It was a lively scene last night at Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle in Aventura. Forty local chefs cooked to raise money for programs to feed children in need.

The place wasn’t too crowded, making it easy to navigate the large ballroom to get a taste of what the restaurants had to offer. Chef Makoto Okuwa of Makoto stole our palates with his pan-seared sushi rice topped with spicy tuna. So did the Tudor House’s popcorn milk shake served with a side of salty-sweet brown butter popcorn. Chef Michael Bloise, now with Sushi Samba on Lincoln Road, served a tasty curry-dusted picanha with sweet potato. Other bites we loved: STK’s short rib buns and db Bistro’s poussin ballotine.

Chefs Paula da Silva of 1500 and Philip Brock of the Fairmont’s Calafate Grill battled for $5,000 for charity. Brock took the prize. Wines, fruit liqueurs, tequila and Moonshine flowed.

Here are some photos.
courtesy of Miami New Times

SAVE THE DATE: Taste of Miami Spice Kickoff Event & Fundraiser
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Miami Beach Convention Center
1901 Convention Center Drive
The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Miami Beach Convention Center and Centerplate Catering invite you to enjoy the 2nd Annual Taste of Miami Spice Kickoff Event & Fundraiser, featuring tastings from a selection of participating Miami Spice restaurants and celebrity chefs selling and signing cookbooks. A potion of the proceeds will benefit Share Our Strength. Tickets will go on sale soon. Visit www.ILoveMiamiSpice.com for details.

SUP: By John Tanasychuk, Sun-Sentinel 

This week brings two opportunities to contribute to Share Our Strength, the hunger relief organization.

It culminates with two benefits—June 2 at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale and July 7 at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle resort—when guests get to sample some of the best food and wine from area restaurants.

11 a.m.-2 p.m., Thursday: Feeding South Florida, 2501 SW 32 Terrace, Pembroke Park, 954-518-1818.

Chefs from Chef Allen’s, Inc., Joe’s Stone Crab, Fairmont Turnberry Isle, China Grill, BRIO Tuscan Grille, Blue Tree Café and Catered Bliss will fill and sort boxes at the Feeding South Florida distribution center. There will also be several food trucks selling lunch. A DJ will provide entertainment. Participating food trucks include Slow Food Truck, CheeseMe Mobile, My Wing Commander, Catered Bliss, Clarabelle’s Cupcakes and Blue Tree Cafe. For information on volunteering at the center, contact Leroy Green lgreen@feedingsouthflorida.org.

Anyone who buys tickets to either of the Share Our Strength events will receive a 20 percent discount on tickets. More information at strengthflorida.org or call 877-268-2783

Noon-4 p.m. Sunday: Aventura Mall Center Court.

Local bakeries, restaurants, marketplaces, and hotels will offer samples of sweet for $2 to $5. Tickets for all items are $1 each or $10 for 13 tickets.

No charge to participate in service day. However, anyone who purchases Taste of the Nation tickets that day will receive a 20% discount.

Local chefs will take a short break from their kitchens to fill boxes with food for the hungry at Feeding South Florida to kickoff this year’s Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation Miami and Fort Lauderdale events. In support of this great effort, several Food Trucks will participate as well by selling lunch and donating partial proceeds back to the organization. So far chef participants who will work in the Feeding South Florida warehouse include Chef Allen’s, Inc., Joe’s Stone Crab, Fairmont Turnberry Isle, China Grill, BRIO Tuscan Grille, Blue Tree Café and Catered Bliss, and others will be announced closer to Thursday.

The public is invited to play a part in the service day, which will also include a DJ from Mike Sipe Entertainment.

South Florida’s premier culinary benefits return to the Broward County Convention Center on Thursday, June 2 and then to the legendary Fairmont Turnberry Isle resort on Thursday, July 7. All ticket sales will be contributed to Share Our Strength, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization working to end childhood hunger in America.

During the community service day, chefs will tour Feeding South Florida’s Broward headquarters and will spend a couple hours assisting the distribution center’s staff and volunteers with sorting donated food items and checking for expiration dates, dents, damages and leaks.

