Quick Review of F&W paid Events

[PatriciaH]

So far we have done:

Sweet Sunday (10.7-Colette Peters)
OK. The buffet breakfast was the best part. Loved the eggs with cheese and lemon poppy seed mini muffins.) Colette seemed nervous and even said she does not really cook anymore. I guess her assistants do it. Pam Smith (F&W host) is so nice. She tried to make her comfortable. The first dessert the chocolate/coconut/bourbon cake was the best. The second course was two decorated sugar cookies-pretty but hard and not too tasty. The third was a carrot cake. Now I love carrot cake but this had a lemon/buttercream icing instead of cream cheese and it was not as good. The waiters forgot to bring our table the third cake and after 15 minutes a guy from our table had to go back and tell them! Not worth the $65.

South African Wine Event (10.16)
Like a mini PFTS but not nearly as good. Heavy on the wines and not much food. No desserts. LONG lines at the food stations since there were only a few. The cheese line was 1/2 hour+ all night. Some nice wines. Probably worth the $75 but we would not do again.

Scotch Paring (10.21)
The first Rose and Crown paring. The best paring we have done at F&W. Small-30 people. Sold out in 30 minutes they said. They put us in the back room-nicely set up. Bottled water, ice buckets and sparkling water on each table. We tried 4 very nice Scotches. The hostess from Johnny Walker was wonderful. Came around and spoke to us all. Scallop on prosciutto risotto, Salmon from Scotland flown in and a Valrohna chocolate and Stilton Cheese pave (awesome....)

 

[PrincessKitty1]

Thanks for the reviews! I hope more people chime in with their reviews of some of the paid events.

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your review, thanks for posting.

 

[suzimar57]

thanks for the reviews - seems the smaller events don't get mentioned much here, so it was nice to read about them!

 

[wilma-bride]

Thanks for the reviews - reckon I would have loved that Sweet Sunday event

 

[Jen50]

Thanks for the review. Sounds like you had a great time.

 

[davinakb]

Just adding to the OP reviews. We also did the South African Wine Adventure, and really enjoyed it, maybe the best deal of the festival. It was pretty much as expected, based upon Disney's description of the event––a lot of wine and some AKL food to go with it. The variety of wines was excellent, the food wonderful. We actually felt the lines were shorter and crowd management was good (though the cheese table was busy all night). Our only disappointments were: no desserts and no take home menu, ala PFTS.

Party for the Senses, 10/13: fun as always, upscale cocktail party. Already posted comments elsewhere. Thought the crowd control, lines and service were improved from years past. Good food, great variety of wines as always. Only negative: price. Yes it is worth it, but think the price should now include admission to the park (after 5 pm).

Food and Wine pairing, Coral Reef, 10/10/07: Great. Our second year in a row for this event. The wines from Allan Scott were paired with three dishes created/customized for the event: shrimp/tomato pasta; salmon; tropical dessert. Service was excellent, had a nice take home menu and lots of visits from the wine maker and the chefs.

Food and Wine pairing, Morocco, 10/16/07: Disappointing. First time doing a F&W tasting at this restaurant. To sum it up, kind of blah food off the regular menu, paired with average old world wines (many you have seen in the grocery store for years). My biggest problem with this event was the service. Had to ask for water at a food/wine pairing. Seriously. Water. And no take home menu, food/wine pairing not explained well. Just a so-so event, and we'll stick with Coral Reef, Le Cellier, etc. next year.

Also did many of the free tastings and cooking classes, a great event as always. Discovered many new wines to buy. We're sure to do another week next year. FWIW.

 

[oybolshoi]

Hi Patricia! My hubby and I were also at the Scotch Pairing at R&C and it was unbelievable - we were so impressed with the entire event that we're still talking about it two weeks later.

Yesterday we were at our favorite local liquor store pricing all the scotches we tried. Pricey, but oh-so-good!