Puerto Vallarta festival
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Puerto Vallarta International Gourmet Festival (The Festival Gourmet International Vallarta) is an annual culinary festival held in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, every November since 1995. There were 35,000 visitors to the festival in 2006[citation needed].
Every year the Festival invites leading culinary professionals from all over the world to cook and to demonstrate their unique cuisines. The Festival is supported by local world class restaurants. During the Festival, high profile international and local food and beverage professionals run many events around town, with each of the participating restaurants hosting a guest master chief and creating its own unique events to complement its food offerings.
Popular events during the festival include the Sunday Festival Gourmet Brunch, Wine Tasting, and Cheeses of the World. There are also Chef's Table and Winemakers' dinners hosted by restaurants. The traditional Gala Dinner, called The Spirit of Mexico, concludes the Festival.
[edit] History of the Festival
The festival was the idea of Thierry Blouet of Cafe des Artistes, Heinz Reize of Hotel Krystal and Sivan Muller of Nestle[citation needed] . They launched the first Puerto Vallarta Festival in 1995 (November 18-26). Six five-star hotels, six restaurants and twelve invited chefs participated in that festival[citation needed] . During the last eleven years of the festival, about two hundred featured chefs have participated in the event.
In 2003, the honored guest of the festival was Anton Mossimann, who received an appointment by Queen Elizabeth II as an "Officer of the British Empire" and is a twice winner of the gold medal at the world level and the proprietor of Club Mossimann in both London and Switzerland. Gerard Dupont, a president of Academie Culinaire de France, comes every year to teach classes and share his secrets with both colleagues and the public.
