Food Fighters Hash It Out at Kendall-Jackson Wine Center

Food Fighters Hash It Out at Kendall-Jackson Wine Center

Bravo Channel's 'Top Chef Season Five' winner competes at Tomato Festival's Chef Challenge

SANTA ROSA, Calif., Aug. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Among the many attractions of the 13th Annual Kendall-Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival on September 12 is a culinary showdown. Competitors from the Bravo Channel's "Top Chef Season Five" series--including the champion--will compete in the festival's "Chef Challenge."

Chef Hosea Rosenberg, winner of Bravo's Top Chef Season Five will be matched against Chef Jamie Lauren, who also competed in the televised contest. The winner of that bracket will vie in the finals against the winner of the second bracket. The second bracket pits last year's defending champion, Justin Wangler, executive chef at Kendall-Jackson Wines, against a soon-to-be-named competitor.

Rosenberg is executive chef at Jax Fish House in Boulder, Colorado. He was named Best Chef at the Denver International Wine Festival (2006, 2007) and is the seven-time, undefeated winner of the Flatiron Chef Competition.

"I'm looking forward to the opportunity to cook against Hosea again," said Lauren, who, as executive chef, received both local and national praise for elevating the cuisine of San Francisco's Absinthe Brasserie. Lauren was named Restaurant Hospitality's "Rising Star Chef 2008" and selected as the sole Bay Area "Cheftestant" on season five of Bravo's award-winning show which aired in 2009.

Visitors to the Tomato Festival, which runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., will enjoy wine and garden seminars, garden tours, a tomato growing contest, live entertainment, and delicious gourmet food from the North Bay's top chefs, all paired with exceptional Kendall-Jackson wines.

The Kendall-Jackson Wine Center, located at 5007 Fulton Road in Santa Rosa, features a 2-1/2-acre sensory garden with plantings that mimic the tastes of wines and a full culinary garden from which more than 175 varieties of heirloom tomatoes in every size, shape and color imaginable will be picked fresh and sampled from the center's own culinary garden.

Tickets for the perennial sell-out are $65 and can be purchased at the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center at 800.769.3649. Tickets can also be purchased at the Kendall-Jackson Tasting Room in Healdsburg at 337 Healdsburg Avenue or at www.kj.com/events.

The Kendall Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival is a charitable event supporting the School Garden Network of Sonoma County.

Source: Jackson Family Wines

CONTACT: Teresa Reiss, Public Relations Coordinator of Jackson Family
Wines, +1-707-525-6231, pr@jacksonfamilywines.com

Web Site: http://www.kj.com/

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