South Beach Mango Festival
by Cindi Sutter, Founder & Editor of Spirited Table®
Miami Beach, FL – Introducing the first ever of its kind, South Beach Mango Festival, being unveiled on Sunday, August 5, 2018, from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. at South Beach’s beautiful, white sandy beach in Lummus Park, adjacent to Ocean Drive. With the mango craze hitting an all-time high, ranging from mango shampoo to mango beer, South Florida wants to commemorate and celebrate the importance and peak of its famed fruit. The event is aimed at tropical fruit lovers and culinary enthusiasts, as well as the domestic and international visitors who flock to South Beach. The event will also benefit a vital non-profit philanthropic organization, Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
With South Florida beginning an upwards shift towards introducing healthy festivals and expos into the mix, millennials, families, locals and visitors will have the opportunity to continue to educate themselves on healthy eating options and alternatives, using mango in their recipes, with activities including a farmer’s market offering more than 40 varieties of juicy, sweet, locally farmed mangoes; mango tastings; cooking classes for kids and adults, featuring the golden fruit; a children’s play area; and an entertainment area with live music and dancing; top chef demos, and a memorable mango-mixology competition. A sampling of creative farm-to-table culinary creations, showcasing the luscious mango from a variety of South Florida’s top fine-dining destinations and neighborhood cafes, served amid cooling ocean breezes, will make this a not-to-be-missed, uniquely South Florida experience.
The festival was born from the passion of visionary entrepreneur Robert Lansburgh, the Chief Mango Officer, and mango enthusiast, with direction and host, Culinary Director, Chef Allen Susser. Chef Allen is one of the original members of “The Mango Gang,” the group of supremely talented chefs who injected South Florida with the tropically-infused cuisine in the 1990s. The gang launched local cuisine into the national and international culinary repertoire, attracting new visitors and shining the media spotlight on South Florida as an exciting dining destination. Recipient of the prestigious James Beard Award as best chef in the Southeast; a famed restaurateur, restaurant consultant, mango aficionado, and educator, Chef Allen is the author of a highly regarded book on
mangoes, “The Great Mango Book”.
Lansburgh notes, “South Florida grows some of the most delicious mangoes in the world. We will bring the local bounty to the Beach and celebrate the mango in all of us. Mangoes stir a passion inside people and the festival is a product of that passion.” Chef Allen Susser continues, "I am wild about mangoes. Mangoes are a national pastime around the world. Each village and town passionately claim they grow the best mango. Every man, women, and child has their own favorite, which is often sour, and not sweet. Locals embrace the mango in reverence as if it were the key to the universe. You can tell a mango eater by the way they grasp the mango before they devour one. Mangoes Rule!”
Being that this is the first ever fruit festival to take over South Beach, there will be no shortage of tropical fruit to go around at the various mango competitions, top restaurants, stations for artists, vendors, and sponsors, with a plethora of tastings and recipes. Feast on the delicious array of MANGO infused specialties direct from fine dining establishments of Miami while discovering new eats and libations by huge sponsors including Miami New Times, Miami Beach Life magazine, and Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Miami.
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/south-beach-mango-festival-tickets-43309983326
