Everyone's a Winner After Eldorado's 28th Annual Italian Festival

From sauce cooking to grape stomping, everyone was a winner at the Eldorado's 28th annual Great Italian Festival, October 10-11,2009.

Dozens of media representatives from television, radio and print turned out to stomp and muck their way to the top and ultimately walk away with a year’s worth of bragging rights. This year, several competitors took top spots, including Smith & McClain from KOZZ and RBoogie and Tony Tone from Wild 102.9 -both teams coming in first place in their heats. The ESPN radio team Todd Bruso and Jay Reynolds took home the second place prize along with Tom Henkenius and Kristen Remington from Channel 2 News. Bill Schulz & Connie Wray of Alice 96.5 came in third place, sharing the award with Amy Mattingly and Conor Flanagan of 92.9 The Bandit.

The highly anticipated sauce cooker competition was neck and neck until Bonnie Aimone won the judges over with a red meat sauce from the Piedmont region. The second place winner was Christine DiCenso’s Bolognese Sauce and in third place was Heather Lutzow Tuccori’s Spicy Bolognese Sauce. Sauce cookers were not the only winners at the festival; the winner of the annual Culinary Trip to Italy giveaway was Joan DiPietro.

The 28th Annual Great Eldorado Italian Festival was a huge success with thousands taking to the streets all weekend long. Festivalgoers feasted on 2200 pounds of spaghetti, 1000 pounds of parmesan cheese, 800 pounds of meat ravioli, 500 pounds of tortellini, 260 pounds of penne pasta, 150 gallons of polenta and more than 400 gallons of risotto. Guests ate 36 gallons of vanilla gelato and 30 gallons of chocolate Gelato.

The 29th Annual Eldorado Great Italian Festival will be held October 9-10, 2010.