Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival

wahoo! as good as it gets! tons of food and wine to choose from. they lay out the red carpet for us on top of the street. beautiful surroundings. i was a little disappointed the first night had mike d instead of quest love from the roots, but that’s ok; food and wine more than made up for that.

What a fun and fabulous event! Originally started in Pebble Beach, this event in dtla is filled with great food from places all over LA and the wines are fantastic too! The sponsors do a nice job of catering to the guests. The music was an added bonus, with The Roots rocking the crowd. Super fun!

Great job on the promotion, Have to say, big thumbs down on all things other.
I attended on a Saturday night. I think I paid about $ 360 for two tix after fees (this included a 15% discount applied). Not trying to portray myself as some sort of anachronism, but WTF!!! Since when were we trained to line up like sheep to the slaughter only to be fed a morsel of food and then declare «hi ho, onwards we march to the next micro booth to suffer yet another 20 minute round of piss-​taking for crumbs???»
I shit you not, the lines for any decent food snaked directly across the full width of the street wide fair and then would bend perpendicular even further… Ok we’ll skip that booth… onward troops, except now you find yourself kinda having to run some sorta scrimmage to cut through the line (time and again) without offending the queueing huddled masses or… worse… getting wine spilt on you in the process, ferreals… bruh — by the way, getting booze was no problem at all, but seriously how much do you wanna imbibe on an empty stomach anyway???
I did find a waffle truck with a line of only 10 people, my girl made a beeline for that (she has a sweet tooth) I let her have my 2″ x 1″ inch serving. That was my moment of chivalry for the night.
About 45 minutes and one full circuit in, the Prima Donna in me had reached maximum throttle, I don’t know whats up with the rest of the attendees, but this was for all intents and purposes a COMPLETE BUNCH OF BOLLOCKS!
More sad is the public’s preparedness to be subjected to such crappy treatment.
Festivals like this from back in the day were prepared, lines short, and food sufficient.
This was at best a wine promo with some sundry snacks served from some «rock star» chefs with their picture on a tent. Seriously… is that what we’ve come to?
Absolutely Ridiculous.
We left after that 45 minute marker as the roots tore the house down. ok not so much really, who to blame… the lackluster audience with empty stomachs or the band? Who gives a fuck. This was a clever act of passive looting of our bank accounts.
Nobody was reporting it for having to suffer the gauntlet of shaming, including me.
I left without having eaten a thing, went to The Spear on 6^th and Flower, dumped another $ 200 on a thoroughly satisfying epicurean treat with my gorgeous date and made a night of it anyway.
Festival, this most certainly was not.

Incredible fun at the Grand Avenue Night Market. Beautifully done and a memorable event. I purchased tickets for my husband’s birthday as he loves great food. He and I are pescetarians (vegetarians who eat seafood). I understand that an event like this will offer limited options for us, we knew that going in. But I have to say, I was disappointed by the number of chefs that decided to do something with pork. As a former carnivore, I know pork is delicious. But it’s certainly not the only ingredient that can be used to create a delicious dish. This was not supposed to be the LA Pork and Wine Festival. I guess I was expecting more seafood options.
Of the food we did sample, it was incredible. I particularly enjoyed the elote from Upper West in Santa Monica. Will make plans to visit this restaurant very soon.

I attended all three nights… What an imposition on my belly! I’m giving two stars because I have two major beefs (excuse the pun): most of the restaurants ran out of food by 9:15 and some super famous restaurants like Bestia and Mozza weren’t serving food — rather dessert. I think the Fetival should mandate how many places could serve desert, because I really do think it devalues the experience. Also, how about makings the wine stalls don’t close at 9:15?! That’s another huge impact on the value of the experience.
In general, I think the best night was the Market on Friday with Saturday being the most expensive and disappointing.
Such a beautiful back drop, but I think the poor food serving size (that waffle truck was a complete crime), strange food choices (Mozza serving desert and Joes stone crabs serving hamburgers?!), and running out of booze early are all real let downs.
Prob won’t come back if I have to pay full retail again.

