What made the Traverse City food festival a hit

TRAVERSE CITY — When Food Network star Aarti Sequeira took to the cooking demonstration stage at Traverse City’s Open Space Park on Saturday, Aug. 22, the crowd erupted with cheers, clapping and whistling.

“Michiganders might be my new favorite people,” a bubbly Sequeira, one of the headliners at the 2nd Traverse City Food & Wine Festival, told the crowd.

After drawing more than 1,000 people in its inaugural year in 2025, the Traverse City Food & Wine Festival returned with five days of events beginning on Wednesday, Aug. 19, showcasing the rich agricultural region known for growing grapes, cherries and other produce. Traverse City also has landed a solid spot on the culinary map as it added new eateries to longtime staples over the last several years.

In March, Midwest Living magazine named Traverse City its Food City of the Year. Two chefs, Jennifer Blakeslee and Eric Patterson of The Cooks' House in Traverse City, were named finalists for a 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chefs Great Lakes. The award went to Sandoval of Oriole in Chicago that year.

Sequeira, a cook, TV personality and cookbook author, dazzled the crowd with her brilliant smile, charm and easy-going spirit. She also wowed the crowd wearing a colorful outfit dotted with small and large heirloom tomatoes underneath her apron. Sequeira closed out the cooking stage demonstrations – a highlight of the festival’s grand tasting premier event — with Masala Elote, an Indian meets Mexican street corn dish topped with cotija cheese, a mayo-based sauce and a lime wedge with a generous dusting of spices.

Giving a nod to Michigan’s agriculture, she spoke of using the region’s best local corn and tomatoes in a dinner the night before.

Another headliner, Andrew Zimmern, celebrity chef, author, host and producer of several acclaimed shows, including Bizarre Foods, took the stage before Sequeira. Zimmern wowed the crowd’s taste buds with a rich-tasting Lobster Newberg, along with expertly told details of the long history of the dish.

“That was the most popular dish in America in the 1880s,” Zimmern said of the legendary dish that got its start at Delmonico's in New York.

Saturday’s grand tasting was an afternoon of incredible bites and sips of wines showcasing local specialties – from fresh shucked oysters to gazpacho to beets with horseradish and a jammy egg to lessons in cheese – from area restaurants, renowned guest celebrity chefs and Michigan chefs.

Many people attending were first-timers to the festival.

Kristen and Mike Flores came to the event as lucky winners of a contest sponsored by Traverse City Tourism. The couple from Temperance, near the Ohio border, won VIP passes to the event and $1,500 in lodging.

Kristen Flores said she liked the wine from Mari Vineyards and food items from restaurants Trattoria Stella and the Modern Bird, both in Traverse City.

“It was fabulous and so much fun and so well put together,” she said. “The chefs, the food, it was phenomenal.”

Mike Flores said he learned a lot from watching the chefs on the cooking stage.

“There was lots of tidbits about cooking and wine; it was a nice mix," he said.

Connie Deneweth, vice chair of Grand Traverse State Bank, also was a first-timer to the festival.

“It’s awesome to be able to taste all the different wines in the community in a small area,” Deneweth said. “I found all kinds of the restaurants we missed.”

Richard Griffin of Traverse City, a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals judge, said the event is the best Traverse City has had and timely.

“This is a great event,” Griffin said. “It’s the perfect time to get locals and tourists to Traverse City. This event extends our tourist season in Traverse City.”

Tisha and David Taylor traveled from Des Plaines, Illinois, to this year’s event. It was the couple’s first time for the food and wine festival, but they come to Traverse City often. They liked it because it took place downtown and steps from the Indigo.

“We are fans of Aarti (Sequeira) and Andrew (Zimmern) and Carter (Oosterhouse),” Tisha Taylor said. “It was an amazing time.”

Five days of events

Throughout the five days of events, Traverse City Tourism arranged a lineup of nearly 90 events, including those helmed by top culinary talent, celebrity chefs, Michigan local chefs and voices in the food and wine worlds.

Events included trips to wineries in the region, including Old Mission Peninsula, celebrities and local chefs collaborating on special dinners at area restaurants and wineries, workshops and even a film screening.

Sequiera joined chef Sarah Bobier, executive chef at the Artisan restaurant inside the Delamar Hotel. The chefs' collaborative dinner for about 70 people gave diners a multi-course pairing of Sequiera’s Indian flavor influences paired with Bobier's locally sourced ingredients, including corn, tomatoes and green beans.

Many of the events included James Beard Award winners and nominees and award-winning cookbook authors and national voices. On the opening night of the festival, more than half a dozen Michigan James Beard nominees teamed up to prepare a wine-paired al fresco dinner benefiting the James Beard Foundation.

Miss Kim and Little Kim owner, Ji Hye Kim, was back for the second year of the festival as featured chef. Kim was featured on Saturday’s demonstration stage cooking Korean barbecue and lettuce wraps. The lettuce wraps, Kim told the crowd, “must be eaten in a whole bite.”

Kim also championed the areas in season and local ingredients such as the butter lettuce used for her lettuce wraps.

This year, Kim said she had time to enjoy the area’s beauty as well as gathering with chef friends.

“It’s so beautiful,” she said. “Chefs don't get away much, but it's nice to come here and see all of my chef friends from Traverse City and elsewhere and then cook the food and relax and enjoy the area … it's fantastic.”

Anna Ansari, who grew up on Grosse Ile and later in Bloomfield Hills, showcased her new cookbook, "Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey from Baku to Beijing." A 1998 Cranbrook Kingswood graduate, Ansari demonstrated a stuffed whitefish – with fish caught that morning, she told the crowd. She also collaborated on a dinner at Grand Traverse Resort. Ansari now resides in England and was named the 2026 Food Writer of the Year by the United Kingdom's Guild of Food Writers.

A film screening paired dinner with the Free Press’ documentary "Coldwater Kitchen" – a James Beard Award winner. The event featured Mark Kurlyandchik, the film’s producer and former Free Press restaurant critic, and those featured in the documentary with a special dinner at the Traverse City Opera House. Coldwater Kitchen follows participants in a culinary training program inside the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan.

“We try new things and get a sense for what consumers want,” Trevor Tkach, president and CEO of Traverse City Tourism, told the Free Press at Saturday’s event. “It’s an affirmation that we are doing things right.”

Tkach said Saturday’s exclusive VIP space provided “some of the best restaurants and wines in the area,” adding “you won’t go hungry.”

Tkach also added that “yes, there will be a next year.”

Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SusanMariecooks. Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for insider scoops on food and dining in metro Detroit.