On Saturday, October 15, 2016 more than 1,700 Mid-South food and wine aficionados took over Memphis Botanic Garden Saturday for the inaugural Memphis Food & Wine Festival. This event celebrated our city's culinary excellence by showcasing our exceptional local chef talent alongside acclaimed regional and national chefs. At this event guests sampled the cuisine of 27 different chefs from around the world including Michelin Star Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Vivian Howard, Dominic Orsini, Ken Frank, and Deb Paquette.

Enhancing the chef lineup were more than 75 wines specially picked out by world-renowned vintners and certified sommeliers just for this event. Everyone knows a true Memphis event is not complete without some soulful blues and good ole rock ‘n roll, and festival goers were not disappointed with Memphis' own Ghost Town Blues Band and Royal Blues Band providing the evening's soundtrack.   

In total, the first Memphis Food & Wine Festival raised $100,000 for FedExFamilyHouse, expanding funds used to triple the housing capacity for this facility that serves as a home-away-from-home for out of town families of Le Bonheur Children's Hospital patients.