The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show will be coming back to town on September 15th and 16th at the Orange County Convention Center. Known as the "largest food and beverage experience in the southeast", the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show will be joined with the Healthy Food Expo for two days of excitement under one roof.
This year's expo is set to have 260 different exhibitors ranging in from food service to hospitality and everything in between. There will also be specific areas of the show for Beer, Wine & Spirits, the Healthy Food Expo, The Food Trends Experience, as well as a Coffee Fest Marketplace.
Annually, the show honors distinguished people within the industry with two awards: The Torch Award and The Beacon Award.
The Torch Award, which embodies the traits of illumination, energy, joy, hope, enlightenment, victory and education, is being presented to James and Julie Petrakis on Sunday, Sept. 15th at 4:30 p.m. on the Center Stage. This award was created to honor industry leading chefs and entrepreneurs who embody outstanding knowledge and leadership, philanthropic and community efforts, extraordinary talent and creativity, as well as innovation and intuition. James and Julie are at the forefront of Orlando's burgeoning food movement with their multiple food concepts including The Ravenous Pig, an award-winning American Gastropub, Cask & Larder, a Southern Public House which features seasonal ingredients located in Orlando International Airport, and The Polite Pig, a fast-casual food concept located in Disney Springs.
The Beacon Award, created to recognize a woman leader who has truly served as a Beacon for the industry by means of her leadership, knowledge, contribution, and inspiration, is being given to Heather McPherson on Monday, Sept. 16th at 2:00 p.m. This is honor is being awarded on behalf of The Foodservice Council for Women and The Clarion UX Food and Beverage Group. Heather is a former food editor, restaurant reviewer and multimedia journalist for The Orlando Sentinel. She currently handles press and media for Chef Art Smith's Florida Homecomin' Kitchen and Splitsville Luxury Lanes at Disney Springs and Downtown Disney. A past president of the Association of Food Journalists, Heather provides content for The Florida Dairy Farmers at FloridaMilk.com, Edible Orlando and "Heather's Florida Kitchen". The author of three cookbooks, she has co-written five others and edited three other cookbooks. After the award presentation, Heather will sit on the panel for The Foodservice Council for Women.
If you are interested in attending this year's Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show and seeing these award presentations as well as the various exhibitors, click here to begin your registration process.
