World Food Championships

great

I was really disappointed in this event. I bought the so-​called V.I.F. (Very Important Foodie) pass for $ 275 for myself and a friend because it said it covered all but one major event. Upon arrival, none of the Information staff (volunteers) knew anything about it. I had also signed up to judge and was sent to The D Hotel, 12^th Floor WFC Command Center. No one there knew anything about scanning my receipt in order to receive my passes. I expected at a minimum to be given an itinerary of events, times and places. Nope. Those were only provided to official staff.
The opening reception was ridiculous. It was held on the rooftop of the DLV and there were probably close to 1000 people there. There were lines to get to the bar for the «free» but awful wine, 8 oz beer in a plastic cup cost $ 7, mixed drinks were more. The servers were mobbed as they came into the crowd so if you weren’t poised to strike as they came out, no food for you. I was able to snag a chicken stick (no satay sauce), a meat/​mushroom puff, a mini-​eggroll and a cocktail pig in a blanket. Wow! I did mention that this the World Food Championships we’re at, right?
I was told that the only judges meeting would be just before my event. I asked exactly where and when my judging event was and was told to report to the judges tent an hour ahead of time. When I did, I was told to come back an hour later. Coming back at that time, I damn near missed my event. The judging itself was fun, albeit too brief. All the food that’s prepared for the judges and is not eaten is thrown away. Can’t share with anybody or bring back to your room or anything.
I was asked to judge a second event, the Chili Cook-​Off. Unfortunately, when I arrived to do so, they were running way behind (like 2 hours), so it was going to conflict with the judging class I had signed up for and that was part of my $ 275. So off to class I went. In general, it was provided to certify judges in the E.A.T. methodology that WFC uses. It’s a good system, fair to contestants, and if adopted by other culinary challenges could turn out to be like the tasting rules for Kansas City BBQ cook-​offs. The class however should have been given BEFORE anyone judged anything and at a time when it didn’t conflict with tasting events.
There were some celebrity chef show-​downs that were kind of fun to watch, and the Bourbon, Banjos and BBQ event had some great BBQ, but again, was very poorly done. Anyone could pay $ 5 and get the same exact thing that my $ 275 pass entitled me to: 5 tasting chips and a poker chip to vote on my fave. Really?
Did I mention that the last 2 days are celebrity judged only? Yup. When it gets down to the top 10 in each category and the total top 10, only celebrity judges make the cut. That basically means that the last 2 full days of the event are a waste of time for the general public.
In general, this event could be truly great, but is instead pretty ho-​hum except for the contestants and celebrities. Even the volunteers got more out of it than I did, a paying customer. At least the volunteers had a schedule and itinerary they could refer to, they got to try a lot of food and they had something to do all the time. If I go again I will certainly NOT buy the pass.

This will be the last year this event will be held in Las Vegas:(I was fortunate enough to enjoy and be a food judge for all 3 years. It had moved from Ballys to Downtown Las Vegas. There was always plenty to do, see and sample. There were vendors around every turn giving out samples and swag. Demonstrations and chefs cooking could be watched through out the days.
I agree with a fellow Unilocaler that the Bourbon, BBQ, and Banjos event was poorly run (not suprised). Line to get in went horribly slow. They ran out of the bourbon they were giving samples of and alot of the BBQ booths ran out of ribs before the event was over. Favorites were The Shed and Lucky 13! There were no tables or chairs to eat your ribs, who was in charge of this?! On top of everything else there was 1 security guard that kept yelling at people even though they weren’t doing anything wrong, preaching to them about crossing the street correctly, etc. We just wanna eat and drink! Please leave us alone!
Over all its always a good time. It will be in Florida next year:(

I returned to the World Food Championships in downtown Las Vegas, this time with Diane in tow. At the 3^rd Street Stage we saw a mouthwatering demonstration by Heather Walker on behalf of The Happy Egg Co. of how to make a Lemon Praline Genoise, the Lemon Curd of which she reported had some of its origins dating back as far as the reign of France’s Louis XIV. When I heard this I could just picture the monarch on his throne gaining more weight from indulging in a single slice of this carb – , cholesterol-​, and sugar-​laden cake. When done it held in its gooey goodness 6 sticks of butter, 20 eggs, and who knows how many cups of sugar? Sounds more like a food bomb! But, when completed, with its lovely White Buttercream Frosting and pool of bright yellow Lemon Curd mounted on top, the dazzling dessert looked like a truly luxurious treat. Alas, spectators did not get an opportunity to taste this sweet confection. But for just watching the event we did receive nice-​looking and useful spatulas, and plush chickens for our two granddaughters, courtesy of The Happy Egg Co.
We also sampled a cooked pork belly from another demonstration, and walked to the DLV Center where we unfortunately saw little of interest. We probably arrived at a lull in the action. Had we been hungry at the time we could have availed ourselves of the tempting-​sounding offerings of Baby’s Badass Burgers Food Truck.
But, for me, the Kenmore Kitchen Coliseum was the most happening place. Here we watched – more like smelled – much of the culinary action occurring during the Preliminary Round of the World Seafood Championship. The scent of chowders mixed in the air with the briny freshness of crab legs being spread like spokes on the edges of a Seafood Salad, while lovely orange slabs of salmon could be observed being cut with chef’s knives prior to grilling. And gas grills were present in abundance – all Bull outdoor grills, like the one we have in our California home, which I consider to be one of the best purchases we ever made. We didn’t get to sample any seafood either, sad to say. But when we went directly from Fremont
Street to the D Grill for dinner, we were certainly ready to dine.
Unfortunately, after a multi-​year Vegas run, the World Food Championships is moving on to Florida next year. But hopefully this culinary competition will return to Sin City soon. And when it does, I will definitely be back to watch some of it, and smell more fresh food cooking on grills!

