If there’s one thing that can bring people together across diverse backgrounds, it’s food. Who doesn’t love to get around a table filled with juicy brisket on one end, tender grilled fish on another, vegetables simmered in a succulent sauce, and more, all while surrounded by friends and family?
In the United States, food festivals have taken this feeling and supercharged it. Throughout the country, no matter the season, you can find a food festival offering appetizing delights, from regional specialties to mouthwatering international cuisine. But with so many to choose from, how do you know which food fest is worth your time?
Whether you’re a die-hard foodie or just looking for another activity to add to vacation plans, these food festivals are well worth your time. They aren’t ranked in any order here, as each offers something truly special.
1. Atlanta Food & Wine Festival
The Atlanta Food & Wine Festival celebrates the city’s rich food culture with an emphasis on southern cooking.
The Atlanta Food and Wine Festival is one of the best food festivals in the United States for how well it celebrates the diversity of Southern cuisine.
It’s held every year at the historic Fourth Ward Park in Atalanta and a unique element about this festival is how it showcases not only Southern cuisine, but also how it’s influenced cuisine around the world.
In 2023, they had three “tasting tents” attendees could buy tickets for and the entry fee paid for unlimited food, a plethora of drink options, and event entertainment.
The event fosters a sense of community and southern hospitality where attendees can connect with chefs, artisans, and fellow food lovers. One of the festival’s exceptional features is its extensive lineup of workshops and seminars led by renowned local chefs, sommeliers, and food experts. These intimate interactive sessions provide attendees the opportunity to hone their culinary skills and leave the festival with life-long knowledge.
For instance, sustainability workshops that inform you about farm-to-table practices, and wine pairing courses for elevating your next dining party. Whether you’re a seasoned food enthusiast or a novice looking to expand your culinary knowledge (perhaps through online culinary school in Atlanta), these educational offerings make the festival a must-attend.
2. South Beach Wine & Food Festival
The South Beach Wine & Food Festival combines great cuisine with the sunny ambience of south Florida.
If you’re in South Florida, then South Beach Wine & Food Festival should be on your list of food festivals to check out. This is one of the best food festivals if you are trying to meet celebrity chefs as well. In 2023, a gaggle of Food Network chefs attended: Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri, Amanda Freitag, and Geoffrey Zakarian, just to name a few.
This food festival is a whopping four days long and is packed to the brim with demonstrations, classes, and seminars. This is all made possible by the fact that over 500 culinary experts attend, and each year.
From ticketed private dinners hosted by master Chefs, family friendly affordable dinners, and even beachside fitness classes where you can work off all of the food you’ve eaten, South Beach Wine & Food Festival has something for everyone.
3. Taste of Chicago
Taste of Chicago takes you way beyond deep dish pizza to deliver a wide variety of food and entertainment.
Chicago is no slouch when it comes to delivering exceptionally high-quality food from a variety of backgrounds. Sure, you’ve probably heard of Chicago deep dish pizza and the overstuffed hot dogs you can buy in the city, but there’s so much more than that!
Taste of Chicago is a culinary extravaganza held in a variety of parks throughout the city in the summer. It offers visitors the opportunity to sample a diverse array of delectable dishes from some of the city’s finest restaurants and food vendors. Best of all, admission is free!
While food is a big part of this festival, Taste of Chicago is a true celebration of the city as a whole. That means, you’ll get to see live music performances, cultural exhibits, and artistic displays, providing a comprehensive experience of the city’s vibrant culture while you eat.
If you’re traveling with kids, Taste of Chicago is a family-friendly event with activities for all ages, including a Kids’ Zone, cooking demonstrations, and interactive workshops, making it an ideal outing for families looking to explore the city’s culinary and cultural scene together.
Attending online culinary school in Chicago can also be a great option for immersing yourself in an exciting, ever-evolving culinary scene. You’ll have the flexibility to learn remotely while still having access to a vibrant food culture and numerous networking opportunities with local chefs and restaurateurs.
4. Austin Food + Wine Festival
The Austin Food + Wine Festival showcases diverse cuisine!
The Austin Food + Wine Festival is an annual celebration of Austin, Texas’ vibrant and diverse food and beverage culture. It highlights the city’s culinary talent and showcases the unique flavors that make Austin a food lover’s destination. For Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts students living near our Austin campus, this is the kind of event for which you’ll want to mark your calendars.
What sets this food fest apart from the pack is just how deep they go in providing interactive culinary experiences. This makes it a perfect fit for culinary students looking to build connections with local chefs while learning a few tricks and tips along the way. There are Chef demos, multiple fire pits, hands-on grilling stations for attendees, and much more.
It wouldn’t be an event in Austin without outstanding live music and other performances. World class musicians and performers come down from all over the country to participate in this food festival. The Austin Food + Wine festival is just as eccentric as the rest of Austin, Texas is, and it’s sure to be worth your time.
5. Aspen Food & Wine Classic
Aspen, Colorado provides one of the most beautiful backdrops for a food festival.
The Aspen Food & Wine Classic is a culinary retreat held annually in the picturesque mountain town of Aspen, Colorado. It attracts food and wine enthusiasts, celebrity chefs, and wine experts from around the world for a weekend of gourmet experiences.
At this prestigious food festival, attendees have the opportunity to attend celebrity chef demonstrations from the likes of Justin Chapple, Kristen Kish, Kwame Onwuachi, and even Top Chef contestants. During intimate seminars, renowned chefs share their culinary expertise and passion for food. It’s a chance to learn from the best in the culinary world.
