Event Producer, Valle Food and Wine Festival in Valle de Guadalupe Mexico.
Involved in the first and second annual festival and 2017 and 2018, and upcoming third year in October 2019.
Coordinated and created chef itineraries for nationwide chefs and festival attendees including Nancy Silverton, Wolfgang Puck, Tim Hollingsworth, Brian Malarkey, Rick Bayless, Nancy Oakes and Phil Rosenthal.
During festival, responsible for chef station layout, setup and overall operations, coordinating between visiting chefs and Finca Altozano kitchen staff, ensuring delivery of all requested materials and coordinating overall operations.
The Valle Food & Wine Festival was founded in 2017 by chefs Javier Plascencia and Nancy Silverton and food writer Carolina (Carolynn) Carreño. The festival takes place in the fast-growing wine and travel region, Valle de Guadalupe, 65 miles south of the US/Mexico border, near Ensenada. After just two years, the Valle Food & Wine Festival has quickly become the festival in a region. It is unique in drawing a lineup of over 40 top chefs from Mexico City to New York City to promote and celebrate the bounty of the region and the cuisine and wines of Baja California, which are now being recognized world-wide. Surrounded by vineyards and mountains, chefs cook under the sun and stars over open fires, and in barrel smokers and Caja Chinas, in the rustic-chic style of the region. In addition to a star-studded line-up of chefs from both sides of the border, the festival features some of the best local wineries, craft breweries, live music and dancing, artisan vendors, live painting, tastings, curated talks, and more.
Valle de Guadalupe, located 65 miles south of the border and 15 miles northeast of Ensenada, has become the “it” travel and wine tasting destination for millennials to baby boomers. Nestled in a peaceful valley surrounded by stunning, arid mountain ranges, this wine region, often compared to the Napa Valley of days gone by, has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Vogue, Travel & Leisure, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator, Food & Wine, Sunset, among over 200 publications. In 2019, Conde Nast Traveler called the region “the next great food scene.” And Wine Spectator says it is “one of the last untapped great wine regions left in the world.” The Valle de Guadalupe is a uniquely magical place. If you’ve been here, you know that magic. If you haven’t, we can’t wait for you to experience it for yourself at the Valle Food & Wine Festival.