Miami finally has top billing at its own biggest food party. Michelle Bernstein, the Miami-born, James Beard Award–winning chef behind Sra. Martinez, is this year’s honoree at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival Tribute Dinner, marking the first time the festival has singled out a Miami chef for the spotlight. The four-day festival runs Feb. 19–22, and the Tribute Dinner is set for Saturday, Feb. 21.
Bernstein, who brought Sra. Martinez back to life in Coral Gables last winter, has long said she prefers the heat of the line to the glare of the stage lights. Whether she likes it or not, this pick is a loud reminder that Miami’s chefs now help set the national agenda on what America eats.
Tribute Dinner Details
The Tribute Dinner honoring Bernstein and vintner Sacha Lichine is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel. General admission runs $569 for the seated feast. Bobby Flay will serve as master of ceremonies, and a stacked roster of guest chefs, including Timon Balloo, Thomas Buckley, Scott Conant and the team of Jon Shook & Vinny Dotolo, will send out courses inspired by Bernstein’s cooking.
The festival’s event page lays out the full lineup, timing and price for the dinner, plus a late-night Final Pour after-party, as listed on SOBEWFF.
A First For The Festival
Festival founder Lee Schrager told the Miami Herald that for the 25th anniversary, organizers wanted to honor someone homegrown, pointing to Bernstein’s decades-long presence in Miami as the deciding factor. The milestone weekend runs Feb. 19–22, according to Axios, with a schedule that blends Food Network headliners and events powered by South Florida kitchens.
The move signals how the festival is leaning harder into hometown talent even as it continues to draw national and international attention to Miami’s dining scene. In other words, the locals are not just working the line anymore, they are on the marquee.
Bernstein’s Return To Coral Gables
Bernstein and partner David Martinez reopened Sra. Martinez in Coral Gables in December 2024, reviving a Spanish-leaning menu that includes an oxtail paella with melting bone marrow and crisp rice. The restaurant’s site details the menu and bar program, while local coverage has highlighted the space’s live-music nights and wood-fired technique, as noted on Sra. Martinez and in Hoodline’s report on the reopening of Sra. Martinez in Coral Gables.
Bernstein has been part of the South Beach festival since its early years, and the Tribute Dinner gives visiting and local chefs a chance to riff on the flavors and techniques that shaped her career, from refined comfort cooking to polished Latin-inflected plates.
What It Means For Miami
Festival organizers also stress that the weekend is a major fundraiser. SOBEWFF says it has brought in more than $45 million for Florida International University’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and relies on student volunteers to help keep the sprawling schedule running.
That kind of visibility can be crucial for local restaurants trying to recover from a rough stretch, with chefs and owners citing higher costs, fewer Latin American tourists and a tight labor market in recent months. The Miami Herald profiled those pressures alongside news of Bernstein’s tribute, detailing how operators have juggled menus, hours and staffing just to stay afloat.
Bernstein has been characteristically blunt about preferring the kitchen to the podium, with local outlets quoting her saying she would rather be cooking than collecting trophies. Still, the Tribute Dinner and its Final Pour after-party are set to close out the festival weekend as a kind of hometown block party for the culinary community she helped build. The full schedule and ticket information are listed across local event calendars and the festival’s own pages for those looking to eat, drink and cheer her on.
