A St. George's fish sandwich was the first thing that the editor-in-chief of 'Food & Wine' magazine tasted when she arrived in Bermuda this week for the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival.

"I am always interested in the local food, whatever that is," said Dana Cowin in between cooking demonstrations at the Fairmont Southampton Princess on Saturday. "I had an amazing tour guide and he took me on a tour of the island. I had a perfectly fried grouper on whole wheat toast at Angeline's Coffee Shop on York Street in St. George's."

'Food & Wine' is a popular cooking magazine with 3.8 million readers. Ms Cowin's job is to take care of the magazine's editorial needs, and keep an eye on trends in food & wine, and also home entertaining, design and travel.

Ms Cowin said 'Food & Wine' magazine was supposed to partner with the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival last year, but the plan didn't work out because of Hurricane Fabian.

"The opportunity to partner with Bermuda was too fantastic to pass up," Ms Cowin said. "They had the idea for the festival for four years. They have made it come to life twice. We were proud to be their partner last year, but then Fabian came."

Food & Wine hosts a similar event in Aspen, Colorado every year called the Food & Wine Classic at Aspen.

"We have 5,000 people out to see cooking demos and taste wine," she said. "That is a summer event, but we like to pair up with other types of events.

"The food here is so good, and we felt we could use our expertise to bring great chefs here, and some great wine speakers to illuminate the tastings. We really came to lend our expertise."

She said she was impressed by the Festival-goers level of enthusiasm.

"Here you walk around, and everyone is enthusiastic about food and paying attention to the food," she said. "They are listening to the wine guy. I think that the chefs at the Festival are great.

"I love watching chefs do their work. It is fantastic. I love the different levels of things. I love the fact that there is a local chef competition, and having a barbeque at the beach is such a great idea."

Unfortunately, the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival will not be covered in the magazine, because 'Food & Wine' does not cover its own events. It did, however, give some advanced publicity for the Festival.

"'Food & Wine' at Aspen has been asked so many times, 'why don't you have a feature every year about the event?'," she said. "It is because we don't cover our own events.

"The reason we don't is because we are always looking ahead. If we covered the festival then it would be printed after the fact and people couldn't go. We don't cover any timed event where we are writing about it after the fact."

However, Ms Cowin said one of the reasons she came to Bermuda was not only to host the festival, but also to scout for possible stories. "We don't get an enormous number of Bermuda pitches for articles," she said. "I am always looking for stories wherever I am."

Ms Cowin is originally from New York, and has been editor-in-chief for 'Food & Wine' for a decade.

"The day that I graduated college I got a job at 'Vogue' magazine," she said. "Even better, I got the job that day, but it didn't start until the end of the summer, so I had three months to play.

"I attended Brown University in Rhode Island. I was always interested in lifestyles. I worked for three different magazines."