Food festival touting local cuisine sells out two nights in a row

Lindsay Ortego (from left), Trevor Meredith, Erin Falkenstein and Zane Dearian with The Hive restaurant in Bentonville prepare samples of house-made fried bologna sandwiches Thursday during Bite NW Arkansas, part of the LPGA’s Wal-Mart NW Arkansas Championship, at the Wal-Mart Arkansas Music Pavilion in Rogers.
Lindsay Ortego (from left), Trevor Meredith, Erin Falkenstein and Zane Dearian with The Hive restaurant in Bentonville prepare samples of house-made fried bologna sandwiches Thursday during Bite NW Arkansas, part of the LPGA’s Wal-Mart NW Arkansas Championship, at the Wal-Mart Arkansas Music Pavilion in Rogers.

ROGERS --Katy Corman took a bite of her sample-portioned barbecue plate as Mario Valdovino, corporate executive chef for Tyson Foods, talks at a cooking station on stage.

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette

Cassidy Pettigrew (from left) takes a picture Thursday of Jordyn Lane, both students from the First Tee of Fort Smith, with LPGA pro Lydia Ko at the first tee box during the second day of the pro-am tournament during the LPGA Wal-Mart NW Arkansas Championship at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.

"Now, what is the instinct when you put something on the grill?" he asked. "To turn it ... Just let it cook. Let protein extraction happen and develop over time."

Other festivals

National festivals the organizers took note of in creating Bite NW Arkansas:

• South Beach Food and Wine Festival

• Bon Appetite

• Vegas Uncorked

• Bite Silicon Valley

• Bite Southwest Florida

Source: Staff report

Valdovino's cooking demonstration was a part of the two-night food festival Bite NW Arkansas. It kicked off Thursday night with the Taste of NW Arkansas at the Wal-Mart Arkansas Music Pavilion.

The sold-out event is a part of the Wal-Mart NW Arkansas Championship and celebrates regional culinary cuisine. The crowd of 2,000 was offered a variety of food samplings from more than 35 local restaurants, beverage and drink stations from 15 area breweries for $30 per individual and $50 per couple.

The Wal-Mart NW Arkansas Championship is an LPGA Tour event at Pinnacle Country Club that runs through Sunday.

"For what you get, the (ticket price) is ridiculously cheap," Corman said. While living in the Pacific Northwest, Corman attended other Bite events and never saw one under $50. During this week's tournament, she attended a couple of events but it was the food festival and the community concert that drew her eye the most.

With other golf tournaments, "I may go to the (sporting events), but it depends on what else is going on," she said.

Tonight's event, the NW Arkansas Beer and Burger Fest, will feature beer and burgers from the same restaurant partners. It also is sold out.

Organizers said the event, in its second year, nearly doubled in size by hosting 55 food and drink stations compared with 30 stations last year.

"Last year was on a smaller scale to test the market and see if there was an appetite for this," said Harry Hardy, Bite event director. "After last year sold out and was very well received, we felt like there was a chance for some growth."

Organizers felt like the event was a first in the region, in terms of size, and wanted a good representation of all types of food available here, with fine dining and casual, Mexican food, barbecue and pizza among others. Participating restaurants were chosen keeping the diversity of Northwest Arkansas in mind.

Among them were long-established restaurants, such as Ella's Restaurant of Fayetteville, Theo's, Grub's and River Grille of Bentonville. Several new restaurants also arrived -- The Hive of 21c Museum Hotel in Bentonville, Levi's Gastrolounge of Rogers and 28 Springs of Siloam Springs. New this year were more vegetarian offerings.

The originating idea for Taste of NW Arkansas was to emulate the food festivals that are becoming increasingly popular in urban areas.

"We did some benchmarking with other food festivals around the country," said Jay Allen, event chairman of the tournament. The festival's rebranding to Bite was similar to festivals in Silicon Valley and Southwest Florida that house a number of multi-day culinary events.

Crucial to creating one in Northwest Arkansas was the need to make it less costly than those in any given city, such as the South Beach Food and Wine Festival, Bon Appetite in Las Vegas and Vegas Uncorked -- a few event organizers studied.

"Most we looked at were $100 per person and beer festivals were $50 per person," Allen said. "But we wanted people to spend nothing once they're in the event."

"Our motto was slightly different from those other food festivals," Hardy said. "Some of those have a high, premium ticket price, but for our objective we wanted to keep it affordable and accessible. When the average ticket is $100 plus, that doesn't work with our motto or brand."

"It's not purely commercial," said Glenn Mack, executive director of Brightwater, the recently rebranded Northwest Arkansas Community College Culinary Arts program. "It's about showcasing Northwest Arkansas and the food companies involved and having a great time under the summer sun."

The event is an excellent networking event for chefs who are new to the culinary world, like his students, or new to the area, Mack said.

"It's great to get out and see the community," said Brent Hale, executive chef of Big Sexy Food. The restaurant specializes in high end, in-home dinner parties so "the festival guests are our audience."

The Taste of NW Arkansas was the first off-site event for the NWACC culinary program. Students competed to be one of the six chefs on the two teams serving Bite guests -- three attended Taste of NW Arkansas and three will take on the Beer and Burger Fest tonight.

"We were very excited to have in one spot the ability to meet major players and restaurants in the area," Mack said. "Our students get to stand side by side with professionals. It's a real-world exercise. It's not about a single event and single dish, it's about replicating the dish a thousand times over and doing it flawlessly."

NW News on 06/24/2016

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