PALM BEACH, Fla. — Amidst the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, the Four Seasons Palm Beach in Florida hosted the eighth annual Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival, with one of the one most prestigious culinary programs in the U.S., showcasing renowned chefs and wine leaders.
The four-day festival kicked off Dec. 11 with two collaborative dinners held at Palm Beach’s popular restaurants PB Catch Seafood & Raw Bar (featuring chefs Elizabeth Falkner, Gabrielle Hamilton, Virginia Willis and Aaron Black) and Buccan (where chef Clay Conley welcomed toques Anita Lo, Ken Oringer and Jonathan Sawyer).
But it was the Chef Welcome Party, presented by Cheney Brothers and hosted at the renowned Breakers Resort Palm Beach, which marked the official kickoff party. The red carpet affair set the tone for the breathtaking setting at the legendary resort, with hundreds of food lovers sampling from tasting stations prepared by Jeff Simms, the hotel’s executive chef, in a lively garden featuring canapés from participating toques as well as leading wines.
Food lovers got up close and personal with Food Network’s popular chefs and sat in on a panel featuring Marc Murphy, (owner and exec chef of Benchmarc Restaurant, and a regular judge on Chopped) Jeff Mauro (The Kitchen), Robert Irvine (host of Restaurant: Impossible and Dinner: Impossible and owner of Robert Irvine’s Nosh in of South Carolina).
The trio agreed reality TV is a fun way to make a living, while creating a sense of community and camaraderie among like-minded chefs. But there is a caveat. “You can’t take yourself too seriously. If you start believing your own press, it’s dangerous,” Murphy said. Mauro warned that, while TV looks glamourous and easy, he “engineered” his life for 12 years with the hopes of landing a TV gig. “It wasn’t a flash in the pan,” he stressed.
When it comes to food trends, the trio agreed comfort and casual will continue to dominate. “There’s going to be more comfort, more casual and more sharing,” predicted Irvine. Mauro, a lover of all things pastrami, believes the smoked meat and house-cured pork will also prevail.
Photo by Rosanna Caira (l to r, Robert Irvine, Marc Murphy and Jeff Mauro)
