‘Times are changing’: South Beach food festival embraces the stars of TikTok, Instagram

When the South Beach Wine & Food Festival began in 1997 as a one-day event called the Florida Extravaganza, social media didn’t exist — much like the Miami dining scene.

Things have changed drastically, of course. With an assist from the Food Network starting in 2006, the annual festival has expanded into a robust four-day affair with more than 100 events, with tastings and demonstrations, raucous parties under tents on the beach and intimate private dinners. And in the meantime, the Miami dining scene has exploded — and so has social media.

As a force in the food world, apps like TikTok and Instagram have ascended, making stars out of unknown chefs, self-taught cooks, hopeful and photogenic reviewers and anybody with a unique idea, a little technology savvy and a big serving of charisma. The new foodies find their heroes and recipes not via restaurant reviews in the New York Times or on “Top Chef” but on their phones.

To attract that new audience, the festival, which takes place Feb. 22-25 at venues throughout South Florida, has brought back FoodieCon for its second year to connect some of the biggest social media stars with fans and aspiring content creators. Hosted by the W South Beach, the event includes cooking demonstrations, panels, book signings and meet-and-greets with short-form digital creators (and there will be plenty to eat and drink, too).

Lee Schrager, the festival’s founder, said he was inspired to create FoodieCon two years ago at the New York City Wine & Food Festival. He noticed a long line outside one of the tents and wondered who or what had attracted such a crowd. The draw turned out to be a brunch for social media influencers that featured, among others, Barbara “Babs” Costello, the retiree who with her daughter runs the popular account @brunchwithbabs (not all social media influencers are 25).

The penny dropped. The light bulb went off. Schrager realized that adding social media stars to the South Beach festival mix was a good way to lure a new audience.

“FoodieCon is something I believed in and wanted to do,” he said. “I need to keep the festival fresh, and there are only so many Burger Bashes and late-night parties you can do. We’re always looking for the next generation of talent.”

Dana Rozansky, who became the creative director of FoodieCon and is also the face of the @miami_foodporn Instagram account, said the festival planners were thrilled at the response to the first FoodieCon, held last year at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel.

“We knew we had an incredible lineup and exciting programming,” she said. “When we found out it sold out there was a sigh of relief. There’s a ton of competition for this event, but it really clicked. People can watch food videos all day, but to see these influencers live, speaking about how they got to where they are, that’s something you can’t get behind your screen.”

Gio Gutierrez, U.S. Havana Club Ambassador and founder of @chatchowtv, said that though the traditional events at the festival are still popular, including food influencers is a good idea.

“Times are changing, and it makes sense for the festival to do this,” said Gutierrez, who’s co-hosting Noche Cubana, the late-night Cuban-themed event with Michelle Bernstein and David Martinez on Feb. 23. “It’s interesting, this new wave of food content. It’s very different from reviewing or the Food Network creating its own dishes. These days the cool kid isn’t the cheerleader or the quarterback, it’s the one who has the most followers on TikTok. It’s wild, to imagine growing up in this world.”

Creating a social media account based on food, however, isn’t as simple talking your way into a free meal at a hot new restaurant and taking photos of one’s plate. Some accounts follow that template, of course. But the content creators who showcase recipes have a more complicated and laborious work flow. First, they have to shop. Then they must distill an hours’ long process into 30 seconds worth of video, making sure the the end product looks perfect and that the editing is flawless.

Toni Chapman (@themoodyfoody), a Miami-based content creator who will be on a FoodieCon panel this year and recently appeared on a segment on “Good Morning America,” said viewers don’t realize how much time it takes to complete one brief video.

“There are so many variables, many of which you can’t control,” she said. “If something burns or doesn’t look right and perfect, you have to reshoot. We reshoot three or four or five times, and that’s time consuming. If the recipe takes five hours to cook, it could take me a week to master one recipe.”

The worst thing about creating this sort of content? Cleaning up.

“Thank goodness I have a full-time assistant who helps with the cleaning,” she said. “But it also can be a responsibility, especially during the holidays. I specialize in holiday celebration recipes, and that’s a little bit of pressure — if it doesn’t come out right, I feel responsible. I don’t want to ruin someone’s holiday,”

On his social media accounts, Los Angeles-based Owen Han (@owen.han) puts together some of the most gorgeous sandwiches ever seen. Unlike Chapman, who uses a voice over to describe what she’s making, Han utilizes the ASMR sounds of chopping, dicing, blending and sauteeing to guide viewers through the process. Most videos begin with a knife neatly chopping the sandwich in half: Han says he has found videos “with a crispy, crunchy” sound in the first three seconds capture the attention of scrollers fast.

At his first FoodieCon last year, Han got to work with Guy Fieri — “a legend!” he says, adding that he’s impressed with the willingness of the older generation to be part of the new foodie social media wave.

“You get to see the old-school TV personalities and chefs who have been around forever,” Han said. “It’s cool to see they’re willing to work with us and be part of this. Traditional chefs are embracing content creators now. And it’s great for us to get to tell our stories and meet people face-to-face, so they know someone’s behind the screen.”

That positive shift in attitudes toward short-form content seems more apparent these days in more established chefs, most of whom want to use social media to expand their own reach, Schrager said.

“I don’t care if it’s Bobby Flay or Emeril, every chef looks at Instagram,” he said. “They all have followings.”

The question remains, though: Will short-form content eventually eclipse traditional websites, stories and food television? Once the generation that grew up on Food Network, cook books and traditional restaurant reviews steps aside, will every new recipe come from TikTok?

Gutierrez tends to believe the food world has enough space for everyone, which makes sense. Many short-form digital creators still hope to publish cookbooks and make TV appearances, embracing the media that led the way in food coverage.

“I don’t think old media is going to disappear,” Gutierrez said. “It’s still a relevant, important place where things can live forever, not just 24 hours. You can’t search TikTok, but you can search on the Internet. I still love proper food reviews, which you don’t see on Insta. You can’t get that deep in 30 seconds.”

FoodieCon

When: 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Feb. 24

Where: W South Beach, 2201 Collins Ave., Miami Beach

Tickets: $95; sobewff.org

South Beach Wine & Food Festival takes place Feb. 22-25 and includes more than 100 events around South Florida.