The 2024 Martha’s Vineyard Food & Wine Festival will be even more exciting this year with the event’s biggest schedule in its history, including three grand tastings, six private dining experiences and new masterclasses.
The four-day festival will feature the finest seafood and farm-to-table produce, with some of the island’s best chefs paired with talented culinary experts including James Beard Award nominees and Top Chef and Iron Chef veterans Jonathan Waxman, Amanda Freitag, Jenner Tomaska, Caroline Schiff, David Standridge and Joe Susto. This year’s Master Classes will offer hands-on experiences taught by experts in pasta, cheese, oysters and more.
“The best part of the festival is that it brings together international chefs and island chefs,” says Food & Wine Festival Director Adam Epstein. “We’ll have a Michelin-starred chef come in and serve a six-course dinner. It’s a truly special, curated dining experience. We don’t think we’ll ever get to experience anything like it on the island again.”
Last year’s Food & Wine Festival was a huge success, but organizers felt the timing wasn’t optimal. “It was October, so it wasn’t the best, and the weather was terrible, as expected,” Epstein says. “We also struggled with recruiting; a lot of restaurants had closed for the season or lost a lot of their support staff, and a lot of people in the food industry were exhausted from working all summer. So we said, ‘Let’s do it before the season really gets going and people have the energy to really enjoy it.’ It’s going to be great.”
Atria chef and co-owner Christian Thornton is one of the Food & Wine Festival’s founders and is excited to be back this year. Thornton and his wife, Greer, founded Atria in 2000. “I’m really looking forward to the festival, it gives me a chance to meet others in the industry,” says Thornton. “I’ll be at the opening reception on Thursday night and then have a wine and dinner get-together with Jonathan Waxman on Saturday. Jonathan is a pioneering chef in New American cuisine, and I’m excited to open my kitchen and restaurant to him and cook with him.”
Organic farmer and Grey Barn owner Eric Glasgow and his team will also be taking part in the festival. “We’ll be taking part in the grand tasting which opens the festival and we’ll also be doing a master class cheese tasting led by cheese factory manager Rachel Klein,” says Glasgow. This is Grey Barn’s second year taking part in the festival. “We also went last year and it’s fun to go to events and see what other people are doing and interact with the public.”
Other incredible chefs and culinary experts participating this year include Cecilia Risotto, who specializes in authentic West African cuisine; Basil Yu, who takes his ramen-centric menu to the next level with his hand-made noodles; Jimmy Alvarado of Tigerhawk MV, who is creating Peruvian fusion dishes; Chefs Raymond Mohan and Letty (“Lolo”) Young-Mohan of Lolo’s on the Water, who will be serving up a menu inspired by their Caribbean roots; and Julian Vanderhoop of Orange Peel Bakery MV, a small Wampanoag-owned bakery in Aquinnah where most of the food is baked in an outdoor wood-fired oven, among many others.
The Martha’s Vineyard Food and Wine Festival is a partnership between the Vineyard Arts and Cultural Foundation, producers of Beach Road Weekend Music Festival, and Innovation Arts and Entertainment. The festival runs June 6-9. For tickets, visit mvfoodandwine.com/events.
