Well, it’s official! Thanks to great public support and food producer interest, along with our partners and sponsors we will be hosting Feast! again this year in Rochester.
Get it on your calendars and come out to see what’s new in local foods from Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin: December 4 & 5, 2015.
This time around, our plan is for the industry-only “tradeshow” to be on Friday and the busy aisles, delicious demos, and mouth-watering displays of the local foods public "festival" will be Saturday.
Last year’s exhibitors were truly outstanding and while we had planned (or at least talked about) giving out awards for the “best of show”… we just couldn’t pull off in year one amidst all of the great networking and learning sessions.
So no “official” winner – but…I (Brett here, fearless Creative Director) wanted to at least acknowledge some of my personal favorites. Some categories were almost impossible and I wanted to say they were all winners – but this is not a hippy-waldorf-everyone-get’s-a-trophy kinda thing.
I broke down the show into a few categories – and, I could give you a list of the nominees for each category – but really… we all just want to know who won the Oscar, not who didn’t. (Which reminds me we should have a name for this and an award! Like a golden whisk and they could be called the Whiskey! – because who doesn’t like whiskey?)
Meat
Bakery and Grains
Sauces and Preserves
Beverages
Wine, Beer and Spirits
Cheese and Dairy
Confections
Grower/Producer
Best New Product
Ok, there it is! Make sure you like Feast! on Facebook and check out local-feast.org for a complete list of the exhibitors from last year. They are all winners!
Oh, and then go buy some of their amazing products and ask your grocer, market, restaurant, and neighbors to stock up too.