The Edit by Brett Graff: SOBEWFF Edition
The celebrity-packed and food-filled fundraiser for FIU's School of Hospitality Celebrated a 20 year anniversary.
Congratulations to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. The extravaganza raising money and awareness for the FIU School of Hospitality – by attracting serious star talent – has celebrated a 20-year anniversary. The event organizers this year took the opportunity to showcase Miami as a gorgeous backdrop and move many of the events outside.
To kick things off last Thursday, festival founder Lee Schrager and The Peebles Corporation’s Don & Katrina Peebles hosted the first-ever “Burger Bath” hosted at the iconic Bath Club Miami Beach.
On-site, festival VIPs and founding members dined with the chefs behind Jr’s Gourmet Burgers, 109 Burger Joint, Ted’s Burgers, Billy G Catering and guests who included Ana Navarro, Political Commentator and Host of The View and her dog “Cha Cha”; Dan Gelber, Mayor of Miami Beach; Belkys Nerey, WSVN 7 News Anchor; Rolando Aedo, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau; Ken Gorin, President & CEO, The Collection; Christian Mahe de Berbouare, Entrepreneur and Founder, Chicken Kitchen; and Jennifer Valoppi, TV Journalist.
On Friday, SocialMiami’s celebrity photographer Manny Hernandez joined MasterChef finalist Nick DiGiovanni, NBC 6’s Kelly Blanco, Telemundo 51’s Mariana Rodriguez, Miami New Times’ Laine Doss, WSVN 7’s Belkys Nerey, CBS 4’s Lisa Petrillo and Univision’s Raul De Molina in judging the iconic Heineken Burger Bash Hosted by celebrity chef Bobby Flay. Held beachside at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach, guests bit into the country’s best burgers and voted on the winner as DJ Danny Stern got the crowd moving.
On Saturday, at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, Wine Spectator presented the Best of the Best event, where 30 of the nation’s top chefs presented their more gourmet samplings. There were also over 60 wines rated 90 points or higher so of course, seen at the event, Kimberly Weissler Feldman with Lisa Sayfie, Cindy Krischer Goodman and her husband, Marc Goodman, the Miami Marlins’ Joey Corey and his wife, Michelle Corey.
And on Sunday, the event closed with the Goya Grand Tasting, which is held on the beach lining Ocean Drive. The walk to the tents was ablaze with cocktail companies including Bulliet, Grey Goose, Kettle One, Jaja Tequilla and Don Julio. Once inside, guests were treated to handcrafted, small batch brands and big-time tastes, with in person demonstrations by Andrew Zimmerman and Rocco Dispirito and appearances from artist Romero Britto not to mention a crowd that proved the place was safe, as it included the physicians from the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Emergency Room including Dr. Barbara Peña, Dr. Rodney Baker and his wife, Jean Latouche-Baker, Dr. Karen Franco, Dr. Ellie Rakovvhivk, Dr. Jose Vargas, Dr. Sabrina Pastor, Dr. Yonit Sterba and Dr. Yonit Sterba.
Brett Graff is SocialMiami.com’s managing editor and has been a journalist covering money, people and power for over 20 years. Graff contributes to national media outlets including Reuters, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Maxim, and the PBS show, Nightly Business Report. A former U.S. government economist, her nationally syndicated column The Home Economist is first published in The Miami Herald and then on the Tribune Content Agency, where it’s available to over 400 publications nationwide. She is broadcast weekly on two iHeartRadio news shows and is the author of “Not Buying It: Stop Overspending & Start Raising Happier, Healthier, More Successful Kids,” a parenting guide for people who might be tempted to buy their children the very obstacles they’re trying to avoid.
