Austin Food & Wine Festival 2014

As many of you are aware, I geek out over food. It's somewhat annoying to be such a food geek in a town like Austin, because there are many people always trying to out-geek you on all things culinary. Kind of like how people who are really into obscure bands try to show you up with their music knowledge, and look down on you if you enjoy certain mainstream bands? That also exists in the world of food.

I don't flaunt my food geekery or knowledge of the subject. I don't challenge people when they bring up certain foods, so I can see if I know more than them. I just adore everything about nourishing myself. I take cooking classes because I honestly think they are fun. I bake and share my creations with friends and coworkers because I find it relaxing to create something spectacular from a few random ingredients, and if I ate all of it myself, I'd be 300lbs. I take pictures of dinners I make because I truly think they are, at times, a work of art and I want to be able to look back at that photo and remember that "oooooooo" feeling I got when I ate it. I watch shows revolving around food because I find them terrifically interesting - yes, even after nearly 20 years of cooking shows. Simply put, I love food.

Because of my love for food, I have always, always wanted to go to the Austin Food & Wine Festival.

If you haven't heard of this, it's a 3-day festival put on by FOOD & WINE magazine, chock full of demonstrations and tastings with world renowned chefs, as well as Texas' most celebrated chefs and restaurateurs. When this thing was born three years ago, I read about it and could barely get to my computer fast enough to buy tickets. In my naiveté regarding this sort of shin-dig, I fully expected to hop on, click a few buttons, spend a little money, and go revel in all things food. My dreams were quickly shot down when I saw the exorbitant price tags on the two options of passes, and my heart broke a little. I knew I would never be able to afford, let alone justify spending either $250 or $850 to enter the fest. (And that was per person - meaning $500 or $1,700 if I were to drag my husband along.) My would-be plans instantly morphed into just a fantasy, and I closed out the site kind of bummed out, but not before having signed myself up for their festival email notifications. I'm a glutton for punishment, what can I say.

Fast forward two years of salivating later, and I got an email notification about this year's festival and dates in January or February. I was perusing the site, reading through all the chefs that would be in attendance this year with copious amounts of drool dripping down my chin, when I saw a tiny link that asked something about being interested in volunteering. I instantly got a chill. Really? You could just be a volunteer at this thing, simply by clicking this link? I hastily clicked the little magical link and was taken to a tedious application that would end up taking me a good 30 minutes to complete. Was this a volunteer sign-up, or a job application? After filling it out, I hit "send" and immediately got an automated response telling me that they get far more applications than they have spots to fill, so please keep an eye out for an email from them around late March. If I hadn't heard from them by the first week of April, that means I wasn't chosen. Well, pffffffft - I figured I would never hear another thing about this again, and I had just used up 30 minutes of my life I would never get back.

That is, until March 25.

Exactly one month after I submitted my application into the black hole of the internet, I was thrilled to get a response from them, welcoming me to this year's festival, and congratulating me for being chosen to volunteer. ME?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?! I squealed with glee so loudly upon reading that, my boss came down the hall to see what I was so excited about and squeal alongside me. I am thrilled to report that I have been chosen to work at "Chef Demo A", whatever that means, and I get to be there for the entire festival. Being chosen as a volunteer also gets you admission to the festival in its entirety, so when you're not working your shift, you are encouraged to walk around, taste things, watch demos, soak it all in ... my goodness. To say I'm excited might be the understatement of the century.

What does all this mean? Is there a lesson in it? Patience is a virtue. Or maybe good things come to those who wait. Hell, I don't really care whether there's a lesson in it at all, to be honest. I'm just grateful and crazy excited. I wouldn't walk across the street to meet 99% of the celebrities out there, but I would definitely walk across Butler Park to meet a few chefs.

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