Introducing the Culinary Council and Financial Beneficiaries of the 2023 San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival

Each year, the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival is proud to offer scholarship opportunities to students pursuing careers in the culinary, hospitality, viticulture and enology industries. To date, we have granted more than $600,000 to help aspiring professionals accomplish their dreams through our ongoing partnership with Fast Forward Futures, a national nonprofit organization that awards industry scholarships for full or part-time continuing education programs.

While each year is understandably different, we are committed to certain qualifying criteria when considering applications for the program:

• Scholarships typically range from $500 to $5,000. 
• All schools must be accredited, offering continuous, relevant, hands-on and in-person experience. 
• As the money for the scholarships is raised by the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, scholarships are only awarded to people who are connected to San Diego by school, work, or recent involvement in food, wine, or hotel management in the area. 
• The scholarship funds may be used for study within or outside of San Diego County.

This year’s esteemed Culinary Council members are:

Jessica + Davin Waite (Disruptive Dining)

DuVal Warner (Ranch 45, Del Mar)

Bernard Guillas (Maître Cuisinier de France)

Flor Franco (Casa de Flor, San Diego)

Aron Schwartz (Ranch 45, Del Mar)

Marcee Katz (Chef Works, San Diego)

Jesse Llaptian (Loews Coronado Bay)

Interviews with hopeful applicants started in early October, and we can’t wait to see how the discerning consideration of our Council will award the prizes this year! 2023 scholarship winners will be announced during opening ceremonies at theGrand Tasting.

In addition, we are so pleased to name The Ecology Center, a 501c3 non-profit and a 28-acre Regenerative Organic Certified™ farm and education center in San Juan Capistrano, as the financial beneficiary of the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival this year. Our perennial mission is to recognize and elevate the biodiversity and innovation of San Diego and its surrounding regions, and we are taking deliberate action to become better stewards to this dynamic community. Through our partnership with these champions of sustainability innovation, we are strengthening our commitment to environmental awareness, and promising to carry this effort into the future as they offer us guidance on how to improve our sustainable footprint and protect San Diego’s fragile ecosystems. 

We’re proud to be donating a portion of overall ticket sales to their organization as part of our ongoing commitment to investing in future culinary trailblazers and their efforts. Want to join us in supporting The Ecology Center’s groundbreaking work? We’ve added a donation option in our website ticketing windows for just this purpose.

Thank you for being here, and thank you for being as excited as we are about the future of the culinary industry in San Diego, Southern California, and beyond!