While you could get amazing food at many food festivals in the United States, the Aspen Food & Wine Classic is nestled in the Colorado Rockies, making it one of the more picturesque locations to celebrate all things food. Just don’t bring your skis, as this festival typically occurs in early summer.
6. Maine Lobster Festival
Lobster is the star of the show at the Maine Lobster Festival.
One of the most cherished seafoods in the world are lobsters for their juicy and tender meat, and semi-sweet flavor. You can’t get them much better than in Maine where the locals host the Maine Lobster Festival every year.
This food festival takes place annually during the first week of August and attracts thousands of attendees every year who are ready to feast on the famous Maine lobsters.
Thousands of pounds of lobsters are boiled, cracked open, and slathered in butter by people from around the country at this food fest, but there’s more to it than that. If you’d like to showcase your own culinary skills, there are seafood cooking contests where you can win hundreds of dollars. There’s also the annual “crate race” where attendees compete in a food race, running across floating lobster crates strung up in the water.
In addition to decadent lobster-centric treats, this food fest also offers a wide-range of live music, environmental education about marine life of the area, and more.
7. New York City Wine & Food Festival
New York City is always a culinary destination, but its Wine & Food Festival is an especially good time to visit.
The New York City Wine & Food Festival has become a mainstay event taking place in New York City each year. Food Network is a major sponsor of the event, and their celebrity chefs come out in droves. Chefs like Ester Choi, Duff Goldman, Marcus Samuelsson, and more are present teaching seminars and offering tasty bites.
Past years have had guests like Ice-T, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, and more. This food festival isn’t just an event to see celebrities though, the proceeds accumulated from the 4-day food festival go to important causes. In 2023, they partnered with God’s Love We Deliver, who provide meals and nutritional support to people suffering from severe illnesses.
The NYCWFF features so much more than just food tents filled with vendors (although, if you’re just looking to chow down, you’re in for a treat!) What sets this food festival apart from others is the sheer amount of classes and demonstrations attendees can see while at the event. This a great event to whet your educational appetite if you’re considering online culinary school while living in New York!
8. Boudin, Bourbon & Beer
New Orleans’ French Quarter is the setting for the city’s Boudin, Bourbon, & Beer festival.
If there’s one thing that New Orleans does better than practically every other city in the United States, it’s throwing a party. The Boudin, Bourbon & Beer festival brings together more than 50 legendary chefs who all showcase their diversity and the uniqueness of Louisiana’s Boudin sausage for one-day.
If you’re not familiar with Boudin—pronounced boo-dan—its tasty origins trace back to Western Europe, and it was further developed in South Louisiana. Boudin is a sausage made of pork, rice dressing, and herbs stuffed in pork casing. It’s a staple in Louisiana cooking from Jambalaya, gumbo, and more.There are many ways it can be prepared, and the chefs use all their creative energy to come up with some crowd-pleasing dishes.
This food festival is put on each year by The Emeril Lagasse Foundation, which helps provide educational programs, life skills, and culinary opportunities in communities where Emeril restaurants exist.
In addition to outstanding food, this food fest is also known for its cigar tasting areas, dance parties, and of course bourbon!
9. Epcot International Food & Wine Festival
Visiting Epcot during its International Food & Wine Festival gives you the chance to taste cuisine from around the world.
If you thought Disney World didn’t offer enough, think again. Each year, Epcot puts on a unique food festival where visitors can explore cuisine from around the globe while also being in settings that resemble the local cultures.
Attendees of this food fest can partake in international marketplaces that offer small plates and beverages. But a very special aspect of this food fest that will be hard to find anywhere else is the educational opportunities you have at your fingertips.
If you’re traveling with kids, the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival gives you a lot of bang for your buck, with chef demonstrations, educational seminars, musical performances, cultural immersion opportunities and much more.
10. Denver Restaurant Week
Denver’s Restaurant Week lasts 10 days and is just 30 minutes away from Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts – Boulder, CO campus.
If you want to experience the diverse flavors a food fest can offer without the big crowds or the time crunch they can involve, Denver Restaurant Week can give you a much slower, more refined opportunity. Instead of your typical outdoor festival, this 10-day celebration of Denver’s multifaceted dining scene gives visitors the chance to enjoy multi-course meals at some of the city’s finest restaurants for a fraction of the typical cost.
This year marks the celebration’s 20th anniversary, and you can expect more than 200 local restaurants to participate. That means offerings ranging from international fusion to cutting-edge vegetarian cruising and even fresh seafood (flown in daily).
Despite the name, the event lasts 10 days allowing you to enjoy two weekends of great food. It’s also of particular interest to students at Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts – Boulder, CO campus, which is just a 30-minute drive from downtown Denver.
Explore the Country Through Food
As you can see from this robust list, there’s a reason why some of the world’s best food festivals are in the United States. Food festivals are a great way to learn more about specific cuisine and also to engross yourself in a community, whether you’re visiting for a few days or a long time local. This country offers an immense diversity in cuisine that is highlighted through the plethora of cultures and identities scattered across the 50 states.
While it’s a lot of fun to attend these events and try many different cuisines, what if you’d like to actually be someone making the food instead? Attending culinary school and honing your cooking skills can set you up to be one of the many renowned Chefs featured on the “talent” list for one of these food festivals.
Escoffier has programs for numerous specialties, from Baking & Pastry to Plant-Based Culinary Arts, so you’re likely to find something you can pursue with passion. Contact us today to learn more!
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This article was originally published on September 11, 2019 and has since been updated.
