Alyssa Maute Smith, Executive Director of Charleston Wine + Food

Alyssa Maute Smith, Executive Director of Charleston Wine + Food

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
iHeartMedia presents CEOs You Should Know. CEOs You Should Know
Charleston is brought to you by SC two to fifty
Charleston Www dot SC two fifty Charleston dot org.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Michael Blaze. Thank you for joining us for another
episode of CEOs You Should Know. Joining me today is
Alyssa Maudy Smith. She's the executive director of Charleston Wine
and Food. Welcome Melissa, thank you for having me. Yeah,
so before we started this session, we were talking about Maudy.
You're the only Alyssa Maudy in the US census in

(00:32):
twenty ten.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Yeah, it's my maiden name. I'm from here, grew up
on James Island, so I like to keep it in
the combo. So people who I've grown up with, are
worked with over the years recognize me.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
The Charleston Wine and Food Festivals approaching its twentieth anniversary
next year. Tell us about the history of the festival.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah, we're really excited to celebrate twenty years. It's quite
a milestone for the organization and really Charleston as a whole.
This organization was founded in two thousand and five by
a group of community leaders and advocates who felt that
Charleston had something special in the food and beverage scene

(01:13):
to share with the country and the world. So they
founded this nonprofit, established this festival in order to showcase
our story, to share our culture, and help build a
culinary brand for Charleston. So fast forward twenty years later
to where we are, and Charleston has definitely stolen the

(01:34):
hearts of people who over the country as a culinary
darling and a place to travel to, not just for
history and the beautiful beaches and sites that we have,
but also for a fantastic dining scene.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Absolutely, and we have more restaurants per capita I've heard
than a lot of major cities right.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
Well, we like to eat down here in the South,
that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
The twentieth anniversary, the festival's coming up March fourth through eighth.
What can we expect it next year's festival.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, So the festival is it's a magical week in Charleston.
I feel like, you know, this kind of kickoff to
spring where the city comes back alive after winter and
the cold that we get. I know, I'll be it
a little bit small, but that's why we'd like to
live here. In Charleston is not to experience that, and
it's it's magical. It really takes over all sorts of

(02:23):
areas of Charleston, not just downtown on the peninsula, but
we do events in Mount Pleasant, We've got events in
North Charleston, as far as Edistoe Island that we've done
things so guests can experience about ninety events over the
course of five days. Each one is individually ticketed, so
people can really build an itinerary that works best for them.

(02:45):
Most known, or kind of like our cornerstone that people
associate with the festival is the Culinary Village. Last Air
had that event take place at the Citadel's Johnson Haycrid Stadium.
It was in absolutely fantastic experience. It's a great kind
of entry into the festival. If you've never attended a
festival event. At that one event, you kind of get

(03:06):
a taste of a lot of different things, not just food, beverage, wine,
spirit's not an alcoholic, but also some of the entertainment
factor that we bring to all of our events, and
it feels so authentically Charleston. It's really something to experience.
So all the events are live now. Tickets went on
sale a couple weeks ago. We're about halfway sold out

(03:29):
of the entire festival, but there's still so much great
stuff that people can grab tickets to. I would definitely
recommend checking out the Culinary Village, and honestly, Opening Night
is one of my most favorite events. This year, we're
taking our twentieth anniversary spin on the event, so it
will take place down at the Cistern at the College
of Charleston's campus, which is just an absolutely stunning venue,

(03:52):
beautiful with those oak trees, and we uplight those and
have a great band. But that event is really the
kickoff to the five Days and it features all Charleston chefs,
so thirty five different Charleston chefs and restaurants will be
represented in this year. For the twentieth, we've invited back
some familiar faces, some people who might not necessarily be

(04:14):
in the restaurant industry anymore because they've retired or they've
moved on to other things in their lives, but they
very much have made a mark on helping to establish Charleston.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
As a food city.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
So a little bit of an extra spend this year
with it being the twentieth anniversary, So That's another one
that I definitely think that people should put on their radar.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Tell us about your relationship with you know, not only
the local chefs, but the restaurants, wineries, breweries. You know,
how does all that work when you're putting something like
this together.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, there's over four hundred and fifty talent that participate
in the festival, over sixty five seventy percent of those
are local here to Charleston, and then we bring in
some additional out of town talent, and every year the
programming really shifts and the change year over year. So

