This week in gluttony

These are the 8 best food and drink events in Fort Worth this week

Truluck’s presents Mumm Champagne Dinner

Learn the difference between Champagne and all the rest at a special class this week.

Photo courtesy of Truluck’s

From cookie decorating and a Christmas sweater sip-and-stroll, holiday events are in full swing this week. Knock out some shopping at not one, but two tasting events, get in the spirit with a spirit tasting, and learn how to successfully saber a bottle of bubbly just in time for New Year’s Eve. Start next week off early with a Christmas beer dinner that features a sweet take on holiday tamales.

Tuesday, December 7

Holidays at Whiskey Ranch
The expansive home of TX Whiskey, with its rolling hills, downtown views, and whiskey barrel Christmas tree, is open for holiday happiness. Visit Tuesday and Wednesday from 6-8 pm and Saturday from 1-9 pm to sip seasonal libations by the firepit and knock out Christmas shopping at the same time. There'll be food trucks and live music, too. Admission is $10 per person and includes the first cocktail. (Also watch the calendar for movie nights, including a screening of Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.)

Wednesday, December 8

Cookie Decorating & Wine Flights at WineHaus
The South Fort Worth wine bar and bottle shop is busy with holiday events this season, including a wine tasting that comes with cookies to customize. The cost is $20 and includes the wine and six cookies plus decorating tools. The event will run from 6-8 pm.

Thursday, December 9

Holiday Sips, Snacks & (ugly) Sweaters
This four-stop tasting tour of Grapevine will provide full-size cocktails and hearty appetizers at each destination. Stops include Harvest Hall, Mac’s on Main, Piaf Kitchen, and Off the Vine. The price is $149 per person (including all fees) and the tasting tour starts at 6 pm. Prizes will be given to the best “ugly” sweater.

Holiday Spirits Around the World at Hotel Vin
Get in the spirit of the season with a spirit tasting. Set to take place inside downtown Grapevine’s Hotel Vin, the event will take participants on a tour of spirits from Scotland, Venezuela, Italy and Mexico. The cost per person is $40 and the tasting begins at 6 pm.

Saturday, December 11

Breakfast with Santa & Holiday Market at Fort Brewery
The brewery-pizza restaurant, along with Wandering Roots Markets, presents a day of eating, sipping, and shopping. Start with a breakfast buffet (and photos) with Santa, then stay for shopping among 35 local, artisan vendors; cookie decorating; hot cocoa; story time, and more. The event runs 10 am-4 pm, and if you miss it this week, there's one more the following Saturday, December 18.

Holiday in the Garden
Visit the Fort Worth Botanic Garden for an indoor-outdoor sip-and-shop event featuring food trucks, hot chocolate and coffee, live holiday performances from the Fort Worth Opera, handmade goods for sale, and even a visit from Santa. The free event will take place in the Garden Center, Botanical Research Institute of Texas building, and surrounding parking lots from 10 am-4 pm. From 2-4 pm, admission includes complimentary access to the Botanic Garden itself.

Champagne, Sparkling Wine & Sabering Class at WineHaus
What’s the difference between Champagne and sparkling wine? Find out at this festive and informative class on all things bubbly, which includes a lesson on the flamboyant art of sabering — perfect for impressing New Year’s Eve guests. The class is $40 per person and will run from 4-7 pm.

Monday, December 13

Christmas in Mexico Beer Dinner at Funky Picnic Brewery & Café
The folks from the South Fort Worth brewery and café will collaborate with chef Angel Fuentes of GuapoTaco to present a five-course dinner paired with Funky Picnic beers. Menu highlights include hibiscus salad, traditional chile en nogada (stuffed poblano chiles with picadillo and a cream sauce), blue corn sopes, and dessert tamales. The diner is $80 per person and begins at 7 pm.

news-you-can-eat wine dinner

Chef News

Fort Worth's Will Rogers Memorial Center welcomes bright new chef

FortWorthtx.gov

Will Rogers Memorial Center

There's a new chef in town: Waylon Cornelius, named executive chef of catering and concessions for Craft Culinary Concepts, the food and beverage provider at Will Rogers Memorial Center.

Will Rogers Memorial Center is the 120-acre entertainment complex anchoring Fort Worth’s Cultural District, owned and operated by the City of Fort Worth. Cornelius will oversee menus for trade shows and other events at the center which bring in more than 2 million visitors a year.

Craft Culinary Concepts is headquartered in Glendale, Arizona, and manages food and beverage programs for entertainment, sports and cultural facilities.

Chef Waylon Corneliusfortworthtx.gov

According to a release, Cornelius joined the team this summer and is already shifting the expectations of guests from a typical “BBQ and beans” menu to a bill of fare satisfying every kind of palate.

“We always have fajitas ready to go, but we also make a beautiful Beef Wellington or baked salmon with a pink salt crust,” Cornelius says in a statement.

For consumer trade shows, Craft and its partners Caribou and Taco Heads offer more choices for the thousands of guests who attend events at WRMC annually.

“Some of our equestrian guests are away from home and here for several days, and they need more than popcorn and hot dogs,” Cornelius says. “Our concessions offer biscuits and gravy, burritos made in-house, strawberry salad, fruit and yogurt cups.”

A native of Mansfield, Cornelius grew up helping in a farm-to-table kitchen. He was raised on a farm with his mother, grandmother, and grandfather -- a Vietnam veteran who enjoyed vegetable gardens and raising hogs and chickens. He studied computer science after high school and holds an associate's degree in Cultural Resource Management and Policy Analysis from Tarrant County College.

He's a 2003 graduate of AIMS Academy of Culinary Arts in Dallas where he was mentored by a number of great chefs. While training as assistant executive sous chef at the AAA four-diamond Grand Hyatt DFW, he worked with Executive Chef Sutti Sripolpa, chef Eric Dreyer (who went on to be Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef), and Chef Jean-Claude Plihon, under whom he honed his French cooking skills.

As executive sous chef at the opening of Perry’s Steakhouse and Grille in Southlake, Cornelius gained expertise with volume. While at HG Sply Co., he learned about gluten-free items and other food allergies.

HG Sply is also where he crossed paths with Chef James R. Schell III, Craft’s general manager at WRMC, who recruited Cornelius to the complex.

"James said he needed someone who can hit moving targets, push the culinary team to be more avant-garde and use locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, so here I am," Cornelius says. "Culinary is a small world."

“I want people to say, ‘When we were in Fort Worth, you won’t believe what we got at Will Rogers!’” Schell says. “Even the celebrities who perform [in the auditorium] are surprised. When Chicago played here recently and we served dinner backstage, they said they felt treated like the Rolling Stones.”

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