Gluttony, debauchery and, yes, chefs: Food & Wine Classic in Aspen

Today marks the beginning of the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, a three-day food orgy and wine romp that lures all sorts of grape stompers and rock-star chefs -- you know, big names like Mario Batali, Jacques and Claudine Pépin, Ming Tsai, Nancy Silverton, José Andrés, Bobby Flay, Michel Richard, Giada De Laurentiis, Steven Raichlen, Tom Colicchio, Richard Blais and Hosea Rosenberg, exec at Jax Fish House (928 Pearl Street in Boulder) and Bravo's Top Chef Season 5 winner -- to the ritzy, glitzy streets of Aspen.

Over the next few days, I'll be your loyal blogging and twittering servant among all those cable TV celebrity cookers, giving you the lowdown on where Top Chef's Tom Collichio is hanging out (my bet is the poker table); who's been blacklisted from the Two Twelve House, the exclusive party headquarters for kitchen elitists like Collichio, Batali and Flay (all of whom I once partied with at the palatial estate of secrecy until I apparently outstayed my welcome and was promptly dismissed by some guy in a sequined smoking jacket); what food trends you'll be seeing in the restaurant kitchens back in D-town; and anything and everything else that lands on my plate.

Wish me luck.