Los Angeles Food & Wine 2019

It’s that time of year again, the 9th Annual Los Angeles Food & Wine event is taking over your diet August 22-25th!

Where do I begin!

The event kicks off August 22nd with a series of intimate Kick-Off Dinners with L.A.’s favorite chefs like Tim Hollingsworth at Otium, and a very special Legends Dinner at Chi SPACCA with Nancy Silverton and the acclaimed Chef Jeremiah Tower.

Ticket prices range from $150-$250 for only a handful of seats!!

What’s Next!

If you’re a fan of the traditional food festival setting then head over to Barker Hanger in Santa Monica from Friday August 23rd-25th for an array of themed events like:

• The Epic Burger Throwdown with Alvin Cailan on Friday, where the best chefs in Los Angeles go burger to burger with a celebrity judge panel featuring Seth Rogen and Tiffani Thiessen (Don’t worry you’re eating too :))

• LA’s Faves & Craves on Saturday Afternoon where Jet Tila hosts the city’s most crave-worthy dishes.

• Meat Me at LAFW’s Great Steak-out & BBQ on Saturday Evening where Chef Curtis Stone and 25 other great grillmasters will be serving it up.
• Sunday Brunch So Hard with Jeremiah Tower exploring the razzle dazzle behind the coveted weekend meal with a champagne glass in hand. (VIDEO BELOW)

Where do I get my Tickets

Get your tickets at  lafw.com.

What can I Expect?

Here’s a look at my experience at this year’s Brunch so Hard Event with Chef Jeremiah Tower!

What about past events?

Here’s a look at the 2018 Lexus Grand Tasting at Los Angeles Food & Wine’s 8th Annual Event.

So why should you go?

The Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival has come to encompass 4 days of eating and rubbing elbows with some of the best chefs in the country.

What to Expect

Buried deep inside the mountains of wine and spirits at the Lexus Grand Tasting at the Barker Hangar are 25 great national chefs 🙂

Don’t let yourself be razzle dazzled too much at the front with fancy circus performers, or the streamline Don Julio trailer pouring full glasses of alcohol. Instead head to the back where there might be something even more special going on.

The Chef John Cox VR Experience

There’s nothing more L.A. then standing in a line for over an hour, to gain access to a black tent where you don’t what’s going to happen, and that you have to sign a waiver for…The FOMO was real for this one!

After tasting Chef Cox at the Lexus Grand Tasting five years ago, I was so inspired that I was compelled to go to his Sierra Mar restaurant at The Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, California.

This year he was listed with The Bear and Star, his Los Olivos ranch-centric restaurant, but his message was far from bulls and steers.

After entering the black box, you’re taken on a virtual reality fishing trip with Chef Cox to pick your oysters for the day. You place your hands out in front of you and slurp up what you’re expecting to be a bivalved mollusc, only to find you’re eating a jellyfish that was just floating in front of you moments before…because we’ve exhausted the oyster beds.

Exhausted from my education I quickly find refuge at The Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel Pop-up. Where sampling Lobster Waffles and sipping Rosé helps me try and forget the destruction of our ecosystems caused by my own gluttony.

The Best Bites & Sips

While I will admit there were probably more sips than bites; upon reflection these 3 are the ones that warrant a trip to the restaurant.

Ranked from Third to First: The Black Glazed Vinegar Pork Rib from Blue Ribbon Sushi; Pistachio Dust and Toasted Weaver Ants from Monterey Bay Aquarium; and my top bite, a crisp Pacific Gold Oyster from the Morro Bay Oyster Co & Chef Curtis Stone.

Bites I wouldn’t necessarily seek out, but were I to see a stand on the side of a road I might stop include: The Hudson Valley Duck “French Dip” from Hudson Valley Foie Gras and Aged White Cheddar Scones with Tomato Jam and Fennel Bacon from Tiffany Thiessen. Luckily for me these are things I can order online, or attempt to make myself from Tiffany Thiessen’s Pull up a Chair cookbook.

My Big Take Away

Collectively I felt my favorite chefs of the day, John Cox and Curtis Stone, were trying to stand as beacons of sustainability in a room full of excess. While my favorite bite of the day was an unsullied, raw oyster from The Morro Bay Oyster Company; the message was also clear that if we’re not careful we won’t have those simple luxuries.

Here’s hoping next year we won’t all be waiting in line outside a black curtained box with NO food in it! But until then enjoy the distraction of the colored lights.