The secret recipe behind the South Beach Wine & Food Festival®

Picture this: a bustling beach, world-class chefs and the aroma of mouthwatering dishes wafting through the air. The South Beach Wine & Food Festival® is back, and while guests sip and savor each bite, there’s an unsung team of culinary masterminds making it all happen behind the scenes. Three Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management culinary and restaurant management professors - who also happen to all be alumni - are already working to feed guests at the Festival’s biggest events.

Chef John Noble Masi ’88, MBA ’91 serves as the lead culinary faculty member at the Chaplin School, orchestrating multiple Festival events and guiding a group of other culinary faculty members. Masi and his dream team of eight student culinary leads are gearing up to prepare over 3,000 servings of food over the four-day festival weekend.

“The main key to success is having the right students who are accountable and responsible,” said Masi.

Some of the events Masi and his team are cooking for include the most prestigious showcases like the Fontainebleau Miami Beach presents Wine Spectator’s Best of the Best. This event features the nation’s 60 most acclaimed chefs and pairs their creations with more than 65 first-rate wineries from around the globe. With a lineup of James Beard Award winning and Michelin-starred restaurants, Masi and his students prepare for as many as 1,500 guests at this one event alone.

“We work alongside those chefs who are coming in from around the country,” said Masi. “We partner them with the best students to make sure the guests have the high-end experience they came for.”

That’s just one event that Masi oversees. He will also be working all weekend to prepare 600 plates for the esteemed Tribute Dinner honoring Dominique Crenn and Gérard Bertrand hosted by Master of Ceremonies Marcus Samuelsson. He and his students also help prepare dishes for nearly 800 guests at Sunday Brunch presented by Cunard at the Loews Miami Beach.

Chef John Noble Masi and his students take a minute to show some Panther Pride at last year’s Best of the Best.

Chef Patricia Falcon ’19, MS ’20 serves as the lead for the Festival’s North Venue, which is the location of four signature SOBEWFF® events on the sand at 17^th Street, such as Mike’s Amazing® Burger Bash presented by Schweid & Sons® hosted by Rachel Ray.

Falcon manages six culinary leads and 50-80 FIU students per event. This means that she’s in charge of making sure the 30+ chefs who are showcasing their food at the event have everything they need – from ample student support for dish plating to seamless collaboration to serve guests flawlessly.

“Students who work with me gain valuable hands-on experience in managing multiple chefs,” said Falcon. “They are handling the most important part of this large-scale event, the food, and pay close attention to detail every step of the way.”

By the time the Festival wraps up its final event on Sunday night, Falcon and her team will have served over 1,600 guests. She can empathize with her young team and holds her own fond memories since she actually worked the Festival at this location when she was an FIU Hospitality student.

Chef Patricia Falcon (bottom left) pictured with Food Network personality Aaron Sanchez (in white shirt, second from left in back row) and FIU students.

Chef Vicky Colas ’05, MS ’14 is in her third year working as professional festival staff and an expert in smooth operation. Before coming on board as a lead, Colas worked at the Festival as a hospitality student in 2005, and in 2017 and 2018 was invited back to showcase her own restaurant, Gumbo Twist. Today, in her official Festival role, she is responsible for overseeing food prep for all the events held at the North Venue and the Miami Design District.

The work all takes place in the large commercial kitchen of the Miami Rescue Mission. Beyond providing the space to gear up for the Festival, the partnership sees the faculty and student culinary team prepare up to 500 meals daily for those who rely on the shelter. Colas says that students take "seriously" the opportunity to help cook for and serve the less fortunate in between getting things ready for the Festival.

Colas works closely with students to cover logistics and, most importantly, all aspects of hygenic preparation with careful attention to food safety and proper presentation as is expected at a high-caliber event.

When she receives the prep sheet from the participating chefs, it’s go time. This sheet details exactly what needs to be prepared to feed the guests at each event. At times, celebrity and executive chefs will show up to finish the preparations alongside the students.

"Students should experience working at the prep kitchen at least once during the Festival," said Colas in a reference to the teamwork, trust and collaboration required to excecute such large-scale, high-level dining experiences. "By the end of it, the students are pros."

Chef Vicky (second from right) this year marks her 19^th year participating at SOBEWFF®.

This year, the Festival is turning up the heat as it celebrates its 24^th anniversary. What started in 1997 as a one-day event called the Florida Extravaganza at FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus has transformed into a world-renowned celebration with over 105 events, 65,000 attendees and more than 1,500 students gaining hands-on learning experience. For chefs Masi, Falcon and Colas, this weekend is intense but all about the Festival’s motto to EAT. DRINK. EDUCATE.

For more information or to purchase tickets to certain events with the FIU Discount Code FIUFAM15, visit sobewff.org.