(05:01):
we start working on one festival schedule like the moment
another festival ends and wraps up, and sometimes we're kind
of co planning, like we have been for this twentieth anniversary.
This has been something we've been working on for the
last two years. But we spend a lot of time
out in the community talking with restauranteurs, talking with chefs,
talking with people behind bars, and wanting to see what

(05:24):
excites them, what would excite them, what stories they think
that we should be telling, what stories we haven't told,
And so it's a lot of fun brainstorming and ideation
that we do within the community and then from those conversations,
and I mean there are hundreds of them, come the
seedlings of ideas of concepts and events that we want
to tell. And everything on our schedule is very rooted

(05:47):
in storytelling, and we tell stories through live experiences and
Charleston's always the muse So that, honestly is the most
fun part is the creativity of it and getting to
really kind of put that power of the platform in
the hands of our community to tell the stories that
we want to tell. And then from there we start

(06:08):
to kind of ide eate on you know, what players
need to be involved, what additional talent we could bring
in from other areas of the country and even the
world to help tell that story, or because it's somebody
that a local restaurant or chef is just really excited
to work with. So that's a little bit about the
ideation process, and it ebbs and flows right up until

(06:32):
we have the final concepts and then we start packaging
everything to get ready to go on the website.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Now, farm to table has been a major trend lately.
Do you deal with any of the farms in fisheries
or is that more left to the restaurants themselves.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
Yeah, so a little bit of both. You know.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
Something I feel like is the reason Charlson has such
a great reputation for food is because of the ingredients.
We have perfectly situated right between still rural, agricultural South
Carolina and our waterways. So the farmers and the purveyors
are super super important, just as important as our chefs are.

(07:12):
So we work directly with them to procure product on
behalf of the chefs. And then we've also introduced an
ingredient stipening program that we support local restaurants, chefs, and
beverage professionals in order to have them participate in the
festival and encourage them to use local ingredients. So that's
something that the organization underwrites, we budget for every single year.

(07:32):
It allows us a lot of flexibility to get fantastic
ingredients that are unique to Charleston in South Carolina showcased
and our festival.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, I was going to say, it's you know, some
of the ingredients are very unique and there's quite a
history behind them here in the low Country. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Last year we actually did an excursion. We went out
to Edistoe Island and we got to see the marsh
and mill operation I don't know if you're familiar with
mare Mill, but they make fantastic grits rice, very products
unique to Edistow Island in South Carolina. So Gas got

(08:11):
to actually go out to Edistow tour their facility, learn
about the manufacturing process and the farming process and how
how difficult that industry is here in South Carolina, especially
along the coast with the ebbs and flows that we
have with hurricanes and weather and all of those sorts
of things impact those individuals year round, and they got

(08:32):
to really see that. And then after that they went
to a local seafood establishment out on Edistow as well
to learn about you know, sustainable fishing, sustainable seafood and
fishermen and purveyors that bring kind of seafood right from
our waterways to restaurants. And it ended in a full
multi course family style meal by the Meggot sisters out

(08:54):
on Edistow. So just an example of like a really
beautiful story in a way that you can ocase so
many different players that make our city unique through a
dining experience.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Now we're spoiled here if you ask me, because anytime
I go somewhere else, I mean we get so used to,
you know, eating excellent food, and you mentioned the unique ingredients,
and we have an abundance of offerings when it comes
to those things, and then when you travel somewhere else,
I imagine that you feel the same way.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
It's kind of like, Nah, absolutely, I mean, I definitely
will note my own bias to the situation. But we
have an completely diverse food scene here, which is something
that I've really love to see as Charleston has grown
and evolved, a lot of the international influence that's coming
into different food purveyors here, restaurants. It's really exciting and

(09:51):
there's always something new opening, and I think it speaks
to the lifestyle that this community offers. And I also
think that it's be to the support that Charleston offers
one another, and particularly in the food and beverage community.
They're an extremely philanthropic community, a giving community, and very

(10:13):
connected throughout the fabric of what it's like to live
and do business in Charleston, and I think that's something
that definitely lures people to our city, both to visit
and or become a resident.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Now, speaking of support, do you have any kind of
outreach to schools and try to nurture the next generation
coming into the food and beverage industry.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
Why, Yes, we do. I love a leading question.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yes, you know, Charleston Wine and Food is it's a
lot more than just a five day festival. I always
explain that that five day festival is the platform and
the fuel that really what powers our mission and education
is a huge, huge component of what we do and
why we do it. Continuing to cultivate the local talent

(10:59):
that we have here, investing in the future by building
up future generations. We have this fantastic high school program.
It's in its fourth year. We work with ten different
high schools, both in CCSD and Dorchester, two school districts,
and serve over twelve hundred students. It's a pretty fantastic program.

