The fifth-annual Southern Food and Wine Festival is fast approaching; as renowned chefs and sommeliers from around the world prepare to travel to El Dorado, residents should prepare their taste buds for fine dining and wines.

The festival will kick off Thursday night with a special Thursday Night Live featuring Johnny Dilks and the Fugitives on the Griffin Restaurant cabaret stage; the concert comes with a $10 cover charge.

Friday evening, guest chefs and sommeliers will prepare the five-course Southern Food and Wine Dinner for 175 guests, starting at 6:45 p.m. Tickets for the dinner have already sold out. Five chefs and three sommeliers will work together to create a meal to remember.

Griffin Executive Chef Austin Johnson and entrepreneur and sommelier Eric Railsback have been the driving forces for this year’s Food and Wine Fest. Johnson started at the Griffin last fall and has since created a new menu for the restaurant. Johnson will be featured at the 2019 Atlanta Food and Wine Festival and his leadership at Frenchie, a restaurant in Paris, France, resulted in the restaurant securing its first Michelin star.

Railsback is a preeminent American sommelier. With his own winery, wine bar and other ventures, he is also an accomplished businessman. Les Marchands, his wine bar and store, has been named one of Wine Enthusiast’s 100 Best Wine Restaurants, and he was named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s 2014 Sommeliers of the Year.

Other chefs that will assist in the dinner include Aaron Abramson, Mike Reilly, Michael Rellergert and Adam Purcell, each participating in the Food and Wine Fest for the first time.

Abramson has worked as a chef for over 15 years at restaurants that include Noma, in Copenhagen, Denmark; Mugaritz in Enterria, Spain; and was the executive chef at Flora Farms in Cabo, Mexico. Currently, Abramson is the chef at Butterfield Restaurant in Stone Ridge, New York.

Reilly began his career at the farm-to-table restaurant Ninety Acres in Somerset County, New Jersey, making him a natural fit for the dinner at the Griffin, which shares Ninety Acres’ farm-to-table mission. He has since worked at the highly acclaimed Eleven Madison Park in New York City and now is the Chef de Cuisine at NoMad in NYC. He has been awarded a Michelin star and five New York Times stars.

Rellergert has worked in kitchens since he was a teenager, starting his culinary career as Sous Chef at Chez Leon, a French bistro in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended L’Ecole Culinaire in St. Louis before working at An American Place in St. Louis. In 2012, Rellergert was part of the opening team at NoMad in New York City, where he was named Executive Sous Chef is 2016. He has since relocated to Los Angeles, California, to open a second NoMad; and now to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was a part of a third NoMad’s opening team.

Purcell, originally from Dublin, Ireland, took a less direct route to the kitchen. Prior to his start as a chef, Purcell attended college, where he studied art and architecture, before helping to build national parks in Patagonia, South America. After returning to Britain, he worked at Pichet in Dublin, a Bib Gourmand restaurant. Johnson then took a chance on Purcell, hiring him on at Frenchie in Paris. He now is the Chef de Cuisine at the London outpost Frenchie Covent Garden.

The sommeliers that will assist with the dinner are Railsback, Dustin Wilson, Sabato Sangaria, Thomas Pastuszak and Keegan Sparks.

Wilson is a Master Sommelier based in New York City. He founded Verve Wines, an online marketplace for sommelier-curated wines and he has worked at some of the top restaurants in the United States, including Frasca Food & Wine in Boulder, Colorado; The Little Nell in Aspen, Colorado; and RN74 in San Francisco, California. He was also Wine Director at three Michelin starred restaurant Eleven Madison Park, in New York City. He had a leading role in the critically acclaimed wine documentary “SOMM,” and was later featured in the film’s sequel, “SOMM: Into the Bottle.”

Sangaria, a Master Sommelier as well, is the president of bartaco, a restaurant chain where he oversees 15 restaurants across nine states. He has fulfilled culinary, beverage and leadership roles at The Little Nell in Aspen, Colorado, The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia and The Greenbriar Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. In 2012, Sangaria became a member of the Court of Master Sommeliers, an honor held by under 250 individuals worldwide.

