"south beach wine and food festival" news and stories

The 2010 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival kicked off with a carnivorous bang at the Amstel Light Burger Bash, which was presented by Allen Brothers and hosted by Rachael Ray. The fourth annual Burger Bash, which was held in a tent behind the Ritz-Carlton South Beach, was a smashing success with 27 entries spanning celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay, Rocco DiSpirito and David Burke. Nearly 3,000 revelers chowed down on gourmet burgers and spuds, drank truckloads of beer and gawked at Rachael Ray.

The biggest line could be found at Morimoto's station, where the Iron Chef was serving a pork "Kakuni" burger with glazed pork belly. Over at Shake Shack's booth, the New York stalwart tried to ingratiate themselves to the Miami scene (they are opening a local outpost here in the spring) with free t-shirts, shakes and their famous burgers.

Women were swooning over Rocco DiSpirito, who spent more time posing for photos than dishing up his Pork and Chow Chow Slider, which was a mini pork patty, wrapped in bacon and served with chow chow and pickled beets. While Guy Fieri turned heads with his blond, spiky coif, fans weren't able to get too close to him as he was flanked by bodyguards all night. We were able to chat up the festival's founder and director, Lee Brian Schrager, whose top pick of the evening was Morimoto's porcine-themed burger.

It is taking just about every ounce of control I possess right now not to go jump on a plane and head down to Florida. The 6th annual South Beach Wine and Food Festival is set to begin tomorrow, February 22nd and will run through Sunday, February 25th.

Most of the events have already sold out, and they are expecting approximately 18,000 people to attend throughout the weekend. The purpose of the festival is to showcase the talents of world-renowned chefs, culinary personalities, and wine & spirit producers, as well as celebrate Latin and Caribbean-inspired cuisine.

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