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Well man, do I have some news for you.
We have finally announced that on Wednesday, April 14, at the Paramount Theatre,Seattle Weekly is going to be throwing the bash to end all bashes: the Voracious Tasting & Food Awards. Unlike the small, mostly-private events of the past couple years, this time we’ve decided to open the doors to the public, throw caution to the wind and stage a massive celebration of all that’s good and great in the Seattle food scene.
You want food? How about 40-odd restaurants, all bringing samples of their best grub. Everyone from Cafe Campagne, Spur and Toulouse Petit to Queen’s Deli, Carter’s Chocolates and Uli’s Famous Sausage is going to be there, and they’re all going to come loaded heavy. Come hungry is all I’m saying.
Drinks? Oh, we’re gonna stock the bars. And more than that, we’re going to have mixologists from Canlis, Ocho and the Zig Zag Cafe (among others) on the floor, practicing their art and dispensing cocktails to those in need.
And for those of you not satisfied by the inherent drama of several hundred people all getting loopy on the hooch and fighting each other over the toast points and truffles, how about a do-or-die Iron Chef-style chef showdown pitting two of Seattle’s best chefs in head-to-head competition against each other live on stage? The winner walks away with the coveted title of Seattle Chef Showdown Champion. The loser must slink a way and find a way to live with the pain and humiliation of being publicly schooled in front of a live audience. It’s Thunderdome time, kids: Two chefs enter, one chef leaves…
On top of all this hot chef-on-chef action, we’re also going to be handing out the 4th annual Food Awards to chefs, restaurants and food and beverage people in three categories. There’ll be the Innovation Award (honoring culinary creativity and daring that inspire the continued evolution of the Puget Sound dining scene), the Sustainability Award (honoring major contributions to sustainable agriculture and environmentally responsible food production in the Puget Sound area) and the big daddy of them all, the Pellegrini Award, named for the late Seattle writer Angelo Pellegrini, and awarded to the person who most embodies Pellegrini’s notion of “the good life”: food, wine, community, and the culture of the table.
Tickets are available now through the Voracious Tasting website for the ridiculously low price of just $25 ($75 if you fashion yourself a VIP and want to get in early, meet-and-greet with some of the chefs and touch all the canapes before the hoi polloi are allowed in)–a price that covers all your drinking, all your eating and all the entertainment you can stomach.
If you want to know more, get all the information you could possibly need at http://microapp.seattleweekly.com/voracious/2010/index.php, and in the meantime, mark April 14 off on your calendar and cancel all your plans for the next day because this one’s going to be fun, I promise.
