The Bermuda Culinary Arts Gala Dinner was filled with an eclectic variety of dishes with the sole desire to make one?s mouth water.

The Gala Dinner was hosted by actress Sigourney Weaver, who predicted that the BCAF would continue for another 100 years. She was aided by the obliging sommelier Joshua Wesson, who is co-chief executive officer and wine director of Best Cellars, Inc.

The pair discussed the dishes and the wines and the single port in great detail before and after each course. Mr. Wesson introduced each wine before it was consumed and he also gave Mrs. Weaver and the audience a lesson on how to taste wines and then to pair wine with meals.

?I am here to teach you so that you don?t need to rely on a sommelier in order to match wines with foods,? he said, ?There are only three reasons to drink wine, one is to make the people around you seem funnier than before, the second reason is to make the food taste better than it did without wine, and the third reason is to intimidate anyone with a glass of fermented grape juice into giving you things that they wouldn?t normally give you.?

He then asked how many people used wine as a tool of intimidation? But Ms Weaver suggested that one needed to know about wine in order to use it as such.

?First step is to grab the glass of Chateau Ste. Michelle/Dr. Loosen Riesling Eroica 2003,? he said as he added, ?Try not to use the Bronx grip or the Staten Island grip.

?Grab the glass by the stem of the base and what I would like for you to do is to tip it at about a 45 degree angle and hold it against the white background.

?Look right at the edge and if you have ever wondered why people have their pinky out - it is not because they are esteemed or snobbish - its because the wine might have a piece of cork in it and they can fish it out with their finger.

?The first step is to look at the wine and see that it is clear and the second step is ? 90 percent of what we think is taste comes from our sense of smell.

?So grab the glass put it under your nose and take a sniff. Now I want you to smell like a professional. You are going to swirl the wine around ? when you see people doing this they are furiously agitating the wine ? it is not because they are angry, they are trying to release some of the aroma. Then pop it under your nose and take short sniffs.?

Amid laughter he said if you want to really intimidate someone, put one finger over your nostril and sniff. ?At this point everyone at the table will be glaring at you,? said Mr. Wesson.

?Now that you have looked at the wine, you have smelled it, and people have stopped looking at you then taste the wine like a mere mortal.

?When you taste wine like a mere mortal it is on your tongue for a few seconds, but when you taste like a professional you have to chew it like a piece of fruit. And this is how you tell the difference between an amateur and a professional, because you are going to look like a guppy on heat.

?It is in your mouth, you are smelling and tasting it all at the same time.?

Mr. Wesson advised that there would be different taste reactions to the wine without the food and then with it.He asked: ?Why did I choose to put this wine with this dish? And why do foods and wines fall in love just like people do? How many people here are in love?

?There are only two main reasons that people fall in love, one of them is that the person is just like you, and you can also fall in love with someone who is a contrast and the resolution of your differences. ?As we go through the dinner, I will be referencing the contrasts and the similarities of the wines with the food.?

Chef Jean-Claude Garzia, of the Lemon Tree Caf?, prepared the starter, which was a Tartar of basil scented Bermuda lobster with a whisper of ginger and a balsamic vinegar reduction oil.

After the meal was quickly consumed Mrs. Weaver asked him why he put such a delightful mix of fresh flavours together and Mr. Garzia, who plans to open a new restaurant, said: ?In Bermuda there are a lot of good things and seafood is one of them.?

Mr. Wesson said the ?mouth-watering cut in that Riesling cut through the richness of the dish?.

The next dish of a lemon risotto of ragout of snails and frog legs in a sweet garlic sauce was designed by La Coquille chef Serge Botelli.

It was served with a Santa Rita Sauvignon Blanc Medalla Real 2003, which Mr. Wesson said: ?Every food has a dominant taste that acts like a weather vane and the dominant taste is not the snails or the frog legs, it is the creaminess of the risotto with a bit of lemon in there and the sweetness coming from an actual sauce made of garlic and cream blended into the risotto.

