Foodie Event: The Los Angeles Times & Food and Wine Magazine “The Taste”

Staying local this Labor day weekend?   Grab your forks and head on over to the inaugural Los Angeles Times and Food & Wine’s THE TASTE  this weekend from September 2 – 5.   The Taste  includes unlimited food, wine and spirits  and is mixing up two of my favorite things, Food & Social Good, to create a spectacular epicurean event Labor Day weekend!

I’ll be covering the behind the scenes at the event this weekend.  I’m also very excited because a portion of the ticket sales will benefit several nonprofits including: Collins College of Hospitality Management at Cal Poly Pomona, Share Our Strength, Los Angeles Times Family Fund’s Summer Camp Campaign, Beverly Hills Education Fund, and Los Angeles Conservancy.

I’m looking forward to meeting many of the chefs, especially, Marcela Valladolid.   Marcela is the host of Food Network’s Mexican Made Easy and the author of two cookbooks: Fresh Mexico and the soon-to-be released Mexican Made Easy.  As a native of Tijuana, Mexico who resides in San Diego, she combines both cuisines for fresh, accessible but authentic food.  Marcela will be doing a cooking demo at Street Eats in Hollywood on September 4th from 4pm to 8pm at the Paramount Picture Back Studios.   Orale Paisana!  Can’t wait!

Foodies, make sure to check out The TASTE website  and make a list and check it twice, because you don’t want to miss this event!

Here my list of recommendations if you plan to attend:

1. Download the iPhone application.  The FREE iPhone Application is available at the Apple App store.  It includes a detailed TASTE event Schedules, Chef Bios and Photos,  Participating Restaurant Listings.  You can also customize a personal schedule with your favorite events, add/remove items with a single click and quickly locate celebrity chefs, master sommeliers, mixologists, Times food editors and writers or artist performances.

2. Review the schedule & plan your food adventure before the event:  Plan out your strategy by reviewing a detailed listing of all the events online and created a custom schedule.  Be prepared with a list of events, personalities & food you want to meet and food you want to experience.  I’m leaning towards hanging out in Hollywood, but Downtown and  Beverly Hills sounds like so much fun!

3.  Come Hungry.

Your all-inclusive ticket offers:
• Unlimited tastings from over 30 of L.A.’s best restaurants/chefs
• Unlimited samples from over 30 of your favorite wineries, breweries and spirits
• Wine seminars from some of the world’s top vintners
• Cooking demos
• Engaging panel discussions

14 and under FREE accompanied by a ticketed adult. Attendees age 14-21 must have a ticket and be accompanied by an adult.

For more information, including programming and event updates and tickets, please visit  www.latimes.com/THETASTE or follow THE TASTE at Facebook.com/LATimesEvents and Twitter: @LATimesEvents.

Hope to see you there!

Let’s talk about it. Who is your favorite celebrity chef?  What event are you looking forward to?

Disclosure: I received a media pass to cover this event.   No other form of compensation was received.  All opinions and recommendations are my own.