How Nassau Paradise Island Wine and Food Festival Combined Celebrity Chefs, Local Talent and More Stars

From Wyclef Jean to Alex Guarnaschelli to the local talent at the Atlantis, Us Weekly got the lowdown of the stars — and food and drinks — featured at the Nassau Paradise Island Wine & Food Festival.

“The local talent here is extraordinary. They are hard-working [and] some of the best, honestly. It was really important to me to be inclusive of everybody. The festival should look like we all look right here,” Lee Schrager, the founder of New York City and South Beach Wine and Food Festivals, told the attendees at Guarnaschelli’s Wine & Lunch on March 18. “In addition to the great talent here on property already — meaning José Andrés, Michael White's opening up here, Alon Shaya is opening up here — this property in the next six to nine months is gonna look a lot different, including Shake Shack opening in a few weeks. In curating [the festival], you know, I went to people who I knew would be relatable and look like all of us, aren't we? I started with Duff Goldman.”

Goldman was featured at the Cake & Ice Cream Social on March 18, a Late Night Dessert Party on March 19 — in which he delighted guests by serving his bananas foster into the night as they sipped on Mumm champagne — and a Sweet & Savory Brunch on March 19.

“But my closest friend in the network — TV personality wise — is your cook today, Alex Guarnaschelli,” Schrager continued. “She is amazing. … But only is Alex, I think, the great cook on the network. … But she is wickedly, wickedly funny. She is probably the funniest person I know.”

Guarnaschelli proved Schrager’s words to be true by hosting a hilarious Q&A after guests enjoyed her frisée salad with fennel, fresh grapefruit and crispy ginger, a grilled filet mignon entrée with jerk-spiced shrimp, roasted fingerling potatoes and charred scallions and leeks, and mango tres leches cake with toasted coconut for dessert.

“It was very exciting to put it together with this whole team. You know, it's one chef on the poster and 60 chefs that aren't on the poster that puts in something like this,” she explained.

Later that night, Wine & Food attendees partied into the night — as he played well past his planned 90-minute set — with Jean at the Jerk Jam. After munching on standout items including a seafood quesadilla, cracked conch, jerk-duck eggrolls, bao buns and much more, the rapper performed his own hits, including “Sweetest Girl” and “Gone Till November,” and kept the crowd going with everything from Guns N' Roses to Lauryn Hill.

The rapper wasn’t the only performer of the weekend, however, as DJ Kim Lee provided the tunes and vibes for Aarón Sánchez’s Tacos & Tequila party on March 17.

“I play, like, to an open format — a mixture of everything, just in case because you don't know where the vibe is going to be,” the Bling Empire star told Us Weekly ahead of her set, about the “wild [and] fun” event. “I have high-energy music and I have house music. A little mixture of everything. I also have some Bad Bunny just in case! … I actually love doing events like this because it's more intimate. And I can actually have a conversation instead of going into a venue and it's just loud music. So I always prefer events and to be honest, smaller parties.”

The Wine & Food Festival also featured a series of demos and events with Tony Abou-Ganim, Andrew Zimmern, JJ Johnson and more.