Tom Colicchio

After announcing the dates, July 26-29, Caesars Entertainment Atlantic City has announced a few of the celebrity chef participants for the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival, namely Anne Burrell, Tom Colicchio, Robert Irvine, Aaron Sanchez, Buddy Valastro and Andrew Zimmern, with further announcements to come.

The event, which sells-out annually and is the largest food and wine festival in the market, takes place across all four Caesars Entertainment Atlantic City casinos and resorts – Caesars, Harrah’s Resort, Showboat & Bally’s. The past three Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival’s have been a major success in the market. Here is the Web site.

This year Caesars Entertainment has partnered with local charity, The Community Food Bank of New Jersey, to be the official charity sponsor of The Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival.  The community Food Bank of New Jersey fights hunger and poverty by distributing food and groceries, providing education and training and developing new programs to help low income individuals meet their basic needs.

The Food Network Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival was in full swing yesterday. I entered my “wine” portion of the event with the delightful — and buzz worthy — Champagne and Company event hosted by wine expert Michael Green at Mia’s Restaurant.

And by buzz, I do mean I had a nice champagne buzz. Green is a personable tour guide into the world of wine. By the end of the event I felt I knew a lot more about my favorite alcoholic beverage. For example unless the wine is from the Champagne region of France, it is not champagne, it is sparkling wine. Green likes to call these wines “champagne stunt doubles.”  And, when it comes to sparkling wines, the world leader in production is Spain.

We also learned that champagne should not be saved just for special occasions and that it is the best wine to go with food. It goes with salty, foods, sweet foods and fried foods. Green even admitted that he loves having champagne with popcorn, and that he has sneaked a bottle of champagne into a movie theater. Speaking of bubbles, a bottle of wine had 47 million of them per bottle.

We tasted eight sparkling wines and champagnes.  The first one was one of my favorites, Poema Cava Brut Rose from Cava, Spain. It had the fruity essence you expect, but with a slightly dry finish. And, it usually retails for only $12 or $13.

My other favorites were the true champagnes, Moet Imperial Vintage 2003 (about $60 a bottle) and a G.H. Mumm Cremant. The Moet was yummy and luckily for me my “tasting” portion was close to a full glass. And, yes I finished it all. And, I’ve always been a fan of Mumm (right up there with my all-time favorite, Veuve Clicquot).

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Anne Burrell, Guy Fieri at last year's festival. (Photo by Tom Briglia)

Last year’s Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival was good enough to earn a reputation as one of the top such events on the east coast.

The dates and some of the scheduled events have been announced for this year’s AC Food & Wine Fest, and Food Network superstar Guy Fieri will again play a major role in the festivities.

AC Weekly columnist Whitney Ullman with Guy Fieri. (Photo by Tom Briglia / PhotoGraphics Photography)

The Food Network sponsored Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival got off to a fabulous start Thursday night (July 29) at the official kick-off party at the Chelsea Hotel.

As promised, a ton of Food Network stars including Guy Fieri and Robert Irvine were on hand to mingle with fans and enjoy a cocktail or two and the sliders, spring rolls and other munchies circulating around the outdoor pool on the Chelsea’s fifth floor. Go here for the story