Louisiana Food and Wine Festival nothing for foodies to wine about

Published 6:05 am Thursday, March 12, 2026

It’s time to celebrate the fourth annual Louisiana Food and Wine Festival this weekend in Lake Charles, beginning today and coming to a close at the Sunday Jazz Brunch.

The brunch begins at 11 a.m. and ends at 2:30 p.m. at Ember Grille and Wine Bar in Lake Charles.

Jan Gourley, festival founder and director for the Louisiana Food and Wine Festival said the festival began because Visit Lake Charles wanted to create a culinary destination event. Gourley said the event quickly became something that was going to be supported all over the state.

Ticket sales are online only at www.louisianafoodandwinefestival.com.

All beverages and food tastings are included with your tickets, which includes a souvenir glass. A full schedule of the weekend’s events are available at the Louisiana Food and Wine Festival website. Guests must be 21 years of age or older to attend most events.

“There’s lots of statewide support for the festival and the real vision of the festival is to showcase culinary throughout the state and to create an opportunity for visitation for Lake Charles for people to come and experience the festival here in Southwest Louisiana.” Gourley said.

She said it was exciting to move the festival from September.

With the last festival having taken place in September, and moving the festival to March, there was a lot of work to do in six months between the two, but she said they are glad they chose to make the move.

Gourley said the weather seems to be more enjoyable for guests in March while not having to be on the lookout for hurricanes.

“The weather is amazing,” she said. “I think people are much more apt to come to a festival when it’s beautiful weather than when it feels like 100 degrees outside — there’s a lot more opportunities for us especially being in crawfish season in Louisiana.”

The fun-filled weekend begins at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and runs to 8:30 p.m. at the Louisiana’s Best Taste Awards at the L’Auberge Casino Resort where guests can sample creations from some of the state and region’s best chefs. The judged event will reveal winners and beverage tasting stations include wine, beer, spirits and craft cocktails along with indoor and outdoor seating and tasting stations with live music.

Friday’s festivities take place from 6:30-8:30 p.m. with “Fire on the Lake” at Bord du Lac Park where guests will get to enjoy a quintessential Louisiana celebration of live fire cooking.

The event features a variety of slow-cooked grilled and smoked meats, seafood and vegetarian creations from some of the South’s most celebrated pitmasters, chefs and grill masters.

Guests will get to hear music from Dani Lacour that will keep everybody up on their feet or dancing in their seats.

Saturday begins with the VIP Experience at the Grand Tasting from 1-2 p.m. at Bord du Lac Park. The show includes early access to the tasting at 1:30 p.m. General admission tickets begin at 2-5 p.m. when guests can enjoy an afternoon of culinary and beverage tastings with live music.

The Cooking Demo Stage will showcase an artisan market and live Zydeco music from Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie.

All good things come to an end with the Sunday Jazz Brunch.

The brunch is like no other with carving and seafood, made-to-order omelet stations and a variety of desserts with live jazz music from the Sharp Nines.

Menu items include red velvet pancakes, chicken and sausage gumbo and croissant bread pudding.

A variety of the festival’s official beverage partners will participate with bottomless Bloody Mary’s, mimosas, sparkling wines, spirits, wine, beer and more.

The Imperial Calcasieu Museum will sponsor a Wine and Whiskey Pull on Saturday, and 100 percent of the proceeds will be donated to the museum. The museum also has a live painter scheduled to be alongside the spirits pull for guests to see art in action at the festival.

“We’re honored to be a recipient, this is our second time to be a recipient of their charity proceeds and it makes a huge impact for us as a cultural organization and it gives us this wonderful opportunity to interface with the community in public in a way that they wouldn’t normally see us so it’s very exciting,” said Ashley Royer, ICM creative director.

Gourley said guests who show up 30 minutes early for Friday and Saturday’s events will get scanned and issued a wristband.

“There’s a new energy and I think moving the date to spring has been a really smart thing for us,” Gourley said. “I think more than anything it’s a really fun vibe, from the live music to all the different beverage samples. Everybody seems to know everybody when they’re at the festival and it seems like a really fun and great party with unbelievable food.”