Walt Disney World's Food and Wine Festival

As temperatures drop and leaves start to change across the northern part of the country, Walt Disney World's Epcot begins to gear up for the annual Food and Wine Festival. A celebration of international cuisine, the Food and Wine Festival offers park guests the chance to sample tastes and textures from around the world. Cooking demos, wine and beer tastings and full out wine pairings and parties combine with kiosks across World Showcase to dazzle guests throughout the fall months.

World Showcase is always a bastion of good international food and flavor. But when Food and Wine comes to town, the offerings grow more and more plentiful and exotic. The existing pavilions are joined by smaller kiosks representing locales around the world. Each serves up snack sized samples of their regional cuisine and guests snack their way across the park and through the world.

According to www.disneyworld.com, in 2009, the countries and regions represented in the Epcot Marketplace and Promenade include Greece, Thailand, Spain, Italy, Argentina, South Africa, Ireland, Poland, Morocco, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Germany, India, Louisiana, France, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Chile, China, Japan, Austria, and New Zealand. In addition, there will be kiosks featuring desserts and champagne, international cheese, a selection of beers, and a special ice cream celebration sponsored by Edy's. Prices tend to range from a few dollars up to $10 and the festival itself is included with Epcot admission.

In the heart of the World Showcase, among the kiosks of wine, cocktails, beers and food, every weekend the festival also features Eat to the Beat concerts in the American Gardens. Musical acts like Boyz II Men, Richard Marx, En Vogue, Jon Secada, Kool and the Gang, Better Than Ezra and more sing the songs that made them famous. Guests can enjoy the music with their tickets to Epcot.

Seminars and demonstrations throughout the festival period feature topics that include tastings, wine pairings, histories, and lessons that encompass cooking, beverages and how to best enjoy it all. Many of the seminars are included with the admission to the park, but some charge a nominal fee.

Also included in your admission is the Food and Wine Festival Welcome Center. Meet authors of popular cookbooks and have your copy signed. Enjoy listening to chefs give talks about their favorite culinary tips and tricks. Bottle signings are also featured and there is plenty of shopping available with some unique Food and Wine Disney items.

Outside of the festival events featured with the park admission, Disney World presents dinners at their signature restaurants, a weekly Sweet Sundays brunch and dessert demonstration and the Party for the Senses that features cuisine from well known chefs across the country and across Disney property. The costs for some of these events is considerable, but the experiences are rich in and of themselves.

Epcot's Food and Wine Festival is celebrating its fourteenth year and it promises to be a big one! And while you're sampling the best the world has to offer, don't forget to take a little time and enjoy the rides and attractions at Epcot. Make sure you add a few new tastes and adventures to some old favorites...and happy eating!