New Talent at Charleston Wine + Food Participates in New Wave of Experiential Events | Food

As you browse the schedule of over 100 Charleston Wine + Food Festival events, you’ll notice that the Waffle House Smackdown, Culinary Village, and other familiar gatherings are back in 2022, when the festival returns after a hiatus. a year.

There will also be a new wave of experiential events featuring chefs, beverage experts and producers traveling to Charleston from out of town.

Claudette Zepeda from VAGA restaurant in San Diego will be attending the popular Smackdown, but she will also be leading a cooking class called Bold Flavors of Mexico. James Beard Award winner Barbara Lynch of famous Boston restaurants No. 9 Park and Menton, among others, will help organize a signature dinner at Chez Nous. New York Times chief wine critic Eric Asimov to brief attendees at two flagship events; one on French wines and another that delves into the world of Chianti.

While these events are sold out, tickets are still available for more than 20 festival gatherings. The Post and Courier spoke to the new talent attending five of the food events you can still buy tickets to before March 2.

Give craft beer its moment

After joining the festival in July, Charleston Wine + Food’s beverage director Cha McCoy, a certified sommelier, said she had started developing a beverage program that best represented South Carolina and its history.

This year, madeira and rum, for example, will be showcased at special events and drinks at popular signature gatherings.

“I think it really goes back to the roots of Charleston,” said McCoy, discussing Madeira’s connection to the Lowcountry. “And there are a lot of stories to be told about black people, about women, about all kinds of drinks that probably don’t have a moment right now.”

The festival has always featured a long list of craft beers at its many events, but this year the focus on South Carolina’s growing beer industry was more intentional under McCoy’s leadership.

“I know the Carolinas are definitely beer country,” said McCoy. “It was definitely something I felt the need to have a moment of its own. In the past, beer has had moments in gastronomic events, but has yet to have any beer-focused events.

Locally, black brewers and beer enthusiasts are striving to make breweries more inclusive. This topic will be discussed at two Charleston Wine + Food events, each in a different way.

Crafts for Culture will be classroom style with discussions centered on the diversity of types of beer that appear in craft breweries and the people who brew them. Jamaal Lemon, author of a three-part series of articles entitled “Tek Cyear uh from Root“detailing an 1850s German beer festival and its influence on beer culture today, and Brandon Montgomery of Diversify your palate, are among the participants.

Based in San Diego, where he works as a beer server, Montgomery will also be the emcee of the Hip Hop Party. As the name suggests, the event taking place at Charleston Harbor in Mount Pleasant will celebrate music and craft beer.

“I’m really looking forward to sharing my own personal experiences, how people blend craft beer with their own culture and just the overall mix of stories behind beer,” Montgomery said. “I am very excited to mix the Hip Hop culture of the 80s and 90s with the craft beer experience.”

According to McCoy, there will be two sets from DJs, food from chefs like Bok Choy Boy’s Setrini Sison and plenty of craft beers at the “music-filled hip hop house party”.

The event aims to create an inclusive environment where all festival attendees can chat one-on-one with small brewers in the Southeast, she said.

“I hope that from this festival people will feel more connected this way. Instead of saying ‘I drink beer but don’t do it from the comfort of my community because I don’t usually feel like I can be at the beer garden,’ ”said McCoy. “It’s a way of mixing things up.”

Food and spirituality

Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate from Honeysuckle projects will lead the Exploring Black Spirituality Through Food event at the 2022 festival, but their story begins at BJ Dennis’ West Africa event until the Lowcountry festival event in 2020, when they first met.

“It was kind of like one of those cheesy romantic comedies,” St. Aude-Tate said. “We started talking and realized how similar we are in a lot of things. We shared similar ideologies and passions regarding food, lineage, and history. “

Fast forward less than two years, and the two are married with a home baby and a storefront in West Philadelphia en route to 2022.

“What we’re doing with our storefront called Honeysuckle Provisions is providing a coffee shop that is also a stimulating community center where people can not only shop for food but also engage in a culture-driven food culture that already existed in that location, ”Tate said.

At first, Honeysuckle Provisions will feature groceries, hot and cold take-out, bread, pastries and coffee sourced exclusively from black and brown producers, but the main focus of the space is to use the food to explore black culture.

The couple will build on that mission during the festival on March 4, when they serve a meal based on the book “If I Can Cook / You Know God Can,” which celebrates how black cooking interacts with the history and spirituality.

“It’s an immersive dinner. We don’t just take you on a culinary journey, but there is art as well, so there is a visual aspect. Music will also be linked to that, ”said St. Aude-Tate. “It’s going to be a very, very spectacular experience that I think might leave some goosebumps when they leave. I don’t think you can leave without feeling affected.

Food and fire

Three-time James Beard Award semi-finalist Caroline Glover opened her restaurant, Annette, with her husband Nelson in Aurora, Colorado in 2016. She will join a range of new and experienced chefs to Surf + Grass at Bowens Island. Alongside Jeremiah Bacon, John Zucker, Hector Garate and Nikko Cagalanan, Glover will prepare meat, seafood and vegetables over an open fire as the sun sets over Bowens Island.

“(The festival is) really, really intentional in choosing a good event that matches the person,” Glover said. “I have a wood-fired grill in my restaurant, so I love cooking outdoors. Being in a landlocked state, one of my favorite things when I come to Charleston is cooking with seafood.

Direct heat cooking will also be presented at A natty pizza party, an event featuring some of the region’s best pizza pop-ups and “boutique, biodynamic, natural and sustainable winegrowers”. Kyle Jacovino of Pizzeria Vittoria, a 60 square foot space built from shipping containers in Savannah’s Starland Yard food truck complex, will join Weltons Fine Foods, High Pie and Dough Boyz.

At Pizzeria Vittoria, Jacovino tries to put Savannah on the pizza menu, and for the moment he succeeds. It also shows how to pair natural wine with pizza.

“I have paired each wine with at least one of the pizzas on our menu,” said Jacovino, who has attended previous Charleston Wine + Food Festivals.

It will fit in nicely with Charleston attendees who make a living baking pies from wood-fired pizza trailers. Jacovino has just bought one of his which he hopes will be operational and travel to the Southeast in the coming months.