By Jennifer Agress
Ready to pair those enchanting Sunny Isles views with some equally delicious food? This week, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF) will grace our South Beach shores for its 16th installment, and chefs and A-listers from around the world are jetting to sunny South Florida to see what it has in store.
With so many events to choose from, it’s hard to know exactly where to start. We recommend following the chefs themselves, who are never far from the festival’s most delectable dishes.
Here’s where you can find our favorite South Florida chefs during the Festival:
Michele Mazza, Il Mulino New York
Acqualina Resort & Spa
Naples-born chef and restaurateur, Michele Mazza, knows a thing or two about Italian cooking. Once just a boy helping his mother in the kitchen, today he has 14 kitchens of his own. As Executive Chef of the award-winning Il Mulino New York (which has two locations here in Miami, including Acqualina Resort & Spa), Chef Mazza expanded the brand to include four Trattoria Il Mulino locations, as well as Il Mulino Prime and Bistecca by Il Mulino, both in NYC. At all of these restaurants, his name has become synonymous with real, authentic, and most importantly, fresh cooking. The flavors are perfect and the experience is true; there are few restaurants in Miami more luxurious, or with better service, than Il Mulino New York.
Here’s where you can find Michele Mazza at SOBEWFF® 2017:
Michelle Bernstein, Crumb on Parchment
Miami Design District
Photo: Getty Images for SOBEWFF
This Miami native just can’t stop. She was named “Best Chef South 2008” by the James Beard Foundation, she’s the author of Cuisine á Latina, she owns and operates MBC Michelle Bernstein Catering Company, hosts the Emmy award-winning PBS weekly television series, “Check, Please! South Florida,” and recently signed on as host of “SoFlo Taste,” a new weekly TV series that celebrates South Florida food on Channel 10. And on top of all that, there are her delicious restaurants, like Sweet Liberty and most famously, Crumb on Parchment, her café concept in the Miami Design District.
Here’s where you can find Michelle Bernstein at SOBEWFF® 2017:
Daniel Boulud, db Bistro Moderne
Brickell/Downtown Miami
Photo: Getty Images for SOBEWFF®
Originally born in Lyon, France, where he was raised on his family’s farm in the small village of Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu, chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud has made his way to Miami – and we’re so glad he did. Known for his contemporary spin on traditional French fare, this Michelin-starred chef has restaurants all over the world, from New York, Vegas, Palm Beach, and Miami, to D.C., Boston, London, Canada, and beyond. He’s won awards from the James Beard Foundation for “Outstanding Restaurant,” “Outstanding Restaurateur,” “Best Chef, New York City” and “Outstanding Chef of the Year.” He’s been named “Chef of the Year” by the Culinary Institute of America and “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur” by the French government. Here in Miami, we have one outpost of his NY-born db Bistro Moderne, a Parisian bistro spin on classic American cuisine, in Downtown Miami.
Here’s where you can find Daniel Boulud at SOBEWFF® 2017:
Brad Kilgore, Alter & BRAVA by Brad Kilgore
Wynwood & Downtown Miami
Photo: Getty Images for SOBEWFF®
Kansas-born Brad Kilgore is both a chef and an artist. Known for his creative dishes – like “The Fallen Tree,” which is served in a glass-topped box made with birch trees, lichen, and heart of palm, so you’re eating a fallen tree on a box of fallen trees – Kilgore is a two-time James Beard Award semifinalist. He’s worked at 10 topnotch kitchens across the nation in his career, including Azul at the Mandarin Oriental, Miami and J&G Grill, once in the St. Regis in Bal Harbour, where he was Executive Chef. Last year, Food & Wine named him “Best New Chef of 2016,” and today, he owns Alter, in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, and BRAVA by Brad Kilgore at the Adrienne Arsht Center, where he is the Culinary Director.
Here’s where you can find Brad Kilgore at SOBEWFF® 2017:
About the Contributor
Jennifer Agress is a freelance writer covering food, drink, and culture. When she’s not combing the streets of Miami for a bagel and a latte, she’s likely covering luxury travel and dining for Dining Out Magazine, Private Air Luxury Homes Magazine, Haute Living Miami, Upscale Living Magazine, and Epicurean Charlotte.