Palm Beach Food and Wine Festival starts Thursday — and you can still get tickets!
For the first time in its history, the Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival, the county’s biggest culinary feast, will expand south into Boca Raton when it returns Dec. 7-10.
Tickets are still available for the 16th annual celebrity-studded smorgasbord, which includes a Festival Kick-Off Party at The Boca Raton boutique resort on Dec. 8, helmed by acclaimed local chefs Lindsay Autry (The Regional in West Palm Beach), Valerie Chang (Itamae in Miami) and Clay Conley (Buccan in Palm Beach), among others.
They’ll join a bill of TV personalities throughout the four-day festival such as Robert Irvine (Food Network’s “Dinner: Impossible”), Maneet Chauhan (Food Network’s “Chopped”), Baltimore pastry chef Duff Goldman (Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes”) and Beau MacMillan (Food Network’s “Guy’s Grocery Games”), along with local tastemakers Daniel Boulud, Timon Balloo, Cindy and Jeremy Bearman, Giorgio Rapicavoli, Michelle Bernstein and Pushkar Marathe.
The push into Boca Raton was motivated, in part, by overwhelming demand for the festival’s intimate dinners, often selling out so fast that ticket buyers join waitlists and hope someone cancels, organizer David Sabin says. Last December’s bash comfortably sold out its entire festival with four weeks to spare, he says.
“These are meant to be intimate events,” he says. “But ultimately, we have an obligation to explore other parts of our county. And access to services like Brightline are helping. That’s a bit of a game-change for people who don’t like to drink and drive.”
For now, there’s only one event in Boca Raton, but most of the festival’s footprint remains in the town of Palm Beach and in Palm Beach Gardens, with 16 events planned there. Nine others are scheduled in West Palm Beach, Lantana and Manalapan. Tickets cost $50 to $350, with the majority of events spanning the $150 to $250 price range.
Tastings include: Porch BBQ (Dec. 9), with pitmasters Matt Abdoo (Pig Beach in West Palm Beach), Ralph Lewis (Okeechobee Prime Barbecue in West Palm Beach), Johnny Demartini (Ravish Off Ocean in Lantana) and Stephen Stryjewski (Cochon New Orleans); and Rosé Parté (Dec. 9), a bites-and-rosé tasting with chef Jason Weiner (Almond Palm Beach) and guest chefs Timon Balloo, Zach Engel, Lior Lev Sercarz and Alex Seidel.
Other highlights include An Evening at the Breakers (Dec. 8), whose hotel poolside terrace serves as the backdrop for dishes by Breakers chef Anthony Sicignano paired with wines assembled by master sommelier Virginia Philip; and Brunch at La Goulue (Dec. 9), a four-course pairing of fare from chef Gwen Le Pape (La Goulue in Palm Beach), Ben Ford (Ford’s Filling Station in Los Angeles and son of actor Harrison Ford) and Michelle Bernstein (Cafe La Trova in Miami).
Naturally, the bash crescendos with a Grand Tasting finale (Dec. 10), which will return to the Palm Beach County Convention Center. The walk-around event will feature bites and drinks from 50 participating restaurants and a Grand Chef Throwdown, in which three local chefs cross spatulas for a $10,000 charity prize.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Palm Beach Food and Wine Festival
WHEN: Dec. 7-10
WHERE: Venues in Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Lantana, Manalapan and Boca Raton
COST: $50-$350
INFORMATION: 800-210-0689; PBFoodWineFest.com