New Orleans Wine & Food Experience, New Orleans, May 26-29, 2010

New Orleans, Louisiana
– The New Orleans Wine & Food Experience (NOWFE) is responding in
earnest to the situation Louisiana fishermen are facing in the Gulf
waters by dedicating the Saturday Grand Tasting to a “Celebration of
Louisiana Seafood” and offering a special fundraising dinner at
Restaurant August later that evening. Proceeds from these events will
be dedicated to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation in
partnership with the Louisiana Seafood Board. Food Network’s
reigning Southern Belle, Paula Deen, will highlight this year’s revelry
with a special appearance on Saturday, May 29. Louisiana’s own “bayou
boy,” and TLC celebrity chef John Besh will join Deen in a cooking
demonstration on the Main Stage at 3:15pm. “I am so excited to
be a part of a celebration of Louisiana seafood,” states Deen.  “To me
Louisiana seafood is just divine, and we need to pay tribute to that.”
The Friday and Saturday Grand Tastings are the culminating events of
NOWFE’s 4-day extravaganza and are truly “Grand” experiences for both
foodies and wine connoisseurs, pairing extensive offerings from 75 of
New Orleans’ finest chefs and a selection of more than 1000 wines from
around the world. (To purchase tickets visit www.nowfe.com)

Celebrity chef Aaron Sanchez will also join in the
festivities by presenting a cooking demonstration of his own during the
Saturday Grand Tasting at 2:00pm. In addition to the special cooking
demonstrations, eleven Louisiana chefs will participate in the third
annual Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off hosted by the Louisiana Seafood
Board.  The winning chef, crowned the “King or Queen of Louisiana
Seafood,” will represent Louisiana in the seventh annual Great American
Seafood Cook-Off. “It is vitally important for us to remind consumers
that Louisiana seafood is still readily available and safe for
consumption,” states Ewell Smith, Executive Director of the Louisiana
Seafood Board.  “Louisiana produces one-third of the seafood for the
continental US, and 70% of the seafood from the Gulf of Mexico,
creating a $2.4 billion industry that supports over 27,000 jobs.”

“The response from these chefs is overwhelming,” states Octavio
Mantilla, 2010 NOWFE Board President.  “Their efforts will enable us
make a substantial contribution that will support our local fishermen
and help us to preserve these national treasures– our Louisiana
Coastline and Fisheries.” To continue the celebration, Deen,
her husband Captain Michael Groover, and her brother Earl ‘Bubba Hiers
of Bubba’s Oyster House, will be joined by chefs Besh, and Sanchez in
their support of Louisiana fishermen with a fundraising dinner at
Besh’s flagship restaurant, August, on Saturday night at 7pm. 
Restaurant August will generously donate 100% of the proceeds from this
dinner to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation. Reservations
for the six-course dinner, paired with exceptional wines, showcasing
Gulf Coast seafood specialties are $300 per person; event sponsorships
that include a table of ten, V.I.P reception, and commemorative
photograph are available for $5,000.  To reserve a seat or sponsor the
event, contact Christy Bradley at 504.565.5482 or cbradley@chefjohnbesh.com.

The New Orleans Wine & Food Experience is a
non-profit organization. The Board of the New Orleans Wine & Food
Experience donates 100% of the events’ profit to support their programs
and foundations. Proceeds from the 2010 event will benefit the
Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation in partnership with the
Louisiana Seafood Board, University of New Orleans School of Hotel,
Restaurant & Tourism, the Louisiana Restaurant Association
Education Foundation’s ProStart Program, The Chef John Folse Culinary
Institute, Delgado Community College Culinary Arts Program, New Orleans
Center for the Creative Arts Culinary Arts Program, Girls First, Cancer
Crusaders, Southern Animal Foundation, Coach Sean Payton’s Play It
Forward Foundation and Fore! Kids Foundation. For more information
please visit www.nowfe.com

The Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board was
created in 1984 by the state of Louisiana to support their vast
historical commercial fisheries industry.  The Board is composed of 15
members and each member represents a sector of the industry:
harvesters, processors, wholesalers, restaurateurs/retailers, fisheries
resource managers, public health officers and marketing specialists. 
The Board’s operating budget is derived from license sales to Louisiana
commercial fishermen and seafood wholesalers/retailers as well as state
and federal grants. The Board represents over 12,000 fishermen while
promoting and marketing $2.6 billion of retail seafood sales annually
to the consumer.

Paula Deen is a restaurateur from Savannah, Georgia
who hosts the Food Network cooking shows Paula’s Home Cooking.   Paula
opened her first restaurant in early 1990, and by the end of the decade
her home-style southern cooking had gained national attention.  She’s
the anti-chef of the Food Network, a self-taught cook and advocate of
the butter-n-bacon approach, with an empire that includes her Savannah
restaurant (The Lady & Sons), a magazine (Cooking With Paula Deen),
several cookbooks and a memoir (It Ain’t All About the Cookin’).

John Besh is a native of South Louisiana and owner
of six successful restaurants in New Orleans—Restaurant August, Besh
Steak, Lüke, La Provence, Domenica at The Roosevelt Hotel and The
American Sector at The National World War II Museum. He has won
numerous awards including the James Beard Foundation Award for “Best
Chef Southeast” in 2006, Food & Wine’s “Top 10 Best New Chefs in
America”, Gourmet’s “Guide to America’s Best Restaurants,” and
“America’s Top 50 Restaurants”. Most recently he was featured on Food
Networks Next Iron Chef and Bravo’s Top Chef Masters.