‘Wine Spectator’ donates $1 million for Restaurant Management Laboratory

The Wine Spectator New York Wine Experience drew thousands of wine lovers for tastings and seminars featuring the world’s top wines, and concluded with the announcement of a $1 million donation to FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management.

The Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management is a leading institution for food and beverage education. In September, the school cut the ribbon on a new restaurant management laboratory at Biscayne Bay Campus. Complementing the existing Southern Wine & Spirits Beverage Management Center, the new facility will become a venue for students to incubate ideas and entrepreneurial ventures, test new concepts, conduct management exercises and prepare themselves for executive careers in the hospitality industry. The $1 million donation will be used to fund operations, maintenance and upgrades for the state-of-the-art facility, now officially named the Wine Spectator Restaurant Management Laboratory.

Hospitality students hone their skills at the new Wine Spectator Restaurant Management Laboratory.

Guests at the 140-seat restaurant management lab’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“We are always eager to help the next generation of top professionals and fuel their passion,” said Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher of Wine Spectator.

“Our partnership with Wine Spectator is an exciting new venture that will support our school’s endeavor to develop the next generation of restaurant professionals,” said Mike Hampton, dean of the school. “The restaurant management lab will provide the kinds of unique, real-world experiences our students look for in pursuing successful careers.”

“We are extremely grateful to Marvin Shanken and our long-time friends at Wine Spectator for their support for FIU’s new teaching restaurant management lab,” said Wayne Chaplin, president and chief operating officer of Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc. “This dynamic collaboration with the innovative team at Wine Spectator will lead to a new era of beverage and culinary education at FIU, and maintains the school’s status as one of the nation’s top hospitality management programs.”

FIU’s hospitality program is consistently rated as one of the nation’s best with more than 1,500 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs and another 1,000 at a campus in the port city of Tianjin, China. Every year, the school, along with Southern Wine & Spirits, hosts the national, star-studded, four-day destination event – Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival Presented by Food & Wine.