the article.

The seventh annual Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival is becoming bigger and better as each year passes. With the second year, as the Food Network’s title sponsor, this fantastic festival is a food lover’s and hospitality industry’s dream come true. South Beach as it’s gorgeous location, sunny blue skies, warm breezes, and sandy beaches, is the backdrop to this incredible four day event. It is surprisingly difficult to choose what a person would want to see and do with all the fabulous events, such as: inactive cooking demos, engrossing wine seminars, late night parties, informative lectures, and sampling culinary creations from premier restaurants in the country. The festival in it’s entirely is filled will all your favorite Food Network personalities, and encompasses large amounts of top-notch industry chefs. This is your opportunity to see and gain insights from, and frankly, who wouldn’t want to see them all in one place: Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Paula Deen, Giada De Laurentiis, Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, Emeril Lagasse, Jamie Oliver, Rachel Ray, Guy Fieri, Rick Bayless, Govind Armstrong, Anthony Bourdain, Michelle Bernstein, Rocco DiSpirito, Elizabeth Falkner, Duff Goldman, Daniel Humm, Madhur Jaffrey, Matt & Ted Lee, Masaharu Morimoto, Susan Spicer, Cutis Stone, Ming Tsai, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and this is just a few. Anyone who is interested in food, wine, cooking, television chefs, industry chefs, famous chefs and finally notorious chefs, this is “the” place to be in the month of February. The location is fabulous, the networking opportunity itself is fabulous, over all, this festival is a win win opportunity to be part of it all.

Typically on Saturday and Sunday, of the even weekend runs the Publix Grand Tasting Village, these two football field length tents are a wind whirl of products, food, wine, liquor, and libations to consume, sample, and perhaps learn about a new product unfamiliar to you, or a restaurant that you had not heard of. So, it is a fantastic opportunity to try them all out. There was no noticeable trends this year (unlike last year, which was rum), except the reintroduction to the market since prohibition of absinthe produced by Lucid Absinthe Superieure. Their booth had many interested people who became curious, and wanted to try it out. Another product of note that one could sample was from Jennifer’s Homemade; her Miami based company produces delicious and addictive flatbreads and biscotti. Outside of these two main tents were three demo kitchens where the famous chefs gave their show to the audiences. This year’s line up for demos was really exciting, to be able to see and learn from all your favorite Food Network stars, plus some very high-profile chefs. The audience went just crazy for Emeril, (who spoke about his buy-out from Martha Stewart, and seemed very happy) Duff Goldman, Anthony Bourdain, and especially Guy Fieri, but at the closing demo on Sunday it was Bobby Flay who had the audience and crowds going wild, people were screaming and yelling for the first twenty minutes, Flay could barely get a word in. The notorious Anthony Bourdain for his demo had an open “free for all” as he was calling it, which was an open question and answer, where anyone from the audience could ask him anything. The audience members had an incredible array of questions to ask him, they really loved getting the opportunity to ask, and see him in person, his “real”, sarcastic, and witty demure, really attracts a lot of people to him. From being in the audience you learned that him and his wife just had a baby, and he quit smoking, so his life is little tamer. One person who has had a real success story (coming off as the winner of 2006, Food Network’s, The Next Food Network Star) is Guy Fieri, and by the initiation of the crowds and cheers of audiences members during his demo, and the large amounts of fans hovering wanting photographs with him, this guy, has become a bonafide celebrity.

As each hour passes during the tasting village, you can either kick back and relax and people watch in the multiple lounge tents provided by Evian, Atlantis Hotel, or Godiva Chocolatier. Catch a cooking demo on the hour, get your favorite cookbook singed by your favorite author (which is a fantastic opportunity, in upon itself), or just walk around and take it all in. Whatever you decide, you will have fun doing it.