(11:22):
It's year round. We go into their classroom. We subsidize
learning in the classroom by bringing in guest chefs, hospitality,
even food media. We've had come in there to really
expose these students to the breadth of opportunities that there
are within this industry of culinary and hospitality. After we
kind of bring in guest learners, instructors, that mentorship component

(11:43):
the program really culminates at the festival itself, where these
high school students have the opportunity to work right alongside
Michelin starred James Beard Award winning World's fifty Best Noted chefs.
It's a paid externship, so they can earn both funds,
credit hours towards their CTE diploma or if they're Pro

(12:06):
Start school hours towards their pro Start certification, and really
be exposed to so many different career paths that are
within culnor and hospitality. So that's been a pretty magical
program and something that has only furthered the mission of
education for us. You know, scholarships has been a core
component of Charleston Wine and Food from the very beginning.

(12:28):
We have scholarships at Culinary Institute, Charleston College of Charleston,
and we're working on establishing one with the Citadel. So
continuing to find ways that we're not just celebrating this
fantastic food community that we live in, but we're also
adding to the sustainability of it by investing in the
next generation and continuing to invest in the people who

(12:50):
work in restaurants.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
I think that's fantastic and I'm sure they're very excited
to take part in it.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
Yeah, it's really really fun. You know, there's kind of
this tipannus and shyness at the beginning, and then you
see them really kind of be like, oh, Okay, I
know what I'm doing now, this is fantastic. I'm having
a good time. And then there are some that are
just very into food and so if they're paired up
with a chef that's someone they look up to or

(13:17):
a mentor or somebody that you know they've read about
in the media that like kind of elbow rub also
is a really big piece of pride for them and
an inspiration. So we've had really great success with the program.
It's definitely encouraged some of these students to continue on

(13:39):
their education, either by going to culinary school or embarking
in maybe a hospitality adjacent field, and some have gone
direct into industry because of their participation in this program.
They found that this is this is a pathway forward
for them. So it's it's a great part. And if
you're attending a Charleston Wine and Food Festival event, particular

(14:00):
early one of our signature events or the Culinary Village,
all of our chef scholars wear their high school chef
coats so please stop and you know, ask them what
they're cooking, take an interest in what they're doing, and
thank them for being there, because they're as much talent
as anyone else that we have participating in this festival.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, and give them some encouragement. Yeah. Now, aside from
the students, what other kind of community outreach to you practice?

Speaker 3 (14:27):
So sustainability is another big component for Charleston. So you know,
the education and the workforce initiatives for us are kind
of sustainability in general. But we also have, you know,
a duty to the environment in the community we lived in.
Earlier in the interview, I mentioned farmers and purveyors and
our waterways and how the ingredients that chefs had to

(14:49):
work with here is what makes their food so fantastic,
and we want to be good stewards of those resources.
So we have a pretty robust composting initiative. We're actually
considered is zero waste festival, and what that means is
that over ninety percent of the waste that we produce
at the festival is diverted from a landfill. That's pretty fantastic.

(15:11):
There's not another zero waste festival of that of our
scale in the state of South Carolina and in general,
events can be quite wasteful the industry can be, so
we actually higher on a company that hand sorts every
single fork, plate, napkin. We use all compostable materials, so

(15:34):
that way, when after you've done enjoying that plate or
that dish in the culinary village, we take care of
that and we break it down into composts that's then
donated back to a local farm to grow the food,
so we can kind of create the cycle all over again.
In addition to the composting, oyster shell recycling is another
big piece. We have a great event called Shucked. It

(15:55):
actually happens right here in Mount Pleasant at Memorial Waterfront Park.
It's a celebration of oys and we work with the
Department of Natural Resources to make sure that we're recycling
all of those oyster shells that we produce so they
can go back into our environment to create a breeding
ground for new.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
Oysters to grow.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
So sustainability is a key practice for us as an organization,
and it adds into leaving things better than you found
it so we can continue to have fantastic resources that
our chefs get to work with.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Let's shift gears here a little bit and find out
a little bit more about you personally. Where did you
grow up? You grew up here in the low Country, right.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
I grew up here in Charleston. Yep, I'm from here.
I grew up on James Island, where I still reside.
This place is extremely special and I feel so connected
to Charleston wine and food because I have the opportunity
to get to talk about my hometown and that is
something that not a lot of people get to do.

