Greenville’s annual food festival, euphoria, returns for its 16th outing with more than 40 events over four days.
This year’s festival, presented by Lexus, will run from September 16-19 and will feature smaller gatherings as well as larger signature events, with seven Michelin-Starred chefs on the lineup for seated, multi-course lunches and dinners.
On the local end, participating restaurants include Restaurant 17, Fork & Plough, CAMP, Jianna, Loft at Soby’s, Topsoil Kitchen & Market, Oak Hill Cafe, Stella’s Southern Brasserie and Southern Culture Kitchen & Bar, among others.
As always, the festival will conclude with its Sunday Supper, a laid-back Southern meal that serves as the grand finale. This year’s Sunday Supper will be crafted by South Carolina Chef Ambassadors from the Upstate using South Carolina-grown products.
While festival organizers will continue to monitor COVID-19 case loads and will update protocols accordingly, euphoria Executive Director Morgan Allen said she is hopeful this year’s festival will be a full return to normalcy.
“Spring is here, restrictions are being lifted, and things seem to be heading in the right direction,” Allen said. “We’re getting lots of calls from our chef friends, telling us how excited they are for euphoria, and we’re happy to give them something to look forward to.”
Allen said she was particularly excited by the number of Michelin-starred chefs — that is, chefs who have been awarded the highest honor in the culinary world — on this year’s roster.
“We are really proud of our Michelin-starred chef lineup this year, particularly when it comes to the diversity they bring to the table,” she said. “This is the most Michelin-Starred chefs we’ve ever had at euphoria at one time.”
Some of those chefs include:
- Chef Simon Kim of Cote, New York City’s first Korean steakhouse.
- Chef Ryan Ratino of Bresca in Washington, D.C., who was recently awarded two stars for his new tasting menu restaurant, Jont, making him the youngest chef to win two stars.
- Chef Val Cantu, of Californios in San Francisco, the first Mexican restaurant in the country to earn two stars.
- Chef Emma Bengstsson of New York City’s Aquavit, the first female Swedish chef to win two stars and only the second U.S.-based female chef to do so.
Sushi Yama, Avenue and Soby’s will host the Michelin-starred chefs for a diverse mixture of cuisines to collaborate on three different dinners.
This year will also bring some of the most diverse tasting options yet for festival goers. Because some of the larger signature events had to be scrapped last year due to COVID-19 concerns, festival organizers focused on smaller gatherings like lunches, guest chef dinners and classrooms.
Now, because of their popularity, those smaller gatherings are back.
“We got really positive feedback from guests about that format, so we are planning to host quite a few classrooms again this year,” Allen said. “We’ll have a little something for every taste.”
More than a dozen euphoria classrooms will be on the schedule, with topics ranging from beer and biscuits to wine and chocolate.
Larger events will be on the table, too.
This year’s grant recipient is Mill Village Farms, which was presented with a check for $15,200, with funds from euphoria’s “Producers Circle,” a group of festival attendees who pay a premium for VIP events and to support local charities. The funds will financially support the FoodShare Greenville program, which provides produce boxes for low-income families every other week.
To purchase tickets to this year’s event, visit euphoriagreenville.com.
