Charleston magazine Society blog

Seven months and counting until the fourth annual BB&T Charleston Food + Wine Festival, set to take place March 5 - March 8, 2009. With the event season gearing up, festival organizers hosted a summer launch party for sponsor and supporters last Thursday at Bridgeside Events. The precursor to the festivities included a sampling from Charleston’s top chefs representing the Festival’s signature events along with specialty beverages, wine pairings, and the announcement of the upcoming schedule.

I ran into event planner extraordinaire Mitchell Crosby, who, along with Denise Barto, will be the signature event producer for the festival parties, including Charleston magazine and The Art Institute of Charleston Bubbles & Sweets event, which by the way was sold out last year, so get your tickets early. Mitchell would not reveal a whole lot of details, but he did tell me it will be one of the festival most talked about events.

Food + Wine Festival executive director Angel Postell and chairwoman Laura Hewitt made opening remarks and announced their 2009 signature charity with MUSC Children’s Hospital’s initiatives with diabetes and lifestyle prevention research. The “Fill the Glass” campaign will lend a hand in raising charitable donations for MUSC, area culinary-related charities, student-related programs, and establishing culinary related scholarships.

The big announcement of the evening was the inclusion of headlining celebrity chef the Food Network television personality Bobby Flay. Festival guests will have three different chances to see Chef Flay in action and one lucky person will have the ultimate experience of cooking with him on stage. Is Bobby ready for another Charleston throw down?

Most of the evening was filled with guests table-hopping and sampling food from featured chefs Craig Deihl (Cypress), Lance Howard (Locklear’s), M. Kelly Wilson (Cypress), and Jimmy Hagood (Food for the Southern Soul), but I was most impressed with the heavenly, chocolate dessert assortment prepared by
the culinary students from the Art Institute. The white chocolate tuxedo covered strawberry’s were a crowd favorite.

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On Sunday night, I attended A Puzzled Palate at Sienna Ristorante on Daniel Island, a dinner fundraiser held in honor of the Camp Good Times of Charleston. Chef Ken Vedrinski of Sienna, along with a few of his talented friends from Charlotte, Atlanta, and Mississippi hosted this four-course meal with wine pairings by Grassroots Wine Wholesalers. The night started out with a reception in the bar area where guests had the opportunity to bid on a few auction items that ranged from an epicurean adventure four local fine dinning restaurants to a boat cruise in the Charleston harbor on Chef Ken Vedrinski’s boat, which would include wine and hors d’oeuvres  prepared by Ken.

During the mixing and mingling, guests were asked to take their seats by co-host and Charleston Grill general manager, Mickey Bakst.  I had the privilege of sitting at Mickey’s table –and he is a ball of energy.  Also seated at my table was renowned jazz drummer, Quentin Baxter. Being at the “popular” table had it perks. The chefs brought over additional cuisine samples for Quentin, who was gracious enough to share with the entire table. The food was absolutely amazing: truffle-cured salmon carpaccio with a tomato and shell bean salad, vermillion snapper, roasted quail, and homemade ricotta torta with local peaches and blueberries. Conversation was all about the Olympic games and the sleep deprivation we have all been subjected to due to Michael Phelps phenomenal feat of winning eight gold medals.  (But we all agreed that it has been so worth it.)

Another highlight of the night was when a gentleman attending the dinner rose and relayed the importance of organizations like Camp Good Times. His son was diagnosed with autism at 18 months and they never thought he would be able to attend regular school–his son will be attending regular Kindergarten this school year. There was not a dry eye in the room.

The event was a sucess and raised more than $10,000 to benefit Camp Good Times of Charleston, a summer program designed for children with autism to experience a summer camp for two weeks without labels, stares, or social stigma.

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Guests at Thursday night’s Bark Show at the Wickliffe House—a Margo Kaufman Gallery event to benefit Pet Helpers Adoption Center—were treated to the largest exhibition Margo has ever hosted.  The show featured nine contemporary artists, including painters Kat Hastie and Townsend Davidson joined by the newly discovered Sally Benedict and Kate Long Stevenson, just to name a few. Guests wandered upstairs and down and on the porches viewing paintings, sculptures, and furniture/objects d’art handcrafted by Michael Moran and enjoying Mr. Koolie’s ice cream treats, eclectic wines from Vidalco International, and catering by Mediterra. The front lawn seemed to be the hot spot.  The area allowed dogs to run about and play and to show off for their prospective owners.  

As an added bonus to the evening, art enthusiasts got the opportunity to witness the launch of the Margo T-shirt collection. There were two different designs, one with Margo’s face screen-printed in bright orange on the front and the other with the words “I Art”.  Excited to see that I had purchased one of these fabulous creations, Margo Kaufman owner Jeffery Rhodes commented on the quality of the T-shirt saying, “These are no Fruit of the Loom.”  Jeffery, I will wear it with pride.  Sales of the Margo T-shirts will ensure the continued support and promotion of emerging contemporary artists.

A portion of sales from the event will go to fund the capital campaign to underwrite the new 14,000 square foot Pet Helpers Adoption Shelter and Low Cost Spay/Neuter Clinic at 1447 Folly Road, James Island.

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