ST. CHARLES – The 2012 Chicago Food & Wine Festival –a celebration of food and wine, featuring thousands of tastings from top chefs and restaurants, sommeliers, brewers and mixologists – will take place Nov. 17 and 18 at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles.

Distinctive Events Inc. will team up with Yelp to present the event, which will also feature celebrity guests, such as the host, Chicago’s own foodie Ted Brunson from WGN TV’s “Chicago’s Best;” and guest host Mark DeCarlo from ABC’s “Windy City Live,” who will mingle with guests and share the stage with the chefs.

There will also be hourly cooking demonstrations from celebrity chefs, such as “Hell’s Kitchen’s Dana Cohen, Patrick Cassata and Brian Merel, “MasterChef’s” Josh Marks and Monti Carlo and The Next Food Network star’s Judson Todd Allen.

Every celebrity chef will present tastings of their signature dishes, along with special wine choices and signature cocktails during Saturday night’s Celebrity Chef Charity Gala.

Guests can also take part in specialty item auctions with all of the proceeds benefitting the event charities.
The goal for the event is to raise more than $20,000 for Autism Speaks and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Ticket quantities are limited.

 For more details about the event and ticketing options and pricing, visit www.BestofFoodandWine.com or call 630-984-4888.