Festival Diaries: Looking Back, From Back of House

by Melody Kettle


An internal documentation, recitation, regurgitation, and evaluation of the festival - unlike any other - including the good, the bad, the paranoid, and the exhausted.  It may be worth a write, and, possibly, worth your read.  The following raw and rough excerpts are from my notebook, my iCal and a small journal I keep which lend a back of house view - of the Montclair Food & Wine Festival.  

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Inside The Third Annual New Jersey Food and Wine Festival

by Melody Kettle in , , ,


Francesco Palmieri, The Orange Squirrel 

Last night, over 1000 people attended the  Grand Tasting at the New Jersey Food and Wine Festival. 

Some of the finest chefs from New Jersey and New York were in attendance serving up creative fare, while chatting it up with guests, sipping wines and sampling each other's dishes.

The playful, artistic, and extraordinarily talented chef, oh-so-cool, owner of The Orange Squirrel, Francesco Palmieri, riffed on a NJ favorite, creating a shooter of Bufala Mozzarella with Marinara foam. 

James Laird, of Seranade served over 800 plates of supremely executed Veal Carpaccio with Potato Gnocchi. 

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