If you love food and wine you won’t want to miss this year’s Feast for the Palate, a competition that shows off the region’s culinary greatness. The event showcases different dishes from the top chefs around the region and the GTA.

The Feast for the Palate will be returning to Caledon on May 26 for its fourth year in a row at the Royal Ambassador Event Centre.

The proceeds from the event will be donated to Family Transition Place, which provides shelter for women and their children who are experiencing abuse or housing issues and education programs in Caledon and Dufferin.

The event was introduced to the public in 2005 as the Festival of the Senses. But the name was changed the following year to Feast of the Palate. The event continued to attract numerous visitors with its incredible choices of food creations and wine sampling.

In 2007, organizers switched the focus from a showcase event into a Chefs’ Challenge culinary competition. The event’s renewed goal was to attract the top chefs from the region and the GTA for a cooking competition.

Guests at this year’s Feast for the Palate will find an opportunity to eat and drink from an exquisite selection of foods prepared by the region’s best restaurants and catering companies. But this year the voting will be left to the public, by using a “people’s choice” style of voting system. Guests are going to be asked to select the top chef from each of the different categories. Hugh Sutherland, event organizer, says the categories have been expanded this year and winners will be named for appetizers, main course entries and desserts. Guests will also select an overall winner to receive the Chefs’ Challenge Grande Award.

But food will not be the only option for guests. Guests will have the opportunity to sip wine with each of the dishes in the Chefs’ Challenge.

“Food and wine pairing is a fairly sophisticated and important factor” in the overall enjoyment of the culinary experience, says Sutherland. International wines and domestic vineyards are providing wines.

The 2008 edition of Feast for the Palate featuring the Chefs’ Challenge will be held May 26, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Royal Ambassador Event Centre in Caledon East. Tickets are $100 per person. Visit www.royalambassador.ca for more information or call 905-584-5840 for tickets.