Join the Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival Presented by Food & Wine in Honoring Some of the Hospitality Industry's Top Leaders on Saturday, February 27

The Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by FOOD & WINE (SOBEWFF^®) is celebrating its 15^th anniversary February 24 - 28, 2016, and honoring some of the hospitality industry's leading figures at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel during its annual . Master of Ceremonies, Tom Colicchio, will oversee the evening's recognition of chef, restaurateur and author Jonathan Waxman and help present the Southern Wine & Spirits Lifetime Achievement Award to Constellation Brands' Chairman of the Board Richard Sands and President and CEO Rob Sands. 

The Festival has hosted its annual Tribute Dinner at cherished partner Jonathan Tisch's Loews Miami Beach Hotel since its inception in 2002. Past honorees have included: Ferran Adrià, Piero Antinori, Juan Mari Arzak, Ted Baseler, Daniel Boulud, Francis Ford Coppola, Alain Ducasse, Emeril Lagasse, Danny Meyer, the Robert Mondavi Family, Jamie Oliver, Martha Stewart, Charlie Trotter, Alice Waters, and more.

"Tribute Dinner is a marquis Festival event that gets better and better each year," said Alex Tonarelli, Managing Director of Loews Miami Beach Hotel. "It's an honor to host this dinner alongside (Festival founder and director) Lee Brian Schrager and his fantastic team, while supporting the FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, whose students play an integral role in the preparations that bring this evening to life. As the Festival's official hotel for the past 15 years, we're proud to be part of such a special event in celebration of our industry."

The Loews Miami Beach's own executive chef Frederic Delaire helps manage the preparation and execution of the evening's cuisine with perfectly practiced precision, ensuring that the dishes of visiting chefs are ready for their evaluation and finishing touches. In addition to Delaire, this year's dinner will be prepared by culinary luminaries Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, Marc Forgione, Aarón Sánchez, Marcus Samuelsson, and Nancy Silverton. Each course will be paired with a specially selected wine from the Robert Mondavi Winery portfolio in celebration of the winery's 50^th anniversary this year. The swanky and cool jazz band Potash Twins -- hand selected by Waxman himself -- will be the live entertainment for the evening.

Long before Waxman was making diner's taste buds sing, he studied political science and honed his trombone-playing skills while at the University of California Berkeley. While selling Ferraris in Berkeley, Waxman's employer introduced him to Tante Marie's Cooking School in San Francisco, where he studied French cuisine with Mary Risley. This led to his enrollment in the La Varenne School in Paris, where he mastered classic French cooking techniques and received the Grand Diplôme. Today Waxman is chef and owner of Barbuto in Manhattan's West Village, Adele's in Nashville, and Montecito in Toronto's entertainment district with director Ivan Reitman. He recently opened Bajo Sexto, a taqueria in Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. In 2015 Jonathan launched a reinvention of his classic Jams in 1 Hotels Central Park, a new brand from Starwood Capital Group.

Richard Sands serves as the Chairman of the Board, and Rob Sands as the President and CEO, of Constellation Brands; the largest multi-category supplier of beverage alcohol to distributors and retailers and importer of the Modelo family of brands in the U.S. Richard led the acquisition of numerous wine companies during the 1990s and 2000s including Robert Mondavi, Simi, Clos du Bois and Franciscan Estates. He also led the procurement of key spirits brands SVEDKA Vodka, Paul Masson Grande Amber Brandy and Black Velvet Canadian Whisky. In 2013, under Rob's leadership, Constellation acquired the remaining portion of the Crown Imports beer joint venture along with a state-of-the-art brewery in Mexico and perpetual rights to produce the Grupo Modelo brands in the U.S. Together they have led the company's gross sales to reach close to $6 billion, solidifying their position as the leading multi-category supplier of beverage alcohol to distributors and retailers in North America.

Tickets for this event, and many more, are available online at sobefest.com or by calling 877.762.3933 (phone sales open Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST). SOBEWFF^® has raised more than $22 million to date for the Wine Spectator Restaurant Management Laboratory and Southern Wine & Spirits Beverage Management Center at the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management located on Florida International University's (FIU) Biscayne Bay campus.