The L.A. Food and Wine Lexus Night Market on Grand Ave. hosted by Chef Tyler Florence was an exceptional event. The food reflected an Asian Night Market theme and various popular and familiar restaurants drew me to the event including Eggslut, The Church Key, Chaya Downtown, One Pico, Patina, Holsteins, Seoul Sausage, Slanted Door, Little Sister, Joe’s Stone Crab, Ray’s & Stark Bar, Superba Snack Bar, Fluff Ice, and Phorage. Numerous wineries were also represented for unlimited tasting along with a large Stella Artois area.
It was important to pace ourselves properly to avoid getting full too early. We sampled dishes wisely and tried not to fill up on any one dish in particular. Some restaurants served very generous portions of their Asian inspired dishes. The food we sampled was all great. Lines moved fairly quickly and it’s not surprising that Eggslut had one of the longest lines. A few dessert places also participated for a good balance.
It was interesting seeing the various chefs serving up their food or simply greeting and chatting with the public or posing for photos. There were some tables to stand and eat at since sometimes it was challenging to balance dishes and wine glasses. Dishes were quickly cleared after sampling. With so many wineries participating, it was a wine lover’s dream to roam around tasting the various offerings.
The event was three hours long which was sufficient. We were stuffed by the end. Tickets were $ 125 plus fees. Parking at the Music Center was $ 9. As a major sponsor, Lexus had a handful of cars being showcased. I’m not normally a fan of Lexus cars, but I admit they looked good. The downtown backdrop and being right in front of the Disney Concert Hall made the event more memorable. All in all, we had a very fun time and the event was well worth it.

I am a foodie and a cooking addict. If you don’t like to cook but love to eat this is still an awesome event to come to. I paid $ 150 for the VIP ticket which got me in early and was able to watch Graham Elliott (Master Chef judge) cook and meet him in person.
I had a lot of fun, you drink till you drop (have a designated driver), there’s only sample size servings but with so many of them and unlimited you will get full!!!
They also have vendors giving souvenirs and if you have Chase bank you get to go in to one of their lounges. I am looking forward to going to the one in NY. Definitely recommend. Is a great eating experience.
This takes place right in the middle of Olympic and hill. Getting street parking is nearly impossible and most lots only accept cash so make sure to have some bills on you.

I have to say that I didnt take part in the main tastings and other happenings where people shmooze and sample. I went this year to the Michelin Stars dinner with Pierre Gagnaire, Dominique Crenn, David Kinch, and Michael Cimarusti. Wine was provided by Krug, Kracher, and Mayacamas. This turned out to be a spectacular event. Great dinner, great wine, not much more you could ask for. Sitting next to Gerhard Kracher, Jimmy Hayes of mayacamas, and Garth Hogdson of Krug was a highlight. Then we hit the after party with them and I ran into some ex somms from French Laundry. Small world. At one point we were with all of Pierre Gagnaire’s chefs from Paris, Moscow and Vegas. We were joined by the somms and then random women fell asleep at our table. Crazy shit. If it’s going to be like this again next year, Im going for sure!

