Epcot International Food & Wine Festival
September 28 - November 11, 2007
Festival Programming Guide
Embark on an epicurean adventure as the 12th Annual
Epcot International Food & Wine Festival showcases the flavors of the
world. Explore marketplaces featuring regional foods, wines, and beers.
Learn from renowned chefs and winemakers at special programs and
demonstrations, and sample the finest cuisine from around the globe.
Plus, be sure to savor the sizzling sounds of the "Eat to the Beat"
concert series that stars a stellar line-up of popular musical acts!
12th Annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival an Artistic
Showcase of Memorable Tastes September 28 - November 11, 2007
Sumptuous Nibbles, Perfect Pairings are
'Tastefully Inspired'
It is a feast for the eyes as
well as the palate during the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival
September 28 through November 11 at Walt Disney World Resort.
Epcot guests can explore the
nuances of great wines from around the world and sample blissful bites
from dozens of countries against the backdrop paintings inspired by food
and wine. The paintings are served up from the palettes of artists in
China, Italy, France and beyond as a fitting accompaniment to first-rate
food, wine and beer that spotlight regional experiences from Turkey to
Chile to Scandinavia during the six-week-long festival.
More than 25 international
marketplaces serve tapas-sized portions of regional specialties and
recommended wines and beers available at each kiosk make for
picture-perfect pairings. Exciting new marketplaces this year include
Oklahoma, Dominican Republic and Peru.
Meanwhile, daily seminars offer
complimentary tastes of wine, beer and food from around the world. In
addition, a series of special culinary programs features a lineup of
renowned winemakers, guest chefs and speakers participating in elegant
dinners, luncheons, seminars and wine schools.
"Our festival theme, 'Tastefully
Inspired,' is an opportunity to emphasize the relationship between two
expressions of art -- the canvas and the table," says Nora Carey,
festival manager. "We're showcasing great artwork from around the world
that celebrates food and wine in many scenes. While the theme is an
inspirational springboard for our culinary talent, it also lets us tell
stories to our guests that will surprise, enlighten and embolden them to
think about food in a new way."
The Epcot festival has grown
dramatically, attracting a diverse audience of more than one million
guests each fall -- from wine connoisseurs and epicures to neophytes
primed to boost their wine IQs. Beer aficionados can raise their steins
at several tasting locations, including Germany's Biergarten, which
specialize in brews from light to dark.
"There's no other festival
environment in the world like ours," Carey says. "From the picturesque
World Showcase Lagoon to the authentic architecture that showcases many
cultures, it's an ideal backdrop for the exceptional culinary and
wine-related talent of Walt Disney World Resort and for the great
celebrity chefs and wine connoisseurs who join us each year."
Musical entertainment pairs well
with culinary fun during the nightly Eat to the Beat! concert series
featuring a varied lineup of classic rock, oldies, jazz and funk
hit-makers. Concerts are performed three times each evening at America
Gardens Theatre. This year's scheduled lineup includes appearances by
Jon Secada, Little Richard, Sheena Easton, David Cassidy, The Village
People, Chubby Checker & the Wildcats and 10 additional crowd-pleasing
acts.
Other festival highlights include:
The Festival Welcome Center, with a Champagne and
Wine Bar, complimentary wine seminars and book signings, and
festival keepsakes including exclusive festival pins and the
official festival cookbook.
Some 250 Disney chefs and guest chefs conducting
culinary demonstrations and hosting elegant dinners and tasting
events. Guest chefs appearing this year include Cat Cora, Alan Wong,
Jeff Henderson, Roy Yamaguchi, Todd English, Gerry Garvin, Keegan
Gerhard, Colette Peters, Warren Brown, Robert Irvine, Suvir Saran
and many others.
Mireille Guiliano, author of bestsellers
French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure
and French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes and
Pleasure, will sign books and participate in special culinary
programs during opening weekend.
Special exhibits along the promenade, featuring
authentic cuisine, entertainment and traditional crafts. New
exhibits include Oklahoma featuring chuck wagon and Native American
cooking and culture in celebration of the state's centennial;
Pearville Fair showcasing the variety and flavor of these favorite
fruits; Peru showcasing an array of recipes and marketplace
selections; Dominican Republic highlighting diverse culinary and
cultural offerings; and an Andean Wine Bar offering a selection of
varietals from Argentina and Chili.
The weekly Party for the Senses grand tasting
event presented by Vanity Fair, with tempting tasting stations and
featuring entertainment by Cirque du Soleil La Nouba.
Included with Epcot
Admission:
Wine and beer seminars, cooking
demonstrations, Eat to the Beat! concerts, culinary exhibits and all
attractions and park entertainment are included with regular Epcot
admission.
Special Programming by
Reservation:
The weekly Party for the Senses
grand tasting, Food and Wine Pairings at Epcot restaurants, Exquisite
Evenings at Epcot dinners, Regional Feasts, Epcot Wine Schools, Cheese
Tastings, Sweet Sundays and other special wine and culinary programs
require reservations and separate admission.