(16:55):
And I absolutely love it. I truly believe in this community.
I love it with my whole heart. And most importantly,
the individuals and the businesses and the people that live
here and that work here. That is what makes this
place so special. So getting the opportunity to, in my

(17:16):
day to day work bring in different components and parts
of my entire life, including my upbringing and childhood here
in Charleston, is really special and something that not a
lot of people get to say they get to do.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
No, And it's been beneficial for the festival too, right,
because you use some of your ties. For example, we
had national exposure on NBC. Was it The Today Show?

Speaker 4 (17:40):
Yeah? The Today Show.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
That was a partnership that I helped a broker in
twenty nineteen. That was a really big deal for Charleston
Wine and Food to have the recognition of immediate entity
of that scale and even for the Charleston community. So
that was definitely something that was a lot of work

(18:02):
to bring that to life. But we did four hours
of live television coverage from Waterfront Park right near the
Pineapple Fountain. It got to showcase fantastic culinary talent. Chef
Michelle Weaver was on the show Cooking live right from
the park, which was something that was really special to
see her be honored and recognized for all of the

(18:25):
work that she's done to help put Charleston on the
map as a food city from your time at Charleston Grill.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Well, that's great. And you're also a.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
Mom, right I am. I'm a mom.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
I have two boys. I married my high school sweetheart.
We just celebrated eleven years of marriage actually this weekend.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Well congratulations, thank you.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
And I have two little boys and they keep me
very busy. Love it and I love getting to share
a lot of the things I love about the city
with them, in this community with them.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
They love to go out on.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
The boat that's our number one pastime, is anything that
we can do that's out on the water, fishing, throwing
the cast net, crabbing, you know, shrimping. It's definitely a love.
So this these winter cold months are the hardest.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
Of my year.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
I'd like waiting for the next time that I can
be out in the sun fishing pole in hand with them.
But yeah, it's a it's a it's so much fun.
I did not realize the gifts of motherhood and parenthood
until becoming one. Once you have kids, you get it right,
you know. I really feel like it's made me a
better leader. It's giving me a lot of perspective. I

(19:35):
feel like it puts it puts your priorities in order.
And I'm patient, a lot more patient than I was
before children. And I'm able to show up in spaces that,
especially the hard ones, and know that we can figure
this out. You Know, something that I say all the
time in the office is it's a made up word,

(19:56):
but everything's figure outable. There's not a problem that we
can't figure out or something that we can't solve and
try to move through anything, whether that's in personal life
or work life with that feeling of positivity and knowing
that it's not the worst thing that can happen.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
I know we can.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
It might feel like it when you're in the moment,
but there's always a solution. And leading with that positivity
I think really helps. It helps fuel success, and it
helps fuel impact and make you more connected with your community.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Absolutely, and it also gives you a greater satisfaction at
the end of the day once you can say, Wow,
I've faced all of these obstacles and I've figured it
out and I got through it.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
Well, I certainly enjoyed our conversation here. If there's any
restaurants out there that you haven't been in contact with,
I imagine there's probably not many. But if somebody's listening
and wants to take part in the festival or find
out more, where should they go.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
Yeah, we'd love to have them.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
We're still programming, so if there's anyone that is interested
in participating, please reach out to us. You can go
to Charlestonwineanfood dot com, CHSWF dot org. There's information on
there of you know how to get involved, whether that's
you want to be a business in showcase your your brand,
or you want to volunteer. We have a ton of
volunteers that help to power the festival and it's a

(21:19):
lot of fun. If that's something that you're interested in,
there's an option on the website to learn more about that.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
And if you if.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
You're listening and you just this is jogging your memory,
to buy a ticket, we'd love to have you. There's
still stuff available, fantastic events for the twentieth anniversary, and
it's definitely a year to celebrate this milestone.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
And that's March fourth through the eighth, twenty twenty six.
Alyssa Maudy Smith is the executive director of Charleston Wine
and Food. Thank you so much, Alissa for taking the
time to talk with us today.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
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