Top Chefs attend Gilroy Garlic Festival
Want to meet Fabio Viviani? He's at the Gilroy Garlic Festival!
If you want to attend the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, Calif., it’ll cost you $12 per day. However, big fan’s of former flamboyant Top Chef contestant Fabio Viviani would probably pay a lot more than that for a chance to meet the spicy Italian.
Jamie Lauren, who competed against Fabio in Top Chef Season 5, will also be at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Top Chef Season 4 contestant Ryan Scott, who drew attention with his looks and charm as well as his cooking, will also be at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.
For the love of garlic
Of course, most people don’t attend the Gilroy Garlic Festival because they want to meet celebrity chefs. The festival has been drawing garlic lovers for more than 30 years. This year marks the 31st annual Gilroy Garlic Festival.
People who spend the rest of their cash til payday on garlic need not feel too guilty. The Gilroy Garlic Festival is actually a fundraiser that has raised more than $7 million for various charities since its inception.
Festival events
The Gilroy Garlic Festival runs through Sunday and is held at Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy. Last year more than 100,000 people attended the festival, which is one of the largest food festivals in the U.S. It sounds like tomorrow morning will be a particularly exciting day at the Gilroy Garlic Festival:
Don’t miss the Great Gilroy Garlic Cook-Off, featuring eight contestants from around the country. That gets started at 10 a.m. Saturday, writes Sal Pizzaro from the Mercury News.
Apparently this cook-off is a pretty big deal, because it will be streamed live at the festival’s web site, gilroygarlicfestival.com. Fabio himself will host the Great Gilroy Garlic Cook-Off. Jamie Lauren and Ryan Scott will compete.
Beyond the clove
Of course, like most food festivals, the Gilroy Garlic Festival will feature musical performances as well. Jonathan Singleton and Meagan Mullins will play tomorrow afternoon.
Of course, Miss Gilroy Garlic 2009, Jessica Brewka, will be an honored guest at the festival. The cookbook created to commemorate the 30th Gilroy Garlic Festival last year, “Any Bozzo Can Cook,” will be for sale as well. And no, that’s not a mispelling in the title. One of the authors of the cookbook is Sam Bozzo.
Bonus Bozzos
The second printing of “Any Bozzo Can Cook” has 16 new recipes. The first edition had 103, so $18 isn’t bad — especially when you consider that the money goes to charity. The two authors of the book, the other being Gene Sakahara, go by the name SakaBozzo together, and they’re known as “festival legends.” The Gilroy Garlic Festival web site says:
Festival mainstays SakaBozzo will participate in the event’s inaugural Master Chef Challenge July 24. Created in memory of Val Filice, festival co-founder and Gourmet Alley master chef, the Friday competition will feature Gourmet Alley representatives in a cooking skirmish with a mystery Bay Area professional chef. SakaBozzo will also host cooking demonstrations on the Gourmet Alley Demonstration Stage and appear at book-signings in the Garlic Mercantiles.
SakaBozzo – “twins separated at birth,” as Garlic Festival lore has it – are Gilroy residents who have participated in the festival since its inception.