Each year, Miami-Dade and Broward’s hottest chefs and mixologists donate their time, talent and passion during Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation Miami with one goal in mind: to raise the critical funds needed to end childhood hunger. There are over 17 million kids in America with 637,000 of this total in Florida – that’s 1 in 4 children—who do not know when or where they’ll have their next meal. In South Florida, funds are distributed to a number of beneficiaries like Feeding South Florida, which is the state’s largest food bank. For more information and to purchase tickets for Taste of the Nation, call 1-877-26-TASTE or visit www.strengthflorida.org.

With the increase in demand for food, Feeding South Florida is always looking for volunteers. For more information on how you can help, visit www.feedingsouthflorida.org.

Taylor Morgan is the founder/owner of www.SouthFloridaDines.com, a company she started in 2001 when the worldwide web was just taking hold.

“It was not the career I chose. It chose me. I always wanted to be an actress but actresses have to be waitresses,” she laughs. “So I worked at a restaurant for a long time and then went into radio broadcasting, following in the footsteps of my father, Jerry Williams, who had a Boston radio show for 50 years.”

Morgan wanted to host a radio show on restaurants, dining and entertainment in South Florida but had to sell commercials in order to buy the air time she needed.

“I hate asking people for money,” she said. “I was getting discouraged asking people if they wanted to buy airtime on a show that didn’t exist yet on a station no one had ever heard of.”

It was while noodling around on eBay that Morgan experienced her life-changing moment.

“There was a $25 gift certificate to a TexMex restaurant there and, with three days of bidding left, it was already up to $17 with 22 people bidding on it!” she marvels. “The winner would still have to wait seven days to receive it. That’s when I decided to ask restaurants to pay me in gift certificates. I’d sell the certificates online for half price and the restaurant would get the online advertising. Back then, many of them did not even have their own websites.”

Morgan soon had 10 restaurants on board, then 30, then 50 and now, there are 400 restaurants listed on www.southfloridadines.com. But before the technology was available for printable coupons, it was Morgan and a girlfriend processing $10,000 worth of coupons in a second bedroom.

“We were making the certificates in-house, cutting them out by hand, then mailing them,” she says. But the real hurdle was getting the money to do it. “I went to four banks and four banks turned me down,” she remembers. “I finally had to go to The Bank of Dad and he almost turned me down. I needed $20,000 to get it started and I had to sit down with Dad and his accountant and they told me to put together a business plan, which I had no idea how to do.”

Morgan did get the plan together but received the loan primarily because she was so passionate that the idea was going work. In the first year, she was already making money. Her father breathed a sigh of relief.

“I would like to take it national but my ultimate dream would be for Google to buy us out,” she says.

Like most Palm Beach Woman Achievers, Taylor believes in giving back to her community. She sponsors 10 to 20 food & wine events per year for charities that include the American Lung Association and Share Our Strength, a national organization that gets food to disadvantaged children.

She also has some advice for those coming up the ranks: “Never listen to the naysayers; listen to your heart, get a solid plan in place, take action and prove everybody else wrong.” -Deborah Welky

Taylor Morgan can be reached at info@southfloridadines.com or call 866.379.3463 (DINE).

reprint: Palm Beach Woman

An array of South Palm Beach and Broward County’s chefs and restaurants will gather for Share Our Strength’s “Taste of the Nation,” a culinary benefit, to offer their specialties and to cook up support for the nationwide fight against childhood hunger in America.

The event is planned for June 2 at the Broward County Convention Center from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. A VIP reception begins at 6 p.m. and includes early admission with access to chefs, a vintner’s reception, a catered dining area, gift bags and exclusive wines.

Taste of the Nation will raise critical funds needed to support Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger in America. Local beneficiaries are the South Florida Hunger Coalition; Florence Fuller Child Development Centers, Inc., Boca Raton; and Feeding South Florida. The event has raised more than $2 million over the past 19 years

The 2011 edition of the event is a celebration of the “Taste of the Nation’s” 20th anniversary. It will recognize its “Platinum Chefs,” the local chefs who have shown commitment to Share Our Strength, long-term participation in “Taste of the Nation,” and dedication to the goal of eliminating childhood hunger in the area. There will be more than 45 of the area’s chefs and restaurants participating, as well as a variety of wines and spirits poured to complement the cuisine.

