Southbound Food Festival 2026 recap: a week of chefs, collaboration, and celebration

Ten days, more than 100 chefs, and one very full calendar later, Southbound Food Festival has wrapped its fourth year. I spent a good part of the week moving between tables—some with strangers, some with friends, and many, many thoughtful conversations. Looking back, the idea I’ll take away this year is the variety of ways a meal can take shape. It might be a market morning honoring the women who shaped the South’s kitchens, a one-night-only collaboration at a neighborhood restaurant, or a long, beautifully-set table in the middle of a working farm. The backdrops were different, but the result was the same: people who showed up to eat left feeling connected.

Saturday: Legacy in Motion

This year’s Rooted: Women in Food event looked at how knowledge and tradition pass from one generation to the next. The Market at Pepper Place was filled with farmers, artisans, and makers, alongside chef demos and heartfelt conversations.

Inside Hot and Hot Fish Club for the Rooted Meet & Greet, the energy was palpable. Live music played while we buzzed around sampling small bites from Chef Ramon Gonzalez, including deviled eggs with housemade hot sauce and mini crab cakes with Gulf crab meat. There was a make-your-own mimosa bar, but I went for an apple kombucha from Better Kombucha owner Nancey Legg, who builds her flavors around seasonal ingredients. (Last year at this same event, I tried satsuma, and it was delicious.)

Sandra Gutierrez spoke about her experience as a woman in hospitality and her love of generational recipes, and about the way food carries tradition forward. Then she said the line that stuck with me all week. “I really believe that it’s through food that we can break barriers, that we can bring people together.”

Tuesday: A Full-Circle Night

Southbound isn’t confined to the big ticketed events. Through the HOSTED series, restaurants across the city open their doors for one-night-only collaborations. On Tuesday, I headed to the Slims and Lapeer collab, where Chef Blake Hartley was back in the kitchen with his mentor, Chef John Rolen, for the first time in about a decade.

I started with a Saint Slim, a cocktail of gin, St-Germain, Aperol, hot honey, and lime, with the perfect amount of kick. Then came baked Gulf shrimp with hot honey and shallots, and an end-of-summer salad of tomatoes, figs, grilled peach, and gorgonzola. My favorite dish of the night was the fresh tagliatelle with rabbit simmered in verjus, mushrooms, cipollini onions, and marjoram. I also left with a slice of Lapeer’s chocolate cake to go—one of my favorite indulgences in the city.

For Hartley, the night meant even more than the menu. “It was just a fantastic full circle moment having him in our kitchen,” he told me. He credited Rolen with teaching him about sourcing, finding appreciation in simple ingredients, and keeping his composure as a chef. “All in all, it was a great night. Both of us were very happy with the curated menus.”

Thursday: Dinner at the Farm

Thursday took us out of the city entirely. A collaboration dinner at Lovelight Farm paired Chef Rob McDaniel of Bayonet and Helen with Chef Bill Briand of Little Bird in Fairhope, and it doubled as a fundraiser for the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network (ASAN), which supports farmers and advocates working toward sustainable agriculture and a more equitable food system in Alabama.

We got there on a party bus, fueled by Helen’s iconic angel biscuits and glasses of champagne. The playlist ran the gamut, from the Backstreet Boys to Queen, and by the time we pulled up to the farm, a busload of mostly strangers was singing together.

The menu celebrated produce grown steps from our seats. The crudité plates featured zephyr squash, radishes, and lunchbox peppers, with a farm egg gribiche I could have eaten by the spoonful. The entrée was grilled yellowfin tuna with tomato relish, alongside a taste of Helen: marinated local peas and beans.

Chef Rob spoke about the bond between the restaurants and the farm: “We have formed a very special connection with Lovelight and what they do, and we want to utilize them as much as we can.” Chef Bill talked about how his mom taught him to cook and to appreciate good food. He noted that she was looking down on us, at our beautiful table under the stars, and had probably been the one to bring us such great weather.

During the meal, I talked with Alan Gurganus, ASAN’s executive director. I came away feeling that we should all have the appreciation for our food that he does, because he sees firsthand the work it takes every single day.

What We Build at the Table

Southbound is a community builder. We know the best way to build community is through food, and through a shared table. This week I sat with strangers, and I sat with friends. I sat with people I had just met who became friends by dessert.

We come from all walks of life, but food becomes more than sustenance when we gather around it to appreciate its roots and its work. Gutierrez was right that food breaks barriers. Hartley and Rolen showed that it carries mentorship across a decade. And a farm full of vegetables reminded us that every meal starts with working the earth itself.

I’m deeply grateful to our chefs and our farmers. Same time next year.