GREENVILLE — When the organizers of the food, wine and music festival euphoria approached Erika Mejia-Dila about participating in the award-winning Greenville event, the owner of Califa’s was humbled and surprised.
“I never thought,” Mejia-Dila said with a chuckle. “Honestly, when I would hear euphoria, I’m like ’Oh, Michelin star chefs. I am not a chef.”
But this year, Mejia-Dila will be among the 130 restaurant and chef participants who will be preparing dishes for the four-day festival, which runs Sept. 14-17. She’ll cook alongside chefs from Charleston, Atlanta, Kansas City, Missouri and Chicago, and will make birria, a dish that has family roots and defines her culture and history.
“We say it’s a taste of home,” she said.
Now, in its 18th year, euphoria this year will reflect a renewed local focus, with more first-time restaurant participants than ever before, a greater diversity of cuisine and of chef backgrounds and a deeper reach throughout the food community.
“We are really focusing on who is euphoria, what are we about and making sure we are staying with those roots,” said Morgan Allen, who has led the festival as executive director for what is now eight years.
When Allen and her team put their heads together at the conclusion of last year’s euphoria, they saw a hole, so to speak — one of local talent, but also of minorities and smaller restaurants.
The result is 130 restaurants participating this year, the most ever, and a record 57 events. Of those participants, 54 are first-time, 20 are local.
The move comes as more food and wine festivals — as well as the James Beard Foundation Awards, considered the most-prestigious honor in the culinary world — have also refocused diversity and inclusion efforts.
In 2021, South Beach Wine & Food Festival hired a diversity and inclusion officer to help direct efforts for the festival. And in 2020, the James Beard Foundation retooled and reframed its approach to its annual awards, in an effort to include chefs and restaurateurs who had traditionally been overlooked.
With the help of local non-profit Village Launch, euphoria last year created a grant specifically designed to help fund the participation of emerging minority and women culinarians. The grant helps cover the cost of ingredients, which can be a barrier to smaller restaurants and to those just getting started in the food world.
This year, that partnership and grant has continued, with $6,000 in funds raised through Giving Tuesday last year. The grants have helped pave the way for chefs like Eugena Talley to participate.
Talley will be participating in her third euphoria, but this year, the owner of plant-based café and meal prep business The Herbal Farmercy will be participating both Saturday and Sunday.
Ahead of the festival, Talley’s excitement was palpable. The former medical professional turned food maven can hardly believe her own trajectory, much less that she is now a part of a food and wine festival known for bringing chefs like Sean Brock, Vivian Howard and, last year, famed Food Network star and restaurant owner Tyler Florence.
“It’s an amazing marketing campaign to not just know about the food options but that Greenville is a great place to be,” Talley said.
And for Talley, cooking at euphoria is a chance to connect and to educate about plant-based food. She came to plant-based eating when she was pregnant with her now 4-year-old daughter. At the time, Talley and her husband had been seeking ways to help their son, who had health issues that landed him in the hospital multiple times.