Dana Cohen, a Season 10 finalist on Fox’s reality cooking series “Hell’s Kitchen,” will be visiting Chicago for the first time this weekend for the Chicago Food and Wine Festival.

As a graduate of the Culinary Institute of a America and an experienced cooking instructor, Cohen will be wielding her “Hell’s Kitchen” signature dish, pan-seared scallops, during a live cooking demonstration at the event Saturday at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles. For more information on the festival, or to purchase tickets, visit bestoffoodandwine.com.

Kane County Chronicle features editor Kara Silva got a chance to talk with Cohen about food, catching up with former “Hell’s Kitchen” cast-mates and life after nearly winning one of reality television’s greatest cooking competitions.

Kara Silva: Are you looking forward to the festival?
Dana Cohen: Yeah, I’m really excited. The best thing is that [the event] is for a bunch of great causes, a few of which are near and dear to me as well. So, it’s nice to see that [the event] is for some really nice charities, so I’m happy to be part of that. And then anywhere there’s good food, I love to be.