“We are very excited to feature an abundance of delicious dishes in a fantastic party atmosphere and a truly spectacular live auction,” says chairwoman Kelly Murphy. “Importantly, as we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we will also honor our platinum chefs. They have been extremely big hearted and generous with their time and talents over the years, some almost since the inception of the event. ”

Among the supporters who will be honored are Oliver Saucy, Café Maxx; Christopher Nealon, Aruba Beach Café; Bryce Statham, Blue Moon Fish Co.; Allen Susser, Chef Allen’s Burger Bar and Chef Allen’s To Go at the Fort Lauderdale Airport; Angelo Elia, Casa D’Angelo; Dean James Max, 3030 Ocean; Andre Bienvenu, Joe’s Stone Crab; Johnny Vinczencz, Johnny V’s; Ralph Pagano, STK at the Gansevoort; and Joe Cascio, Joe’s Riverside Grille.”

In addition, the event will feature live and silent auctions with once in a lifetime items, including rare and boutique wine packages, wine dinners and exotic vacations. “Hell’s Kitchen” star and “Taste of the Nation” Platinum Chef Ralph Pagano will be the master of ceremonies and auctioneer.

Share Our Strength’s “Taste of the Nation” Fort Lauderdale is nationally sponsored by American Express, Sysco, Food Network, Brown-Forman and S.Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water; and is locally sponsored by Lincoln, Whole Foods Market and others.

General admission tickets are $90. The VIP reception, offering a pre-event party with an opportunity to meet the chefs and savor hors d’oeuvres, champagne and upscale wines, reserved seating and a gift bag, is available at $200 per person. For tickets and information visit http://www.strengthflorida.org.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 9, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BankAtlantic, Florida’s Most Convenient Bank, announced today that it is pleased to partner with the Children’s Services Council of Broward County (the “CSC”) in support of the upcoming Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation^® Fort Lauderdale on June 2, 2011.

Broward and South Palm Beach County’s hottest chefs, restaurants, and mixologists will gather for the city’s premier culinary benefit to offer their specialties and to cook up support for the nationwide fight against childhood hunger in America. The delectable event is planned for Thursday, June 2, 2011 from 7:00 p.m. through 10:00 p.m. at the Broward County Convention Center. A VIP reception will begin at 6:00 p.m. and includes early admission with access to Chefs, a vintner’s reception, a catered dining area, gift bags, and exclusive wines.

Taste of the Nation Fort Lauderdale will raise critical funds needed to support Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger in America. Local beneficiaries are the South Florida Hunger Coalition; Florence Fuller Child Development Centers, Inc., Boca Raton; and Feeding South Florida. The Broward and South Palm Beach event has raised over $2 million over the past 19 years.

The 2011 edition of the event is a celebration marking the Broward and South Palm Beach Taste of the Nation’s 20^th Anniversary. It will recognize its “Platinum Chefs,” the great local culinarians who have shown strong commitment to Share Our Strength, long-term participation in Taste of the Nation, and dedication to the goal of eliminating childhood hunger in our area. There will be over 45 of the area’s top chefs and restaurants participating, as well as a variety of excellent wines and spirits poured to complement the cuisine.

“We are very excited to feature an abundance of delicious dishes in a fantastic party atmosphere and a truly spectacular live auction,” says Chairwoman Kelly Murphy. ”Moreover, as we celebrate our 20^th Anniversary, we will also honor our Platinum Chefs. They have been extremely big hearted and generous with their time and talents over the years, some almost since the inception of the event.”

“Among the most stalwart supporters who will be honored are Oliver Saucy- Café Maxx; Christopher Nealon- Aruba Beach Café; Bryce Statham – Blue Moon Fish Co.; Allen Susser – Chef Allen’s Burger Bar and Chef Allen’s To Go at the Fort Lauderdale Airport; Angelo Elia – Casa D’Angelo; Dean James Max – 3030 Ocean; Andre Bienvenu- Joe’s Stone Crab; Johnny Vinczencz – Johnny V’s; Ralph Pagano – STK at the Gansevoort, Holger Struett – Chops Lobster Bar; Susie Stallings – Susies’ Scrumptious and the Broward County Convention Center with support from Chef Jamie MacDonald,” Murphy said.

