Summer food festivals are turning up the star wattage.
Katie Lee and Geoffrey Zakarian of the Food Network’s “The Kitchen” will co-host the fourth annual Dan’s Taste of Two Forks, which highlights culinary talent from the North and South Forks of Long Island.
Last year, Zakarian, who has a string of restaurants, was named culinary director of The Plaza. Lee, who was once married to Billy Joel, has become a name in her own right as a fashionable foodie.
The festival also includes the second annual Dan’s Grillhampton, which will be fronted by another Food Network personality, Robert Irvine of “Restaurant Impossible.”
Grillhampton pits eight New York City chefs against eight Hamptons-based chefs for a grill-off.
The judges include chef Marc Murphy of Kingside, Landmarc and Ditch Plains, who is also a regular judge on the Food Network’s “Chopped.”
Participating New York City chefs include Harold Moore of Commerce and Mike Prince of Market Table.
The festival will be held July 11 and 12 at Sayre Park in Bridgehampton. Tickets run to $340 for a Grillhampton ticket and a VIP ticket for Taste of Two Forks.
A portion of this year’s ticket sales will benefit All For The East End, which supports local nonprofits.
Robert Irvine, along with fellow chef Marcus Samuelsson, also will host the sixth annual Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival the last weekend in July.
Many of the events will be held in beachfront locations, including the festival’s first “Burger Bash,” which has been a popular part of New York and Miami South Beach food festivals, along with a clam bake and “Blues Brews & BBQ.”
From cupcakes to … real estate. Jason Bauer, who co-founded Crumbs Bake Shop, is launching Voda Bauer Real Estate with real-estate veteran Avi Voda.
The company will focus on residential and commercial properties in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
This will be Bauer’s first big move since he and his wife, Mia, sold Crumbs in 2011 through a $66 million merger with the 57th Street General Acquisition Corp.
The pair founded Crumbs with a single location on the Upper West Side in 2003, and grew it to a nationwide chain of more than 75 stores in less than 10 years.
Side Dish was the first to reveal that Nicky “Meatballs” Mormando signed a lease to open a new restaurant at 483 Amsterdam Ave., where Good Enough To Eat once stood.
Polpette has just opened and the menu is filled with casual Italian comfort food, including Brooklyn hero sandwiches and appetizers such as “stolen three meatballs snatched from the frying pan crispy outside and deliciously moist on the inside.”
Mormando also has Bello Giardino on West 71st Street.
Here’s another variation on the Juice Wars.
LuliTonix, a brand of blended juices, is in talks to open a store in Soho.
Unlike cold pressed and squeezed juices, blended juices are more nutritious and filling because they contain the entire fruit, vegetable and skin, said owner Lianna Sugarman, who founded the company last year.
LuliTonix is sold online and at some wellness stores and yoga studios in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The juices are produced in The Organic Food Incubator, in Long Island City.