Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: As you all know, we love, love, love talking food
Speaker 2: and wine here at Bloomberg Business Week. It's always highlighted
Speaker 2: in the Bloomberg Pursuit section of the magazine. With that
Speaker 2: in mind, the Food Network New York City Wine and
Speaker 2: Food Festival about to get underway. Have you ever gone?
Speaker 1: I want to ask our next guest about it, because
Speaker 1: I have not.
Speaker 2: Shamefully, you're missing, missing I am. It's October twelfth through
Speaker 2: the fifteenth brings together who's who in the food and
Speaker 2: wine space. Chef's Danielle Boulu. We have had him on
Speaker 2: our air many many winny more from the industries to
Speaker 2: tell us about it is Lee Schrager, founder and executive
Speaker 2: director of the New York City Wine and Food Festival,
Speaker 2: joining us on zoom in New York City.
Speaker 3: Lee, how are you good to see you ladies? How's
Speaker 3: everything doing well?
Speaker 2: Doing well? I feel like on a daily basis I
Speaker 2: could use a good meal and a great glass of wine.
Speaker 2: Having said that, you guys, bet are in what your
Speaker 2: sixteenth year? Tell us about it? Remind us about how
Speaker 2: it all came to be and how it's evolved and
Speaker 2: your relationship with the Food Network and bringing this all
Speaker 2: to life.
Speaker 3: Well, sixteen years and you have not been once.
Speaker 2: That is horrible. I've been to the Money.
Speaker 1: Don't look at me.
Speaker 2: I've been to the I've been to South Beach for
Speaker 2: that version.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, Well that's how it all started. It started
Speaker 3: actually in South Beach about twenty four years ago. Actually,
Speaker 3: excuse me. We're going to our twenty three third year
Speaker 3: in February and South Beach and I started that really
Speaker 3: just after attending the Aspen Wine and Food Festival about
Speaker 3: twenty five years ago. I remember flying home, and that's
Speaker 3: before the days of cell phones and Instagram, and I
Speaker 3: remember kind of making notes saying, Wow, this is an
Speaker 3: amazing event and it would be great in South Beach.
Speaker 3: And that's how it all started. So I waited about
Speaker 3: five or six years after I really felt comfortable in
Speaker 3: New York City before, after I felt comfortable in South Beach,
Speaker 3: before I went ahead and launched the New York City Wine.
Speaker 2: And Food Festival.
Speaker 3: So you know, as you mentioned, it's celebrating sixteen years.
Speaker 3: We are eating, drinking, and feeding New York City. The
Speaker 3: proceeds from the festival benefit God's Love. We deliver an
Speaker 3: amazing not the profit that you know, delivers food and
Speaker 3: nutritionally balanced food and medically talented meals for people who can't,
Speaker 3: you know, prepare their own food in New York City.
Speaker 3: And it's kicking off next Thursday and through the sixteenth.
Speaker 3: We have about one hundred events, everything from about forty
Speaker 3: five small intimate dinners with chefs like Danielle Valoude and
Speaker 3: Jean Jre Vanderkin and Lendu Cass and Michael White and
Speaker 3: Tyler Flawrence and all those John Frasier. We have great
Speaker 3: late night signature events at the Intrepids here. We're kicking
Speaker 3: off on Thursday night with a big Italian feast hosted
Speaker 3: by Alex Garnachelly from the Food Network. Friday night is
Speaker 3: our Big Burger Bash hosted by Rachel Ray. Saturday night
Speaker 3: is a big Taco event hosted by the cast of
Speaker 3: The Kitchen from the Network along with Aaron Paul and
Speaker 3: Brian Cranston will be there co hosting that event and
Speaker 3: sampling their mescal. And on Sunday, we are celebrating fifty
Speaker 3: years of hip hop with a great hip hop event
Speaker 3: about twenty five of the New York Area's greatest black chefs,
Speaker 3: MC by Cameron Hall and Angela Yee, with for special
Speaker 3: performances by Revron and DJ Cassidy and Iced Tea. So
Speaker 3: brand new event for us, we couldn't be more excited
Speaker 3: to be celebrating hip hop.
Speaker 2: I will say yes, yes, and yes, it's funny that
Speaker 2: you say the Big Burger Bash, because I remember being there.
