Charleston Wine and Food Festival Celebrates the Lowcountry’s Culinary Heritage
Charleston is easily the crown jewel of South Carolina. Steeped in history, hauntings, picturesque beaches, and a culture rich with diversity, it is no wonder why seven million tourists, eager to experience the SC Lowcountry, travel here each year. With the tremendous growth in residential population and tourism in recent years, the city has witnessed a food evolution and has become a utopia for food lovers. As the culinary brand of the city has grown, people have started traveling to Charleston to experience the food.
The Charleston Wine and Food Festival is a celebration of the city’s culinary past and present. This year’s festival will bring food lovers ninety events over five days on March 5-9. Now in its nineteenth year, this event is the city’s beckoning to locals and visitors to immerse themselves in the culinary cuisine that has put Charleston on the map as a tourist and food destination.
The Charleston Wine and Food Festival is a 501c3 non-profit founded by a group of community advocates and leaders who felt that if they created and hosted a festival to celebrate the wine and food industry in Charleston, it could give way to a national platform that would draw more culinary talent from across the nation and add to the fabric of Charleston’s culinary community. The festival is hosted in five different towns and municipalities in the greater Charleston area. Opening night is in downtown Charleston and other events are hosted in Mount Pleasant, Goose Creek, Moncks Corner, North Charleston, Edisto Island, James Island, Foley Beach, and Johns Island. Out of the ninety events hosted over the five-day festival, the Culinary Village is the grand tasting experience. Located downtown, this experience is offered three days for four and a half hours and is the best way to get a taste of the entire festival and the Lowcountry. Says Alyssa Maute Smith, Executive Director of the Charleston Wine and Food Festival,
“The Culinary Village is the grand event, but something unique that the festival does is all the other events we offer outside of the grand event. These are storytelling events where we dive deep into the story of our food, why we eat what we eat in the Lowcountry, use the ingredients we use, and the “why” behind this event.”
The festival is ticketed, but tickets are sold a la carte so that attendees can pick and choose the experience and education they get from the festival.
“The bar takeovers are a fun way that we highlight the outstanding Charleston beverage community. We bring in renowned beverage programs from outside of the area to collaborate with our Charleston beverage community. They mesh for one night and create a fun guest experience. The local bar community loves it because it’s a chance to get exposure, be creative, and get out of usual service and do something new,” says Smith.
The bar takeovers aren’t the only way to learn about Charleston’s beverage community. There are beverage workshops that take attendees deep into the educational aspect of wine, beer, and spirits. These workshops take place at the recently renovated Mills House Hotel downtown, taking festival goers to the heart of Charleston’s thriving cultural center.
As can be expected, the festival offers many programmatic events in which unique meals can be shared among attendees. These events do not happen in restaurants, but rather in a carefully chosen location that reflects the history and the influence of the meal.
“We have one scheduled called Due South, a beautifully curated meal that celebrates the influence the Caribbean and West Africa has on Charleston cuisine. It is held on Johns Island and is going to be a fun, backyard, communal, family style experience—very much rooted in a sense of place that showcases what makes southern food unique. They’ll have fried shark, Conch (common in the Caribbean), and open fire cooking,” says Smith.
The signature event of the festival is called Shucked, a celebration of oysters and their significance to the Lowcountry. This event is a traditional oyster roast and showcases oysters shucked by the purveyors themselves and prepared in a variety of ways. Smith says of the event,
“This is a famous event, and we can’t have the festival without it. Oysters, particularly wild oysters, are unique to our area. Oysters are a vital part of improving our water quality, providing food and shelter for other sea animals, and protecting our shorelines, so this event brings recognition to the importance of oysters in our ecosystem.”
Another notable festival event is Big Shrimping, connecting the shrimp industry to the Charleston coast, particularly the bustling Shem Creek. For attendees who want a restaurant experience, there are pop-ups at restaurants in the greater Charleston area where guest chefs create a once in a lifetime dining experience.
Participation in the Charleston Wine and Food Festival is a career milestone for any chef. The festival boasts chefs from all over the country and some from outside of the country.
“This year we have a chef from a restaurant in Australia that is one of the top fifty restaurants in the world. We have a total of 400 participating talents. 70% are local to Charleston and 30% come from out of town or state,” says Smith.
When asked why Charleston is such a mecca for the food and beverage industry for culinary professionals and consumers alike, Smith says the reason is part business and part sentimental. “I was born and raised in Charleston, on James Island. My earliest memories are centered around food. I remember fishing, learning how to catch oysters and it’s not just about the gathering and consumption of food, but the purveying of food. With our juxtaposition to the coast, our economy is built on the business of purveying seafood. We have access to amazing farms and fantastic ingredients. That notion of cooking and sharing a meal and how it continues family traditions and handing down recipes from generation to generation, and growing up in Charleston, I experienced the way food influences family and tradition. Charleston has always been a food city, but these are the reasons it was discovered as a food city.”
While the stories and themes of the Charleston Food and Wine Festival change each year, the event remains rooted in its dedication to showcasing the unique lifestyle of the SC Lowcountry. Says Smith,
“A lot of it is what it is like to live and grow up in the Lowcountry and trying to show that through live demonstrations and experiences for those who have never known it.”
To purchase tickets to the Charleston Wine and Food Festival and view all of the events, visit their website at www.CharlestonWineandFood.com.