Sunshine Matters

Florida’s diverse culinary offerings include a cast of celebrity chefs from around the Sunshine State. VISIT FLORIDA’s Public Relations department is working with our industry partners and the producers at WCTV-TV – a CBS news affiliate in Tallahassee – to provide a platform for awareness and inspiration by showcasing Florida’s local culinary stars and their specialty dishes.  The earned media opportunity with WCTV provides VISIT FLORIDA and its partners a regional broadcast outlet to reach viewers in North Florida and South Georgia.

The first celebrity chef appearance was on June 19 with Chef Amadeus of Jacksonville, winner of season one of the Extreme Chef television show.  Chef Amadeus’s fun, hands-on segment included co-anchor Gina Pitisci testing her culinary skills to help create a low-fat coleslaw recipe.

The following week, Chef Eric Jungklaus of Tony’s Seafood Restaurant and Tony’s Cedar Key Clam Chowder willingly shared his recipe, minus his secret spices – those are top secret.  Chef Jungklaus is a three-time winner of the Great Chowder Cookoff in Newport, R.I.

On July 10, partners from St. Augustine sent Chef Jean-Stephane Poinard from Bistro de Leon to WCTV to prepare a pulled pork egg roll with spicy peppers.

In addition to their appearance on WCTV, each Florida chef is being featured by VISIT FLORIDA’s Food & Dining Insider Rachelle Lucas for her blog on VISITFLORIDA.com. The stories are also shared with consumers on VISIT FLORIDA’s Facebook page and with Twitter followers.

See Rachelle’s Insider posts for each chef by clicking on: Chef Poinard, Chef Jungklaus and Chef Amadeus.

The celebrity chef opportunity with WCTV was presented to partners through VISIT FLORIDA’s e-newsletter News to Use. The once-a-month segment is scheduled until the end of the calendar year.  Upcoming segments will feature Chef David Bearl  from St. Augustine, a chef from Walt Disney World’s Swan and Dolphin Hotel sharing information about their wine and food festival, Chef Jim Shirley from Pensacola’s The Fish House (he’s the man behind the renowned dish “Grits à Ya Ya,”) and Chef Curtis Beebe of Pasco County to talk about cooking with kumquats during the holiday season.

There are additional interview opportunities with WCTV that VISIT FLORIDA will be helping book.  Guests will be given 3 ½ minutes on a Monday morning to discuss a topic related to their destination or tourism business with the morning anchor Art Myers.  To give you an example, St. Augustine is sending Ponce De Leon to Tallahassee to discuss VIVA Florida 500.  To learn more about booking a topic from your region, please contact Pam Forrester, VISIT FLORIDA Public Relations Representative, at 850-205-3827 or pforrester@VISITFLORIDA.org.