James Beard Award-winning chefs, culinary greats to unite in Asheville, Sept. 7-10

Tiana Kennell, Asheville Citizen Times
Updated ·5 min read
The 2023 Chow Chow Food + Culture Festival is slated for Sept. 7–10 and will consist of dinners, workshops, performances, tastings, talks and demonstrations that will be hosted across the city of Asheville and downtown at Pack Square Park.
The 2023 Chow Chow Food + Culture Festival is slated for Sept. 7–10 and will consist of dinners, workshops, performances, tastings, talks and demonstrations that will be hosted across the city of Asheville and downtown at Pack Square Park.
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ASHEVILLE - A four-day culinary celebration returns to the heart of downtown chock-full of tasting experiences, entertainment and social events.

On Sept. 7-10, chefs, restaurants and other food and beverage professionals from across the city, region and country will converge in downtown Asheville for the Chow Chow Food and Culture Festival.

This year, the nonprofit’s organizers have curated a schedule brimming with culinary feasts, cocktail meetups, talks, performances and more to showcase and support Southern Appalachian foodways and local creatives.

Chow Chow’s special guest list includes award-winning chefs, culinary pioneers and media gurus, including James Beard Award-winning author and historian Adrian Miller (The Soul Food Scholar), Travis Milton of Nicewonder Farm and Vineyard, and Cúrate and La Bodega by Cúrate power couple Katie Button and Félix Meana.

Melissa Scheiderer, the executive director for Chow Chow Food and Culture Festival in Asheville.
Melissa Scheiderer, the executive director for Chow Chow Food and Culture Festival in Asheville.

The program lineup ranges from free performances to low-cost seminars to exclusive, ticketed seated dinners.

Executive Director Melissa Scheiderer shared with the Citizen Times more highlights of the multiday extravaganza, the 2023 Chow Chow Food and Culture Festival.:

Tasting Bazaar

Eat your way through Chow Chow at the Tasting Bazaar slated for 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. Sept. 8-10 in Pack Square Park.

This is where guests can find more than enough to whet one’s appetite.

Guest chefs and beverage vendors will offer more than 40 rotating dishes and drinks to sample throughout the day.

“Each day, we’ll feature different food and beverage purveyors, so for folks who are coming the whole weekend, they will have a different experience each day,” Scheiderer said. “We’re trying to make sure it’s exciting for those who really want to dive deep into the experience.”

The 2023 Chow Chow Food + Culture Festival is slated for Sept. 7–10 and will consist of dinners, workshops, performances, tastings, talks and demonstrations that will be hosted across the city of Asheville and downtown at Pack Square Park.
The 2023 Chow Chow Food + Culture Festival is slated for Sept. 7–10 and will consist of dinners, workshops, performances, tastings, talks and demonstrations that will be hosted across the city of Asheville and downtown at Pack Square Park.

A single-day pass costs $125 and a weekend pass for Friday-Sunday is $300 per person.

The passes include access to the main stage to sit in on talks, panel discussions, performances and more.

The Makers' Market will be open with retail food and drinks items to try and buy.

Get the first taste of packaged specialty food and beverage products made by emerging local small businesses in the expo area at the Emerging Entrepreneurs Showcase, presented in collaboration with Venture Asheville and Mountain BizWorks.

“One of the things that we really want to do is be beneficial to our local creative economies and one of the ways we do that is through the festival,” Scheiderer said.

Free, discounted events

Several events are open to the community or have tickets lower in cost.

Programming that has the “pay what you can” seminars including “The Mind-Blowing ‘How?!’ of Plant-Based Cheese Innovation” with Darë Vegan Cheese founder Gwendolyn Hageman (Sept. 8), “This Must Be the Place: An Exploration of Southern Terroir” with Sheri Castle, host of “The Key Ingredient” on PBS (Sept. 8), “Malts of the Future: How Growers, Maltsters, and Brewers are Fortifying Local Economies Against Climate Change” with founders of Leveller Brewing Co. and Riverbend Malt House (Sept. 9); and “Okra, Beyond the Pod Seminar” with James Beard Award-winning author, Chris Smith of the Utopian Seed Project (Sept. 9).

