Our booth in the Culinary Village          Our faculty working hard!                      Herb Waters and Chef Huff at our booth

Our students prepping for guest chefs      Chefs Council member Bob Waggoner   Chefs Council member Donald Barickman


Culinary Institute Advisory Board        Culinary Institute Advisory Board               The crowd at the Culinary Village stayed 
Member Chef Brad Jones                    Member Ed Artidiello                                thick both days.
 

The Culinary Institute of Charleston was a Proud Sponsor of
The 2006 Distinctively Charleston Food + Wine Festival

The Culinary Institute was proud to have been a title sponsor of the first annual Distinctively Food + Wine Festival in March. Additionally, the Institute provided the official chef’s jackets for the Festival, each sporting the Culinary Institute’s logo, the Festival’s logo and the name and restaurant of each chef and pastry chef. All of the members of the Culinary Institute's Chef Council were participants.

The Events:

The Opening Night Celebration of Charleston Party hosted over 750 guests in the official Marion Square Charleston food + Wine Festival tent.  The attendees celebrated Lowcountry culinary specialties, great wine and beer and lively music!

The Restaurant Dine-Arounds on Friday night were a huge hit. Each restaurant sold out. What a great testament to Charleston's fantastic culinary scene! Over 800 guests came to Friday night's Bubbles & Sweets event, as participants in the Dine-Arounds returned to the big tent for desserts by an incredible array of both local and national pastry chefs and champagne by Moet.

The Grand Finale Gala was spectacular, its black and white décor accented by huge vases of long-stemmed red roses. The live auction raised scholarship funds for the Culinary Institute of Charleston.

The weekend concluded with the Gospel Brunch at Lowndes Grove, which was a perfect sentimental Southern ending to an amazing weekend.

The Board of Directors, chaired by television personality Nathalie Dupree, and the Planning Committee spent the last year and a half meeting and working diligently to raise funds and finalize details for this event. There were two Culinary Institute of Charleston members on the Planning Committee: Director of Operations Michael Saboe headed up the Finances Committee and Culinary Program Specialist Marion Sullivan was in charge of securing the prominent authors.

THE CHARLESTON COOKS! CULINARY VILLAGE

It took more than a village to build and produce an event this large. Behind the scenes, a veritable army of people worked day and night to pull it all together. Over 8,000 guests came to the various events during the Festival, making most of the events sell-outs! The Charleston Cooks! Culinary Village had over 5,000 people visiting the various culinary vendors, wine booths, seminars and demonstrations throughout the weekend. There were attendees from all over the country, with California, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island among the states represented...

The Culinary Institute of Charleston booth in the Charleston Cooks! Culinary Village was busy all day on both days. We showcased our technology.  In partnership with Digital Dining, we used our PDA system to register visitors for the boxes of gourmet chocolate truffles that were given away each hour.

National Celebrity Chefs, Authors and Wine Professionals – The Reason for Success

Of course, this event would not have been possible without the 50 guest chefs, authors and wine professionals who came to Charleston for the weekend!

National Chefs:

• Joël Antunes, Joël, Atlanta, GA
• Ben Barker, Magnolia Grill, Durham, NC
• Philippe Chin, Cuizine, Aiken, SC
• Chris Hastings, Hot and Hot Fish Club, Birmingham, AL
• Wally Joe, Wally Joe's, Memphis, TN
• Dean James Max, 3030 Ocean Restaurant, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• Tory McPhail, Commanders Palace, New Orleans, LA
• Louis Osteen, Louis’s on Pawley’s, Pawley’s Island, SC
• Frank Stitt, Highlands Bar & Grill, Birmingham, AL

National Pastry Chefs:

• Karen Barker, Magnolia Grill, Durham, NC
• Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez, Lassi, New York, NY
• Michael Laiskonis, Le Bernardin, New York, NY

Guest Authors:

• RW Apple, Jr., Washington, DC
• Donald Barickman, Charleston, SC
• Shirley Corriher, Atlanta, GA
• Nathalie Dupree, Charleston, SC
• John T. Edge, Oxford, MS
• Damon Fowler, Savannah, GA
• Doug Frost, Kansas City, MO
• Jessica Harris, Brooklyn, NY
• Bob Kinkead, Washington, DC
• Matt Lee and Ted Lee, Charleston, SC
• John Mariani, Tuckahoe, NY
• Virginia Willis, Atlanta, GA
• Dori Sanders, Clover, SC

Wine Personalities/Professionals:

• Bob Bath, MS, Majestic Fine Wines
• Kathy Benziger, Benziger Winery
• Mannie Berk, Rare Wine Imports
• Adam Campbell, Elk Cove Vineyards
• Bernard Delille, Biltmore Estate
• Jean-Bernard Delmas, Chateau Haut-Brion
• Salmon Run/Dr Konstantin Frank Vineyards
• Doug Frost, MS/MW
• Mat Garretson, Garretson Wine Company
• Randall Grahm, Bonny Doon Vineyards
• Michael Honig, Honig Vineyard and Winery
• Phillip Lolonis, Lolonis Winery
• Robert Sinskey, Robert Sinskey Vineyards
• Jed Steele, Steele Winery
• Jamey Whetstone, Whetstone Winery