Tickets now on sale for the 30th anniversary of the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen

Lori Midson

O come, all ye faithful, to one of the biggest culinary red carpets rides in the country: the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen. If you've been really, really nice this year and you've got a high roller in your circle of family and friends, then you might as well ask for the BIg One: a coveted ticket to the always sold-out culinary soiree that takes place June 15-17, 2011 in Glitter Gulch. Tickets to the Classic -- which will mark its thirtieth anniversary next year -- are $1,125 before March 15 and $1,225 thereafter. And while the price is mountain-high, it includes food and wine seminars, wine tastings, other events fit for foondniks and grape geeks, and hobnobbing with some of the most recognizable -- and respected -- chefs and wine nerds in the country.

Who's coming?

Gail Simmons, Tom Colicchio, Andrew Zimmern, Mario Batali, Michael Symon, Emeril Lagasse, Danny Meyer, Jacques and Claudine Pépin, Paul Grieco, Bobby Flay, Jose Andres, Tim Love, Susan Feniger, Michael Chiarello, John Besh, Laura Werlin, Ming Tsai, Marcus Samuelsson, Bobby Stuckey, Richard Betts, Mark Oldman...and on and on and on.

Ticket are available at Foodandwine.com, and if you want to read about some of the chefs who will be in attendance, there are a caboodle of interviews, wherein FOOD & WINE asks, among other questions, what the chefs would like to see at the 2012 Classic.

Ming Tsai's answer? "It's 30, baby! They've got to have 30 of everything; 30 dirty martinis in every hotel room! They should really blow it out with 30-year-old everything: 30-year-old wines, 30-year-old Champagnes, 30-year-old women and men. Everything "30"!"

We'll drink to that. Baby.