This year’s Devour Culinary Classic to feature two special themed areas: Heritage Foods of Arizona and Taste Tempe
The 16th annual Devour Culinary Classic on Feb. 24-25 will feature two special themed areas: Heritage Foods of Arizona and Taste Tempe, in addition to live music and painting.
Tickets are sold out but media may request credentials by this Friday Feb. 16 to cover the event at Desert Botanical Garden.
Heritage Foods of Arizona will be helmed by the Gastronomic Union of Tucson, the eclectic cooperative of Arizona chefs dedicated to using heirloom ingredients native to Arizona and sourced locally. Other chefs plan to highlight Arizona-inspired dishes as well, including:
Aioli Gourmet Burgers: The G.O.A.T slider with custom blend beef, whipped goat cheese, peach habanero thyme chutney, arugula, sumac aioli and brioche bun
Carcara: Ancho chile-agave pork belly, heirloom pickled pepper pico, avocado crema, root vegetable house-made tortillas
Chilte: Wood-fired Duroc pork tomahawk, huitlacoche pozole sauce, brown butted hominy, tostada
Dahl Restaurants: Al pastor empanada with pineapple chimichurri
Lucero: Braised short rib croquettes, pickled fresno pepper, chimichurri aioli, micro cilantro
Rough Rider: Black garlic marinated pork belly, pickled apple, chicharrones, chives
SanTan Brewing Co.: Mini chipotle bacon cheeseburgers and bourbon brisket pot pies with Moon River Beef
Tia Carmen: Tuna tostada, guacamole, smoked chile oil, pickled onion, dill, serrano chile
WILD Arizona Cuisine: Arizona Wagyu beef tataki
The Taste Tempe area will celebrate the diverse food and drink culture represented in the city including:
AZ Distilling Co.
Café Lalibela Ethiopian Cuisine
Caffe Boa
Four Peaks Brewing Co.
KettleHeroes Artisan Popcorn
Lucero Rooftop Restaurant + Bar
Shop Beer Co. and
The Peppermill
In addition, Devour will welcome an international array of flavors such as:
Kembara: Crab fried rice, nasi goreng ketam, lump crab, oyster sauce, sugar snap peas, curry leaf
Latha Restaurant and Bar: Shrimp Moqueca
Lom Wong: Maw Haw, a traditional Thai hors d'oeuvre served in the royal courts of Thailand
Taza Bistro: Koshari, a vegan Egyptian national dish with cumin and onion spiced lentils, ditalini pasta, olive oil rice, topped with house spicy garlic tomato sauce and caramelized onions
And five illustrious judges will crown the top chefs and dishes:
South Carolina-based writer, culinary instructor and ICS World Chili Cookoff judge
Stephanie Burnette is a food and travel writer in the Carolinas and covers the southeast. She writes for Eater, Thrillist, Town, atHome, SC Department of Agriculture, as well as for multiple visitors guides each year. Her background includes culinary instruction at The John C. Campbell Folk School and 400+ recipes for Gannett. She is the author of the upcoming 100 Things to Do in Greenville Before You Die, by Reedy Press. She's judged the ICS World Chili Cookoff and the Great American Burger Contest but says her two teenagers are the best critics she knows.
Brooke Jackson-Glidden is the editor of Eater Portland. She writes about the Portland food and beverage industry, including the labor movement, restaurant openings and closings, culinary trends, and identity politics within the kitchen. In 2023, she won the Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award at the James Beard Media Awards for her work at Eater Portland. She is also an occasional contributor to Eater.com, exploring the role of food in film and television. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe, USA Today, and the Arizona Republic, covering everything from agriculture and wine to technology and startups. She is a connoisseur of sourdough pizza and half-sour pickles.
New York City–based chef, writer and three-time James Beard Foundation Award finalist.
Much of her pastry work explores the relationship between baking and social justice, including ongoing collaborations with seminal New York City institutions like Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, God’s Love We Deliver, the Brigid Alliance, and Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, for whom she produced a massive city-wide bake sale, raising more than $150,000 between 2017 and 2019.
Currently, Pickowicz runs the pastry pop-up called Never Ending Taste, which has been held at NYC’s Superiority Burger, Brooklyn’s the Four Horsemen, the American-Vietnamese bakery Ba. n B., the Taiwanese tearoom T. Company, Los Angeles’s Kismet, and the legendary Chino Farm in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
Pickowicz’s recipes and writing have been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bon Appetit, Saveur, Food & Wine, New York magazine, Cherry Bombe, and many other publications. Follow her on Instagram at @natashapickowicz.
José R. Ralat is Texas Monthly's taco editor, for which he writes about Mexican food and food culture. He is also the author of “American Tacos: A History & Guide.” Ralat has written for Eater, Imbibe, D Magazine, Vice, Gravy, and other national and regional online and print media outlets. He is a two-time James Beard Foundation media award winner. Ice cream might just be his one true love.
Howard Seftel
Howard Seftel was a Valley restaurant critic from 1992 to 2015, the first eight years at Phoenix New Times, then 15 years at the Arizona Republic. During that time, he dined out -- anonymously -- more than 5000 times, and served as a James Beard Award judge.
A native New Yorker, he worked abroad for five years, in West Africa and the Middle East, and later taught American history at the University of California, Berkeley and Antioch University.
These days, when he is not eating out, he's likely to be at a baseball game, playing the piano, reading history or hitting the road to visit far-away children and grandchildren
Thank you to Devour sponsors TCI Wealth Management, Maverick Beverage Company, Lyft, City of Tempe, and Wyndham Hotel for their support.
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