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Around the country, many people spent Labor Day weekend with friends and family, by the water or next to a smokey grill. Many people in Los Angeles spent their weekend traveling between Beverly Hills, Hollywood and Downtown L.A. for a four day food, wine and chef extravaganza otherwise known as The Taste. The event’s name is an understatement. In truth, it was a feast–a feast of food and drink from Los Angeles’ hottest restaurants, both new and well established, in addition to breweries, wineries and television food personalities. All across town, there were different events happening. It was difficult to choose which ones to attend, but it came down to the following:
Saturday
Hollywood
Taco Tequila Tryst
Presented by Hornitos, Buick and GMC
Roy Choi, the big name behind Koji BBQ and pretty much the inception of food trucks in L.A., hosted an evening of restaurants serving their taco on great tacos. KCRW’s Jason Bentley was the evening’s MC, and he introduced live music by Pollyn and Diego Garcia. Tequila from Hornitos and Don Q rum flowed into cups as soft and crunchy filled tortillas were popped into hungry mouths. Yamashiro wowed everybody with its duck tacos. Chef Ameera of L.a. Girls Do Cook and Keri Mellot came along for the winding ride through the streets of the Paramount Studios lot.
Sunday
Beverly Hills
Fashion Bites Brunch
Presented by Ciroc and Infiniti
Rodeo Drive was transformed into a veritable buffet of offerings from Beverly Hills and Westside eateries. Ciroc cocktails flowed effortlessly, and many bottles of cold, crisp Peroni were poured into tall glasses. Napa Valley Grille plated succulent pork belly over creamy grits, and the W Hotel’s Nine Thirty dished out the best lobster and brie sliders. For anyone who needed a break, there were plenty of opportunities to pop into open shops.
Monday
Beverly Hills
Picnic in the Hills
Presented by Target
It was another afternoon of booths and tents overflowing with food. Target sponsored the afternoons’ affair, and they handed out lidded mason jars for attendees to enjoy tart lemonade at their modernly old-fashioned outdoor stand. There were chef demos with Food Network host Aida Mollenkamp, Sprinkles’ Candace Nelson, the Cooking Channel’s Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos and the Next Food Network Star’s Melissa d’Arabian. The L.A. Times’ Food Editor, Rene Lynch, led discussions with Giada De Laurentiis and Lisa Lillien, also known as “Hungry Girl”. This time, Quyen and Derek of Kitchen Runway were partners in crime as we attempted to taste and sip everything in sight.
Visit our Facebook page to click through an album of photos. You can also check out The Taste’s Facebook page for more photos and behind-the-scenes videos.
The Taste LA provided media passes for this event. The opinions expressed here are our own.
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One more reason added to the list of many of why I would looooove to move to LA! Sounds like it was a fab time.
I was so crazy jealous when I saw the tweets about this! Everything sounded amazing!
Ahhh I want to go!!
Wish we had some of the food events you guys get in South CA!
Just noticed you had a tweet to Neil Strawder, what a great dude and funny to boot.
Love that you guys were able to go to this! I follow you and Hungry Girl on Twitter, so lots of fun updates from that
Those events sound fantastic. I am always oh so jealous when I hear about all the yumminess happening in other parts of the country that I can’t attend.
I have to time my once-a-year Los Angeles trek to coincide with this next time. Yum!
What’s your favorite restaurant in LA??!! I have been out here for a year and I need to branch out from my usual joints that I know are delicious!