In addition to fabulous food and drinks, Taste of the Nation will feature exciting live and silent auctions with once in a lifetime items, including rare and boutique wine lots, wine dinners, and exotic vacations. Hell’s Kitchen star and Taste of the Nation Platinum Chef Ralph Pagano will be the Auctioneer.  Masters of Ceremony are Paul Castronovo & Young Ron Brewer of the BIG 105.9 FM.

Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation Fort Lauderdale is nationally sponsored by American Express, Sysco, Food Network, Brown-Forman and S.Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water, and is locally sponsored by Lincoln, Whole Foods Market, and other generous individuals and businesses.  One hundred percent of ticket sales help ensure no kid in America grows up hungry.

General Admission tickets are $90.00.  The VIP Reception, offering a pre-event party with an opportunity to meet the chefs and savor hors d’oeuvres, champagne and upscale wines, reserved seating, and a gift bag, is available at $200.00 per person, which includes general admission. For tickets and information, please visit www.strengthflorida.org.

For further information, please call Carla Marsh at 561-368-4421or email cmarshpr@earthlink.net .

About Share Our Strength^®: Share Our Strength^® is a national nonprofit that is ending childhood hunger in America. Share Our Strength connects children with the nutritious food they need to lead healthy, active lives. Through its No Kid Hungry^® Campaign, Share Our Strength is ending childhood hunger in America by 2015.

About No Kid Hungry- Florida: The Florida Partnership to End Childhood Hunger is an initiative of Share Our Strength and a local non-profit, Florida Impact, with additional support from the Food Research and Action Center and MGT of America. The initiative also includes a broad spectrum of business, nonprofit, religious, community and political leaders. Grace Nelson, wife of U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, has been named Honorary Chair. Through the Florida Partnership’s Ten-Point Plan, Share Our Strength hopes to build a stronger, healthier, better educated, and more productive Florida by ensuring that all children in the state are surrounded by nutritious food—wherever they may live, learn, play, or pray.

For further information about Share Our Strength^®- Florida, the No Kid Hungry^® Campaign, or to get involved, please visit: www.strengthflorida.org

by Bill Citara, Boca Raton Magazine

At last night’s Taste of the Nation culinary competition, Café Boulud’s Zach Bell bested 3030 Ocean’s Dean James Max in Battle Sea Bass, a 15-minute cook-off featuring a wealth of ingredients from a mystery basket unveiled only minutes before the competition started.

A receptive crowd watching the two chefs go at it onstage in Cohen Pavilion at West Palm’s Kravis Center in PBC’s first Share Our Strength-Taste of the Nation benefit to end childhood hunger, which raised approximately $60,000.

The chefs chose from an array of mostly organic ingredients in their identical baskets, beginning with Patagonian Toothfish (the less-than-lovely true name for Chilean sea bass) and including white asparagus, kale, watercress, pineapple, pears and Pinot Grigio, among others.

The results showed why they’re chefs and you’re nuking some barely edible food-like substance in the microwave.

Bell’s winning dish, which earned him two of three votes (including yours truly’s), set small chunks of sea bass poached in Pinot Grigio atop a tart-sweet salad of crunchy kale and diced pear, with a garnish of thin-sliced sautéed red apple and faintly bitter Belgian endive.

Max countered with pan-seared fish on watercress-white asparagus salad with pineapple-chive vinaigrette.

As for the rest of the evening, it showed how far we’ve come, gastronomically speaking, in the past several years. From my own personal favorites—Echo’s Peking duck legs with squares of sweet sticky rice, Four Seasons’ braised short ribs with poached egg on pea risotto—to Kubo’s lobster beignets, Pistache’s braised beef with truffled pain pardu and fattily luscious cubes of maple syrup-glazed pork belly from Dada, the food was as good as at any big-time event I’ve ever attended, from San Francisco to Miami.

Take a bow, chefs. You rocked.

By Liz Balmaseda   |  Dining  |  April 06, 2011
Palm Beach Pulse

It’s always a good culinary event when chef Zach Bell (Café Boulud) is involved. It’s even better when the event raises money to fight childhood hunger. Taste of the Nation Palm Beach, which comes to the Kravis Center next Wednesday night is such an occasion.

The food and wine extravaganza is part of the Share Our Strength national campaign which has raised some $80 million to secure nutritious meals for America’s needy children.

