Award-Winning Culinary Masters Top Off ZBB's Southern Ground Music & Food Festival Lineup

The staggering onstage lineup of Zac Brown Band's Southern Ground Music & Food Festival is rivaled only by the roster in the kitchen, with five award-winning chefs on hand for the three-day extravaganza to prepare the ultimate in gourmet Southern cuisine.

Southern Ground Executive Chef Rusty Hamlin, whose Eat-and-Greets with Zac Brown Band have caught the attention of the New York Times, Associated Press, and the Today Show, takes the helm for the event. Hamlin is joined by a trio of James Beard Award winners, preparing food for ticket holders in the exclusive Front Porch Stage Boxes: Executive Chef Sean Brock, Executive Chef Mike Lata, and Chef RJ Cooper, and David Guas, a James Beard finalist and one of the Ten Best Pastry Chefs in the Country (Oprah). 

Additional concessions will be available on-site for all ticket holders from Neighborhood Dining Group eateries McCrady's, Husk, Queen Anne's Revenge, HomeTeam BBQ, and Hubee D's as well as from Cookie, Zac Brown Band's custom built mobile kitchen.

Southern Ground Music & Food Festival Front Porch Stage Box Menu:
Appetizers
Moulard duck confit carnitas, tomatillo salsa, cabbage, roasted jalapeno (Cooper)
Crispy bourbon molasses pork belly, sheep's milk ricotta, black-eye 
hoe cake, fennel fig slaw (Hamlin)

Entrees
Butter Pea Pasta E Fagioli (Lata)
Cornmeal Dusted Flounder with Fall Vegetable and Blue Crab Succotash, Roasted Carrots with Tarragon and Brown Butter Crumble (Brock)

Dessert
Banana Pudding with a Vanilla Wafer Crumble (Guas)
Miss Minny's Chocolate Pies in a Graham Cracker Crust (Guas)

Check out more on ZBB's Front Porch Stage Boxes: http://youtu.be/_Xgy2eb1yTQ

Sean Brock, James Beard's 2010 "Best Chef Southeast" winner, heads the kitchens of McCrady's and Husk in Charleston and was profiled in last year's "Best and Brightest" issue of Esquire Magazine. Over the past few years, Brock has become a tireless advocate of community-supported agriculture and has been featured on Food Network Challenge and Iron Chef America.

Mike Lata was Brock's predecessor as "Best Chef Southeast" in 2009 and currently reigns as Executive Chef of Charleston's FIG (Food Is Good) - widely considered to be one of the South's premiere dining locales. Lata has earned the acclaim of Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and Iron Chef America, among others, and like Brock, is a strong supporter for local, sustainable foods. 

As Chef/Owner of Washington, D.C.'s Rogue 24, RJ Cooper presents a radical dining experience, going 'rogue' from the typical fine dining experience with his 24-course tasting menu. Cooper, an Iron Chef competitor and advocate for child hunger relief, has more than two decades experience in award-winning kitchens up and down the East Coast and was awarded "Best Chef Mid-Atlantic" in 2007. 

Arlington, VA pastry chef and James Beard Award finalist David Guas followed the release of his critically-acclaimed cookbook 'Dam Good Sweet' with the launch of Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar, & Eatery in 2010. Heralded as one of the nation's top pastry chefs by O Magazine, Food & Wine, and Bon Appetit, Guas has made regular appearances on the Today Show and has been profiled in numerous national outlets including the New York Times, Cooking Light, and Esquire.

See more about the chefs here: http://www.southerngroundfestival.com/chefs.html

Southern Ground Music & Food Festival, presented by Landshark and Jack Daniel's, is promoted by JAM, Outback Concerts, and Sound Events. Tickets start at $57 and Gates will open at 12pm ET on Friday, October 21 and Sunday, October 23 and at 11am ET on Saturday, October 22.

For more information, including full lineup/set times, visit http://www.southerngroundfestival.com.

http://www.zacbrownband.com
http://shorefire.com/clients/zacbrownband
 
For more information on Zac Brown Band, please contact Elizabeth Lutz (elutz@shorefire.com) or Rebecca Shapiro (rshapiro@shorefire.com) at Shore Fire Media, 718.522.7171, Sheila Richman at Atlantic Records, 212.707.3063 (sheila.richman@atlanticrecords.com) or Liz Norris at ROAR, 310.424.7800 (media@roar.la).