When I last went 2 years ago, it was at LA Live, but now it has moved to Grand Street right in front of Disney Concert Hall. This is a large festival over 4 days, but once again we attended the signature red carpet Saturday Night Event — Lexus Live on Grand Hosted by Michael Chiarello. 27 celebrity chefs plating all different creations for sampling and 200 wineries to sample. Some things stayed the same, almost no lines for wine, just walk up get a pour. The service was impeccable again, as dishes were cleared away almost as soon as they were put down anywhere.
Grand Street offered a nice back drop of the City and of course Disney Concert Hall is always great eye candy. It’s a smaller area than LA Live, so the event didn’t feel as large, but that may not be a bad thing as It wasn’t as long a walk between the food booths. Setting up most of the wineries in the center of the red carpet was also a good change, so you could easily get a pour while waiting in line for some food. Most of the food lines were fairly short, with only a couple of longer ones. As I did the last time, I skipped the longer lines and did the shorter ones first. You risk missing out on a lot of food if you stand in a line for 30 minutes. Just like my previous experience, some food started running out after about 2 hours. But there were still enough booths open during the last hour, that you could get something to eat until the very end.
I did find the name recognition of the chefs missing this year. Perhaps the fault is mine, and I need to do more research on who some of these chefs are. But if you look at the line up from my previous review, it reads like an episode of Top Chef Masters. This time other than Lorena Garica standing right by her booth, shaking hands and posing for photos, I felt that I didn’t really know too many chefs or their restaurants. Now that doesn’t mean that the food wasn’t good, because I had many outstanding dishes. Taking photos at an event like this is near impossible. You are holding a plate, a wine glass, and a fork. You are trying to move in and out of line quickly. I decided since I got some nice photos from a few years ago, I’d just skip that added level of difficulty and just enjoy.
The winner of the night for me was Viet Pham from Ray’s & Stark Bar. He did 2 dishes — A fantastic Yellow Tail ceviche with jalapeño yuzu sauce paired with a citrus cocktail, and a stuffed pasta with Lobster and creamed corn. He was very hands on with his dishes making sure they were being plated correctly. Other chefs seemed to be letting their staff do all the work. Especially Nancy Silverton, who wasn’t present at all, but just lending her photo to a new restaurant that she is invested in, Chi Spacca. They feature nose to tail dining, but I found their pork pâté, pretty bad. House made salami was ok. Because people thought it was her booth, the line was pretty long, but many people were saying that it wasn’t very good. Also a bad idea to let people serve themselves, as it impossible to keep the area clean and appetizing looking.
This absentee chefism carried over to our «host» Michael Chirello. I never saw him once, I have no idea what he was plating. His area looked like a separate «bar» with waiters passing hors d’oeuvres. Except their plates were empty and they were just standing there. I checked back at least 4 times during the night and never saw one ounce of food being served. Compared to Wolfgang Puck who hosted two years ago and was actually at his Cut booth most of the night and on stage presenting the band, it was a bad showing of one of the best known chefs — a reason for many to attend.
Back to the good. If Viet Pham had the best dishes, then Neal Fraser from Redbird was 1A. He did a perfect Salmon with black garlic polenta. Quite a large portion, it must have been about 4 oz of fish. He had absolutely no line since it was hidden behind the largest line of the night for Habatchi Grilled Waygu Ribeye. I eventually did try the Waygu and it was just ok. Shaved so fine that it reminded me of Shabu Shabu meat just done over an open flame.
The music choice for the evening was also very strange. Grammy award winning hip-​hop artist — Common. I would say this is the whitest crowd he’s ever played for. He tried to get the crowd going, but with only perhaps 100 people standing in front of the stage. Most of them just pretending they actually like his music, which was basically just karaōke hiding behind 2 DJ’s laptops and a keyboard player. Not even a drummer. Compared to the thousands into Third Eye Blind a few years ago, all I could think of was Ron Burgundy saying «Rap is a bad choice».
While I had a great time and some great food, I hope LAFW returns to a more national event next year. There were way too many LA restaurants and chefs present. Celebrity Chefs need to be on the front line plating and mingling with the crowd for this to have a true Red Carpet feel to it.

First time to this event and it was awesome. Went to the Saturday noon event and it was gut busting! I could go on, but view the pics, they speak for themselves.

I have a really awesome friend who got us tickets for the Lexus Grand Tasting 2014! We got to see Richard Blais do a cooking demonstration of bone marrow, and we got to enter the tasting early — before the rush of general admission hit.
This was my first tasting at Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival. The check-​in process was pretty disorganized. I did not expect to hear the main guy say «I am so confused» so many times. They couldn’t let me enter early even though I had to use the restroom. No biggie because I could wait. but it’s really not healthy to hold your pee. Anyway, once we got checked in, I sat in the front row to see Richard Blais from Top Chef.
Lots of top chefs were present and brought awesome creations from their kitchens. Various wineries and breweries were there to showcase their best as well. There were book signings, including Scott Conant, Fabio, etc. There were even chefs from all the way out in San Francisco and New York City! My favorite was McConnell’s ice cream, which, to my surprise, stayed frozen in that huge tub. My second favorite was Pawan Mahendro’s pulled pork slider. It was the only booth that had a long twisty line. I even spotted Leslie Gilliam from Master Chef!
This festival was a great experience for me, and after a good 3 – 4 hours, I was stuffed and satisfied.

