BAM! Scenes from the 2010 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival

South Beach Food and Wine Festival 2010

by Dwight Casimere

BAM! Emeril Lagasse added the verbal exclamation point to one of his signature recipes at a cooking demonstration cheered by thousands on the outdoor Kitchenaid Stage at the very entrance of the ninth annual Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

More than a hundred thousand foodies and wine connoisseurs crowded at the opening gate for the two day gourmet extravaganza like crowds waiting for the rushing of the bulls at Pamplona. Souvenir Waterford Crystal glassware in hand and orange goodie bags at their side, they were set to sample the best of Miami’s and the nation’s top chefs and wine and spirits offerings from the leading wine and beverage makers of the world.

Daniel Server of The Grill on the Alley, Aventura, Florida was one of the 60 chefs and restaurants that stirred, chopped, Chipotle’d and sautéed for enough greedy gourmands to fill a Super Bowl Stadium. “We wanted to do sort a Surf ‘n Turf ceviche. So, we’ve got a little bit of smoked rock shrimp, beef tenderloin and Aji Amarillo, a type of Peruvian yellow chili. When we decided to do the event, we thought it was going to be really hot, so we thought a nice, cool ceviche would work. The beef gives it a nice, rich flavor that will go with the wines. It’s South Florida, so you’ve got to have some (Latin) ceviche going on. The rock shrimp are native to Florida, so we thought it would be something nice to do to give it a local glair!”

France was well represented with the French Ambassador to the United States, the Honorable Pierre Vimont, presiding over the ribbon cutting, which opened the three-day festival. Ross Wasserman represents the wines of the Loire Valley in France. “We’re a range of Loire Valley wines. It’s a very large region with very diverse climates and terroir. We have Muscadet from the coastal area around Nance; we have Sancerre, which is Sauvignon Blance, from the birthplace of Sauvignon Blanc, which is a definitive Sauvignon Blanc. We have Vouvray, which is Chenin Blanc from the Turin region. A then we have two reds. We have a red Sancerre. Sancerre is best known for its white wine, but they also make an excellent red. We have Chignon, which is an unblended Cabernet Franc and finally, we have an off-dry Haut Medoc. We basically, have a wine here for every dish that is being served. They’re very food-friendly wines that are not oaked. Oak tends to make wine very heavy and these are very light. For ceviches and any of the shellfish they are serving, the Sancerre and the Puilly Fume would be perfect. For the richer foods, like crab or lobster or grilled meals, the reds would be perfect. The reds would also go perfect with grilled salmon.”

There was more food than could possibly be eaten in a single afternoon. To top things off, volunteers were passing out samples of desserts, spices, coffees and condiments to take home. Barilla pasta handed out packets of its signature pasta sauces. Bertolli olive oil gave out a really handy plastic cutting board that was lightweight and versatile and colorful as well.
Paula Deen passed out samples of her new line of frozen entrees and Southern-inspired side dishes, due in grocery stores in the Spring. She got the catfish just right. Now for a power walk on the beach for the mile and a half trek home!

Scenes from The Wine Spectator Best of the Best-Fontainebleau Miami Beach

South Beach Miami and Wine Spectator Present "Best of the Best"

by Dwight Casimere

Fontainebleau Miami Beach was the setting for Wine Spectator’s Best of the Best. Sponsored by Bank of America, it was the premiere gourmet event, which officially opened the 2010 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

After a day that included the Wine Spectator Trade Tasting at the Whole Foods Market Grand Tasting Village in the tents constructed on Miami Beach and a spectacular private luncheon at Quattro Ristorante featuring Pio Boffa of the legendary Pio Cesare wine family of Piemonte Italy.

It was an evening of legendary gastronomy with winemakers and chefs from across the United States and the important wine producing regions of the globe converging in a single place. There were nearly three thousand people in attendance for what many are calling the “Super Bowl” of wine and food.

Bill Kim of Chicago’s Urban Belly laid bare his Korean soul with his Kim Chi soup prepared with fresh Asian herbs and spices.

