Turning Food into Festivals and Serving Up a Delicious Read

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Long Island native Lee Brian Schrager began his entrepreneurial journey in South Beach at the very beginning of its culinary and fashion ascendancy. For three years Lee owned Torpedo, one of the hippest nightclubs in South Beach, frequented by such luminaries as Versace and Gaultier, as well as famed movie stars.

It was all about beauty, glamour, glitz and non-stop partying every night, all night. When Lee began his move toward becoming Miami’s premier caterer/event planner, he never looked back. He landed at the famed Inter-Continental Hotel in Miami and for years his charity and non-profit events were legendary.

From there, Schrager joined Southern Wine and Spirits of America, Inc., where he is currently a vice president. The company was already sponsoring a daylong wine tasting event that attracted a few hundred people, according to Schrager, and he got the idea to move it to the beach. The following year brought a few thousand people. “Now we’re up to 50,000,” Lee says, and the event has evolved into The Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival. It is considered one of the world’s most prestigious cuisine events.

I was privileged to have the opportunity to speak with Lee, who just weeks ago was named an honorary board member of Feeding South Florida, about his passions, his festivals and his book. Now in its 10th year, the South Beach (SoBe) festival is one of Miami’s biggest tourist attractions and has raised more than $10 million for the Florida International University School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and the Southern Wine and Spirits Beverage Management Center. The funds are used to help educate future culinary stars that otherwise would not be able to afford the training.

To celebrate the first decade of the festival, Lee and Julie Mautner, the founding editor of Food Arts, have compiled the ultimate SoBe Festival cookbook titled, appropriately enough, Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival Cookbook, with recipes and stories from Lee and the world’s most famous chefs. The book has an intimate and humorous foreword by good friend Anthony Bourdain and offers recipes from Ferran Adrià, Bobby Flay, Scott Conant, Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray, Tom Colicchio, Daniel Boulud, Paula Deen, Guy Fieri and other stars of the culinary world. In all, the book features 100 easy-to-follow recipes from 100 chefs, accompanied by brilliant color illustrations and photos. Readers are given a virtual tour of the festival in pictures and words – from the spectacular public events to the as-yet-untold behind-the-scenes stories.

The SoBe festival book is organized into a series of highly readable chapters featuring Barbecue, Burgers, Drinks, Small Plates, Comfort and Casual Food, Haute Cuisine Main Courses and Fabulous Desserts. Recipes include Nobu’s Black Cod in Butter Lettuce Wraps; Daniel Boulud’s Melon Salad with Lemongrass Shrimp; Tom Colicchio’s Caramelized Tomato Tarts; Rachael Ray’s Cubano Burger with Mango Black Bean Salsa; Emeril Lagasse’s Sambal Shrimp; Sandra Lee’s Lemon Cucumber Cocktail; Tony Abou-Ganim’s Sunsplash; Françoise Payard’s Chocolate Coconut Cake and Nigella Lawson’s Caramel Croissant Pudding.

Schrager’s festival and his love for Miami/South Beach have enhanced the city’s cachet as an international cuisine destination for sophisticated gourmands. The February 2011 South Beach Food and Wine Festival is projected to once again draw in excess of 50,000 visitors with 200 companies participating. The culinary events will take place at three key locations: the 60,000 square foot Grand Tasting Village, the North Venue with two 100 x 300 foot tents on the beach behind the Delano and Ritz Carlton, and the command post at Loew’s Miami Beach.

I asked Lee what I thought would be a difficult question: Who do you think is the world’s finest chef? Without hesitation, however, his immediate answer was Ferran Adrià.  But New Yorkers (and Long Islanders are indeed New Yorkers) tend to remember their roots and in keeping with that philosophy, Lee expressed great admiration for the fabulous chefs of Manhattan and Long Island. In fact, he told me, it was his love of Manhattan that led to the creation of the Food Network New York City Wine and Food Festival, which just celebrated its third year. The New York City festival, which benefits the Food Bank for New York City and Share our Strength, welcomed 40,000 visitors this past October and is an event that as a Long Islander, I, for one, wouldn’t miss for the world.

For more details on the 2011 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival please visit 2011 SOBEFEST.com