Sponsors
Presenting Sponsor
Thank you to our corporate sponsors for your unmatched generosity, enthusiasm, and unwavering support. We express our endless gratitude to you for making this a memorable and educational weekend and allowing for the showcasing of the South’s very best!
Presenting Sponsor
2024 Headliner
2024 Winery Headliner
All Proceeds Go to
Help 4 Kids
Meat and Meander
Sponsored By Blade and Bow Kentucky Straight Bourbon WhiskeyThursday, April 4th
6:30-8:30 PM
The Waters Building
James Allen Plaza
Vivian Howard Cooking Experience
Sponsored By Blade and Bow Kentucky Straight Bourbon WhiskeyFriday, April 5th, 3:00PM
Black Box Theater,
Francis Marion University Performing Arts Center
Sip+Savor Wine Stroll
Sponsored By Blade and Bow Kentucky Straight Bourbon WhiskeyFriday, April 5th
5:30pm – 8:30pm
(Private Reserve Experience, 7pm-10pm)
at Victors Restaurant
Signature Dinners (4)
Sponsored By Blade and Bow Kentucky Straight Bourbon WhiskeyFriday, April 5th
6:30PM – 9:00PM
Very limited number of tickets available!
Ray Isle Wine Class:
Napa Valley 101
Sponsored By Blade and Bow Kentucky Straight Bourbon WhiskeySaturday, April 6th
11:00AM
The Grand Tasting
Downtown at Florence County Surface LotSaturday, April 6th
11:00AM – 3:00PM
The Final Pour with Chef Vivian Howard
on the grounds of the
Francis Marion University
Performing Arts Center
Saturday, April 6th
6:30PM – 9:30PM
Holly Beaumier
Frank Chisholm
Paula Efird
Brian Falcone
Lane Gilpin
Rick Havekost
Bryan Holt
Marianne Hoylen
Thomas Kennedy
Jill Lewis
Tim Norwood
Cooper Thomas
Tamara W. Kirven, Executive Director
Staff
Executive Director
Tamara W. Kirven
Producers
Matt Lee and Ted Lee
Associate Producer
KeKe
Benefitting
Hunger hurts, and Help4Kids Florence is making a direct impact in our community by feeding at-risk elementary school-age children in Florence County. Throughout Florence County, there are a high number of elementary-age children that depend on free or reduced breakfast and lunch meals as their primary source of nourishment during the week. Unfortunately, this means that many of these children are hungry on the weekend when schools are closed. Help 4 Kids is dedicated to providing bags of single-serve, nutritional foods to these at-risk children, directly reducing their weekend food insecurity and helping to ensure that these children are able to return to school on Monday rested, fed, and ready to learn.
Help 4 Kids Florence currently provides weekend meal packs to approximately 2,500 children in Florence County elementary schools and Head Start program during the school year. Help 4 Kids also provides meal packs in the summer months to the year-round school program at Timrod Elementary School and the Head Start programs. Help 4 Kids also partners with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Florence County, East Florence Mission, and the City of Florence to distribute bags of food to hungry children throughout the year.
Executive Director
Tamara W. Kirven
For 2023, the Florence Wine & Food Festival is introducing an all-new, marquee event—The Grand Tasting—that presents a new venue for sponsors to get their name out in front of a discerning clientele of festival-goers. The Grand Tasting will be:
- The largest event the Festival, at 500 ticketed guests, happening Saturday afternoon Downtown from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.
- A tented, full city-block’s worth of delicious bites and sips, with winemakers, craft-brewers and distillers, pouring and pairing alongside the region’s best restaurants, farmers, and specialty-food vendors—offering guests an exciting all-you-can-sample taste of the PeeDee’s tantalizing food culture!
- A performance stage, featuring live music, chef-demonstrations and competitions.
- A VIP-tier ticket giving guests early access to the Grand Tasting and to an adjacent VIP area furnished with premium accommodations and elite culinary treats.
Producers
Matt Lee and Ted Lee
Siblings Matt and Ted grew up and learned to cook in Charleston, South Carolina, in a townhouse on the city’s fabled Rainbow Row. They attended colleges in the Northeast and so missed the foods of their hometown they founded The Lee Bros. Boiled Peanuts Catalogue, a mail-order source for southern pantry staples in 1994. When a magazine editor asked them to write a story about traveling around South Carolina, they embarked on a second career as food journalists and cookbook authors.
Since 2000, they have written hundreds of food, wine and travel features for magazines and newspapers and their three cookbooks have, combined, won two James Beard Awards and four IACP Cookbook Awards. They were on-air commentators for seven seasons of The Cooking Channel’s hit series Unique Eats, and hosts of Southern Uncovered with The Lee Bros. on Ovation
More recently, Matt and Ted created Cookbook Boot Camp, a two-day seminar that shows aspiring cookbook authors how to complete and sell their cookbook proposals to national publishers. Their most recent book, Hotbox: Inside Catering, the Food World’s Riskiest Business, was named one of 2019’s best books by Amazon and The New York Times Book Review called it “The Kitchen Confidential of big-ticket catering.” They are currently working to transform Hotbox into a documentary series for TV.
Matt, his wife Gia, and their three sons live in Charleston, SC. Ted lives with his wife, the artist E.V. Day, in Brooklyn, NY.
The Florence Wine & Food Festival Chefs Council is a group of participating chefs (and restaurateurs and food producers) who develop ideas and act as a sounding board for the Festival’s planning committee, production staff, and Board. The Chefs Council fosters a sense of community in the food and beverage industry in the Pee Dee and increases the visibility of the Festival and its chef constituency.