Fontainebleau Miami Beach’s Kivane Kaymak, pastry chef at Hakkasan, nearly stole the show with his tasty dessert composition. “I’m serving coconut sorbet with a side of coulis and coconut crumble. I’m from Turkey, so I’m used to combining flavors that are both tropical and Asian and a bit Mediterranean to create a different set of flavors. It seemed perfect for the Best of the Best!” I first met Kim when he was Chef de Cuisine at Le Lan in Chicago. At the time, he was just incubating the idea of Urban Belly, in which he expressed his desire to present the home cooked flavors and textures of the food he grew up with in Seoul. Its nice to see him hitting the big leagues at SoBe Food & Wine Festival!

Wen Sian Tan, Chef de Cuisine at Hakkasan created a sensation with his crispy duck salad. The deceptively simple dish revealed a depth of flavor and complexity of texture that caused samplers to linger at his table to discuss preparation methods of this unique dish. The dish belied his experience in restaurants across Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing. It also betrayed the elegance he cultivated during his tenure with The Four Seasons. Kanpei!

Kaymak said his experiences as a restaurant chef helped shape his choice as a special preparation for the evening, “I’ve worked with Emeril for the past six years and I was in New Orleans for 9 years, so that brings a lot of experience with exotic flavors and spices to the forefront. This dish is pretty straightforward with the flavors of coconut and tropical fruit, passion fruit and coconut crumble for texture and a bit of chocolate liquor just for texture and a little depth of flavor. Everybody’s lovin’ it!”

Michael Parollo with Scarpetto Miami was having a ball preparing one of the most popular and delectable dishes of the evening. “Creamy polenta with truffled mushrooms. It’s the signature dish of chef Scott Conant of Scarpetta at Fountainbleau, Miami Beach. It’s all from northern Italy with the roundness of the polenta and the truffles with the fricassee and the Fontina cheese. It makes for a brilliant taste combination that really goes well with the variety of wines being served here.”

It was terrific to run into an old friend from last year’s Aspen Wine & Food Classic, the granddaddy of all food and wine events, Ryan Hardy from Montagna at The Little Nell. His restaurant is a virtual Mecca of handcrafted cuisine.

Stephan Pyles of his namesake restaurant in Houston, Texas took comfort food to a higher level with his Oxtail tamales. “I wrote a book on tamales. One of my four books is strictly on tamales. So I try to do interesting things with them and oxtails are the new short ribs. They’re the ultimate comfort food. Something maybe your grandmother used to make, but nobody likes to talk about it. Now they’ve come out of the kitchen and into the forefront of restaurant cuisine and they make a really great tamale dish Here, I’ve done it in a kind of downscale ‘surf n’ turf’ variation with Hake, which is a Gulf Coast white fish, similar to Sea Bass that has a lot of flavor and firm texture. It really goes well with the fatty texture of the oxtail. I spent a lot of time in Spain where they also eat a lot of Hake. So I smoked it lightly and combined it with the oxtail in a tamale for a really unctuous kind of eating experience.”

No meal is complete without a touch of chocolate at the end. So it was back to another old friend from Chicago, Mindy Segal of Mindy’s Hot Chocolate who presented two delicious hot chocolate ‘shakes’ made with dark and milk chocolate respectively. I remember Mindy from her days as pastry chef at MK and Charlie Trotter’s. Just one sip and you can see why she won numerous awards in her hometown, including the Jean Blanchet Award for Best Celebrity Pastry Chef and Chicago Magazine’s Pastry Chef of the Year. Her latest solo venture, HotChocolate Restaurant and Dessert Bar is a culmination of her 20 years of creativity and passion.

I left the Best of the Best with a couple of bottles of VOSS premium water from Norway under my arm. I gave one of them to my cab driver as he dropped me off at my apartment on Indian Creek Drive, not far from the Fontainebleau. “This is really a touch of class,” he said as he looked at the bottle. That’s about the best way to describe the entire evening.

Patron Late Night After Party lights up South Beach Food & Wine Festival

Celebrity Chef Todd English “got the party started” at the Patron Tequila/MIAMI Magazine opening night After Party to kick off the 2010 Food Network South Beach Food & Wine Festival at the chic W Hotel. With chef’s stations and Tequila bars set up around the massive outdoor pool facing the white-sand beach, local celebrity chefs whipped up their best to pair with imaginative cocktails made with Patron Tequila by some of South Beach’s best mixologists.

