Feast on the beach

SOUTH BEACH, Fla. — Lee Schrager, the ener­getic fel­low who founded the annual South Beach Wine and Food fes­ti­val seven years ago, is one smart cookie.

After all, who, in his/her right mind would not move heaven and earth to attend North America’s biggest food event of its kind in Feb­ru­ary — a month when most of this con­ti­nent is expe­ri­enc­ing the worst of win­ter. I should know; I live in Strat­ford in the heart of Ontario’s snow-belt — one of the rea­sons I’ve headed south to Miami for this mam­moth gastro-fest for the past three years.

What started out as a one-day event is now four action-packed days. On three of them, two giant tents set up in the heart of South Beach from 11th to 14th Streets are home to hun­dreds of food and wine pur­vey­ors who dish out sam­ples from morn­ing to night. In a third equally huge tent, there are back-to-back demos on two stages by top celebrity chefs. After all, this fest is spon­sored by the U.S. Food Net­work, Food & Wine mag­a­zine plus a host of high-end kitchen­ware, food and wine com­pa­nies. We’re talk­ing over-the-top, Miami-style glitz, glam­our and gourmandise.

On each of the four nights there’s a lav­ish party for which guests dish out from $150 to $500 a pop. Even with these prices, tick­ets are sold out long before the party begins.

At a Burger Bash — in a huge tent on the beach located behind the Ritz-Carlton hotel — about 20 eater­ies from Manhattan’s trendy Shake Shack to South Beach’s hottest restau­rant Prime 112 served up their ver­sion of this all-American food. Best eats here were sides: Prime 112’s 5-Cheese Truf­fled “Mac” — a stun­ning deep-fried mini-cheese ball and 7-Year Aged Ched­dar Cheese Fries from Johnny V in Ft. Lauderdale.

At the fancier cham­pagne soiree called Bub­bleQ — this tent was on the beach behind the star-studded Delano hotel — the noise was deaf­en­ing while Iron Chef reg­u­lar Cat Cora strut­ted her stuff and The Forge (the Miami steak­house that was home to Frank Sina­tra and the Rat pack in its hey­day) served up the best mini-dish of the night: al dente multi-coloured lentils and beans lay­ered in a dixie cup with an orange vinaigrette.Please watch this blog for more on the sen­sa­tional 7th annual SOBE food fest.