?I think the Sauvignon Blanc is a wine that has some creaminess, but also a very lemony cut. It comes from the Casa Blanca Valley and we will round up all the usual suspects here, which is in Chile and it goes from east to west and it looks like Nappa, but it has a Spanish accent.

?I hope that you find it to be the universal antidote to this wonderful risotto. But time will tell.?

Mr. Botelli said he had created the dish especially for the night, but did have a similar dish on the menu at La Coquille.

New York chef Tom Valenti of Ouest and ?Cesca restaurant created a refreshing dish of Moroccan spiced salmon, teamed with a cucumber raita and mustard oil for the Gala dinner.

It was served with Louis Latour Montagny 1 er Cru La Grand Roche 2002.

Sommelier Wesson said the wine would be a similarity and a contrast both at the same time.

?This wine comes from the central part of France and it is the first wine that we are tasting that has seen the inside of a toothpick - an oak barrel,? he said, ?I love wood, but only in judicious quantities.

?This is a balance of fruit and butter ? richness and acidity and just as it brings those two things together coming from the central part of Burgundy, it is going to draw similarities and contrasts with this salmon dish.?

For the next course chef couple Dominique and Cindy Duby, of Wild Sweets, Vancouver, British Columbia, produced an Okanagan Green Apple and Cider Jelly parmesan tuile with a chickpea butter to transform the palette.

The main course was a Roasted lamb rack in herbed crumbs with a stuffed pasta pillow, toasted hazelnuts and sweet and sour beets. It was fashioned by Boston chef Jody Adams, of Rialto, blu and Noir.

The red wine served with it was Banfi Cum laude 2001.

And Mr. Wesson asked how many people thought that a wine?s first job was to be red?

?Whites and reds were equally delicious, but they just needed to be served at the right time and with the right foods,? he suggested.

?The Cum laude is unique and is from Tuscany, Italy, it is a super Tuscan. Often when people think of super Tuscan?s they think of a traditional Italian grape, but this is a Sangiovese and is in the world of smooth and delicious.

?If a meat is fatty and full of flavour, get a red wine with lots of tannin, because tannin cuts the fat beautifully.?

For dessert the Duby?s exceeded themselves with a CaraChoc Shooter with dark chocolate cream served with a spiced caramel dust and foam.

Their creation was served with Dow Late-bottled Vintage Port.

Mr. Wesson said: ?The secret to matching sweet wine with sweet food is either similarity or contrast, if something is sweet pay attention to the level of sweetness in the dish and follow it with sweetness in the wine.

?Port is a red wine that is sweet and it is bitter and sweet.?

Last but not least ? the Gosling?s Family Reserve Old Rum was the final frontier.

Tourism and Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown thanked everyone who attended and supported the Culinary Arts Festival.

He said: ?This Festival has joined other culinary arts festivals around the world as an event that has become a great attraction for visitors.

?In fact such festivals are becoming a world-wide phenomena and they are being aggressively promoted by other destinations to bring tourists to their areas and Bermuda is not blind to this fact.?

He said the Department of Tourism?s research revealed the many tourists from Bermuda?s gateway areas expressed a desire and interest in learning about new cultures and experiencing all that the culture has to offer.

?And this includes the cuisine,? he said, ?I am pleased to say that the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival offers this and much, much more.

?In only it?s second year the Festival has opened Bermuda up to a whole new world of event-driven tourism and we are thrilled to be able to provide our visitors with this unique type of event, which we trust will become a staple of the Bermuda tourism calendar.?

Dr. Brown added that the entire event would not have been possible without their sponsors, local restaurants and hotels, Wadson?s Farm and both the local and international chefs who participated in the event.

?They have prepared some of the most magnificent cuisine that I have ever tasted,? said Dr. Brown.

?It was the truest spirit and I am already looking forward to next year?s Festival.?