Nothing had me prepared for this venue of absolute food & wine bliss!
And, with free, yes free, a $ 150 free ticket from Tamara J’s niece (who hooked us all up) and Tami she picks me to join her with 3 others to make happen a wonderful experience!
Girl, get outta my head, I was wanting to go to this not only for the perks, meeting the great chefs, but for the charitable cause too.
Deets are as follows!
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A professionally, exquisite venue with presentation in two sound stages to match!
Tami (Tamara J), me & our group (great mix of 4 people!) walked in and we were treated to a visual of a plethora of samplings that boggle the mind; if you think that fancy fare is pretentious, not filling, the chefs are stuffy & pretentious, you will be treated as if you should behave a certain way, dress a certain way and, are chided for drinking to much wine, sampling that wine and going back for repeats of this food, wine and yes, even appliances, Chef Style fare, you’d be dead wrong!
Every type of individuality was present and everyone was super friendly, social and over time once that great fare & wine got going it was on; that started my Saturday out nicely.
Also, I attended another dinner party a few hours later, I was grinning as I entered and people just had to know, did I get lucky the night before with my BOO?
Ah, no way, better, but in a different way, I told almost everyone at the party, some had heard of this, some had not, but I had this room reliving my experience with Gobsmacked eyes.
We eventually had to separate at the venue, like when you go to the Getty Museum, if you all 4 hang together and wait on each other every time, you will miss out on so much; we just texted each other with «Where are you’s, we will meet you here, I’m over here coming your way.»
That made things much easier, I could hang with Megan, Morimoto and even one of my faves, Jason Harley, his partner and staff of Mabels-​what a treat, he’s invited Tami & I to ALL of hi new opening parties, one in the OC soon, we cannot wait!
And, even hang with newer chefs to this event and really socially interact with them too.
Some of the best wines I’ve ever sampled, truly, the Pinots that these hard working folks served up were wonderfully distinct, in color, aroma and flavor, just exceptional!
Again, everything was delicious except the cup cakes, I don’t eat these things anymore, but with the pink boxes floating around, I just had to sample them-​they were dry, flavorless and I was not surprised that they shut down early, they had plenty of them left, I just don’t think anyone was buying them anymore; hey, those things cannot sit out long, especially made from scratch.
Lexus was involved in this venue and the new photo booth they offered up is a virtual one-​copy & paste this if you want to see the new cool, in photo booths that take your virtual photo booths pics and you may then, take anywhere on your phone:
I snapped lots of pics, many without descriptions because I was in Iron Chef heaven.
You must attend next year for this 2 day event, I’d even pay next time I enjoyed this venue so much.
Okay, now my favorite part-​AIR CONDITIONED PORT-​O-​POTTIES-​YES, with vanities in them (I snuck into the women’s) to touch up, but the Men’s were just as elegant, private stalls with all of the amenities, oh my what a treat for me-​Gotta check that face & weave ‘ya know, how cool!!!
Not that I need to, but it was a real treat as far as food & wine goes from some of the greatest Chefs to be in the presence of a part of this scene that had MP singing:

This event was allot of fun! I am writing this review for the Grand Tasting Event that is hosted at night. (They do two– one Friday and one Saturday) ($ 250 a ticket or $ 350 for a VIP ticket)
The pros: over 200 hundred different wineries pouring wine! Lot’s of different drinks on display too– from sake to specialty booze. There are famous, world-​renowned chefs just walking around that you can totally just walk up to and start chatting with. Think Vegas style everything– fabulous set-​up, over the top lights and decorations. Gavin Degraw (I don’t know who this is, but I heard he was famous) had a concert while we were walking around and tasting.
Cons: It’s damn expensive. We got the $ 250 ticket and the event was only 3 hours long. There’s not nearly as much food as there is wine. It should be called the Wine with some Snack Festival! The food lines were really long and honestly, nothing we tasted was mind-​blowing.
It was allot of fun. I’m not sure if I’d spend the money on it again next year though. I did do a seminar though– the Beer and Food pairing one ($ 75 a ticket) and that event was AMAZING! They gave a ton of beer and food, you got to learn allot and interact with a famous chef and sommeliers. They even gave us a swag bag that had about 30 beer tasting glasses and bottle openers. If you’re looking to get your feet wet with the Food and Wine Festival, I’d definitely suggest a seminar.

