Tickets now on sale for the culinary red carpet ride that's the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen

Tickets to the 2011 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, the culinary breeding ground for the country's most extolled food personalities, chefs, grape gurus and their groupies, just went on sale yesterday, and you can snap up a ticket to the gustatory soiree, held June 17, 18 and 19, for $1,085 before March 15, and $1,185 thereafter.

As usual, the celebrity lineup is studded with the empresses and emperors of the food world: pig pimper, jokester and all around nice guy José Andrés; orange Croc-garbed and Italian stallion Mario Batali; Top Chef judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons; super hot cooker and funny man Michael Symon; the dynamic duo of Jacques and Claudine Pépin; Too Hot Tamales co-host Susan Finiger on global street food; Bobby Flay, whose shtick this year is brunch -- and a whole lot more.

It's not a cheap weekend, especially when you factor in airfare, a slumbering pad and all the extras, including the Best New Chef dinner, which, last year, honored Fruition chef/owner Alex Seidel. But it's fun as hell, and you never now who you might rub shoulders with.

Check out our food and chef porn from last year's Food & Wine Classic as well as the cool gadgets in the VIP swag room.