South Beach Wine & Food Festival: We Ate, We Drank, We Conquered.

It's the Thursday after the annual Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival. We have slowly emerged from our food comas and our team of 25 (including 7 working chefs) have iced our feet and sunburns. What a show...

For the first time Aaron's Catering expanded from our usual post under the Grand Tasting tents and took control of all Back-of-House food prep at Jungle Island's Fun and Fit as a Family. Assisting celebrity chefs like Rocco DiSpirito, Rachael Ray, and Andrew Zimmern our chefs hit the sand a full week before the festival opening. Duties included mise en place for 2 days of cooking demos and organization of all of the equipment that comes along with it. 

Brian Aaron checks things out on the Panda stage

Guy Fieri addresses the crowd

"I was floored at the palates that kept coming in," remarks Aa

ron's Sous Chef James Bowers. "We're talking close to 22 palates over the course of two days."

Simotaniously back at our test kitchen, Brian Aaron and Andres Barrientos were working to perfect the"Molecular Diabolo". A twist on the classic caprese salad the bite sized dish resembled a deviled egg but included all the classic ingredients of a caprese salad; mozzarella, heirloom tomato, basil and balsamic vinegar. 

"I love playing with the guests' senses, says Barrientos. "If it looks like and egg and walks like an egg, its not an egg at Aarons Catering! Surprising people's palates at Grand Tasting is our goal!"

Once the festival kicked off, our team went into full swing from prepping to networking (and of course eating). 

The Molecular Diabolo made its debut on Saturday in the south tent to an amazed crowd. On Sunday, we took it back to our roots serving up our classic paella for the masses. 

On Sunday we served Seafood Paella for 3,000

Looking back, we are so lucky to be surrounded by such talent and part of such a great team of festival organizers! Until next year...