10 things I learned at the Aspen Food and Wine Festival

1. Relax your meat
This was said time and time again. Whether it's after you sear a steak or roast a chicken, let the thing relax, yo. It'll thank you in your mouth.

2. Bourbon doesn't have to be from Kentucky.
In one sitting, I tasted Kentucky bourbon, California bourbon, New York bourbon, and Colorado bourbon. That last one, made entirely of malt barley, was the bombshizznet. It'll accompany me to the desert tomorrow, but I'm afraid it might not make it out.

3. Never buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
It is the least flavorful part of the chicken, not to mention it's missing the skin and bones...otherwise known as the tasty goodness. I'll be roasting my chickens whole from here on out.

4. Never use olive oil when grillin steak.
It's got a low flash point and will burn quickly, leaving the meat bitter. Peanut or canola oil will do just fine. Courtesy of Tim Love from Forth Worth.

5. Wine is best considered a condiment.
Don't get me wrong, I'll still drink my sippin wines. However, when pairing a wine to your food, there's helluva lot to learn that'll blow your tastebuds out the back of your head.

6. Find your own wind.
Be geo-specific. Italian food tastes like the places it's cooked in. However, when making a dish, don't worry about getting the ingredients from the place the recipe was made in. Get them from your local farmers and make that dish taste like where your from. Courtesy of Mario Batali.

7. Mexican food is a symphony of flavors.
If you were to eat dinner cooked by a Mexican grandmother and told her that you loved the cinammon and garlic and cilantro of her dish, you'd be thrown out of the house. You're not supposed to be able to pick out the ingredients. Instead, they should all flow together and create a great symphony of flavor. Courtesy of Rick Bayless.

8. Whoever invented the garlic press was a genius. And a bastard.
It takes ten seconds to press the garlic and 74 years to pick all the shit out of it. Instead, just peel the clove and hammer it with the flat part of your knife. Garlic pressed. Courtesy of Michael Symon.

9. 'If you want to eat the cutting board, beat the shit out of your herbs.'
When cutting herbs, only do one pass. What your doing is releasing the oils and if you chop the hell out of them, as I have been doing for all of my cooking life, then your only seasoning the board. Courtesy of Michael Symon.

10. You can't escape the paparazzi.
Sure enough, they caught Brian and Anita in the tasting tent enjoying a miniature martini together. The next day, it was all over the Aspen Times.