Guests can call (407) WDW-FEST
(939-3378) for information and to make reservations for special events
and programs. Festival details are available at the Web site:
disneyworld.com/food.
Epcot Executive Chef Christine Weissman Oversees Culinary Creativity
For Epcot International Food & Wine Festival
Christine Weissman has lived and worked in five
countries, and she speaks four languages, so it's fitting that one of
her key roles as the executive chef of Epcot is running more than 25
international marketplaces during the yearly Epcot International Food &
Wine Festival.
Every day, Weissman oversees a culinary team of more than 350 serving up
great tastes at all the Epcot Future World and World Showcase
restaurants. But throughout the year, she and her team also work
non-stop to create new recipes and menus for the popular food and wine
festival, which runs Sept. 28 through Nov. 11. In addition to planning
the marketplace culinary samplings, Weissman and her team build lavish
menus for the festival's weekly Party for the Senses grand tasting and
for a lineup of elegant dining events scheduled during the six-week
festival.
Weissman, has moved through the culinary ranks in a variety of roles
during 10 years with The Walt Disney Company. She has been chef de
cuisine of catering at Disney's Contemporary Resort and Magic Kingdom,
specialty chef in the Biergarten Restaurant at Epcot, chef at Seasons
Dining Room at the former Disney Institute, and she was on the opening
team at Disneyland Paris.
Before joining Disney, Weissman was sous chef at Windows on the World,
Cellar in the Sky in New York City. She has held additional culinary
positions in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Weissman is a
certified Master Chef (Meister Pruefung I.H.K.), and is also certified
at Level One by the Court of Master Sommeliers. Twice Weissman has been
the featured chef at events at New York's prestigious James Beard House.
"Overseeing planning for the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival
is an exciting culinary experience," Weissman says.
"I love to develop menus and food items that challenge my skills as a
chef and that create experiences for our guests that they will remember
for years to come," she says.
Christine Weissman At a Glance:
Hometown: Bielefeld, Germany
How many years as a chef? 23 years
Describe your culinary style. Classical cooking techniques, combined with personal experiences in the
kitchen -- wonderful flavors, original presentations, and harmony with
seasonal ingredients.
Biggest inspiration? I have two big inspirations. My father, Dieter, gave me the opportunity
to work in our family-owned restaurant as a dishwasher, and taught me
the basic culinary skills. Also, I trained under Martin Oexle, a
celebrity chef from Germany, who taught me the key to success in the
food and beverage business is all about detail.
What do you enjoy most about being a chef? That every day is a new adventure, and that I can share my knowledge and
skills with my team and watch them develop their culinary abilities to
become successful professionals.
What are some of your favorite dishes to prepare?
Westphalian Potato Pancakes with Smoked Salmon
and Sour Cream Drizzle
Whole Roasted Red Snapper on a Fingerling Potato
and Tomato Rago{t
Sweetbread and Lobster Ravioli, Braised Fennel
and Truffle
Foie Gras and Lobster Cottelette with Lobster
Foam
Tete de Moix with Homemade Champagne Kraut
Favorite kitchen gadget? Spaetzle Board. I like to make spaetzle the old fashioned way ("Scharped
from the Board"). I often do this with my daughters at home.
Favorite snack food? Secret culinary indulgence? For a snack, cheeses with a baguette and a little wine. To indulge,
lobster and foie gras.
What food holds childhood memories for you? Oxtail ragout -- this dish reminds me of my grandmother, and Cordon
Bleu, a breaded veal loin stuffed with ham and cheese.
Nora Carey, Manager Epcot International Food
& Wine Festival
Nora Carey comes to Walt Disney World Resort
from Paris, where she lived and worked for nearly 25 years. As
manager of the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, Carey
oversees content and programming for the world's longest and
largest food and wine festival, which features more than 1,200
prestigious wine and beer seminars and several hundred celebrity
and Disney chefs.
With a Grande Diplome from La Varenne in Paris
and an MBA, Carey has built her career primarily in marketing
food and wine. Her first job after cooking school was with
Time-Life Books in London, working as a researcher on the Good
Cook series with Richard Olney. In 1990, she joined the opening
team at Disneyland Resort Paris as menu manager for the resort
hotels, developing menu concepts, overseeing recipe testing and
ensuring quality for more than 27 restaurants. After the
resort's 1992 grand opening, she developed and managed the
creative services department, providing marketing support for
the resort hotels until 1995. From 2001 to 2003, Carey was the
marketing and communications manager for the resort's convention
services.
In between her positions at Disney, she served
as the director of marketing and communications for the Hotel
Ritz Paris, where she developed brand identities for the Ritz
Club, Ritz Health Club and the cooking school, l'Ecole de
Gastronomie Ritz Escoffier.