One point of contention was the scheduled appearance and then absence of Chef Robert Irvine, what happened you ask? It seemed like no one really knew what happened, or were confused as what happened, who is this guy anyways? About a week before the festival a South Florida newspaper reporter wrote a very scathing article about the true credentials of Irvine. Apparently Irvine during the process of construction of his new restaurant and bar called Ooze and Schmooze, in St. Petersburg, Florida ruffled the wrong local people. Talk insured among the locals and a reporter caught wind and started to investigate into Irvine background. Apparently his stated biography is a falsehood and extremely padded. Irvine was a no show at the festival, his bio was pulled from the official South Beach Food and Wine Festival’s website, and of this writing, his popular television show has been cancelled, and his product line pulled from the Home Shopping Network. Perhaps this total embarrassment of sorts, mirrors the true nature of the chef, and what it means to be a chef, an opposed to the television personality chef. I did find there to be some “quiet hushed talk” about this phenomenon that is going on in our county. Where Americans buy over six hundred million books a year concerning food and wine, and with the Food Network being broadcast in over ninety million homes. People are more food educated, and enlightened then ever before, but we also live in a county where the general populace do not have the fundamentals of basic cooking skills (Martha Stewart has recognized this trend, and is coming out with a book for the public, which should be published in the coming months). Our county is being populated with culinary voyeuristics. Either way this trend is having a very direct effect on the industry, especially young student chefs. Who in cooking schools across the country, instead of just learning the importance of knife skills and the making of stocks, or running a restaurant have to be prepped and educated on media exposure, and how to work on being a “personality”. One writer who was present at the festival, (in fact, stood with Bourdain on the stage, during Bourdain’s Q and A) Michael Ruhlman who is the author of many books, but one pertaining particularly to this situation, is called The Reach of the Chef, if you to are concerned about this tread in the industry, Ruhlman gives a very interesting and insightful look into this matter. Anthony Bourdain himself in this latest book The Nasty Bits touches on some of these issues.

Attending the festival is a privilege to see, being in the industry where you meet fellow chefs (it is the largest culinary event of its kind in the world) of this magnitude and network, you can’t. One thing also that attendees forget is this entire festival is for a good cause, Florida International University (FIU) and its School of Hospitality and Tourism Management directly benefits from the earning of the festival by providing scholarships and internships for its students. These students and graduates will become a part of our future in the hospitality industry. So next year either become a part of the festival itself with a booth showcasing your culinary talents or new food line, or just go, to have a good time and meet fellow chefs. Either way, you are going to have one fantastic, interesting, and educated time. Next years festival is stated to be on February 19-21, 2009.


Highlights:

Culinary stars Rachel Ray, Jamie Oliver, and Alice Waters join forces with scientists for change: A fresh start for our children, sponsored by the Agatston Research Foundation.

The Ritz Carlton Hotel was the setting for this enlightening educational panel discussion. The topic at hand concerned the problematic epidemic of obesity with our country’s children. As the lively discussion of the panelists ended and an open question and answer continued people within the audience seemed to really care and were concerned about this matter. Unfortunately through answers during the topic discussion, one started to see that this epidemic is a very political and economical problem that really has gotten out of control. People in the audience, wanted to know how it could change. Jamie Oliver (School Dinner Projects, Great Britain) had some very insightful answers, because he actually has caused change within the school luncheon program for Britain. He was matter of fact with his tone and answers. His thought to the matter and conclusion was “give the people the clarity of the subject, and they will make the decision”. He believes, the raising of hormone free animals, and a balanced healthy diet should be fed to children. Where the audience seemed to keep saying for America’s programs to work, “we need money!” yet when pushed by Jamie Oliver, as to how they would use this money to proceed in their programs, people seemed not to really know how to progress even with the money at hand. Rachel Ray seemed to be her “uplifting” and “cheery” self, she didn’t really add how to change eating habits for children, just to instill into them a love for food and cooking, though her organization (The Yum-O Organization, Inc.), she is helping them out. Alice Waters, another panelist, is a very high regarded person in the food industry, she is thought to be many chefs inspiration in their own cooking and style (local and seasonal), and she is doing very good work in promoting good health and eating habits for children though her program Edible Schoolyard Programs, which teaches children where there food comes from (by growing it), and how to prepare and cook it. During this discussion, thoughts of her “everyday reality” came in question, her answers to audiences questions were, short, vague, and pretentious. Apparently Berkeley, California is very attuned to this matter of healthy eating, and getting back to nature, and in other parts of the country I’m sure this is the case, then why is there an epidemic of obese children in this country? One has to understand the general populace’s cooking and eating habits and their relationships to food. One audience member stated and then asked. “I’m 33, I do not know how to cook, my mother raised me into thinking vegetables come out of cans, and are eaten with squeeze bottled cheese, how can I change my eating habits and be more healthy? Water’s response to this question was “food is precise, go to a farmer’s market, meet the farmers in your area, who grow your food, and then grow an organic garden”. If a person does not know the fundamentals of cooking itself, how is looking at a vegetables and fruits at the farmers market give you this knowledge? Waters means well, but she has lost touch with “middle America’s lifestyle” and their “fast food” relationship with food in general. Other highlights of the panel were Arthur Agatston, M.D. author of The South Beach Diet, and David Lugwig M.D. author of Ending the Food Fight. Both men see first hand the epidemic of obesity in our county, their discussion and inputs to this matter, were apolitical and based on medical findings. Lastly on the panel was Under Secretary Nancy Montanez Johner from the USDA. Unfortunately her “canned” and “generalized” replies to audiences members, seemed to convey a typical government “talking head”. Overall, the message was clear, our country must look into this matter; school systems lunch programs need to be reconstructed. After this luncheon, more people become educated on this very important epidemic and tragedy that is happening in our country.

