Jamaica-born restauranteur Nicola Blaque. Credit: Courtesy Photo / The Jerk Shack

Several San Antonio chefs will join other top culinarians from around the country to celebrate food, wine and spirits at the Austin Food & Wine Festival, Nov. 4-6.

Tickets for the eleventh iteration of the festival went on sale just last week — and individual Saturday and Sunday passes are already sold out. Weekender and “All-In” tickets are still available, the latter offering access to evening events Rock Your Taco and the new Wurst Weekend Kickoff, as well as VIP perks.

Saturday evening’s signature tasting event Rock Your Taco pits participating chefs against one another to create the ultimate taco, as deemed by attendees. SA’s Nicola Blaque — of Mi Roti and The Jerk Shack — and Cured’s Steve McHugh will compete against other culinary heavy-hitters from Austin, Dallas, Houston and beyond.

San Antonio’s Diego Galicia and Rico Torres of Mixtli will host a cooking demo, while Milpa’s Jesse Kuykendall and Dashi Sichuan Kitchen + Bar’s Kristina Zhao will take part in the Fire Pit portion of the fest, which features bites hot off an open flame and the chance to interact with pitmasters and chefs.

Geronimo Lopez: Botika 303 Pearl Pwky #111, (210) 670-7684, botikapearl.com San Antonio Chef Geronimo Lopez was featured on season 50 of Chopped on the Food Network. Known for his Peruvian fusion cuisine, you can try one of his noteworthy plates at Botika, located at the Pearl. Photo via Facebook / Botika Restaurant Credit: Facebook / Botika Restaurant

Geronimo Lopez of Botika, Bakery Lorraine’s Anne Ng and Jeremy Mandrell and Dashi’s Zhao will take part in the Chef Showcase, offering samples of their signature dishes.

The Austin Food & Wine Festival is the benefactor of the Texas Food & Wine Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to fostering awareness and innovation in the Central Texas food and wine community through grants, educational programming and events. To date, Austin Food & Wine Festival has contributed over $1.3 million to the Alliance.

Tickets to the fest range from $250 to $625 and can be found at the Austin Food & Wine Festival website.

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This article appears in Aug 10-23, 2022.

Nina Rangel uses nearly 20 years of experience in the foodservice industry to tell the stories of movers and shakers in the food scene in San Antonio. As the Food + Nightlife Editor for the San Antonio...