The Savannah Food & Wine Festival, a nonprofit benefitting the local community, celebrated its 5th anniversary this year. Among the biggest and boldest of the festival’s programming was the Taste of Savannah. From 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on November 11th, patrons wandered around the historic Georgia State Railroad Museum savoring all of the history (and booze) the venue had to offer.
The sheer amount of people and exhibitors added an air of excitement to the event. Each attendee was given 5 tokens to use on food, and since each item was around that much, you were left to search for the free samples scattered around the space. I would expect more readily available and free food from an event like this, but the samples I ended up accumulating were sufficient and delicious.
Here are some of the highlights of the Taste of Savannah:
Best celebrity chef sighting: Sean Brock
“I’m gonna keep my cool,” I repeated to myself as I walked up. I didn’t. As a huge Sean Brock fan, I was bound to make it kind of awkward, but he was very nice to me anyway. He’s currently excited about the upcoming opening of Husk Greenville and gushed about all the new pots and pans to me.
Best sample: Braised pork cheeks with Aztec blue corn grits from Five Oaks Taproom
Decadent and thoughtfully created, this offering from Savannah-based restaurant Five Oaks Taproom blew me away. I had no regrets about dropping all my tokens on this bite, and it paired perfectly with the red wine offered in the tent right next to it.
Best chef demo: Jernard Wells
Any chef that makes a Ciroc Vanilla glaze for his wings wins in my book. Chef Wells’ energy was contagious and had the crowd hanging on his every word, and the delicious wing sample didn’t hurt.