Hawaii Food & Wine Festival

Soo went to MW. Saw the ad for the hukilau food and wine festival. I went ahead and bought the tickets online. Was told I would get a email confirmation. Did not receive such confirmation. Thought it would be okay to just go there to my surprise they would not honor our ticket if we did not show it. Did not receive ticket in email but the foodandwinefestival charged my credit card for 2 tickets at $ 400. We waited outside while all the people started pouring in. (Mind you there is a time constraint on getting the dishes) an hour after the event started we decided it was a total loss so we left. (Event was 2 hours). Tried to contact anyone that could help me. I looked around on the website and cant find anyone to help me with the issue. All I kept getting was other ways to buy more tickets at other events. Tried calling a few contact number they listed. Couldn’t talk to anyone, spent the whole weekend calling around and I am still getting voicemails and runarounds. Still didn’t get to a single person. No customer service. No help. No answers. I feel like I’ve just been shammed. What was supposed to be a anniversary outing turned out to be a complete nightmare to say the least. Ruined Friday, hungry stomachs, and $ 400 to the wind. The website clearly states there is no refund or exchanges what so ever. I am not sure how I can go about trying to at least get my money back. Beware! When u buy tickets to the food and wine festival! No customer support or service. Might get screwed!

Unlimited Opus and Joe Phelps Insignia? Sign me up!
That’s pretty much all it took to convince me.
However upon post even reflection, the highlights were truly good food and meeting a bevy of top chefs (who were all quite friendly and welcomed pictures for us food groupies).
I haven’t been a fan of Mavro since my first dinner there but his potato pancake dish convinced me to give it another try. Alan Wong’s Lobster Ramen, well, what’s not to like? Nobu’s ceviche with tequila refill bordered on hazardous when coupled with unlimited wine (ceviche was great!). Gary Matsumoto from the convention center catering was there (famous from his previous post as the VERY VERY good manager at Alan Wong’s Pineapple Room). Halekulani had ridiculously boutique chocolate which you would assume would cost $ 20 a serving if purchased from Niemann. Ming Tsai was there as were Nobu and Hubert Keller (from Fleur De Lys and Fleur). Momofuku milk bar too.
Needless to say, we were quite satisfied by the huge selection of exceptionally high quality food.
And on top of that, we lined up at least 20 times in the Opus and Insignia lines.

Aside from the lines we had a great time. We left full happy and buzzed. Loved the Battle of the Brunch.

I was fortunate that my boss asked a couple of co-​workers and I to attend the Sunday event of the 2^nd annual 2012 Food & Wine Festival at Ko’olina/Ihilani Spa, JW Marriott Hotel & Resorts/​Aulani, A Disney Resort! Yes, boss asked us to go eat, drink and be merry! I couldn’t be more estatic.
«Yes, boss! It would be my PLEASURE to go and support our client at this food and wine festival!» =)
Upon arrival, our general admission ticket (worth $ 200) got us in at 6pm, an hour after the VIP ticket holders (worth $ 500) were allowed in at 5pm. We all arrived early in hopes to get in the line early and be admitted in sooner, rather than later. When we finally were admitted in, we were asked if we wanted an Aulani large plastic bag to put our shoes in.
«WHAT?» I thought to myself.
«Yes, if you would like a bag. You’ll be walking on the sand.»
«HOLY HELL!!! AWESOME!!! Yes, I would love a bag so that I can go barefoot pancing around eating and drinking on the beach!!»
That was the beginning of the most wonderful evening this year. Approximately 13 booths were present that night with wonderful dishes of exotic and just steller, spectacular and out-​of-​this world, mind-​blowing food!!! I had lobster, steak, ahi, pork… all were so yummmyyyyyyy!
BONUS, BONUS, BONUS — CUPCAKE WARS! I’m not really sure what this means, but I was told that this is something special! So special that there was a cupcake booth that looked like a tree with each angle filled with the best cupcakes I’ve ever tasted in my life! I don’t even like cupcakes!
On this night, we had the pleasure of being served dishes created by top executive chefs including:
+ Patrick Callarec — Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa
+ Celestino Drago — Drago Restaurant, LA
+ Patrick Fahy — Sixteen, Trump Hotel & Tower, Chicago
+ Dean Fearing — Fearing’s, Dallas
+ Scott Higa — JW Marriottt Ihilani Resort & Spa
+ Mourad Lahlou — Aziza, SF
+ Jacqueline Lau — Roy’s Restaurants
+ Raphael Lunetta — JiRaffe Restaurant, Santa Monica
+ George Mavrothalassitis — Chef Mavro Restaurant
+ Seamus Mullen — Tertulia, NY
+ Perfecto Rocher — Laxy Ox Canteen, LA
+ Susan Spicer — Bayona, Mondo, New Orleans
+ Andrew Sutton — NAPA ROSE, Disney’s Grand CA Hotel & Spa
+ Mercel Vigneron — Top Chef Bravo, Marcels Quantum Kitchen TV, LA
Of course, the festival was founded by two incredible chefs: Alan Wong’s (of Alan Wong’s restaurants) and Roy Yamaguchi (of Roy’s restaurants), so at the end of the night, they had to make a «thank you speech» on stage. At least for this event, Roy did. But as an added bonus, all the chefs were introduced and presented on stage towards the end of the evening.
To top it all off, as if we didn’t already have an amazing evening… at approximately 15 minutes before the end of the event, the fireworks start shooting from the adjacent small islands off of the lagoon (about ½ mile away). Yes, OUR OWN PRIVATE FIREWORKS SHOW!
It was steller, spectacular, awesome, amazing, mind-​blowing!
This was the last and the most casual of all the festival events, which ran over the course of four days. It was on the beach and sand where most people were barefoot and as a result, most people were just filled with sheer joy and happiness! I was not fortunate enough to attend all the events. But from what I read, each day has a signature event (the main event) with at least one other side event. Also, although all the events were sold out this year, the event that I attended this night did not seem at all too crowded. There was enough in attendance where I knew they were profiting but not so overcrowded where I could not get any food or drinks. I would say that this event was very, very, very well planned and executed.
I hope my boss asks me to go again next year. My answer’s already, YES! =)