The Melville Vineyards & Winery’s 2011 Estate Pinot Noir Sandy’s is made from grapes picked from the 4-​acre Sandy’s block, sandy northeast section of the vineyard. This is a full-​bodied, balanced Pinot Noir with a fruity and floral nose, robust oak flavor, and slight black pepper on the backend. This would pair nicely with a rare, peppercorn-​encrusted ribeye steak!
Chef Mark Mollica or La Vecchia Cucina in Santa Monica, CA made Tortiglioni Al Funghi e Tartufo or Tortiglioni Pasta with Mushrooms and White Truffle. Chef Mark had a plexi-​container full of white truffles and the scent reminded me of my trip to Milan last year. Truffles are in season in September and the menus in Italy are chocked full of truffle dishes from pizza to pasta. I loved the flavor of this pasta dish, especially with the shavings of white truffle. The Tortiglione pasta was too doughy for me. I think rigatoni or orecchiette would have been better. The corkscrew– or dimpled –shaped pastas would hold the sauce better and texture would match perfectly with the truffles.
J. Hamilton Wines’ Private Cuvee Raspberry was bubbling like an «adult» soda, the crisp raspberry flavor bursts out like sun-​kissed, fresh-​picked raspberries, not too sweet. This would be great for a summer deck or pool party or elegantly served with a fresh fruit tart with vanilla bean ice cream.
Chef Ben Ford of Ford’s Filling Station in Culver City, CA served up Lamb Meatballs, Tomato Chutney, Guanciale, & Cilantro Yogurt. This was amazing! It was a bite of the Mediterranean — beautiful ground lamb, bright tomato chutney, lacy guanciale (Italian unsmoked bacon), cilantro yogurt that tasted like tzatziki. Brilliantly executed!
Dragonette Cellars’ 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara is a blend of grapes from Grassini Famly Vineyards and Vogelzang Vineyards — medium-​bodied, slight pepper notes, tropical fruit aroma.
Chef Brooke Williamson of The Tripel and Chef Nick Roberts of the Hudson House rocked out Pulled Duck with Plums, Pickled Fennel, Seeded Vinaigrette, and Beet Paste. The duck was tender and lovingly executed as a pulled meat. The texture and flavor components kept my mouth happy with the soft tender duck, sweet & tart flavor from the plums, and fresh, crisp flavor from the greens. Very creative execution!
Tablas Creek Vineyard’s 2012 Patelin de Tablas Rosé has a beautiful pink rose petal color with rose petal nose. It was light and crispy with a slight sour bite at the end.

The food was AMAZING.
The wine was Meh except for one or two vineyards.
The people were the normal ratio of douchebags to cool people (2:1).
Best line I heard: «That tasted like a warm Cheezit» LOFL

Several weeks before the 2^nd annual LA Food & Wine began, I already started eyeing a bunch of events that I would’ve liked to go to. I was lucky enough to attend the Lexus Grand Tasting event this year. Thank you Brittany B. for getting me a pair of tickets!
There were 30 chefs serving samples of their food, and luckily I got to try most of them. There were also 200 wineries at the event, most of which I sadly did not get to try (I’m a lightweight, but how many glasses of wine could an average person even drink within 3 hours?), but I enjoyed most of what I sampled. Some of the tables had people lining up for the food, but the lines moved fast.
The Sticky Toffee Pudding w/​Stout Gelato from WP Catering was so amazing – I went back for seconds! The dish has a nice presentation, and included a QR code made entirely out of chocolate. The toffee in combination with the gelato was delicious.
I enjoyed WP Catering’s Jidori Chicken w/​Sweet Corn Ravioli and Shaved Truffles. The chicken was juicy and the ravioli was pillowy and tasty.
Campanile served two dishes – Skuna Bay Salmon Gravlax and Maple Bacon Ice Cream. The salmon tasted fresh and the maple bacon ice cream was delicious. The ice cream was on top of a brownie bite – yummy!
Francois Payard offered a huge selection of macarons. I tried the pistachio and salted caramel ones. Both were good, but I preferred the salted caramel macaron with its savory and sweet combination. The macarons were light and airy.
The Duck Slider was delicious (and also good to help fill me up so that I could drink more wine). The meat was tender and so flavorful.
My bf loved M.B. Post’s BBQ Lamb Belly and went back for seconds. The meat was tender and cooked perfectly.
The Lodge at Pebble Beach offered an interesting twist on the classic grilled cheese & tomato soup dish – they served grilled cheese w/​pork and a tomato gazpacho. I normally stay away from grilled cheese, but the addition of the meat added to the tastiness of the nicely grilled cheesy sandwich.
I had a fabulous time at the event! A lot of dishes were amazing while other dishes were okay. It was unfortunate I didn’t get to try that many different wines. The three hours went by so fast! I will definitely make it to the next LA Food & Wine.

