Devour Culinary Classic is an annual two day sold out event that is considered to be the premier culinary event of Arizona. Unlike other culinary events across the country that offer celebrity chefs Devoured is uniquely Arizonian and only features our local culinary elites.

2018 is a big year for change. No longer is this event hosted at the Phoenix Art Museum. Devoured has now moved to bigger grounds at the Desert Botanical Gardens. Bigger grounds are suppose to offer more people the opportunity to attend the annual sold out event and this is a bigger venture to offer more things…..Will it be bigger? Are more people attending? I know this annual event always sells out and it did again months ago so I do have to wonder……I also got informed that there is limited parking…..

That worries me…WTFork do I do if I don’t get a parking spot…..leave? I always had a place to park at or near the Art Museum……If you can’t park at the Botanical Garden there is nothing near by except for the zoo and if you park there it’s a few mile walk. in the desert with the brutal Arizona Sun.

Way back when I attended Devoured back in 2012 it only cost me $45.00 for each of the two days if I purchased my tickets in advance for general admission. Today in 2018 the same two general admission tickets has rocketed to a whopping $210.00 and if you times that by two it cost a couple $420.00 for two days of general admission. That’s a great deal of money so I’m only doing one day this year.

This year the tickets were broke down into THREE price ranges with no discounts.

general admission “tasting package” $105.00 per day

connoisseur package (1 hour early admission) $155.00 per day

VIP package (1 hour early, VIP gift bag and special VIP tastings and cocktails) $205.00 per day

Everyone ($105. $155. & $205. ticket holders) gets admission, access to Hensley/Quench Beverage Garden, access to chef demos, passport, wine glass, yolk, lift discount.

Connoisseur ($155.) also gets lift discount plus, admission to heritage food experience, admission to AZ Beverage experience.

The VIP’s ($205.) get all of above plus

One hour early admission, VIP access to Chef Welcome Beverage Service, Early admission and reserved seats to Heritage Foods Service & AZ Beverage Experience, VIP Swag Bag, Collector Pin, Reserved Parking & Lyft discount plus.

Parking was unorganized. They directed us to an already filled parking lot so we just found a spot ourselves.

We get paper wrist bands and wait in line. I look at the wines offered and most are not well known wines. I used to enjoy Merry Edwards wine at Devoured for years……Merry Edwards is a well made wine…..even the lower end Merry Edwards was awesome. ($38-$65). I recognize Marietta a $10.00 bottle that’s ok some years. I didn’t drink any wine today…….I don’t want to make myself sick……(well here anyway)

A one man band person entertains us while we wait to get in. It seems we got this instead of the nice reception room with goodies we used to enjoy……Gone is the reception room for general admission. Three years back you could stuff yourself silly in the reception room if you wanted to…..they have been cutting back on that but it was still something to look forward too.

The clock strikes 11:30 and we get to go in.

Tammy Coe – Cake

Pe’la – Shrimp Grain Bowl

Worth- Cuban Sandwich, Cocktail and Banana Pudding

District American Kitchen – Corn Pudding Avocado Mousse, Mole dusted Meringue and Waffle, bacon bourbon Ice Cream, apple butter compote, maple cotton candy, caramelized white chocolate pecan bark…Woof! This was among the better that I tried.

I think one of the most memorable (in a good way) dishes I tried came from Artisan. The Smoked Broth Congee with Mesquite smoked black garlic, chicken, spicy daikon and dehydrated onion was so interesting that I actually forget most of all the other things I tried. Artisan also served Indian Spiced hot shrimp.

Different Point of View – Duck Two Ways over Corn Cakes.

I didn’t try the Pibil  Tostada from Mi Catering but my husband said the salsa on the tostada was exceptional.

I didn’t come back to try the noodles from Red Thai but I did try the Chewy Pounded Rice Noodle in Spicy Ginger Sauce. (sorry I forgot to photo)

My husband enjoyed this Pork Belly Dish from House of Tricks.

Gluten free pasta from the Parlor.

The Larder & The Delta – Pork Tamale

Sel – Pork Taco in steamed Bun.

Crujiente Tacos – Short Rib with Szechuan Sauce.

Clever Koi – Szechwan Chicken Feet and a Duck Dish.

Becket’s Table – Eggy Bread stuffed with Creamy Shrimp and Peanut Butter Topped Chocolate Cake.

Handlebar Diner – Crusted Green Chile Ice Cream and Sweet Corn Cake. This was interesting!

Green – Vegetarian (or Vegan?) Burger and fried potato strings.

Scallop and Short Rib Dish from Windsor

Federal Pizza – Chicken Parm  (?)

This section is really crowed.

Sweet Republic ran out of Ice Cream before 1:00  🙁      🙁     🙁    🙁   🙁    🙁      ;(

Sweets from Nutwhats

Wigwam – Lamb Belly

Hawaiian Ahi Poke Taco and Mongolian Beef Bowl from Hulas and then we left. Only one dish pictured here made me gag……It was awful…..most were good a few were exceptional……..There were several restaurants missing from the general admission ticket that were moved up to the VIPS. Devoured is different now. I would recommend going if you can swing the VIP Admission. But they cut back on the General Admission so much I doubt I will attend again.

That was most of the General Admission Experience for Sunday Day Two of Devour Culinary Classic for 2018.

The weather for Devour 2018 was the best we ever had. It wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t rainy either…….The surroundings were lovely but……………..

Between the higher cost and getting much less for General Admission compared to past years I don’t think I’ll be attending Devour in the future.