Showing posts with label the taste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the taste. Show all posts

Friday, August 9, 2019

LA Food Events in August to Put on Your Radar

So I'm a few days late posting about upcoming August festivals (sorry) but summer is in full swing in LA and there are plenty of upcoming food events you should put on your radar!

August 11
Hitching Post 2 Pop-up at LA Wine
This famous Central Coast spot is popping up for one day only at LA Wine. They're bringing over their red oak-fired grill to LA to serve up at LA Wine's outdoor patio starting at 5pm until sold out.

HPost
Photo courtesy of Hitching Post

August 22-25
Los Angeles Food & Wine
This year's LA Food & Wine Festival has set up 14 different events over 4 days. Some of my favorite picks include the dinner at Magic Castle with Chef Jason Fullilove and Andre Bienvenu (from Joe's Stone Crab) if for no other reason than you get to go to the Magic Castle. Multiple guest chef dinners are scheduled including the Legends dinner with Nancy Silverton and Jeremiah Tower. For those who want to attend one of the walk-around tastings, there's a Burger Throwdown with Alvin Cailan, LA's Faves and Craves with Jet Tila, The Great Steakout with Curtis Stone and Brunch so Hard with Jeremiah Tower.
POG
Ma'am Sir will be serving this Hawaiian POG cocktail for their dinner collaboration with Chef Sheldon Simeon from Lineage (Maui)

August 25-27
Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo
This one is more for the industry folks. The expo's exhibitors include food products and beverages to new technology and everything you can think of that's related to restaurant operations. The expo also takes place at the same time and area as the Coffee Fest and Healthy Food Expo.

The Taste

August 30-September 1, 2019
LA Times’ The Taste
The Taste, put on by LA times, always takes place over Labor Day Weekend and this year is no exception. For three evenings on Friday-Sunday, head to the walk-around tastings complete with chef panels, wine seminars, cooking and mixology demonstrations. The participating chefs change each day from Badmaash, Meals by Genet, Otium to Redbird.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Gorge on Labor Day Weekend with LA Times' The Taste

The Los Angeles Times once again takes over labor day weekend with The Taste with 5 different food and drinks events throughout the weekend. It's not just going around tasting food and drinking, though. The Taste has cooking demos and various panels (last year I got to taste pinot noir while listening go a guy rap about wine). Tickets for each event are $65 (or $85 after August 29), with the exception of the $125 opening night. Here are the schedule of events and what to expect:

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LA Times' Noelle Carter served up brisket sliders at
the preview
Friday, August 30, 7:30pm: Opening Night ($125 for this event)

Saturday, August 31, 11am: Field to Fork
There will be cooking demos with Ari Taymor from Alma (named Bon Appétit's Best New Restaurant this year!) at noon, Michael Cimarusti, and Sherry Yard.

Saturday, August 31, 7:30pm: Flavors of LA
There will be a Power of Pop-up panel with Jonathan Gold, Starry Kitchen, etc

Sunday, Sept 1, 11am: Labor Day Block Party. 
There will be cooking demo with Nancy Silverton, Evan Kleiman. Noelle Carter (responsible for LA Times' Test Kitchen) will also be hosting a Competition BBQ panel.

I had a preview of some of the things served at this event, including Dog Haus who will either be serving their spicy Thai dog or the Pastrami Dog. Coni Seafood's seafood tostada with sea snails and that amazing smoked marlin pate was one of the highlights of the night. Creme Caramel infuses custard desserts with Asian flavors with their pandan flan and Chinese sausage bread pudding (move over, bacon!)
food

There will be plenty of drinks, too, including Mionetto prosecco. Circa in Manhattan Beach will showcase one of their bottled cocktails. The Richard Pryor is made with Demerara rum and a cherry wood-smoked house made cola (with lime, of course)
booze

Sunday, Sept 1, 7:30pm: Cocktail Confidential
The more drink-focused event will feature a craft cocktail demo with the famed co-hose Matthew Biancaniello, Serena Herrick (Allumette), Christiaan Rollich (AOC), and Brady Weise (1886). There will also be cooking demo with Michael Voltaggio.
Sucka Punch from Sunny Spot at last year's
Cocktail Confidential

Tickets can be purchased on the LA Times' website.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Looking Back at Food Noir, My Fave 2011 The Taste Event at OrpheumTheatre

The Taste events, put on by LA Times, take place over labor day weekend. Last year's was pretty spectacular with them taking over Rodeo Drive and other locations. My favorite, though, was Food Noir which took place at downtown's Orpheum Theatre and the street in front.

It was my first time visiting the beautiful Orpheum Theatre, and I fell in love:

They played short old films and cartoons. Think Tweety, Bugs Bunny, and more! We were able to just come and go at the theatre, resting from all the eating and drinking.
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Not only that, Food Noir also had some of the best cocktail bars participating (even more so than The Taste's Cocktail event!)
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The Varnish was carving their ice block on site, Cana Rum Bar with their Tiki-style booth, 320 Main, just to name a few.

Plenty of great food as well, like Rivera's famous corn flan with black quinoa
Flan Quinoa
Terroni (correction, according to Darin Dines this was from Drago Centro) mixing pasta in their parmesan wheel:
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This year's The Taste will take place on September 1-3 with 5 events and plenty of seminars (last year I went to a pinot noir tasting and rapping session). This time all the events will be at the Paramount Picture Studios, which is fun as well.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Wine rapping and Pinot Noir at The Taste LA

There were tons of interviews and wine seminars throughout The Taste LA events, too many to attend all of them. One got my attention when I met Justin Warner, who was giving a pinot noir seminar with Ira Noroff (Director of Education at Southern Wine & Spirits). He said he was an oeno-rapper, i.e. he raps about wine? Rap about wine? Well, that was sure interesting.

The daytime seminar started with Justin rapping about the joys of California wines:

Then the seminar proceeded with Ira telling the attendees these facts about Pinot Noir:

  • Pinot is lighter in color because of its thin skin. That also means that it takes longer to extract the color, amplifying the difficulty and also the reason why Pinot is more expensive.
  • The Primary aroma in Pinot is cherry and strawberry.
  • Pinot Noir and Chardonnay likes cool climate, while Cabernet and Sauvignon like hot climate.
Ira also told us that when talking about wine, the "Primary characteristics" are always talking about fruit, while "Secondary characteristics" typically relate to the earth.

We tasted three widely different pinots, showcasing the diversity of this varietal. The first is Meiomi, by winemaker Joseph Wagner. This is a blend of region 1 central coast grapes. It's reminiscent of cola and dried leaves.

Next is a pinot from J Vineyard in the Russian River valley. This vineyard started as a sparkling wine company. This wine has more depth than the previous, reminiscent of rose petals. The wine was made in open top fermenters (which is what they do in Burgundy). They cold soak up to 10 days and then age it in 100% burgundy oak barrels (30% new oak barrels).

The last wine is 2007 Freestone pinot, by Joseph phelps. This is a new winery of his up in the Sonoma coast. The grapes used is 100% estate grown, and aged in 65% new oak barrels. Hints of orange peel. The wine is more tannic than the previous and tasted much more like a Cabernet. According to Ira, this wine will be fabulous in 5-10 years

Justin then finished off the tasting with an ode to Chateauneuf du Pape:


PS. Justin also owns Do or Dine restaurant in Brooklyn.

One last tip from Ira: Do not decant old wines! Decanting is for new wines that needs the air.

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