I’m so sad i missed the food and wine festival this year. I wanted to go because I went last year and it was so much fun. It felt like a total VIP affair. i was lucky enough to go last year because tickets were pretty expensive at 350 per ticket. My friend’s work had free hookups and got us free tickets! I saw wolfgang, I saw morimoto (2feet away from me), all the famous top notch chefs in one venue! it was pretty cool. You get to go around and sample each of their dishes and also sample hundreds of wine they have out on display. There was so much food and wine to sample that I wasn’t able to sample all of it.
THe best part was at the end Train performed. I didn’t know the lead singer was so funny and charismatic. He stole the show.

What an incredible weekend I had at the 2012 food and Wine festival. I was fortunate to have been selected by Chase Marriott Visa special events to attend this event with 92 other invitees from mostly CA.
The package included dinner under the stars prepared by Wolfgang Puck at the Target Terrace Friday evening, The Lexus Grand Tasting Saturday, The Wolfgang Puck and Friends Live on the Plaza and Dim Sum Brunch with Ming Tsai. It also included a two nights stay at the JW Marriott LA Live. See the tickets:
I was really impressed with the organization by the event coordinators who planned the entire event from VIP early check in and personal escort to every event. Dinner with WP at the Target Terrace Grammy Museum outdoors was the standout BC it included champagne, appetizers and a four course dinner which included wine paring with each course. We received Photographs with WP and an autographed cookbook as souvenirs of this event!
The four course menu consisted of:
Heirloom Figs, Tangy Yogurt panna cotta, baby greens with olive bread crostini — paired with Inception reserve Chardonnay 2010
Sweet corn tortellini with black Australian Truffles — paired with Carpe Diem Pinot Noir 2008 :
Braised Beef short rib prepared in Sous Vide style with carrot purée and baby veggies — paired with Kunin Gangloff Syrah 2006:
Peach upside down cake with spiced run ice cream — paired with Beringer Nightingale Sauvignon Blanc/​Semillon 2001:
My faves of the evening were the Tortellini & Australian truffles, followed by the upside down cake. Overall, an awesome meal and event.
Day two: The VIP Grand Lexus event indoors from 1130 am to 3:00 pm. It was nice to get a head start before the sold out event opened to the public. There were 200 wineries and would have been impossible to taste everything and not have to be carried out the convention sized tent. This was also the case of the gourmet food put out by the 30 celebrity chefs. We stayed until around 2:30 pm and enjoyed the event with the exception of several ac units weren’t working. This made the tent extremely hot in certain areas. See my pic of about ¹⁄₃ of the event:
Day two: VIP entry to WP and friends live on the Plaza from 6:30 pm to 10:00 pm.
I enjoyed this event due to that it was outdoors and unconfined. We enjoyed the non existent lines BC we had VIP tickets. The event provided incredible food from 30 additional celebrity chefs and another 200 wines at this event.

See the event details: www​.lafw​.com/​i​n​d​e​x​.​c​f​m​/​e​v​e​n​t​-​L​e​x​u​s​_​L​I​V​E​_​O​n​_​T​h​e​_​P​l​a​z​a​_​W​i​t​h​_​W​o​l​f​g​a​n​g​_​P​u​c​k​_​F​r​iends₇₄₉.htm
After the general admission attendees arrived the plaza was filled to capacity. Lucky for us, Chase Marriott Visa provided the group of 41 couples a VIP AC event tent with complimentary champagne and California Caviar supplied the complimentary caviar:

We hung out and enjoyed the live band (Third Eye Blind) who played around an hour.
The final event on Sunday was at the WP24 located at the Ritz Carlton (LA Live.) The event included brunch with Chef Ming Tsai. We enjoyed mimosas or champagne with a fixed menu of fusion dim sum which was served in the modern restaurant. We also received an autographed cookbook from Ming Tsai and his Asian Plum Sambal. See the pic:
I would definetly recomend this awesome Foodie event and I’ll remember this experience the rest of my life. I’m seriously considering attending the event next year– well, at least one event for sure!

