2015 FOOD NETWORK & COOKING CHANNEL SOUTH BEACH WINE & FOOD FESTIVAL

FEBRUARY 19-22, 2015

Having just celebrated its 13th year, the Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by FOOD & WINE began as a one-day festival known as the Florida Extravaganza held at FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus. For five years, from 1997-2001, the Florida Extravaganza showcased wines from national and international wineries paired with food from local restaurants and chefs working with students of FIU’s School of Hospitality & Tourism Management. In 2002, Lee Brian Schrager, then director of Special Events & Media Relations at Southern Wine & Spirits of America, took the reigns of the one-day festival and brought his vision for the Festival to life by relocating it to South Beach. The renamed South Beach Wine & Food Festival® attracted close to 7,000 guests to a series of dinners, seminars, a Grand Tasting Village and live Auction in its first year.