Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Fest becomes Food & Wine Mag’s “Austin Food & Wine Festival”

An enthusiastic Pat Sharpe called to say the annual Hill Country Wine and Food Festival has joined forces with Food & Wine Magazine to morph into the Austin Food & Wine Festival, to be held March 30 – April 1 next year.

You can read more about it here, but here’s the quick version, excerpted from Sharpe’s TexMo blog:

This new event will build on the national brand that Food & Wine magazine has bestowed on Aspen but with a decidedly Tex-ified style.

The architects behind the original Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival will now restructure the organization to become a 501c3 nonprofit extension of the Austin Food & Wine Festival that will be the festival’s charitable arm and will receive annual support as a beneficiary to the festival’s success.

“This is a huge endorsement of the many years of work and commitment that has gone into the previous festival and we’re excited to support the new Austin Food & Wine Festival, which will bring Austin’s food and wine community in the national and international spotlight,” says Cathy Cochran-Lewis, President of the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival whose leadership in 2011 brought the festival its most profitable year to date, a coup which will give the new nonprofit arm a firm foundation with which to promote the food and wine culture in Central Texas. “This opportunity aligns with the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival’s original mission to create a platform and awareness of the outstanding chefs, restaurants, artisan producers, wines and spirits that makeup our unique culinary culture.”

The 2012 Austin Food & Wine Festival is scheduled for March 30 – April 1.