Executive Chef Frank Jeannetti Essensia restaurant at The Palms Hotel and Spa Miami Beach weighed in with an elaborate dish. I’ll let him describe: “Chili spiced tuna tartar with avocado…wasabi tobiko accompanied by tuna carpaccio with a lemon truffle vinaigrette cucumbers, lotus root chips and chive oil…something simple!”

Chad Ford of DeVito’s South Beach, the famous actor’s popular Northern Italian eatery, was putting on quite a show. He and his staff were sautéing up a storm! The flames were illuminating the night sky poolside as they cooked up some killer homemade gnocchi in a delicious hand ground pesto sauce.

Jonathan Wright and his staff from the Setai, South Beach garnered one of the longest lines, with their Sous Chef making handmade pulled Buffalo Mozzarella to go into a composed dish of fresh plum tomatoes, arugula, sliced Prosciutto, olive oil, sea salt an fresh ground peppercorns; just the thing for a refreshing Patron mojito over crushed ice!

The battle was on at Marco Ferraro’s station at Wish, Miami Beach between Prosciutto and Serrano ham served on a crustini of fresh bread with garlic, olive oil and machengo and Parmesan cheeses.

A pair of Patron disco dancers writhed to the pulsating beat of the music that provided the backdrop for the nation’s top chefs, sponsors and restaurateurs who flew in for the weekend to attend the nation’s biggest gastronomic bash on the beach.

Miami is 'Foodie Mecca' at 2010 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival

by Dwight Casimere

Photos of 2009 Rachel Ray Soundcheck at the Hotel Victor by Dwight Casimere

“Best of the Best” is but one of the events highlighting the 2010 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami, but the phrase also adequately describes the event in its entirety.

With French Ambassador to the United States, the Honorable Pierre Vimont, presiding over a special celebration of the Champagne Region of France and the Cuisine of France in 2010, he will also cut the ribbon opening the festival at the Whole Foods Market Grand Tasting Village where the likes of Rachel Ray, Emeril Lagasse, Paula Deen, Guy Fieri and other Food Network star chefs will hold court before thousands in a series of cooking demonstrations and Culinary and Lifestyle Seminars.

“For a foodie,” this is the next best thing to Super Bowl,” said one of the festival’s organizers at the headquarters suite at the Loews Miami Beach.

“This year’s festival is bigger and better than ever.” Besides the star power of the Food Network galaxy of celebrity chefs, the Festival has also added an element of social responsibility. The Festival and Southern Wine & Spirits have created an additional dinner event to benefit Haiti. World renowned chef Daniel Boulud and Food Network’s Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto will join South Florida favorite Kris Wessel (Red Light Little River, Miami) at the popular Tap Tap Haitian restaurant, South Beach, to create a one-of-a-kind menu for a limited number of guests. All proceeds will benefit Partners in Health.

“Social responsibility plays and integral role at Southern Wine & Spirits of America and at the Festival itself,” said Lee Schrager, Vice President of Corporate Communications & National Events at Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc. and Founder and Director of the Festival.

The most anticipated is the leadoff event, Amstel Light Burger Bash hosted by Rachel Ray and presented by Allen Brothers at the Ritz-Carlton, South Beach. The sold out event will feature 27 hamburgers prepared by a culinary team of 120 representing 10 states in a 25,000 square foot tent. Rachel Ray will crown the winning team for the best burger. Over 7,500 lbs of 10 different varieties of ground meat will be used to make up to 48,000 hamburgers. 1.5 TONS of Idaho potatoes will be served as fries to accompany them and 125 thousand gallons of Heinz ketchup and mustard will be consumed along with 7,000 servings of Amstel Light Beer

On the other end of the spectrum, the Festival is pleased to honor one of the most celebrated French culinary icons in the United States, Chef Daniel Boulud of Lyon, France who will be honored at the 2010 Tribute Dinner. The celebration will take place at the Festival host hotel, Loews Miami Beach. Food & Wine’s Gail Simmons, once the special events manager for Chef Boulud’s restaurant empire will host the special tribute. As the French would say, “Bon Appetit!”

Scenes from a "Premiere Weekend" in the Napa Valley