So I was reading my friend Jean's blog about an International Food festival in NYC this weekend and practicallly drooling on my keyboard, then I came up to our own local food & art festival happening this weekend. 

This Sunday, more than 25 local chefs are going to go head to head (to head to head to head to head to head . . . ) in a cooking competition. Broad Appétit, a new festival in this festival-happy city, combines food and art in an afternoon celebration of the stuff of life. Naturally, the food and art will be available at reasonable prices.

Want to try a mini-dish of duck confit barbecue from the tony French restaurant 1 North Belmont? It will be three bucks. Is a Louisiana seafood gumbo from Louisiana Flair more your style? Three bucks. Or barbecued ribs from Buz & Ned's Real Barbecue? Three bucks.

The chefs are competing to determine who has what event organizers are calling the "To Die For Dish" in Richmond. Each chef will make three dishes -- and they'll all be available to the public for . . . well, you know.

But Broad Appétit isn't just about an exceptionally wide variety of food (organic crab cakes from Mosaic, Kahl?a chocolate mousse served in filo dough from 27, African vegetarian dishes from Africanne on Main) at a low price (three bucks). It's also about art at a low price (50 bucks).

The key to the art is you won't know who created it until you've bought it. Seventy-five artists -- some known, some not so known -- are making original art, all of it 6 inches by 9 inches. Each piece will go for half a C-note.

The works won't be labeled, although they'll be signed on the back. Only once you've bought it will you know who made it.

More than 30 vendors and growers will sell their wares -- everything from chocolate to espressos to fresh farm goods -- allowing attendees to meet the people who grow their foods and learn their latest growing techniques. These foods will generally be organic, free-range, pasture-fed and otherwise chemically unadulterated.

And just as it wouldn't be a picnic without ants, it wouldn't be a Richmond celebration without insects. But in this case, the focus will be on bugs that are edible, for those who are inclined to eat such things.

At noon, David George Gordon, the author of "The Compleat Cockroach" and "From Soup to Gnats: The Essentials of Bug Cookery," will discuss the finer points of munching on our six-legged friends. At 1 p.m., David Gracer will also talk about the healthful benefits of eating insects and will apparently attempt to convince audience members that they, too, will want to try a sautéed giant water bug or two.

With two proponents of insect-eating at the same event, it almost goes without saying that they will engage in a cook-off. It will begin at 3 p.m. Emerson warns that previous Richmond events featuring cooked bugs have sold out. Yuck.

Hmmm....I don't think I will be checking the bug cookery out, but I am up for trying all other edibles!