Devour 2024 winners and scenes from the Desert Botanical Garden

Editor's Note: This article was initially published on Feb. 26 and updated with the contest's results on Feb. 27.


The Desert Botanical Garden was closed to the general plant-loving public this weekend for a special food-filled event. The always sold-out Devour Culinary Classic celebrated its 15th annual festival with a weekend packed with chefs, small plates and excited attendees.

Nearly two decades ago, the festival began as a way for local chefs to showcase and promote the budding metro Phoenix food scene. Over the years, Devour has grown into one of the most well-known and regarded food festivals in the state and beyond.

Throughout the two-day event, chefs create bites specifically for the festival or feature miniature versions of dishes served at their restaurants, and attendees from near and far are invited to sample. A pannel of five judges, including food critics, writers and chefs, rate the dishes and pick one Best in Show winner plus a host of winning restaurants and chefs in categories including double gold, gold, silver and bronze.

Devour's 2024 winners

This year's Best in Show award went to the Gastronomic Union of Tucson. The collaborative effort included chefs Juan Almanza, Kelzi Bartholomaei, Mat Cable, Michael Elefante, Obadiah Hindman, Sarah Lamberth, Roderick Ledesmo and Devon Sanner. Together they presented three dishes at the festival.

The Birria Campanelle was an interesting bite of crispy fried pasta topped with savory beef birria, cotija cheese, avocado and lime salsa and corn crema. The union also presented their Tacos de Canasta de Calabazo y Cascabel, tiny tacos filled with mesquite-roasted white squash, chiles, pepitas and tepary beans. Their sweet offering was a vibrant jamaica and limoncello cheesecake.

Four restaurants were awarded double gold medals at this year's event for their dishes. The winners were Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.'s Arizona Wagyu slider and duck fat rosemary fries, Cafe Lalibela's red lentils and cabbage and chicken and yellow split peas, Chilte's Duroc pork tomahawk with huitlacoche chiltepin mole and Tia Carmen with its tuna tostada and unique cheese-topped vanilla flan.

The Heritage Food Medal was introduced in 2023 and is a special award that recognizes "the best dishes with ingredients that are indigenous, heirloom, low-water, desert-adapted or locally sourced (within a 100-mile radius of the restaurant) and thus more sustainable for Arizona," according to the Devour website.

This year's winner, who also won a gold medal, is The Rez: An Urban Eatery with its chocolate mole tamale and jackfruit taco served on a blue corn tortilla.

Scenes from the Desert Botanical Garden

This weekend, tents featured mostly metro Phoenix vendors, with a few special appearances from Southern Arizona winemakers, the winning Tucson chefs and famed Sedona chef Lisa Dahl. On Saturday, many of the tents were hosted by local resort restaurants as well.

Throughout the event, select chefs and bartenders provided a window into their world with food and drinks demonstrations under blooming desert trees in the garden's quaint amphitheater.

Attendees mingled and tried bites of food and samples of wine and spirits all throughout the botanical gardens, with oversized artwork from Colombian sculptor Fernando Botero and towering saguaros and spring flowers as the backdrop. Here's a look at the festivities.