I was thrilled to learn that Lee Schrager spends his summers in the Hamptons. Based in Florida, Lee is the Director of Special Events & Media Relations at Southern Wine & Spirits of America, the largest distributor of alcoholic beverages in the United States, and the creator and guiding force behind the South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

Early in our interview, Lee Brian Schrager was quick to tell me that he loves to cook. Of course, this is music to my ears. He has been coming out to the Hamptons non-stop since the early 1980s. For the last five years, Lee has been renting a house in East Hampton.

“A perfectly wonderful country house with a great kitchen and a great pool, where the stereo is on all day and the windows are open to the outdoors,” he said. With his busy, peripatetic life, this is one of the few times in the year that Lee gets to cook. He is very focused when cooking and cook he does. Almost every evening you can catch Lee tending the grill cooking just about anything that can be grilled — all manner of meat, fish and shellfish, vegetables, and fruit. Simple, fresh and clean is his mantra. If he’s not at the grill or at the beach, he is, like all fine chefs, picking up his larder with the finest and freshest ingredients and products offered at East Hampton’s Round Swamp Farm, The Seafood Shop in Wainscott, Loaves and Fishes in Sagaponack, and The Green Thumb in Water Mill.

Lee, no doubt inspired by his mother, “a fantastic cook,” cooked at home as a young boy. It was the heyday of Julia Child on television, The Joy of Cooking and the food revolution in this country. In 1973, when Lee was fourteen, the family moved to Fort Lauderdale from Massapequa, New York. During those high school years, he held jobs at Wynn Dixie, a south Florida supermarket chain, a Chinese restaurant and at the concession in movie theatres.

At his mother’s urging, he later enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. While at the CIA, he met and later worked for Christopher Idone, co-founder of Glorious Foods, a renowned catering organization in New York City through the 70s and 80s. He then managed the (now defunct) Hamptons outpost of Dean & Deluca on Newtown Lane.

Lee moved to Florida in 1981 where he held several catering-director positions. From there he spent 17 years starting as a room service manager and ending as vice-president running the food and beverage operations at the Hotel Inter-Continental Miami.

In 2001, to create awareness in the capacity of his job at Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Lee initiated a one-day food and wine tasting event known as the “Florida Extravaganza” at Florida International University. In 2002, he expanded the idea and the South Beach Wine & Food Festival was born. The Festival evolved into the national star-studded culinary destination it is today. Lee Schrager has attracted “the rock stars of the millennium,” the who’s who of the wine, spirits and culinary world, to the sand, surf and sun of South Beach to be held on February 23, 24 and 25. Perhaps the most sought-after ticket at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, held beachside at the chic Delano Hotel on Collins Ave., is the annual BubbleQ, hosted by one of America’s favorite foodies, Al Roker of NBC. It’s an event featuring America’s two favorite things, barbecue and champagne — a natural pairing. Among those who will attend this year are Gabriella Hamilton of Prune, Andrew Carmellini of Avoce, Alfred Portale of Gotham\ Bar & Grill, Tom Valenti of Ouest, and Tom Colicchio of Craft, some of New York City’s most celebrated restaurants along with numerous other distinguished restaurants such as Barton G, The Restaurant, and Claude Troisgros, The Blue Door, of Miami Beach, and Patrick Neely, Neely’s Barbecue in Memphis. Rachel Ray, Giada De Laurentis and Michael Chiarello are a few of the television personalities from the Food Network who will also be offering their special talents at the festival. Eric Ripert, Executive Chef of Le Bernardin in New York City, will be honored at a tribute dinner, as will Martha Stewart, of East Hampton, who will be given a lifetime achievement award during the festival weekend. Through persistence and hard work, Mr. Schrager was able to lure these notables who will donate their services to the event, which benefits FIU (Florida International University).

With his own extensive culinary background and education, it was important to Lee to bring in culinary students from FIU — where he had also studied — and who will play a large role at the Sobe Wine and Food Fest. Some students are involved in work for the festival year round. By the weekend of the event, 800 participating students are a lucky group indeed to have the opportunity to assist and work hands-on with the converging stars.

Several of the serious wine and food people who will be in South Beach for the festival — Eric Ripert and Tom Colicchio, along with one of the event sponsors, Jeffrey and Linda Comoro of China Grill Management and Michael Braverman, the East Hampton Star’s wine writer — have homes in the Hamptons. These are Lee’s buddies whom he loves to entertain when he’s at home in East Hampton. On the occasional night out, he enjoys dining at 1770 House’ Tavern and Turtle Crossing in East Hampton, Mirko’s and Almonds in Water Mill, and F.O.O.D. in Hampton Bays.

“There is a great combination of busy people in the Hamptons,” said Lee, “and, when I’m at the beach or out and about I love running into them in the more relaxed and comfortable setting of the Hamptons.” I hope to run into Lee next summer so we can talk about food and cooking and maybe even get invited to one of his barbecues. Surely I will invite him to one of mine.

Who’s Here

Lee Schrager - Foodie