Cooking is a family affair at this year’s Lake Tahoe Autumn Food and Wine Festival, as the 23rd annual event serves up a selection of family-friendly activities.

Scheduled for Sept. 5-7 at the Village at Northstar, the festival will include a pizza-spinning contest (Friday afternoon) and hands-on pizza class, as well as ongoing children’s activities Saturday afternoon. Activities include face painting, jugglers, balloon artists, cupcake decorating and flower-pot painting. All kids’ and cooking demonstrations are free, excluding Northstar’s mountain bike rentals and bungee jumping, which will be open throughout the festival.

“North Lake Tahoe attracts families more than any other demographic,” Judy Laverty, special events manager for the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association. “The Autumn Food and Wine Festival is the perfect opportunity to expose kids and non-epicurean families to the culinary side of North Lake Tahoe while having fun with food.”

Northstar-at-Tahoe and the Village at Northstar, renowned for their family-friendly atmosphere, also offer s’more-making at the village’s fire pits, fly-fishing, horseback riding, mountain biking, hiking, free scenic lift rides, golf and tennis.

In addition to family-oriented activities, the festival will feature demonstrations by Stephanie Izard, recent winner of Bravo TV’s Top Chef; Chef Lars Kronmark from the Culinary Institute of America (presenting a lively outdoor grilling and entertaining demonstration); and a special luncheon by Joseph Keller of Bouchon (Yountville, California and Las Vegas) and Bistro Zinc Restaurant in Las Vegas.

Additional events include Chef Douglas Dale of Wolfdale’s presenting Asian fusion cooking techniques; the launching of Charbay Distillery’s Aperitf collection; Blazing Pans Mountain Chef Cook-Off; Gourmet Marketplace and Vendor Fair; a new Marketplace Wine Tasting; International Wine and Cheese Pairing Seminar with Robert Bath of the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies and James Beard cookbook award winning author and cheese expert Laura Werlin; Wines of Burgundy, presented by Burgundy wine expert David Blair; Truckee River Winery Pinot Noir Vertical Tasting with winemaker/owner Russ Jones; and a hands-on sushi rolling and sake pairing workshop with the sushi masters of the Village at Squaw’s Mikuni Sushi and Japanese Restraurant.

For more information about the Lake Tahoe Autumn Food and Wine Festival, call 888-229-2193 or go to www.tahoefoodandwine.com.

The Lake Tahoe Autumn Food and Wine Festival is a fundraiser for the Community Fund of North Lake Tahoe through the 501c(3) Truckee Tahoe Community Foundation. The 23rd annual festival is produced by the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association in partnership with Northstar at Tahoe; the Northstar Foundation; Ritz-Carlton Club, Lake Tahoe and Sunset magazine; Audi; Standards of Excellence; Nothing to It Culinary Center in Reno; Montreux Golf and Country Club; Charbay Vodka; and Tahoe Quarterly.

North Lake Tahoe is a 45-minute drive from the Reno Tahoe International Airport, two hours from Sacramento International Airport and just over three hours from San Francisco International Airport. The North Lake Tahoe Visitors Bureaus, Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau and the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association, work together to promote North Lake Tahoe as a premier, year-round destination.