The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival is sprinkled with a little Jamaican flavour, albeit not the edible variety. Think a team of local ladies who, in one way or another, contribute to the development of this amazing culinary experience, the ninth staging of which happened last month. Now back in Jamaica, Melanie Miller shares with Thursday Food her experiences and how being a part of this team has equipped her as a player within the international food industry.

Having lived in Atlanta, Georgia, where she pursued interior design, Miller enrolled at Florida International University (FIU) majoring in tourism management.

The usually star-studded, four-day destination event — held each year in South Beach, Miami — showcasing the talents of renowned chefs, wine connoisseurs and food personalities, is a collaborative effort between FIU and Southern Wine & Sprits of Florida, hence Miller’s association.

After a stint at FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus between years 1997 and 2001, Lee Brian Schrager, director of special events and media relations at Southern Wine & Spirits of America, took the reins with an aim to transform the festival from its then one-day format to what exists today.

And Miller is happy to share the part she has played in all of this.

“I started my relationship with SoBe in 2002, when I interned with Mr Schrager,” shares Miller, who is more than proud to share with us another fab fact.

“The festival office started out with five key people, four of which were Jamaican: Lori-Ann Cox, Kimberly Mullings, Kimberley Spence and myself.”

She speaks too of our people’s industrious nature and the natural ease with which Jamaicans “make it happen”.

She recalls the early years when the first SoBe staging attracted close to 7,000 patrons — a far cry from the over 50,000 who traversed the shores during the festival’s 2009 renewal. The event has since evolved over its nine-year life to boast a 48-member committee.

But the numbers don’t stop there… 900 volunteers, comprising students, work tirelessly to facilitate patrons’ queries, clear tables, serve as entry clerks and so much more. This year’s Bubble Q alone attracted some 3,200 patrons and an 8,400-strong throng flocked to Sunday’s Grand Tasting Village on South Beach.

Numbers aside, it’s the “out-of-this-world” novelty of it all that has truly framed Miller’s experience.

“Seeing the festival grow into something so magnificent gives me such joy,” she says.

“I’m amazed at the culinary experiences I come across, the incredible talents that the festival has exposed and brought to the everyday person over the years is simply mind-blowing.”

She is more than grateful for the perks too.

“I’ve built lasting relationships with the talents and celebrities of the Food Network such as Paula Deen, Tyler Florence and Rachel Ray,” Miller adds.

Having famous friends is one thing, but Miller’s association with the festival has also given her an invaluable treasure: “The wealth of experience that I’ve gained and to know that I’ve been a part of something so huge,” Miller adds, noting, too, that it’s a dream come true for many patrons to be able to experience the quality foods and wines as well as rub shoulders with their favourite culinary stars.”

As with any event, the organisers, unlike the patrons, rarely, if ever, get a chance to bask in what is created. Miller, however, doesn’t seem to mind; in fact, the wind-down moment happens to be her favourite… a time she shares with her girls, her countrymen.

“At the end of every festival we all get together in the hospitality suite and what is great about this is that when I look around I see my fellow Jamaicans who work tirelessly year after year to make it happen… it’s a magnificent feeling to see the impact that we’ve made,” she says.

In 2011 the festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary and will commemorate it with the release of Festival Director Lee Brian Schrager and Julie Mautner’s collaborative book, Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival Cookbook.

It might be 338 days until the next staging, but Miller is asking her fellow Jamaicans to save the date from now.

“Things are going to be exceptional, and definitely worth your while!”