By MARIA PHELAN
VIEW STAFF WRITER

Foodies and wine lovers will want to clear their schedules for next week as the World Gourmet Summit makes its second annual stop in the Las Vegas Valley.

The event will bring five days of world-class food, drink and speakers to Green Valley Ranch Station, including master classes and tasting sessions addressing cuisine and wine from various regions of the world and classes on cognac, port wine and champagne.

Created by the World Gourmet Club and the International Food & Beverage Forum, the summit will culminate with an international wine exhibition featuring more than 300 wines from 80 wineries.

Kurt Fischer, managing partner of the World Gourmet Club and president of the International Food & Beverage Forum, said the event is based on a festival that originated in St. Moritz, Switzerland, 13 years ago. The city wanted to host a food and beverage event to attract international travelers.

Since then, the World Gourmet Summit has become popular enough to support additional events in other parts of the world. Ten years ago a World Gourmet Summit was brought to Singapore, and two years ago another was added in Melbourne, Australia.

Fischer said the group decided to start a smaller but similar event in Providence, R.I., in 1996. Three years ago, the group decided to add a World Gourmet Summit in the United States.

"To make this a global event, we definitely needed to have a summit in America," Fischer said.

Providence was deemed too small an area for the summit, and organizers started looking for an ideal city to host the event. Eventually, it settled on Las Vegas.

"We looked at Las Vegas as a city with the most international restaurateurs already represented, and a high tourist influx and some of the most beautiful hotels in the country," Fischer said.

Last year the event was held at the MGM Grand, but Fischer said the group found the hotel to be a little "too grand" and decided to move the summit to Green Valley Ranch Station this year.

The five-day event will bring chefs from different parts of the world to Las Vegas, as well as wine makers from across the globe.

"It's going to bring a great combination of cooking classes, wine classes and fantastic dinners," Fischer said.

Fischer said one of the dinners will be dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and will feature New Orleans cuisine. However, the World Gourmet Summit also will benefit the Las Vegas area.

"The main object is to raise money for scholarships for UNLV," Fischer said. "Fifty active members from around the world contributed items for our silent auction, and the benefits will go entirely to UNLV scholarships."

The items donated to the silent auction are valued at more than $110,000 and will include dinners and hotel stays at locations around the world. A stay at the Mandarin Oriental resort in Tokyo and a caviar tasting session in St. Petersburg, Russia, are among the auction items.

"It is a most unique collection of auction items," Fischer said.

Andrew Hale Feinstein, president of the Association of Business Simulation and Experiential Learning and associate professor and chair of the Department of Food and Beverage Management at the UNLV College of Hotel Administration, said the majority of UNLV's involvement with the World Gourmet Summit will pertain to the silent auction and the hall of fame induction dinner.

Last year, two $5,000 scholarships were awarded to hotel students during the hall of fame dinner. However, this year Feinstein came up with a new idea.

"This year I told Kurt that I was grateful for the scholarships, but that I felt the money would best be spent on the faculty in the Department of Food and Beverage Management," he said. "By giving the scholarships to faculty, we will provide them with the opportunity to improve their education and scholarship abilities, which will ultimately improve the learning experience for the students."

This year, $40,000 in scholarships will be handed out at the $225 per person event, and Feinstein said that money will provide 10 faculty members with scholarships. Each scholarship is given in the name of a hall of fame inductee.

"These scholarships will be used for travel and development," he said.

Faculty will use the scholarships in a variety of research projects that Feinstein hopes will benefit students.

He said the scholarship opportunities are needed because faculty rarely get extra money for research projects.

"This is really synergy between the wonderful program Kurt put together and one of the top hospitality colleges in the country," Feinstein said. "We're very happy to be involved with it."

In addition to the scholarships, a special symposium class with six experts in the field of food and beverage will be held for UNLV students.

Other events planned for the World Gourmet Summit will include Thursday's Taj Mahal dinner, which will be prepared by a team of chefs from Taj Mahal hotels, resorts and palaces.

"It will be a very high end Indian dinner, prepared by tremendous Indian talent," Fischer said.

Tickets to the Taj Mahal dinner are $150. Master class prices are $300 for a package of four classes, $500 for a package of seven or $85 for an individual course.

Fischer said the wine exhibition set for Nov. 20 also will be an excellent opportunity for the public to enjoy the World Gourmet Summit.

"This will be a unique experience," Fischer said. "We will have mainly international wines from all parts of the world. There will be over 200 wines available for tasting at a very reasonable fee ($45)."

The World Gourmet Summit will open Tuesday and run through Nov. 20. For more information, visit www.worldgourmetsummitlasvegas.com