Speaker 2: We did a broadcast from the South Beach one in
Speaker 2: Food Festival, I think it was back in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: and I remember doing a piece on the burger competition
Speaker 2: and talking to Rachel about it and Chrissy Teagan was
Speaker 2: a judge, and it was just it was this wonderful
Speaker 2: atmosphere of food and wine and partying and just music
Speaker 2: and it was really interesting. I'm curious, though, why why
Speaker 2: South Beach first? And then why you kind of waited
Speaker 2: a little bit before coming into New York.
Speaker 3: Well two good answers for that. A. I live in
Speaker 3: South Florida, so I started there. B Because nothing is
Speaker 3: easy in New York.
Speaker 1: And I really want say that again.
Speaker 3: I really wanted to make sure we kind of worked
Speaker 3: everything out before we went into a city that really
Speaker 3: was not forgiving in the sense, you know, they expect
Speaker 3: the best, and I wanted to deliver the best. So
Speaker 3: when I felt comfortable that we were as good as
Speaker 3: we were going to get or as good as we
Speaker 3: could get, to start moving forward and I felt comfortable,
Speaker 3: that's how it happened.
Speaker 1: So Lee asking for a friend here, obviously, But if
Speaker 1: you've never been to the Food Festival, the Food and
Speaker 1: Wine Festival, sorry, what would you tell somebody a newcomer,
Speaker 1: what to expect, how to prepare, how much to budget
Speaker 1: for something like this, and what kind of events should
Speaker 1: you really be zooming in on. It seems like there's
Speaker 1: just so much to choose from in so little time,
Speaker 1: and so.
Speaker 3: I would really if it's if you're a first timer.
Speaker 3: You know a lot of people who come for the
Speaker 3: first time want to try so many things, and although
Speaker 3: we would like to sell a lot of tickets to you,
Speaker 3: I'd rather you do less and appreciate it because it
Speaker 3: gets exhausting. If you're doing a runch next Friday with
Speaker 3: Martha Stewart and Daniel Blow with Tiffany, and then you're
Speaker 3: going to go to the Grand Tasting in the daytime,
Speaker 3: then you're going to go to the Bergabash at night time.
Speaker 3: That's a lot, and I think it's too much. So
Speaker 3: I always say to somebody, pick a daytime event and
Speaker 3: one nighttime event, or a daytime event and one late
Speaker 3: night event, or a dinner event and a late night event,
Speaker 3: and really enjoy it. You know, wear comfortable shoes, drink responsibly,
Speaker 3: and you know, don't overdo it. And you know there's
Speaker 3: a lot of food, there's a lot of drink. New
Speaker 3: York City is not easy to get around with traffic,
Speaker 3: so I kind of pick where. You know, even myself,
Speaker 3: I pick where I'm going and keep to one keep
Speaker 3: to an area every night. So I try to maximize
Speaker 3: the events I can go.
Speaker 2: Tole We just got about forty five seconds. How do
Speaker 2: you figure out where you want to focus from year
Speaker 2: to year? Are there certain trends out there? Because there's
Speaker 2: certain mainstays, it sounds like, and then there's certain new
Speaker 2: things that you introduce.
Speaker 3: Well, we always want to bring back the classics, things
Speaker 3: like the Taco Event and the Burger Bash, and like
Speaker 3: the hip Hop is new it was you know, it's
Speaker 3: the anniversary of hip hop. So I really felt that
Speaker 3: we should capitalize that and you know, really promote diversity,
Speaker 3: which is so important to us. So we'll always want
Speaker 3: to keep it fresh, not only for my team and myself,
Speaker 3: but for the consumers. So you know, I think by
Speaker 3: keeping it fresh, we continue to be motivated and excited
Speaker 3: and our consumers who were buying our tickets remain the same.
Speaker 2: All Right, We're going to come back with Lee Schrager.
Speaker 2: He's founder and executive director of the New York City
Speaker 2: Wine and Food Festival and our thanks to him. Be
Speaker 2: sure to check out the festival October twelfth through the fifteenth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three. Of course this year, and he was
Speaker 2: joining us on Zoom in New York City. You can
Speaker 2: also check out more online about all of the days
Speaker 2: in the programming