Resonating Tastes At The Atlanta Food & Wine Festival (Slideshow)

A volunteer offered festivalgoers shots at noon on Friday at the "Mississippi on the Grill" workshop.

A crucial piece of equipment when both hands are carrying full plates from the tasting tents.

The Refinery chef Greg Baker's Fried Mullet with tomato sauce and fry bread in his class on Friday. Note: According to the Festival Program, Cracker is the middle eighteenth-century nickname that Scotch-Irish settlers in Florida were given because of the whips they cracked driving cattle.

Kim Kaiser, of Kim's Cheese Straws in Statesboro, GA. Kim was a high school teacher for the last 13 years until the local demand for her cheese straws helped her transition to focusing on her small business full-time. Kim's delicious cheese straws are currently available through her website and she hopes they'll be on a grocery store shelf near you soon.

Nick Fox, of Woodfruit, shared a booth at the Southern Grown Tasting Tent with Eastern Carolina Organics and The Asbury's chef Chris Coleman. This collaborative booth exemplified three distinct links of the food supply chain: producer, purveyor, and chef.

Sandi Kronick of Eastern Carolina Organics assisted chef Chris Coleman of The Asbury in plating their collaborative dish of Woodfruit's foraged mushrooms and fiddle heads that they called "Forrest Floor, cornbread with Benton's Ham mousse, and onion."

Sassafras and sorghum ice cream with blueberries and wild angelica refreshed and revived in the Saturday afternoon heat under the tasting tents.

Chef McHugh of Cured in San Antonio dished up a delicious lard-centered snack in the tasting tents on Saturday.

Cured's chef McHugh's Whipped Pork Butter (aka lard) topped with preserved lemon sea salt highlighted an oft-derided but immensely important fat.

The team behind Three Cuisines of Carolina, a Sunday morning class that highlighted the commonalities and differences between the traditional tastes of North Carolina, separated by region (Appalachian, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain) included (L-R) chef Jacob Sessoms, chef Michael Kramer, and chef Vivian Howard.

Chef Michael Kramer highlighted coastal cooking traditions as he dished up sautéed Atlantic Shrimp with acre peas and broken Carolina gold rice.

Chef and the Farmer's chef Vivian Howard featured the frugal farmer's plate as she prepared a dish of air-dried sausage with turnips cooked in sausage broth and pickled cucumbers with cracklin' cornbread.

Table's Jacob Sessoms showcased Appalachian flavors with his dish of jowl bacon and ramps on a Johnny cake.

Local Three's chef Chris Hall pontificated on the humanistic philosophy behind his restaurant as diners eagerly devoured the dish of barbecued rabbit that he served atop a bed of rice grits at the About South supper on Friday night.