and Friends in the Kitchen: This year's headline event series brings chefs from around the globe to share how they like to cook with family and friends. You can join in each week as a different headliner chef takes the cooking stage and demonstrates a dish. This is a great place to see your favorites, like the Deen Brothers, Cat Cora, Patti Labelle, and Alan Wong.

New Tastes in the Food and Wine Festival International Marketplaces: Your old favorites like the cheddar cheese soup, baklava, and lamb sliders are back, but this year Disney has added some new tastes to the game! Around World Showcase, you'll find over 25 booths set up and offering tapas-sized portions of delicious food and drink specific to particular countries and cultures. Head to the brand new Bangkok Thailand booth to sample Chicken and Coconut Soup, with Mushrooms, Lemongrass & Ginger for $3.25, or Green Papaya Salad with Shrimp for $4.25. If you're more in the mood for South American cuisine, Rio de Janeiro's booth offers Shrimp Stew with Coconut and Lime – $4.25, Grilled Pork Skewer with Farofa – $4.00, and Passion Fruit Mousse – $2.75. Finally, if you have any room left in your tummy, head over to Melbourne, Australia to sample Seared Barramundi with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes, Arugula, and Lemon Oil for $4.50, or the delicious Grilled Lamb Chop with Red Wine Sauce and Murray River Sea Salt for $5.50.

Tequila-Tasting Seminars: Now that you're thirsty, it's time to head over to the Mexico Pavilion for a Tequila Tasting Seminar. Disney World recently added the brand new, and permanent, La Cava del Tequila. This is a beautiful Tequila bar in which you can sample dozens of Tequila varieties, specialty margaritas, and delicious tapas. During this year's Epcot Food and Wine Festival, however, you can also sign up for a Tequila Tasting Seminar for the very first time! Led by Tequila expert Hilda Castillo, the seminars take guests through a tasting of blanco, reposado, and anejo tequilas.

To book reservations for Celebrating Family and Friends in the Kitchen demonstrations or Tequila-Tasting Seminars, call 407-WDW-FEST. The International Marketplaces are always available and require no reservation.

I hope you've found something here that entices you to visit the Epcot Food and Wine Festival this year! It's a fantastic event, year after year, and I always look forward to the new tastes and events added each year. Enjoy and Bon Appetit!