Fall events to serve substance with sizzle

How about a serving of celebrity with a side of substance?
This fall promises both within the space of a couple of days. In late September, one of the nation’s leading wine-tasting events, which happens to be held in our state, will bring two of the biggest stars of the kitchen and beyond. And a day earlier, a roundtable discussion and a job fair will analyze the food-service industry in its role as economic engine of the state’s economy. For good measure, two candidates for governor will be on hand as well.
On Sept. 26, Johnson & Wales University will host the first-ever Mayor’s Food Economy and Job Fair event.
Under the theme of “Feeding Rhode Island’s Economy,” the day will feature a roundtable discussion headed up by Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, both of whom are candidates for governor. Up for discussion will be the state’s reputation and assets in the restaurant and hospitality industries and how they can be leveraged to create jobs.
I will host the roundtable portion of the event to be held in the Wildcat Center on the university’s Harborside Campus on the Providence waterfront. A job fair will follow. The daylong event is being supported by the offices of both mayors and Workforce Solutions of Providence and Cranston.
The next day, the nationally renowned Newport Mansions Wine and Food Festival will welcome Martha Stewart to Marble House. The Emmy Award-winning television show host, entrepreneur and best-selling author has been called America’s most-trusted lifestyle expert and teacher. The announcement of Stewart as headliner at this ninth annual tasting and culinary event was a closely guarded secret until last month’s Newport Flower Show.
Stewart’s name is her brand. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which she founded in 1996, reaches approximately 100 million consumers across all media platforms each month with magazines, best-selling books, websites and apps, television and video programming, and even a radio show. Stewart, no stranger to Rhode Island, is making her first Newport Mansions appearance and will appear on stage in cooking demonstrations as well as book signings.
She will be joined as headliner by another familiar face to the state’s foodies – Sara Moulton. Her PBS series “Sara’s Weeknight Meals” had its fourth season premiere in June. But Moulton’s career stretches back more than 35 years and like Stewart, transcends cooking on television. She founded the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance while working as a New York restaurant chef. The alliance marked its 30th anniversary in 2012. Moulton has made two recent guest-chef appearances in Providence as headliner of a food and wine event that was part of the Providence flower show for two years. Moulton has appeared in Newport in the past for guest-chef appearances as well, and has family members in Rhode Island. Of the two headliners at the Mansions Food and Wine Festival, Moulton may well have spent more time before the cameras, as well as behind them. She hosted more 1,200 hour-long, live episodes of one of the first shows in the early days of the Food Network. Called “Cooking Live” the series featured Moulton, a rudimentary kitchen, and a telephone.
She took live telephone calls from home cooks who needed assistance in getting through recipes or attempting dishes for the first time. In August of 2012 she began writing a weekly column entitled “The Healthy Plate” for The Associated Press which appears in newspapers across the country.
The two-day festival features a grand tasting of hundreds of wines from all over the world, a Winemaker’s Brunch, seminars and an exhibition tent adjacent to the cooking demonstration area featuring select foods paired with wines to taste. The culinary demonstration stage will feature a stellar lineup of chefs. In addition to Stewart and Moulton, local celebrity chefs such as Jonathan Cartwright of Muse by Jonathan Cartwright at Vanderbilt Grace, Karsten Hart of Castle Hill Inn, Tom Duffy of The Spiced Pear at the Chanler Hotel and Matthew McCartney of Jamestown Fish.
Many cities host wine and food festivals with celebrity chefs and top-shelf wines and spirits. The locales that can at the same time support a substantive forum on the state of the hospitality industry are exceptional. Newport and Providence continue to show excellence in hospitality to a national following. •


Bruce Newbury’s “Dining Out” food and wine talk radio show is heard on WADK-AM 1540, WHJJ-AM 920, online and through mobile applications. He can be reached by email at bruce@brucenewbury.com.

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