Christina Grdovic Of FOOD & WINE Talks Austin Festival

Christina Grdovic, Senior Vice President and Publisher of FOOD & WINE Magazine, has been coming to Austin for four years now, and loves that "Austin is keeping its cool" during the growth, offering more and more to residence and visitors. Being a New Yorker, she is "used to too many people and not being able to get where I want to go."  Here in Austin she was able to hop on a bike and head over to the Austin Food & Wine Festival this past weekend with ease.

I asked Christina if she had a favorite restaurant here in Austin and she shared with me that "not having enough time to eat here in Austin due to running the festival, she doesn't think its fare to name a favorite." But let me say, she has an impressive list of restaurants on her "to eat" list, including laV and Qui.  Speaking of food, Christina had not had a chance to sample any of the many bites Saturday morning, but assured me she would be getting her fill later that night, as she was one of the judges for the infamous "Rock Your Taco" event, where the whispers crossing over every attendees lips faster than the tacos, uttering "would Tyson Cole of Uchi take the win for a third year in a row?"

Christina Grdovic (source: Twitter)

With the festival in its third year, I was curious how FOOD & WINE plans to grow the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival?  "One of the many great things about the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival is that, like the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen, you get to see the chefs, wine & spirits talent (and barbecue masters) all weekend and have opportunities to learn from them and have conversations... or, maybe play ping pong. Austin has a very cool, casual feeling and I can't imagine it will lose that. We always want to add new events and more exciting things to choose from, but we don't want to lose the intimate and exclusive feeling."