Pastuszak has had a very successful career as a sommelier, taking on the role of Wine Director at Colicchio & Sons in New York City in 2011; the restaurant is owned by Chef Tom Colicchio, who has served as head judge on Bravo’s “Top Chef” since its inception. Since then, he has been on the teams that created Eleven Madison Park and The NoMad in New York; he is currently the Executive Wine Director at all NoMad locations, which span across the U.S. He was named one of the Best New Sommeliers of 2012 by Wine & Spirits Magazine; one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2013; and one of Food & Wine Magazine’s Best Sommeliers of 2015. He has in recent years released several of his own wine labels, including Terrassen, Empire Estate and VINNY, each of which has a focus on New York’s Finger Lakes wine region.

Sparks began his career in Arkansas, at 28 Springs in Siloam Springs. He has since worked at South on Main in Little Rock, a restaurant and wine bar that has received investment from Hollywood stars Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, where he became a Certified Sommelier. He is currently the Service Director at the Griffin Restaurant and has his own carbonation rig, where he tries to create the perfect glass of seltzer water.

Following Friday’s dinner, The Tepusquet Tornadoes will take the Griffin stage to perform. The band hails from Santa Maria Valley, California, and includes El Dorado’s own Madison “Maddog” Murphy on guitar alongside wine industry professionals. The performance will begin at 9:15 p.m. and tickets cost $10, though those who attend Friday night’s dinner will have the cost of the concert included in their dinner tickets.

On Saturday, the Grand Tasting Wine Pour will be held starting at 2 p.m. in the Murphy Arts District Amphitheater. Wines from renowned wineries around the world will be included, and food will be available for purchase from the Griffin Restaurant or various food trucks that will be parked around the Amphitheater.

Tickets for the Wine Pour are $20 per person if purchased in advance; they increase to $30 on the day of the event. Those that attend Friday’s dinner will have the cost of the Wine Pour included in those tickets. The Wine Pour is expected to last until about 5 p.m.

The Wine Pour will be accompanied throughout the afternoon by two musical guests. The Mix will perform starting at 2:15 p.m., followed by Jeff Coleman & the Feeders starting at 3:45 p.m.

Workshops will also be held at the Griffin Restaurant throughout Saturday afternoon. Each workshop is $30 per person, except for the Riedel workshop, which costs $50 per person. The workshops are limited to 50 people per workshop.

Starting at 1 p.m., Wilson will hold a “Learn to Taste like a Master Sommelier” workshop, where participants will learn about the methods and thought processes used by wine professionals and sommeliers to identify the grape variety, vintage and region of any particular wine. Some sommeliers are even able to trace the winery or producer and even the exact vineyard from which certain wines are produced, and this is El Dorado residents’ chance to learn the tricks of the trade.

At 2 p.m., Johnson will hold a workshop entitled “How to Cook like a Michelin-Starred Chef.” Johnson will share his processes and tips, which center around the idea that great chefs develop recipes in part through consideration of regional flavors, local ingredients and inspired presentations.

“The Right Glass Improves your Wine Experience” workshop will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday and will be led by a representative from Riedel, a glassware manufacturer known for their emphasis on enhancing wine’s flavor with the correct glassware. According to a press release, the right glass can elevate one’s wine-drinking experience by ensuring the tastes hit one’s nose and palate as they should.

Saturday night, the South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will present “Mozart and More” at the First Financial Music Hall, a concert that will celebrate the composer’s 263rd birthday. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are available for between $15 and $40.

The Festival ends with a performance featuring Da Unit on the Griffin Restaurant cabaret stage at 9 p.m. Saturday. The concert is free to the public.

“We’re excited to bring world-class food and wine talents to MAD, reinforcing our commitment to putting El Dorado on the map for crazy good music, food and fun,” said Pam Griffin, MAD President and Chief Operating Officer.

Caitlan Butler can be reached at 870-862-6611 or cbutler@eldoradonews.com.