Event of the Month

CULINARY FESTIVAL IS FOUR-DAY DELIGHT FOR EPICURES

There are thousands of reasons to head for the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall April 23 through 26, when the Scottsdale Culinary Festival kicks into gear.

First, there's the food. All kinds of food. The best of Arizona and beyond can be enjoyed at the four-day festival.

The most popular event, however, and the one that has made the festival a household word in the Valley of the Sun, is the Great Arizona Picnic.

Here you'll see everybody from backpacking students to the crystal-goblet crowd and they're all enjoying themselves.

Serious eaters start plotting strategy for the festival in advance. Some claim they stop eating by mid-March to build the appropriate appetite, while others subscribe to the theory that "training" by eating a tasty tidbit at least every 15 minutes around the clock, starting in mid-March, is the best approach.

At the Great Arizona Picnic, everybody is having too much fun to worry about which fork to use, or whether the kids will ceremoniously pick out the nuts in the fancy desserts and declare them "gross." This is an eater's delight, regardless of how picky that eater is. Music, clowns, stage shows, face painters, and arts and crafts activities for the kids keep the atmosphere festive as big shots mingle with the down-home folks and tourists.

At what some describe as the Southwest's largest tailgate party, more than 40 Arizona restaurants, caterers, and specialty-food companies offer their best to picnickers who purchase food and

WHEN YOU GO

Schedule of events: Thursday, April 23, 7:00 P.M., scholarship dinner. Friday, April 24, 7:00 P.M., Mayor's Culinary Cup Dessert Competition (black tie preferred). Saturday, April 25, noon to 5:00 P.M., wine tasting and cooking demonstrations at Scottsdale Center for the Arts; noon to 10:00 P.M., Great Arizona Picnic at Scottsdale Civic Center Mall; 5:30 P.M., Le Tour Culinaire, a "progressive dinner," with 27 Valley restaurants participating; 8:00 P.M., Concert under the Stars at Scottsdale Civic Center Mall. Sunday, April 26, noon to 2:00 P.M., Wine Country Brunch; noon to 5:00 p.m., wine tasting and cooking demonstrations at Scottsdale Center for the Arts; noon to 7:00 P.M., Great Arizona Picnic at Scottsdale Civic Center Mall; 7:30 P.M., Best of the Fest. Schedule is subject to change; call the Scottsdale Center for the Arts box office for further information and tickets, (602) 994/ARTS. Some events require advance ticket purchases.

drink coupons for $1 each. Generous "samplings" of everything from Cathy's Rum Cake to Domino's Pizza can be had for a couple of coupons.

There's a definite strategy to working the picnic effectively, say veteran festival-goers. Be sure you're hungry, of course. Get there early or late, avoiding the middle of the afternoon, when the crowds are largest.

Head straight for the coupon booths and trade real money for picnic money. Get a program and a map (they're free) and plot your course through the booths.

The paranoid among us go straight for the dessert booths, lest some disaster befall us or the chefs before we can sample their offerings.

Those pretending to be more sensible take the home economics teacher's approach, searching out the four major food groups and feigning distaste for those of us who happily pair a Macayo's chimichanga with a Sweet Inspirations wedge of chocolate cake.

As the picnickers begin to look for grassy patches where they can recline for a spell and contemplate their dietary indiscretions, the hard-core food and wine fans have donned their evening clothes and are hopping open-air trolleys with their guests for an evening of champagne, dessert, and dancing.

Saturday night on the mall brings an outdoor concert, so those who haven't seriously overindulged can stick around for round two of picnicking while they enjoy the music under a clear springtime sky.

There are exhibits and demonstrations by world-class chefs and winemakers for the serious foodies among us, and then there's the black-tie event that glitters late into the night.

But the food, of course, is the star of this show. And variety. You'll find everything from taste-tempting unpronounceables served on dainty doilies to slabs of smoky ribs to the always-familiar slice of pepperoni pizza.

Proceeds from the 14-year-old annual event, which is hosted by the Scottsdale League for the Arts, benefit the Scottsdale Center of the Arts.