Saturday and Sunday marked the South Beach Wine & Food Fest’s premier event, the Grand Tasting Village, which cordoned off a huge strip of South Beach the size of three or four football fields and filled it with hundreds of restaurants, distributors, wine vendors, and wineries, all flinging so much…
We’re referring to Mario Batali being “up there” on stage at the SBWFF’s Wines and Food of Spain dinner. You’ve probably heard that he dropped a couple of F-bombs in front of the royal company. And speaking of F-bombs: What the fuck was he even doing on that platform welcoming…
Friday’s Trade Tasting event at the Grand Tasting Village on the Beach brought out salespeople, restaurateurs, and a barrage of folks tenuously tied to the food and wine industry — a frolicking fellowship of flaks, frauds, food bloggers, and so forth. There was no shortage of beverages — coffee drinks,…
Inveterate radio jocks Paul Castronovo and Ron Brewer of Big 105.9 and 97.9 got all up in the SoBe Wine & Food Fest’s businazz this morning, hosting an Iron Chef style cooking challenge live from the Fontainebleau (holy crap, did I spell that correctly?). The pair tested their cooking skills…
The South Beach Wine & Food Festival is already in full swing, and last night, everyone’s favorite quasi-cook and abbreviator, Rachel Ray, hosted the third annual Amstel Light Burger Bash at the Ritz-Carlton, South Beach. Our cameras caught all the beefy action, including celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Michelle Bernstein.However,…
Mark Tuesday, March 10th in indelible ink and reserve now if you fancy the chance to cook with Miami star chef Michelle Bernstein: Bernstein will be demonstrating recipes from her new book Cuisine a Latina that night for a Miami Slow Food event sponsored by Whole Foods. In case you’ve…
Food & Wine 2009 is almost upon us. You know what that means. The culinary throngs descend on South Florida, feast on its tropical flesh in a media-driven frenzy, and hopefully dump enough money on our shores to keep us goin til next year. Aaron J. Michaels from Culinary Convenience…
I cold-called Escopazzo out of our restaurant database and said, “Hey, I’m from the newspaper, what are you doing for Wine & Food?” Sommelier Rich DiGacomo had great answers for me. He talked about the Food Network, Rachel Ray, Key West prawns and drinking. Here’s what he had to say:…
I cold-called OLA at Sanctuary to find out if they got anything going on for the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival 2009. I spoke to a real cool dude, sommelier Albert Omahen about fish tacos, wine, and the smoker’s palette. Here’s what he had to say:…
Series 2 of Gordon Ramsey’s F Word comes out on DVD on March 17 (you can advance order it here), and the flaks are pushing it as totally uncensored. The claim is about 99.99 percent true. I previewed the show, and in the course of the season chef Ramsey utters…
It is early Wednesday morning, and I am standing in a kitchen area in the Miami-Beach Convention Center, watching some 50 FIU students getting to work on food prep for Friday nights’ Perrier-Jouët BubbleQ event at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. I am not the only one looking…
Eating an oyster is like taking a spiritual log flume ride. The thrill of the plunge takes place within, not outside, the body. An über-plump Island Creek oyster at Area 31, misted with a light sheen of golden balsamic vinegar and olive oil and dotted with specks of alligator peppercorns,…
Behold, the future of robotic beverage delivery — Coca-Cola machines that may be able to serve up to 120 different drinks. The technology is being showcased this week at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference in Boca Raton. The machines would replace those 6-8 valve machines that mix…
Dream Dinners, “the original dinner assembly store,” is a company with franchises in 31 states that has appeared on the Dr. Phil show, in the pages of the New York Times, on Forbes.com and in more momazines than you can shake a spatula at. Dream Dinners provides you with the…
One of the great joys of my otherwise joyless life is to stride through the front door of a certain local franchise of an Atlanta-based Mexican fast food restaurant chain and be showered with warm greetings: “Welcome to Moe’s!” they ring out in near-unison.And it’s not because I’m special. The…
The YOLO Grill from Miami New Times on Vimeo.I recently spent a couple hours shooting the kitchen at YOLO (You Only Live Once) in downtown Ft, Lauderdale. It’s a real classy joint serving simple American food cooked in a high quality manner using fine ingredients. Check out this grill video…
Tonight (Tuesday Feb. 17) from 5:30 to 7:30, Chef Michael Wagner and Slow Foods Glades to Coast team up for A Slow Winter’s Night at Lola’s on Harrison, where they’ll be hosting a mini mixology workshop (and yes, you get to drink the exhibits). Wagner and his team will be…
If you’re one of the ten bazilion Americans currently spending your free time glued to this season of The Biggest Loser (I confess! I’m right there with you!) and planning to diet your way through 2009 along with Tara and Filipe (my personal faves), chances are you’ve considered using sugar-free products as…
We can’t do this alone. This Spring, when we publish our Broward-Palm Beach Best Of issue, we’re going to put our reputation on the line: What’s the most delicious damn burger in Palm Beach and Broward counties? Who twirls the finest pizza crust? Which restaurant just blows all its competition…
The Mandarin Oriental, in tandem with TRU Organic Spirits, has launched the first “all-organic cocktail menu” in Miami. Two of the tastiest-sounding tipplers are the Mandarin: TRU Organic Vanilla Vodka, organic tangerine juice, brown sugar and a splash of heavy cream (pictured above). And the Basil Melon: TRU Organic Lemon…
Many of you probably spent a romantic Valentine’s Evening at a fine restaurant, supping on foie gras and fine wine. And that’s all good. But here’s an alternate view of Valentine’s Day – a less expensive option for leaner times. This simple meal of salad, cheeses, good olives, fresh bread,…
I decided to spend Valentine’s Day – at least the day part of it – at the Delray Beach Garlic Festival, a weekend-long ode to the clove going down at Old School Square. The fest had a lot going on: there were vendors aplenty, hocking garlic-based sauces, dips, spreads, and…
