Story and photos by: Caty McGovern, staff writer/photographer
This year the Fantastic Food Fest was introduced to Indiana. This event, solely dedicated to food, was held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in the Champion pavilion and many local businesses had booths to advertise their products. There were also a few kitchen utensil companies there.
I visited a lot of booths of local businesses to try out their products. I saw that many 
of these businesses had vegan or gluten-free options, which is great as there are so many people with food allergies and dietary restrictions.
One place where everything was gluten-free and many items were vegan was the Urban Ladle. I tried their chicken tortilla soup and it was great.
Another place that I tried was Graeter’s, an ice-cream store. I tried their signature black raspberry chocolate chip and it was to die for.
There were numerous great booths that I got to sample from. Most of the booths also had their products for sale. A lot of products were rather pricey, but that is typical of plenty of locally sourced restaurants.
This event also had a few celebrities doing demonstrations. One well-known celebrity who was doing demonstrations was Ted Allen. I was fortunate enough to see Allen and even get his autograph. I also got to see him demonstrate a recipe from his newest book.The demonstration was really interesting to see.
Overall, I would say that the Fantastic Food Fest was fantastic, due to the variety of items there. I hope it happens again next year so I can go again. Everyone who really digs food plans should plan to attend in the future.
The MV Current 