She was also one of the founding partners of a
successful sandwich shop franchise in Paris, Aux Pains Perdus,
and has also served as a consultant for several restaurant
groups in Paris.
She is the author of two international
cookbooks, Perfect Preserves, published by Stewart Tabori and
Chang (Awarded "Most Beautiful Cookbook" in 1992 by Food Arts
Magazine) and the Hotel Ritz's Cookbook for Children published
by Flammarion.
Epcot
Beverage Manager Jason Cha-Kim Adds Sparkle to Epcot
International Food & Wine Festival
When Jason Cha-Kim stepped into his role as the
first Epcot beverage manager, he faced a challenge that loomed
like an intricate puzzle -- the job of planning the entire
beverage operation for the 2002 Epcot International Food & Wine
Festival. By the time the festival wrapped, Cha-Kim had plugged
in all the pieces and coordinated his way to a record year for
the event. In all, he had snagged 76 wineries from around the
world to participate in key tasting parties, seminars and other
events, and had signed on 100 contributing wineries and
breweries for a month-long presence at the festival's
marketplaces.
"The Food & Wine Festival just keeps growing
every year, and we're always looking for new festival sponsors,"
Cha-Kim says. "A lot of our guests are asking questions and
really wanting to learn and be informed about wines."
Though planning the annual festival at Walt
Disney World Resort is a year-long job, Cha-Kim also oversees
beverage operations for Epcot, including all World Showcase and
Future World restaurants, outdoor carts and wine shops. His
initiative to upgrade service throughout the park includes
building wine knowledge among all cast members and serving up
more beverage variety for guests.
"There are a lot of opportunities here," says
Cha-Kim, a certified sommelier. "We have to have the very best
wines and beverages available for our guests so we can take
overall service to another level."
A native of Kingston, Jamaica, Cha-Kim was 10
when his family moved to Miami. He earned his associate's degree
from Miami Dade Community College in 1989, then graduated with a
bachelor's degree in hospitality management from Florida
International University in 1992. During his years as a student,
Cha-Kim also served as restaurant manager at Tony Roma's
Restaurant in Miami. Just out of school, Cha-Kim landed an
assistant beverage manager position at the Fontainebleau Hilton,
where months later he became banquet beverage manager.
As he built experience on the catering end of
the business and earned more responsibility, Cha-Kim was offered
a chance to serve as director of restaurants at the McLean
Hilton in Virginia. But the winter of 1995, the worst in
Virginia history, had him packing his bags the next year for a
new role in a warmer climate -- as beverage manager and
assistant director of food and beverage at the Hilton at Walt
Disney World Village.
"That winter really was a reality check -- the
cities shut down because they weren't prepared for storms like
that," Cha-Kim remembers. "Orlando was the place to be."
In 1997, Cha-Kim was tapped by Walt Disney World
for an area manager position at the Yachtsman Steakhouse at
Disney's Yacht Club Resort. Cha-Kim also served as beverage
manager and was instrumental in expanding the wine program for
the restaurant, which until then had poured mostly California
wines. When he was through, the restaurant served wines from
around the world and earned a Wine Spectator magazine Award of
Excellence for its wine list. He also made key changes in
beverage service, created a series of special food and wine
events and earned a Walt Disney World Partners in Excellence
Award for his innovative management. Most recently, Cha-Kim
passed the Certified Specialist of Wine exam administered by the
Society of Wine Educators.
At Epcot, Cha-Kim keeps a steady focus on the
theme-park beverage picture and continued training of sommeliers
who are "on the front line" dealing with guests. For this year's
Food & Wine Festival, he will seek and book participating
wineries for seminars and other wine events, including weekly
vertical tastings of at least 10 years' worth of vintages. And
he'll scout the globe for marketplace sponsors to add the kind
of festival pizzazz offered by previous sponsoring regions like
Valencia, Spain, and South Africa.
"Each year presents challenges, such as getting
commitments from the best wineries for those dates when they're
also dealing with harvest," Cha-Kim says. "But we're committed
to having something different each week that guests will be
excited about -- we want to 'wow' them every time."
Cha-Kim lives in Ocoee, Fla., with his wife
Michelle and daughters Karina and Hannah. He unwinds by going
boating, fishing, working out and playing volleyball,
racquetball and soccer.
What are three things you always have in your
refrigerator? Milk, orange juice and white wine.
Do you have a favorite wine? My preference is a
Caymus Special Selection Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
Describe the perfect meal paired with wines. I'd
start off with an appetizer of crab cakes or escargot with a
nice Moet Chandon champagne. Then, surf and turf -- a filet
mignon with lobster tail. I'd have a bit of chardonnay with the
lobster and the cabernet with the steak. For dessert, a grand
marnier souffli with a nice Inniskillin (Canadian) ice wine.
Epcot Executive Chef Christine Weissman Oversees Culinary Creativity
For Epcot International Food & Wine Festival