www.jamieoliver.com/schooldinners/manifesto
www.yum-o.org
www.edibleschoolyard.org
www.southbeachdiet.com
www.childrenshospital.org/cfapps/research/data_admin/Site114/mainpageS114P0.html

Moet & Chandon Bubble Q
Hosted by Giada De Laurentiis and Friends


The Bubble Q is a gigantic tent enclosed party set on the beautiful sandy beach on the edge of the ocean. With the tent’s length of almost a football field in size, this is one party you do not want to miss. The champagne flows, people are in real party fever, and the partygoer has fantastic food to try and is surrounded by high style South Beach décor. This year, the DJ was playing hot music, and there was a troupe of fire dancers doing tricks and putting on a theatrical show for everyone. The moment you walk into the party, one has over 24 different restaurants and TV personality booths to choose from, and try their creations. Each booth is representing their concept of barbecue. It is also a fantastic opportunity to sample a cross hatch of the restaurants doing some form of barbecue in this country. Such as: Govind Armstrong from Table 8, Chris Lilly from Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Que, Kenny Callaghan from Blue Smoke, Kent Rathbun from Steak, or Patrick Neely from Neely’s Bar-B-Que, just to name a few.
Another fun aspect of this party is to be able to mingle with well know to semi obscure personalities within the food world. Such as: Michael Ruhlman (author of The Soul of the Chef, appearances on Anthony Bourdain’s TV show No Reservations), Ted Allen (Top Chef, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) and Sam Talbot (Top Chef season 2). Of course Giada De Laurentiis at her booth had a crowd around her, as did Tyler Florence, and even TV’s Iron Chef America Cat Cora. One chef Curtis Stone from TLC’s Take Home Chef seemed to be a real flirt and heartthrob with the ladies at his booth, serving up a grilled shrimp.
As with every year, the help of the Florida International University (FIU) and its School of Hospitality and Tourism Management students is very important, the party would not be able to happen. With the guidance of their chef instructor Michael Moran, these students worked extremely long hours to provide partygoers with such a fabulous party. At the end of the party it was a sight to see, the cheers and jubilee of the students celebrating there job well done, encircling chef Moran, and shouting well wishes, as they sprayed champagne and water at chef Moran. This scene really shows the true nature of people in the hospitality industry, it all comes down to teamwork, good management, understanding, and leadership. Chef Moran should feel really proud of his students, and the great job they did.
As each year passes the Bubble Q gets bigger and better, with over 3000 attendees this year, it is one high-class, super charged, outrageously fun party to attend!
As a restaurant owner or chef, the exposure you can receive at his event is priceless. So either book yourself in as a contributor next year, or order your tickets as a partygoer. But do so quick this event sells out quick.


Mohegan Sun’Set

This is the closing party to the festival; the party was located at Mansion nightclub, which is a hot club in South Beach. After all the high intensity of the festival, this party is a great way to wind down and listen to some great DJ music, and sample creations from Mohegan Sun’s executive chef Michael Luboff, Jasper White, chef/owner of Jasper’s White’s Summer Shack and Todd English of Todd English’s Tuscany. There was a “raw bar” to choose from, and a highly styled tiered ceviche bar to enjoy. With libations provided by Belvedere Vodka, Hennessy, and Captain Morgan spiced rum. One highlight of the party was the animated, entertaining, and incredibly funny guy who was playing the “character” of Captain Morgan. He mingled with the crowd and put smiles on people faces, and helped “get the party going”. Mohegan Sun is a casino/resort based in Uncasville, Connecticut.


Belvedere After Party

The party was located at the Paris Theater in South Beach. This is a very economical priced event to attend. People were dressed up and the vodka was flowing. Fantastic live band played between the DJ set. Unfortunately I think last year’s location at the National Hotel was a better setting, for the Paris Theatre seemed a bit “contained” and crowded. Hopefully next year the party will return to the previous location. It is a very low-key, fun, high-spirited party, with appetizers served thought the party’s duration.