Life on the Beach: South Beach Wine & Food Festival

Chef Marcus Samuelsson

Chef Govind Armstrong


Chef Govind Armstrong


Aerial view of Emeril's Sugar Shack

Emeril's Sugar Shack

TV Anchor, Al Roker


John Legend and girlfriend, Christine Teigen with Chef Giada de Laurentis



Rachael Ray's Burger Bash



Rachael Ray's Burger Bash


The weather was perfect this weekend on the beach. The past few days have been such a whirlwind, my husband and I are still recuperating. This weekend was the South Beach Wine and Food Festival and majority of the culinary elite and Food Network personalities were on the scene.

My husband is a food and hospitality executive, so we had several friends and colleagues in town and attended numerous dinner parties and industry insider events the past few days. Some of the events during the festival were Emeril's Sugar Shack (where they ran out of sugar and champagne) poolside at the Raleigh hotel, Rachael Ray's Burger Bash (where Chef Marcus Samuelsson joined in the fun), Bubble Q (where celebs like John Legend and Al Roker hung out) and the celebrity chef after-party at Casa Casuarina (Versace mansion) to name a few.

My favorite culinary event was definitely the Publix Grand Tasting Tent. Celebrity chefs like Chef Govind Armstrong had live cooking demos and there were dozens of food and wine vendors to sample. I had the most delicious Andouille sausage and Duck gumbo, the Barbados tourism served their island's traditional tasty flying fish. Everybody at the tasting was feeling good and saucy with all the wine and liquor being served. The Lucid Absinthe was yummy and intoxicating, but my favorite was the MonteVina Winery's Terra d'oro Zinfandel, perfection!

I'll post some more photos of the South Beach Wine and Food festival in upcoming posts and let you know the deal with Chef Govind Armstrong from the popular Los Angeles/Miami restaurants Table 8.