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Community Corner

Getting a Taste of 'The Taste' Food Festival

Patch attends a preview of the Labor Day event sponsored by the LA Times and Food & Wine that will feature cooking demonstrations, tastings and panel discussions.

Foodies throughout the city are gearing up for the four-day gourmet festival extravaganza The Taste, hosted by the Los Angeles Times and Food & Wine over Labor Day weekend. 

The event, which benefits LA-area charities, will take place in Beverly Hills, Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles from Sept. 2-5. More than 20,000 people are expected to attend the festival, which will highlight cooking and mixology demonstrations as well as panel discussions and food and wine tastings.

Some well-known local restaurants will be featured during the festival, including Mar Vista’s ; Culver City’s Akasha, Ford’s Filling Station and L’Epicerie Market; Marina del Rey’s Café del Rey; Westwood’s Napa Valley Grille; Venice’s The Tasting Kitchen; Pacific Palisades’ at the Palisades; and West Hollywood's Pinches Tacos and Fig & Olive.

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Last week, Patch attended a preview of The Taste hosted by the Montage Beverly Hills. Guests sipped cocktails poolside at the hotel, mingled with chefs and sampled small bites.

Several of the chefs who will be taking part in The Taste were there as well, including Roy Choi of Kogi Food truck fame.

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Choi has been credited with starting the gourmet food truck movement back in 2008 and putting Korean BBQ tacos on the map with his Kogi food trucks. He now runs four trucks and aficionados are willing to stand in long lines for one of his Korean-Mexican fusions.

Choi, who received the Best New Chef Award from Food & Wine magazine in 2010, told Patch he measures the success of each day based on how many hands he has shaken.

“There isn’t any room for self-doubt," he said, noting he had to leave that sentiment at the door when he set out to launch his first food truck three years ago.

When he was getting his business going, Choi said he would park in front of popular Hollywood nightclubs, willing to put up with rejection and the naysayers in order to get his food noticed.

“We believed in something so much, we made it happen," he said. "We weren’t afraid of ridicule. We put ourselves out there and went for it.”

Today, his food is considered some of the best in town and he has branched out beyond food trucks and now runs three restaurants: and Alibi Room in Mar Vista and in Palms. He's also set to take over the kitchen at Beechwood restaurant in Venice in November.  

Choi will be hosting one of the nine signature events at The Taste, serving up tacos at the Taco Tequila Tryst on Sept. 3 from 7–10 p.m. at Paramount Studios.

Candace Nelson, founder and pastry chef of Sprinkles Cupcakes and a judge on the Food Network's Cupcake Wars, was also at the preview last week. 

Nelson told Patch the inspiration for her cupcake empire was her desire "to create something that was artful and elegant that people could conceivably eat every day, so I set about to reinvent the classic American cupcake. I’m still incredibly passionate about it.”

Nelson also divulged her secret to the perfect cupcake.

"It's all about using the absolute best ingredients you can get your hands on," she said. "Since there are so few ingredients that go into a cupcake, each one counts. A cupcake must also be freshly [and perfectly] baked.” It's why, she said, Sprinkles bakes throughout the day to ensure customers receive the freshest cupcake possible.

Nelson will be sharing her all-natural recipe for Sprinkles strawberry cupcakes using fresh, pureed strawberries at The Taste's Picnic in the Hills event on Sept. 5 at the Beverly Hilton from 12-4 p.m. 

Nelson told Patch she chose to highlight that cupcake because "it's the quintessential taste of summer, and we could all use one last taste before summer leaves us for good this year.” 

The Food Network’s Melissa d’Arabian and the Cooking Channel’s Debi Mazar and her husband Gabriele Corcos as well as Aida Mollenkam will also be at the Picnic in the Hills event, which will be hosted by celebrity chef and TV personality Giada De Laurentiis.

  • For a complete list of The Taste's participating restaurants, click here
  • For a list of all the events, click here
  • For tickets, click here

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