This year's Festa Italiana in Schererville will feature a celebrity chef, Italian food, eating contests, grape stomping bocce ball "and much Amore." The annual Italian festival will take place at Villa Cesare Banquets & Events at 900 Eagle Ridge Drive in Schererville the weekend of Aug. 5. It will feature live entertainment, family-friendly activities and "MasterChef" Season 5 finalist Phillipe Sobon.

Sobon, who also appeared on Food Network's "Cooks vs. Cons," will have hands-on pasta-making classes Saturday and Sunday. He's learned the traditional Italian skill of making fresh pasta from the renowned chef Fabio Viviani. Students in the all-ages classes will make fettuccine and gnocchi and enjoy their homemade meal, which will be accompanied by bruschetta and wine.