Euphoria!
Literally within 5 minutes of walking around inside LAFW Festival, I was full. During that 5 minutes of walking, I had delicious ahi skewers garnished with fried yams and Asian Pesto. I also had a very yummy, generous «sample portion» of Sam Choy’s loco moco, and wondered how they mass produced sunny side up eggs so perfectly.
Then, I downed samples of pinot grigio and a cab. I looked at my friend and told her I was already kinda full, but the journey must go on.
If you even describe yourself to be a «foodie» (not a fan of that term), you need to experience this annual event at least once. I will be back next year, guaranteed!
I went for «Asian Night Market,» where all the foods were either from higher-​end Asian restaurants or up-​and-​coming restaurants with Asian-​influenced dishes. Andrew Zimmern from «Bizarre Foods» was the host for the night (didn’t get to see him, heard his voice on stage though), and some celebrities roaming around to LA’s restaurant sample food as well.
Since it was «Asian Night,» liquor manufacturers were giving out generous sake & shochu samples, along with free glasses with beer logos. Let’s just say I was pretty rosey after the night.
There was a red carpet area where you could take pictures of your fatty self and friends, also perfect.
From appetizers to entrees, desserts, drinks, gourmet ice cream/​popsicles (oh, the heat!), and tons of good quality «freebies,» my $ 75 ticket was well worth it. I would definitely come back next year to try the main day (this year, Giada was the main night).

I attended the Lexus Grand Tasting event 8÷12÷2012.
The universe smiled down upon me, as I was chosen as one of the winners by Brittany B. for free tickets to the Lexus Grand Tasting event at the Los Angeles Food & Wine festival. I’m a foodie on a budget, eagerly willing to experience new food adventures & to try the dishes designated for the more sophisticated palate. I tried my best to get a good night’s sleep the night before, but alas, food fantasies only allowed me a few hours of rest.
Day of the event arrives and I arrive early, killing time by checking out LA Live & having a grande dark roast from Starbucks. I saw the new on-​scene reporter from KTLA 5, who’s name escapes me at the moment, and I congratulated him for the station winning several Emmy awards the night before. He communicated to me that he’s from New Jersey & that the food scene in New York is the best, but that Los Angeles is quickly catching up. I bid him adieu & waited in the general admission line a little bit past 11am, talking with fellow foodies about last year’s Food & Wine festival.
Noon comes by, and we are whisked away to the Lexus Grand Tasting, which is in an air-​conditioned tent on the roof of the west parking structure. Upon entrance, we were given wine glasses and then all the entrants beheld the wondrous glory of food samplings & wine tastings.
The food was just spectacular. I felt like a VIP, strolling around, browsing the offerings at each table. Shooting the breeze with world reknowned chefs, such as Chef Roy Yamaguchi, I tried to look cool by dropping as many culinary terms as I could remember. Terms such as — deconstructed, plating, reduction, confit, mise en place & brightness. Suffice to say, I made an ass of myself, but it’s not the first time & it certainly won’t be the last ;) Although there are too many dishes to run down, here’s some honorable mentions of the food samplings that I made love to orally–
Sticky toffee-​Delicious, accompanied with a gooseberry & an edible barcode
Burnt marshmallow, bacon & butter tapioca shaved ice-​Different, to say the least. Refreshing, but some funky texture going on here
Macarons-​So very good. I only had a pistachio macaron. I was told they can give only 1 at a time, but I can get more if I come back again. I did, only to find out that they ran out :(
Watermelon w/​chocolate syrup & cheese from the Playboy Mansion– Spectacular. All the ingredients complemented each other in perfect harmony.
Bacon jam-​Need I say more? Savory w/​a hint of sweetness
Prawns from STK-​These bad boys were ginormous! They were the size of salamanders, I kid you not. So good.
Shortbread-​Second favorite of the night. Sweet, light and great on this hot day.
Maple bacon ice cream brownie bite-​My Lexus Grand Tasting 2012 winner! Maple bacon ice cream on a moist brownie bite. Diabetes be damned!
I ate so much & so fast that I almost vomited. I made it my mission to try everything ASAP, instead of pacing myself. The place was packed, as well, making it very hot in here, even thought the a/​c was on full blast. A couple photo booths were present as well as a few seats, couches and tables to sit, eat & take a break from all the festivities.
I can’t elaborate on the wine because I don’t drink alcohol. Also, how could I pack in all the delicious food with wine occupying my belly?
After 2 or 3 times around the tent, I was done for the day. I literally could not eat another bite. My tastebuds said «Yes», but my GI tract said «No mas». Not to forget the other reason for coming besides the food, I managed to obtain awesome Food & Wine schwag —
There’s a lanyard that holds a wine glass around your neck. Perfect holiday gift for your alcoholic friends.
Brittany B., thank you so much for the opportunity to attend this splendid event. I had the time of my life. I hope to attend the Los Angeles Food & Wine festival next year & in the following years to come. Great bday gift.