LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade

There’s been a lot of foodie events in LA this year. Even weekends where one food event competed with another one. And sure enough, this event competed with one at LACMA and almost competed with the Taste of the World festival, before it got postponed.
And with an event with a base entry fee of $ 150, you have to wonder if it’s really worth the overall value. Yes, it’s a charity event but it’s still a big chunk to the wallet.
Fortunately, this was no ordinary foodie event on some movie lot.
The four hour event took place on November 7^th and is the first attempt for the Philly-​based organization. 22 chefs and 6 bartenders, mostly not from LA, took part and the results overall were some of the most amazing food I’ve ever sampled.
The true highlights of the event were the Ham and Hay from Paul Kahan of the Publican in Chicago. Ham cured in hay with some zesty and spicy Chorizo was likely the highlight for me for the afternoon. Even with two New Orleans chefs in the house (Susan Spicer and Donald Link), the best NOLA style dish was the Boudin from Russell Moore of Camino in… Oakland? Yep, Oakland. It was a lot better than Link’s sausages from Cochon in NOLA. Not that they were bad but Moore’s Boudin had the texture and flavor on a great hard sourdough like roll.
John Besh from Restaurant August and Luke in NOLA was the one no-​show and so Hungry Cat quickly filled in with Oysters on the Half Shell and Peel N Eat Shrimp that was much larger than the cocktail shrimp you find in most LA joints.
Disappointments? A couple. Jonathon Waxman (sort of hinting without hinting about an upcoming LA joint) from Barbuto had Fresh Veggies. Nice, but you expect more from him. Judy Rodgers from Zuni in SF had lines for awhile to try her burgers although I thought they were only fair. Thick burgers, which I usually like but not cooked long enough for my taste. The Focaccia roll was good though. Finally, Chris Bianco from Pizzeria Bianco, home of possibly the best pizza in the country, brought… Antipasto? Chris did mention to me he’s hoping to bring an actual pizza baking truck for next year’s event. If he does that, then that may be worth the $ 150 alone. The real highlight at his booth was watching Jimmy Kimmel working it. Guess ABC just isn’t paying enough.
Overall, the LA restaurants actually did the worst overall compared to the other cities in attendance. Most of the restaurant were serving up their signature fare but some of LA’s best kind of slacked. Nancy Silverton of Mozza setup a gelato bar with 7 flavors. Gelato was good but I’ve had much better at trade shows. Neal Fraser from Grace had a pork dish but the pork tasted undercooked and just didn’t pack enough flavor I was expecting. Finally, the very preggers Zoe Nathan from Huckleberry brought what she called ‘Cinnamon Sugar Beignets’. They were definitely Cinnamon Sugar but Beignets? Hardly. They were round, served with a hot cocoa dipping sauce and were more like Dunkin’ Muchkins or TimBits than anything from Café Du Monde or Morning Call. To someone like me who lived for eight years in NOLA, these were an insult.
There was a saving grace and we’re not talking that restaurant. We’re talking the dessert area shared by Lucques and the Tavern. Christina Olufson from Lucques served up über-​rich smores but it was Breanne Varela from the Tavern who excelled with her dessert tray including French Macarons, Carrot Cakes and these Snicker cakes that were so incredible it will now make me want to go dine at the restaurant right there. She had a ton extra at the end and was passing out saran wrapped doggie plates.
Drinks consisted of a coffee bar from Seattle’s Forte Coffee, Beer from Sierra Nevada and Lagunitas, Wine from about 10 wineries and specialty drinks from Neal Bodenheimer’s Cure in New Orleans and Eric Alperin’s Varnish in DTLA whose Hangover cure is what probably got me home in one piece.
A charity auction suspended food service for close to an hour. Normally I’d complain about that but there were a lot of tear-​jerker message about how the charity started and it did give my stomach a chance to breathe for a moment. Some of the auction items went for over $ 30,000. You’d expect that at an event with $ 150 cover and $ 350 VIP tix that most of the attendees had money.
After the event closed there was an after-​party at the Tavern. A chance to hob nob some more from the chefs and attendees and even more food (!) from Pink’s, Guelaguetza, Food Trucks from Border Grill and Gastrohaus and apps and drinks from the Tavern itself. I was still so full from the afternoon event, I couldn’t dare bite into any of any more grub.
This really was worth the price of admission and hopefully it’s the start of a new tradition in LA each fall. Now if Chris just brings that pizza truck from Phoenix…