South Beach Wine and Food Festival
MIAMI, FL, Febrary 22, 2007. The South Beach Wine and Food Festival is set to kickoff on Thursday, 2/22/07, and crews are working hard to prepare to greet over 18,000 people over the next four days. Officials are setting up tents, electrical equipment, even porto-potties for the expected crowds expected to descend on South Beach.
The South Beach Wine & Food Festival, hosted by the Food Network, is a national, star-studded, four-day event that showcases the talents of the world's most renowned wine and spirit producers, chefs and culinary personalities.
Hosted by Southern Wine & Spirits of Florida and Florida International University, the festival benefits the Teaching Restaurant and the Southern Wine & Spirits Beverage Management Center, both located at FIU.
The South Beach Wine and Food festival will also serve as host for the first-ever awards show, the Food Network Awards. The Awards will tape on Friday at the Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival. The 90-minute ceremony will premiere on Food Network, Sunday, April 15th at 9 PM.
World-renowned chef Emeril Lagasse will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the evening. Other Food Network star presenters will include: Rachael Ray, Giada De Laurentiis, Bobby Flay, Paula Deen, Bobby Deen, Sandra Lee, Alton Brown, and Nigella Lawson. Academy Award winner Catherine Zeta-Jones and Golden Globe nominee Aaron Eckhart will attend and present during the ceremony.
Now in its sixth year, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival began as a one-day festival known as the Florida Extravaganza held at FIU's Biscayne Bay Campus. For five years, the Florida Extravaganza showcased wines from national and international wineries paired with food from local restaurants and chefs working with students of FIU's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
Last year, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival celebrated its fifth anniversary and today is one of the largest and most well-known festivals of its kind in the country.
During the planning of the 2007 festival, Food Network entered into partnership with the South Beach Wine & Food Festival to become its title sponsor. The resulting Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival combines the international appeal of top-quality libations from around the world, the national appeal of the Food Network and its celebrity chefs and hosts, and the appeal of Latin and Caribbean-inspired regional cuisine.
The Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival officially opens on Thursday, 2/22/07. Click here for a complete list of the weekends events from the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival's official website.
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