Filled With Music, Wine, and the Best in Dallas Cuisine, Chefs for Farmers Celebrated Its Biggest Year Yet
The Event Showcased the City's Talented Chefs, Artisans, and Farmers
BY Billy Fong // 11.16.21Alyssa Damato, Adam Bosemer, Kate Enloe (Photography by Georgia Fiala).
Call it tequilapalooza or vinopalooza. Or simply call it by its given name, Chefs for Farmers. I often suggest what I think are the perfect elements that must come together to create a great Dallas event. But honestly, it’s a seven-letter word: a-l-c-o-h-o-l.
However, the weather could not have been better for this year’s main event, which welcomed more than 3,000 guests to the grounds of Dallas Heritage Village. Chefs For Farmers Food & Wine Festival is an annual, three-day food and wine festival that blossomed from an intimate farm-to-table dinner in 2010. Those who were familiar and attended the early years cheerfully recall having to bring their own stemware for the various wines to taste. (I guess you could call that BYOG – Bring Your Own Glass.)
The primary goal of the event is to showcase the dynamic talents of Dallas chefs, artisans, and farmers who make exceptional, seasonal, and sustainable food possible. Another goal of the event is to raise money for Trigger’s Toys. This year brought in a record $100,000 from the organizers.
The scene was filled with Dallas adults living their best lives. Kids were likely pawned off for the afternoon with friends or a sitter was called in. These folks were eating, drinking, and occasionally aggressively swaying their hips to the sounds of the Beastie Boys and Beyonce (DJ Yuna was at the turntables all day).
In fact, I had a moment where I was behind one of the pavilions and I caught sight of a group of chefs by a barbecue grill throwing their arms up in the air for House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” If only I could have caught that on video and loaded my very first TikTok (#chefsgonewild).
Those who attended ate and drank their way through the Village’s winding paths and enjoyed 130-plus food and beverage booths. Matt Pittman (Meat Church BBQ) won the People’s Choice Best Dish Award with his fan-favorite beef rib tacos with truffle horseradish cream. In the Celebrity Cruises VIP area (dubbed “The Retreat”), outstanding chefs offered exclusive bites like Christian Dortch’s (Georgie by Curtis Stone) grilled mussel escabeche and red venison skewers; Bruno Davaillon’s (Up On Knox) duck rillettes agnolotti; Casey Thompson’s (Folktable Restaurant) lobster duck fat corn dogs, which were another crowd favorite; John Tesar’s (Knife Steakhouse) Happy Hollow beef bone-in ribeye; and Giorgio Rapicavoli’s (Luca Osteria) chicken fried steak tartare.
SHOP FOR MOM
We were enamored with the selfie vignette/station that Nathan Johnson and the GRO Floral and Event Design team created for PaperCity in the VIP section. A floral fantasy that had guests lining up for their Instagram moment.
PC Seen: Maggie Wilson, Jamie Moskovitz, Andrew Dowdy, Jessica Baldwin, and Tim Mullins, Molly Nolan, and Staci and Glenn Cohen.
