Third annual Hawaii Food and Wine Festival, September 1-9, 2013

Last year's Hawaii Food and Wine Festival event at The Modern. Photo courtesy of Hawaii Food and Wine Festival.

It's time to start planning for this year's Hawaii Food and Wine Festival, Hawaii's largest celebrity chef event, now expanded into more than a week of activities, from September 1 to 9, 2013. Tickets have just been released and the chefs announced: the A-listers include modernist cuisine chef Grant Achatz of Alinea and Next in Chicago. (His connection to Hawaii? He made a name for himself at Henry "Hank" Adaniya's now-closed fine-dining restaurant Trio outside of Chicago. Yup, that Hank, who once launched the careers of many James Beard award-winning chefs, now slinging hot dogs at Hank's Haute Dogs.)

Also slated: offal-loving Chris Cosentino of Incanto and salumeria Boccalone in San Francisco; Peruvian chef Ricardo Zarate of Picca, Mo-Chica and just-opened "Peruvian izakaya" Paiche in Los Angeles; and Dominique Crenn, the first female chef in the U.S. to receive two Michelin stars with her food-as-art restaurant Atelier Crenn in San Francisco.

It will be the third year for the festival, founded by Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong to create an experience "that really capture[s] the essence of the Islands," said Yamaguchi in a press release. To that end, all chefs are required to incorporate grown-in-Hawaii ingredients. Part of the proceeds from the event go to local non-profits such as Paepae o Heeia and Papahana Kuaola, dedicated to reviving Hawaiian traditions via fishpond and ahupuaa restoration, as well as culinary schools such as the Culinary Institute of the Pacific and Maui Culinary Academy.

Of course, local chefs are well-represented: new-to-the-festival chefs include Top Chef finalist Sheldon Simeon of Star Noodle and Chris Kajioka of Vintage Cave, while our local celebrity chefs such as George Mavrothalassitis and Ed Kenney return to cook at headlining events.

On the wine and spirits side, visiting winemakers from Au Bon Climat, Harlan Estate, Aston, Brewer-Clifton and more will be hosting wine seminars, while Jim Meehan from PDT in New York and Tony Abou-Ganim (aka The Modern Mixologist) are among the bartenders pouring cocktails.

For the full list of confirmed chefs (there are too many to list) and a look at the events, visit HawaiiFoodandWineFestival.com. Buy tickets before August 23 for early-bird pricing; prices increase $25 after that date.

Hawaii Food and Wine Festival, September 1-9, 2013, HawaiiFoodandWineFestival.com