Bell, the community-minded, James Beard Award nominee, is the event’s chef chair. He’ll wage a throwdown against fellow nominee, Dean Max (3800 Ocean). The local star chefs will be in terrific company — event participants include chefs from 32 East, Café Chardonnay, Echo at The Breakers, Gratify, Kubo, Michelle Bernstein’s at the Omphoy, among many others.

Here’s the best part: 100 percent of ticket sales goes to the cause of ending childhood hunger.

Tickets are available at www.tasteofthenation.org, priced at $80 for general admission to $125 for VIP (they’re $100 to $150 at the door). The grand tasting goes from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Kravis Center’s Cohen Pavilion, 701 Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach.

by Kenny Spahn
Boca Raton Restaurant Examiner

Named “South Florida’s most outstanding Food and Wine Celebration,” Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation is coming back to Palm Beach County! The delicious fundraiser takes place Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at the Kravis Center’s Cohen Pavilion. Considered one of the country’s premier food and wine events, the Taste has made its way to Palm Beach, with four-time James Beard nominee, Chef Zach Bell, of Café Boulud, at the helm.

Taste of the Nation features dozens of Palm Beach county’s top chefs and restaurants, scores of wines and spirits, a VIP reception, and a live auction featuring exciting trips to South Africa & the Caribbean, and tempting lifestyle lots. The acclaimed event returns to Palm Beach County in spectacular fashion, with some of THE top eateries in south Florida offering their delectable cuisine. And just check out the line-up! Don’t miss this chance to sample some of the area’s top restaurants – Some real All-Stars, including: 32 East, 3800 Ocean, Apicius Ristorante e Enoteca, Atlantic Ocean Club, Buddha Sky Bar, Cabo Flats, Café Boulud, Café Chardonnay, Cantina Laredo, Casa D’ Angelo Ristorante, Chops Lobster Bar, City Cellar, City Fish Market, Dada, Darbster, De la Tierra at Sundy House, Echo at The Breakers, Gratify, Guanabanas, Hollywood Cupcake, I Heart Olive Oil, III Forks Steakhouse, Ironwood Grill at PGA National Resort, Jupiter Island Grill, Kubo Asiatic, Leopard at the Chesterfield, Michelle Bernstein’s at the Omphoy, Ocean Bistro at The Four Seasons, Oceanside Market, Rockstar Catering, Sysco, Talai Thai, Temple Orange at The Ritz Carlton, The 51 Supper Club & Lounge, The Sugar Monkey, and Whole Foods Market!

“Children’s most basic needs, like nutrition, are not being met and they therefore are suffering in school, with increased absences, poor tests scores, irritable behavior, and the inability to concentrate,” notes Sari Vatske, Florida Regional Manager for Share Our Strength.

“Share Our Strength is my charity of choice, as they attack childhood hunger with vigor. In fact, they have helped provide an average of more than 10,735 lunches per day to Palm Beach County’s lowest income families,” says Chef Zach Bell, Event Chairman . Taste of the Nation Palm Beach supports Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry® Campaign, which aims to not only increase access to summer meals programs, after school snacks, and backpack programs, but also support the area’s mo effective anti-hunger organizations. This foodie event is unique in that 100% of ticket sales goes towards ensuring no child is hungry in the United States, and especially south Florida. Taste of The Nation is currently in its 20thyear in Broward and 24th year in Miami, and now returns back to Palm Beach.

VIP tickets (which includes an exclusive lounge area, gift bag, specialty wines & spirits, as well as the entire evening’s activities) are $125 per person, pre-sale and $150 at the door. General admission event tickets are $80 per person, pre-sale and $100 at the door. To purchase tickets or to get involved, visit www.TasteOfTheNation.org. For information on donating auction lots, becoming a volunteer, establishing a sponsorship or on obtaining tickets call 561.998.2983 or visit the website at www.strengthflorida.org.

Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation®is the nation’s premier culinary benefit dedicated to making sure no kid in America grows up hungry. Each spring, the nation’s hottest chefs and mixologists donate their time, talent and passion to more than 40 events across the United States, with one goal in mind: to raise the critical funds needed to end childhood hunger. Taste of the Nation is nationally sponsored by American Express, Sysco, Food Network, Brown-Forman and S.Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water. Since 1988, Taste of the Nation has raised more than $80 million.