Mid-Atlantic Food and Wine Festival underway in Delaware

The second annual Mid-Atlantic Food and Wine Festival is underway throughout the state of Delaware.

The festival village tent is up and running at Rodney Square in downtown Wilmington and additional receptions and dinners associated with the festival are scheduled at various locations throughout the weekend.

“It’s held throughout Delaware,” explained Jim Donahue, executive producer of the festival. “We were specific in not calling it the Wilmington or Delaware food and wine festival because our vision over the years is to attract tens of thousands of people to the mid-Atlantic region. We have events in Kent, Sussex and New Castle Counties so throughout the weekend we will be up and down the state of Delaware.”

At the festival tent in Wilmington, local, national and international vendors showed off their artisan food and beverages.

Representatives from vineyards in Napa Valley and orange growers in south Africa also handed out samples.

“Domestically, you get oranges in the winter so South African citrus allows the consumer to have citrus all year round,” explained Trish James, a promoter for Summer Citrus. “We want to show consumers that they can have oranges all times a year.”

Patrons also sampled beer from Twin Lakes Brewery of Greenville, Delaware as well as sausage and sandwiches from Maiale Deli in Wilmington.

“We just want to get our name out there,” said Maiale owner Billy Rawstrom. “We have sausage, salami, we do sandwiches, salads and sometimes we even throw in some bacon ice cream for fun. Hopefully people will come and see us.”

Dozens turned out Friday afternoon for a special cake decorating demonstration from Delaware native turned TV star Dana Herbert. Herbert, a local pastry chef from Bear, won TLC’s The Next Great Baker and has been featured on numerous food television shows.

On Sunday evening seven of the chef’s from the Fox TV show Master Chef will be hosting a discussion on cooking and what it’s like to work with Gordon Ramsay.

Tickets for many of the festival events are still available and can be purchased through the festival’s website.