Fewer guests amid COV protocols Food Fest on a diet
WHAT will the New York City Wine & Food Festival look like in the middle of the Delta variant scare? Think fewer attendees — and a new COVID protocol.
Yes, signature events with A-listers are slated to happen. Those include the Burger Bash hosted by Rachael Ray and a “Backyard BBQ” hosted by Andrew Zimmern. TV chefs like Masaharu Morimoto, Duff Goldman and Scott Conant will offer “master classes.” David Burtka and his husband, Neil Patrick Harris, will host a drag brunch.
“This year, I expect a return to the free-flowing atmosphere of 2019,” said chef Robert Irvine, host of Food Network’s “Restaurant: Impossible,” noting that last year’s NYCWFF was virtual. “New York City is really on top of it with vaccination requirements, which allows everyone to just be present and enjoy the moment.”
But while big-name chefs — including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller and Giada De Laurentiis — will show their faces at the foodie fest slated to run Oct. 14 to Oct. 17 across dozens of events citywide, all photo ops and book signings been canceled.
“We aren’t doing meet-and-greets and photo ops, or parading the talent around. They will be up on a stage. One-on-one interaction with chefs just isn’t happening this year,” said Lee Schrager, the founder of the festival.
Meanwhile, he says it has been harder to lure many lesser-known chefs to participate — and not just because of health concerns.
“Many chefs are just reopening their restaurants and they are also dealing with a labor shortage,” Schrager said. “We have the same high-level celebrity chefs. We just had a problem with the smaller events because chefs don’t have staff.”
While around 25 percent of the chefs have been from out of state in past years, the number this year is down to around 10 percent to 12 percent, Schrager said. The number of events is down to 65 from around 80 when it was last staged in 2019, he said.
It has also been challenging to get some products, especially wine and spirits, Schrager said.
“It’s supply and demand,” he said. “People are drinking more, and restaurants and hotels are reopening, and there aren’t enough drivers to deliver the products.”
More events will be held outdoors and social distancing will be in play. There will also be plexiglass separating the chefs and their tasting stations and tasting plates from the public. There will be one-way foot traffic at the big events, and lots of sanitizing stations.
One pandemic precaution that won’t be in place: the COVID-sniffing dogs that earlier this year helped make NYCWFF’s sister festival in Miami — the South Beach Wine and Food Festival — a success.
“The dogs don’t make sense in New York, in part because the events are too spread out,” said Schrager, who also founded the South Beach shindig.
The NYCWFF has so far sold around $1 million worth of tickets — down from around $1.6 million a month before the 2019 festival. It has also reached its $3 million “sponsorship budget,” he said.