Saturday, May 27,2017.
The End Of NOW&FE For This Year, Amid Clowns.
Having reported and written at length about the New Orleans Wine And Food Experience since it first began twenty-five years ago, my mind is clouded by the changes that have taken place. The great improvements rank a shade or two ahead of the declines, resulting in a lot of pleasure had, benefits to a number of charities given, and enough interest in the programs that NOW&FE has gone far ahead of its predecessors. For many years, a number of organizations launched summertime food events. NOW&FE is the only one that succeeded.
All that said, this was a downer year for NOW&FE. During the past couple of years, the program was condensed in its core events. What had been a casual, fun evening full of lots of variety has been allowed to balloon into an underserved jam with little of interest going on. For years, friends told me that there are too many people at the Royal Street Stroll. Now these friends don't even show up.
Today was the Grand Tasting, historically the central event of NOW&FE. It once required two stagings in order to accommodate all the winemakers, appetizer-seekers, chefs and wine drinkers who were part of the evening. Now it's down to just one session, populated by far too many people in an uncomfortable venue. I knew that there would be a problem when Mary Ann brought three items for me to try as I inched forward through all the people who wanted to say hello to me. (I am not complaining, but this is my progress through parties like this.) It took five minutes for me to find a trash can, and that one was piled too high to accept any additions. It would be all night that this problem impeded my attempts to taste more food and wine.
Meanwhile people kept coming over, most of them less than impressed. The best that could be said was that a goodly number of chefs still managed to put out food worth trying. But for the most part Topic A was how difficult it was to move in the direction of a food table, a wine table, or a trash can.
Meanwhile, a live cooking demonstration went on at a too-well-miked stage. Main effect: making it hard to hear anything else in the room. After awhile, a lot of of people moved outside to Mardi Gras World's big dock on the Mississippi River. Good party space, cooled reasonably well by the river breezes. Elsewhere, it was warm to sweltering. That was particularly true of the Mardi Gras World display of floats and their clowns and kings. It was a roaster.
For the past few years, the Grand Tastings were grand indeed. One could move, find dishes as yet unsampled, hear the comments of the wine people, talk to friends, and get caught in lines only occasionally. Tonight's running was exasperating and overloaded with people. This was not the event that became successful, famous, and delectable.
The good news is that NOW&FE has always bounced back from problems. Even from Hurricane Katrina, which required a pared-back but excellent, spirited NOW&FE. It can be done, and I sincerely hope it is.
The Marys went to the closing event in NOW&FE 2017, the Big Gateau competition. My daughter Mary Leigh is an excellent baker in her own right, and they enjoyed the event, even though it was a little odd. The burlesque dancers, for example. What did that have to do with baking?
Two ideas they need to explore: giving the restaurants a piece of the action. And run a second event in September, when the restaurants need the most help, and there's not much else going on. This has been an enormously successful strategy for the French Quarter Festival, among others.
But, really, what do I know?
