With platinum sponsorship by the Kingdom of Navarra (an autonomous region of Spain), this year’s tasting festival had a stronger accent on food than in past years. KSM doubled the number of food vendors and added the Street Fare Food Pavilion ($30 additional) on the balcony above the central Atrium, where guests sampled Australian lamb loin and Alaskan poached cod prepared by Reagan Building chefs.
“We’ve done a shake-up of the design and the display layout in the atrium, with a large center island for Navarra,” said show manager Kelly Morris of KSM. “Instead of a series of booths and smaller pavilions, our vision was better traffic flow with no bottlenecks.”
As in previous years, The Washington Post helmed a stage in Atrium Hall for cooking demos by local chefs, including Jose Andres of ThinkFoodGroup and Barton Seaver of Blue Ridge. Hargrove again provided general contractor services.