Fifth Annual South Beach Wine & Food Festival Presented by Food & Wine Magazine Raises Approximately $825,000 for Florida International University

Fifth Annual South Beach Wine & Food Festival Presented by Food & Wine Magazine Raises Approximately $825,000 for Florida International University

MIAMI BEACH, Fla., April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2006 South Beach Wine & Food Festival, presented by Food & Wine magazine, entertained more than 24,000 people Thursday, February 23, through Sunday, February 26, 2006, and raised approximately $825,000 in support of the industry's future leaders.

Produced by Southern Wine & Spirits of Florida and Florida International University, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival benefits the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management Teaching Restaurant and the Southern Wine & Spirits Beverage Management Center, both located at FIU.

"The Festival continues to make available countless opportunities for up- and-coming restaurateurs, chefs, sommeliers and hoteliers to work alongside the world's very best practitioners in every facet of the industry," says Joseph J. West, dean of the FIU School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

More than 500 students of the Florida International University (FIU) School of Hospitality and Tourism Management -- one of the country's top- ranked educators of travel, tourism, and food and beverage industry professionals -- assisted organizers with sponsorship fulfillment, restaurant and exhibitor recruitment, logistics, registration, inventory, as well as worked alongside celebrity chefs to prepare gourmet meals that were accompanied by fine wines and premium spirits.

"As a student volunteer, I was able to assist Bobby Flay, Adam Perry Lang, Chris Lilly and other top-rated chefs at the BubbleQ with their food prep. I also had the opportunity to work with Target, one of the major sponsors of the festival," says Joe McKinney, a junior at the FIU School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. "The South Beach Wine & Food Festival creates invaluable opportunities for the students of FIU and gives us an added value for attending the school."

Showcasing over 100 international celebrity chefs, culinary personalities and world-renowned wine and spirits producers, South Beach once again went on display at this annual gathering, entertaining patrons in high style and educating palates with cooking demos and wine seminars.

The Bubble Bath kicked off the weekend on Thursday night at Hotel Victor, where guests indulged in Champagne Veuve Clicquot. On Friday night, champagne continued to flow at the Delano Hotel, where patrons of the Moet & Chandon BubbleQ sipped on fine bubbly and feasted on finger-licking-good barbeque from all-star chef Bobby Flay and a dozen other grill-masters. Further up the beach at the Fontainebleau Resort, Wine Spectator's Best of the Best showcased the mouth-watering bounty of 17 of the country's top chefs, including Laurent Tourondel, Geoffrey Zakarian, Michael Mina, Tom Colicchio, Scott Conant, Todd English and Mark Militello, to name just a few, and featured the best wines from 30 of the country's top wineries.

On Saturday, fine wine continued to pour at the Wine Spectator Wine Seminars while Andrea Robinson and Joe Bastianich educated wine enthusiasts eager to learn from the masters. That night, at the Festival's host hotel, the Loews Miami Beach, Jose Andres, Thomas Keller, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Gray Kunz, Nobu Matsuhisa, Marc Ehrler, Pierre Herme, Emeril Lagasse and Norman Van Aken wowed 600 guests at an historic dinner orchestrated in honor of celebrated chef Ferran Adria. Later that evening, the Festival celebrated five sweet years of decadence at the greatest dessert party ever seen, Sweet Deco-Dence, where guests were treated to the delights of such revered pastry chefs as Francois Payard, Nancy Silverton, Vicki Wells, Karen De Masco and Hedy Goldsmith, to name just a few. The evening ended in high fashion with a gathering of Festival chefs and culinary personalities to cut a special hand- crafted cake prepared by sugar artist Margaret Braun in honor of the Festival's fifth anniversary.

"I am so proud of the awareness we have brought to South Beach's culinary scene in only five years by inviting the greatest names in the food and wine world to entertain and educate thousands of gourmands in the fun and sun of South Beach. I can't wait to see what the next five years will bring," says Festival Founder and Director Lee Brian Schrager.

The Festival also paid tribute to industry leaders Baron Eric de Rothschild, Regynald Washington and Maida Heatter at a Tribute Brunch at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel on Sunday afternoon.

The Festival's signature event, the American Express Grand Tasting, held at the Grand Tasting Village on South Beach, attracted approximately 15,500 guests. Over 100 restaurants, caterers and exhibitors, and more than 250 wineries, spirits producers, water and non-alcoholic beverage providers offered generous samples to patrons, giving them a comprehensive taste of South Florida's eclectic food, wine and spirits scene. Throughout the weekend, more than 20,000 bottles were poured at the Grand Tasting Village, with an astounding 465 different varieties of wine, champagne, fine spirits, water and non-alcoholic beverages.

Also at the Grand Tasting Village, Food Network's Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, Cat Cora, David Lieberman, George Duran and Paula Deen, with her boys Jamie and Bobby, entertained thousands of festival guests at the Festival's Culinary Seminars, held in two KitchenAid Tents and a third Target Cook-Off Tent. Also joining them were Emeril Lagasse, Rachael Ray, Alton Brown and Giada De Laurentiis, who also launched the Festival's first-ever Kidz Kitchen culinary seminars geared towards young aspiring chefs.

The Sixth Annual South Beach Wine & Food Festival, scheduled to take place Friday, February 23 - Sunday, February 25, 2007, will continue to bring together some of the greatest names in the food and wine world to entertain patrons in high style. Al Roker returns to South Beach to kick off the festivities at the BubbleQ on Friday, February 23. On Saturday, February 24, a special Tribute Dinner will honor New York City's Michelin three-star chef Eric Ripert and Maguy Le Coze of Le Bernardin at a soire prepared by Daniel Boulud, Laurent Gras, Elena Arzak, Marc Ehrler and Le Bernardin's own pastry chef, Michael Laiskonis, at the Festival's host hotel, the Loews Miami Beach.

For more information about the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, visit the Festival website at http://www.sobewineandfoodfest.com/ or call 877-762-3933. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/ and for more information about Southern Wine & Spirits, visit http://www.southernwine.com/ .

Source: South Beach Wine & Food Festival

CONTACT: Patrick Jong, South Beach Wine & Food Festival,
+1-305-627-1275, or patrickjong@southernwine.com; or Lisa Palley of Palley
Promotes, +1-305-642-3132, or Lpalley@aol.com, for the South Beach Wine & Food
Festival; or Maydel Santana Bravo of Florida International University,
+1-305-348-1555, or Maydel.Santana-bravo@fiu.edu

Web site: http://www.sobewineandfoodfest.com/
http://www.fiu.edu/
http://www.southernwine.com/

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