This New Food and Wine Festival Will Celebrate Some Outstanding Female Chefs

Attention foodies and oenophiles, a new culinary festival in the Midwest is launching this fall, shining a spotlight on some pretty spectacular female chefs.

Cork & Fork will be held from September 30 to October 2 at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan. Over the three days, guests will have the chance to explore the property—which celebrates its 136^th season this year and is registered as a National Historic Landmark—and indulge in some food made by a few of the most exciting names in the culinary world.

The signature event will be Saturday evening’s reception and “pink tie” six-course dinner with wine pairings, but a range of other festivities are planned throughout the weekend, from a welcome reception on Friday night to cooking events, a wine tasting, Sunday brunch and a panel discussion with the chefs.

And those chefs are a highly acclaimed bunch. The lineup includes Jamie Malone of Paris Dining Club in Minneapolis (one of Robb Report’s former Best Young Chefs); Sarah Welch from Marrow and Mink in Detroit; Jennifer Hill Booker from Bauhaus Biergarten in Atlanta; Carrie Nahabedian from Brindille and Kostali in Chicago; Joy Crump from Foode and Mercantile in Fredericksburg, Virginia; and Ariana Quant from Uchi, Uchiko and Uchiba in Austin. The Grand Hotel’s master sommelier Elizabeth Schweitzer will also be helping out (she was only the eighth female master sommelier in the world), and former Food and Wine editor in chief Dana Cowin will emcee the event.

The James Beard Foundation is partnering with Cork & Fork, and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen organization, a breast-cancer advocacy and research group for patients and families. Rates, which are inclusive of event programming and accommodations, start at $1,269 a night.