Review for Bourbon, BBQ & Banjos, on ¹¹⁄₁₄ at DLVEC, 200 S. Third Street
TL;DR — The food was delicious but the event is poorly run and needs to work out some serious kinks.
Pros:
— The food was grrrreat (ribs from Atlanta FTW)
— The live music was pleasant
— There were tons of (empty!) bathrooms
Cons:
— The check-​in process. The tickets say 6−8p, but you spend about 20 – 30 minutes trying to get in the gate. They didn’t use scanners and they let the line roll around the block with very little security and direction. Once we get to the front, they don’t look at the tickets, just toss them to the side and go into how to vote for People’s Choice, which is causing the huge backup in the line. Here’s an idea — Team One: SCAN THE BARCODES and get the people in the gate; Team Two: hand out the token and a quarter sheet that says «put this in the voting box of your favorite ribs» or tell people just that; Team Three: guest info booth inside the event for people who require additional support.
— Bait and switch: nowhere did we read that you get only 5 selections. With 40+ BBQ teams out there that’s ridiculous. Make the portions smaller and let people try more. It immediately skews the voting (feeling bad for the SC and GA folks in the back corner) and it’s just shady. Spell it out EVERYWHERE and let guests know what to expect.
— Bait and switch 2: they talk about tasting and pairing bourbon, which is almost a lie. You get two tastings (i.e., shots), nothing is «paired», and they ran out almost immediately. Utter nonsense. Maybe try inviting breweries next year? Beer and BBQ go well together, no? Or at least try stocking the bars correctly.
— The bars were understaffed and lines were long; felt terrible for the bartenders and annoyed for all the guests.
— Organization: what a waste of space. Move those teams closer to the stage and create an energy around there! The music was almost an afterthought, which was so sad. SET UP SOME TALL PUB TABLES near the stage if nothing else. Create a social atmosphere… the spaced out floor plan just took away the fun that this should’ve been.
— Provide napkin and wet-​nap stations. It’s ribs, you guys… think about your guests. Get a sponsor for it and set it up.
— Where were all the people? We love food and travel often, we only stumbled upon this while doing research for our trip to Vegas. It’s so sad that the turnout was so small. Market this thing and get people out to enjoy!
— Lastly, $ 3 for the tiniest bottle of water *in life* was offensive, just saying.
All in all, this was our least favorite food festival/​event from an execution standpoint, but hot damn if the food wasn’t awesome. This could be epic if they figured out how to run the thing. :-/​Fingers crossed!

Disclaimer: I attended the World Food Championship (WFC) as a judge and media member. I also won free admission to the Burger Extravaganza event, courtesy of Unilocal.
When I first heard about the inaugural WFC, I was immediately intrigued. It’s a food competition featuring the best of the best. Categories like chili, burgers, sandwiches, and BBQ are represented. It’s all American food, so it doesn’t exactly represent the «world.» Adam Richman was the perfect host for this event, as everyone knows him from Man vs. Food.
I had a great time judging food. For categories like sandwiches and burgers, the competition went through several rounds of judging. The finalists would then have their food judged by a panel of celebrities and chefs, most notably Adam Richman. As for the BBQ, I thought the samples I had were very good — all of the BBQ teams are previous grand champions, so they brought their game.
From my point of view, I thought that the event was reasonably organized. Something of this size with so many people and logistics involved, I’m sure this took a lot of work to set up. There were a lot of booths from sponsors set up at the front of Bally’s right by the Strip, and that attracted the majority of the crowd. The stage up front was perfect to show off demos, music, and announcements. The sandwich and burger competitions were also held at the front of the hotel.
However, the energy at the back of the Bally’s hotel was dead. It was the area for the BBQ and chili competition. Maybe because it covered so much ground, but most of the time it seemed really quiet. If I was a casual foodie or passer-​by, I wouldn’t have known about the area, so they probably could’ve done a better job with putting up signs. Many of the eating and VIP experiences were very expensive — something that the casual foodie would probably not fork over the money.
Personally, I had a great time. At the Burger Extravaganza, I got to sample multiple gourmet burgers (slider sized), along with drinks and dessert. I even got to chat with Adam for a few minutes. He’s just a normal, cool guy who loves his food and BBQ. Safe to say, his shows on Travel Channel has skyrocketed him to celebrity status. It remains to be seen if they will organize this event next year. If they do, you know where I’ll be!