Taste of Charleston: three-day celebration of local cuisine

Time to stop and smell what Charleston is cooking.

For the next three days, the Greater Charleston Restaurant Association presents the Taste of Charleston, serving up four courses of the best this city has to offer. In its 29th year, the annual event offers an array of flavors to whet the appetites of food lovers everywhere.

Getting Charleston's fire going Friday night is the Iron Chef Competition. Some of the top chefs around will go head to head in the Culinary Institute of Charleston's new, state-of-the-art amphitheater kitchen at the Palmer Campus downtown.

Then Saturday will feature two rounds of Taste of the Kitchen, featuring cooking demonstrations, also at the Culinary Institute of Charleston. That night, Taste of the Arts on Gallery Row will treat foodies on foot to Lowcountry cuisine at art galleries along Broad Street.

With the smell of great food wafting through the air, mouths are sure to be watering for the event's main dish on Sunday. The Taste of Charleston, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. at Boone Hall Plantation, presents more than 50 restaurants sampling their culinary creations for thousands of local food lovers.

Wine pairings will accompany the tastings, and new this year is the beer garden. Like the wine samples, the beer will be in sample size and will be paired with the food. Lead distributors will highlight 30 different types of beers.

Live entertainment from the East Coast Party Band, the long running Waiters' Wine Race, children's area and cultural area will round out the celebration.

"What we're trying to do is raise the standard of the event a little bit. You hear about these food and wine expos and these festivals and all that stuff, but the Taste of Charleston has always been a successful event," said Steve Carroll of Red's Ice House and chairman of The Greater Charleston Restaurant Association.

"There is something for everyone out here. There's a huge kids area with jump castles and pony rides and ice carvings and face painting. And then you have all the restaurants, which have been the bread and butter of the event. We have a great band and then in the spirit of October, we have the new beer garden," he said.

Kathy Britzius, executive director of The Greater Charleston Restaurant Association, agreed with how the bar for the event has been raised. She has seen how much the event has grown over the years and she's looking forward to the more anticipated attractions as well as some new ones.

While there are many good things about the event, she said, the waiters' race is particularly entertaining. "For years, this has been a big deal in our restaurant community because it's open, you don't have to be a member or anything. Anyone can do it. We have one restaurant that's bringing six people in and we have all sorts of prizes for our waiters and waitresses.

"We're also going to do a cultural area this year too," she said. At Boone Hall's slave quarters, there will be Gullah storytellers as well as someone singing Gullah gospel music.

The variety of offerings certainly reflects the Taste of Charleston approach of sampling a little bit of everything. From the gourmet to the Gullah, the crowd is expected to be diverse.

"It is family friendly," Carroll said. "You see the families come in, you see the socialites out there, you see the older people. You can bring your chair in, listen to a great band, sample Charleston's best restaurants. There's something for everyone. It is the event of the year in Charleston."

The Taste of Charleston is designed to spur business for the area's restaurants.

"People will go in there and think, I'm going to go back and visit that restaurant because I really like that tuna, or I really like that shrimp and grits. It brings them back," said Britzius. "We are so fortunate, the quality we have in this town. We are a dining destination."

Participating restaurants will range from formal to casual.

"A lot of people think that going to a white table cloth, like Blossoms, Magnolia and Cypress, that you're not going to go to those guys all the time. But here, you can sample every one of them in the same day for a couple of bucks," said Carroll. "It's just letting people showcase what they have. It might be the restaurant's signature item or it might be something you don't know we serve," he said. "It introduces them to places they might not have been."

Introducing the public to the delights of a new restaurants is only one success of the Taste of Charleston. The nonprofit event donates all of its proceeds to the Ronald McDonald House, Hollings Cancer Center and Charleston County Materials Resource Center. Nonperishable items also are requested to support the Lowcountry Food Bank.

With an expected turnout of approximately 10,000 people, this year's event is sure to satisfy more than just stomachs.

"It's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger, and now it's one of the Top 10 events in the Southeast. It's amazing if you look at it, what really goes into it to make it happen, and we all volunteer," said Carroll.

"It's a full day of fun, and it's family fun. It's just a comfortable place. There's nothing like it."

Schedule of events

To purchase tickets and find out more about each event, visit charlestonrestaurantassociation.com. Tickets can also be purchased at all Kickin' Chicken locations.

Iron Chef Competition will be held 6-9 p.m. Friday at the Culinary Institute of Charleston's Palmer Campus, 66 Columbus St. in downtown Charleston, pitting some of the best local chefs in a heated head-to-head battle. Cost is $20.

Taste of the Kitchen will be held Saturday, also at the Palmer Campus. There will be two sessions for the event: 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 12:30-2:30 p.m. Celebrity chefs take the culinary stage and Culinary Institute chefs take participants into the kitchens to cook hands-on. Cost is $45.

Taste of the Arts on Gallery Row will be 6-8 p.m. Saturday at various art galleries in downtown Charleston. The art walk combines Lowcountry art with culinary arts and will showcase the talents of local artists while offering guests a sampling of appetizers from a variety of Charleston restaurants. Cost is $20.

Taste of Charleston (main event) will be 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant. The event will showcase a sampling of food served at more than 40 Charleston restaurants. Additional highlights include the Waiter's Wine Race, food and wine pairings, a selection of specialty and imported beers, cooking demonstrations, the Best of the Taste contest, live music with East Coast Party Band on the main stage and a Kids Corner. Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door.