The 2023 Chow Chow Food + Culture Festival is slated for Sept. 7–10 and will consist of dinners, workshops, performances, tastings, talks and demonstrations that will be hosted across the city of Asheville and downtown at Pack Square Park.
The 2023 Chow Chow Food + Culture Festival is slated for Sept. 7–10 and will consist of dinners, workshops, performances, tastings, talks and demonstrations that will be hosted across the city of Asheville and downtown at Pack Square Park.

On Sunday only, guests may purchase a pass to the Tasting Bazaar for a minimum donation of $25.

The Asheville Ballet will present “Fall into Dance” with three performances – 4 p.m. Sept. 9-10 and 2 p.m. Sept. 10.

Also, swing by the Food Truck Rodeo that's open to the public 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sept. 8-9 and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sept. 10.

Cider and Southern storytelling

This year’s keynote speaker will be Diane Flynt, author of “Wild, Tamed, Lost, Revived: The Surprising Story of Apples in the South.,” who will speak from 3:30-5 p.m. Sept. 8 at Botanist and Barrel Tasting Bar and Bottle Shop.

“She’s going to talk about not just apples but the importance of paying attention to your surroundings. And there will probably be some aspects of climate awareness in there because our climate is changing which changes the agriculture," Scheiderer said.

Following, Flynt will join Deb Freeman, host of the podcast “Setting the Table,” for a Fireside Chat.

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Botanist and Barrel’s Certified Pommelier, Amie Fields, will host the event and offer guests a Southern cider flight with food pairing and a spread of local cheese and charcuterie for tasting.

The ticketed event is $85 per person. Books will be available for purchase.

James Beard Award-level dining

On Sept. 8, Chow Chow will present “Appalachia Rising: The James Beard Award–recognized Chefs Defining Modern Appalachian Cooking” from 6-9 p.m. at The Restoration Hotel.

The evening will begin with a panel discussion with the host of the PBS culinary series “The Key Ingredient,” Sheri Castle with Chefs Meherwan Irani, Katie Button, Greg Collier, John Fleer and Camille Cogswell.

The 2023 Chow Chow Food + Culture Festival is slated for Sept. 7–10 and will consist of dinners, workshops, performances, tastings, talks and demonstrations that will be hosted across the city of Asheville and downtown at Pack Square Park.
The 2023 Chow Chow Food + Culture Festival is slated for Sept. 7–10 and will consist of dinners, workshops, performances, tastings, talks and demonstrations that will be hosted across the city of Asheville and downtown at Pack Square Park.

Those presenting the multicourse seated dinner of modern Appalachian cuisine are Sahar Siddiqi, Camille Cogswell, Cleophus Hethington, Shannon Healy, Fleer, Irani and Josiah McGaughey.

Postdinner, join the chefs at the Digestif Reception.

Tickets are $250 per person.

Ticket sales and donations fund honorariums for culinary and beverage presenters.

Elevated TV Dinners

On Sept. 9, Executive Editor of Bon Appétit and Epicurious, Sonia Chopra, will moderate a conversation with guest chefs at “When Swanson’s TV Dinner Met Technicolor” from 6-9 p.m. at The Restoration Hotel.

The theme is focused on innovating classic foods and cultivating a more diverse representation of people in food media.

The event includes a six-course seated dinner, each dish presented by a different featured chef.

The 2023 Chow Chow Food + Culture Festival is slated for Sept. 7–10 and will consist of dinners, workshops, performances, tastings, talks and demonstrations that will be hosted across the city of Asheville and downtown at Pack Square Park.
The 2023 Chow Chow Food + Culture Festival is slated for Sept. 7–10 and will consist of dinners, workshops, performances, tastings, talks and demonstrations that will be hosted across the city of Asheville and downtown at Pack Square Park.

“The creative prompt for them is to present a creative dish that somehow reflects a classic style of a TV dinner and they’re playing with it in a fun, modern way,” Scheiderer said.

A Digestif Reception with Chopra and the chefs will follow.

The tickets are $250 per person.

Ticket sales and donations fund honorariums for culinary and beverage presenters.

Chow Chow Food and Culture Festival by the numbers

  • 13 total events

  • ~100 chefs

  • ~125 restaurants

  • ~125 beverage producers (alcoholic and nonalcoholic)

  • 6 food trucks

  • 10 market vendors

  • 3 free events

  • 5 pay-as-you-can events

  • ~1,600 attendees last year

  • ~2,200-2,800 attendees expected this year

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Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Chow Chow culinary festival: What to know about free, exclusive events