The first weekend of September marked the annual LA Times The Taste food festival. There were five events this year. I attend the opening event, titled Field to Fork. The event, at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, brought together a number of Los Angeles restaurants as well as drink purveyors. Below are some of the dishes I was able to sample during the event. There were certainly more available, some of which I neglected to take a picture and some of which I missed.
Bistro 45 served a za’atar dusted duck breast with, dates, and goat cheese polenta as well as a goat cheese and tomato tart. I love duck, but this was s a bit tough. The tart was decent. Goat cheese is always good.
Terrenea Resort in Palos Verdes presented a lobster roll and a blueberry and peach pie with vanilla ice cream. The pie was great, but the lobster was too finely diced and contained far too much celery, which I despise.
A bean salad from Canele.
Grilled peaches with soft polenta and rice pudding from Lexington Social House.
Albacore ceviche and an agua fresca whose flavor I can't recall from Red O. For all the negativity I've heard about Red O, this was a great bite.
Tender Greens served a freekah salad and gazpacho. There was far too much gazpacho at the event.
Here was my favorite dish of the event a quail breast with chayote jicama slaw and guajillo vinaigrette from The Blvd at Beverly Wilshire Hotel. This was my first but hopefully not last time having quail. I had three servings. The chef explained that the birds were wild quail from Texas.
Cooks County serviced a pretzel made with spelt flower and Italian sausage. Loved the slightly spicy mustard with the pretzel.
FigOly served a pasta dish with escargot and duck tongues and a gazpacho with Dungeness crab.
Peach fritters from Good Girl Dinette.
Cookies and pudding from Valerie Confections.
Porchetta over polenta from Scarpetta. Scarpetta always seems to serve some of my favorite dishes at food festivals.
Wonderful tres leches cake from La Monarcha Bakery.
Tiramisu and strawberry shortcake from Soletto Tratoria and Pizza Bar.
Bread pudding and flan in a few flavors. Can't remember who was serving this.
Another of my favorite dishes, and one of which I didn't get a picture, was a pork belly dish with watermelon and mint from Ray's and Stark Bar. Perfect and unique balance of flavors. And sadly, I only learned after the event that a vendor was serving a grasshopper soup.
As I mentioned, there was also a large number of drink purveyors. Compared to past events, I was disappointed with the wine. The only pour that stood out was the Alpha Omega Napa Cabernet Sauvingnon ($80 retail, available at the Wine House in West LA), which was quite good. However, there were many great cocktails. I was especially happy to see a number of gin vendors. My favorite cocktail of the day was this drink from Cauronn Gin consisting of gin, apple infused simple syrup and canaloupe:
In addition to the food and drinks there were a number of seminars and speaker panels. I attend the two wine seminars, one entitled how to taste like a master sommelier and another on the wines of Bordeaux. I've rarely found a French wine I actually like, so I was excited to learn a bit about Bordeaux and perhaps find something good, which I did. In the past, whenever I've thought I found a French wine I liked it always turned out to be a Bordeaux or Rhone style wine from California. For non-California wines, my favorite continues to be Spanish, followed by Italian.
Overall, I had a good time at the event. However, I think the event was better last year when the venue was the Robinson's May building in Beverly Hills. I managed to get tickets early, so it was worth the discounted $50 price. I look forward to next year's and hope they return to the Beverly Hills' location.
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