ALONG COMES MARY

Imagine Comic Con, yet, in Downtown Los Angeles, where the streets are flooded for 4 packed filled days & nights of hob nobbing, sipping endless amounts of bubbly, wine, noshing on plates created by your favorite Chefs like Wolfgang Puck & Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto & literally eating yourself silly? Welcome, my friends, to The Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival, which is returning for its 5th year August 27th through the 30th.

Launching in 2011, the inaugural weekend welcomed more than 15,000 attendees to sample the incomparable tastes from 140 celebrity chefs and nearly 300 acclaimed wineries.  Among more than 60 city-wide events, weekend highlights included the Red Carpet Premiere, where celebrities such as Randy Jackson and Kathy Griffin shared the spotlight with celebrity chefs like Daniel Boulud and Tim Love and the mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa, a Champagne and Caviar fete at the L’Ermitage hotel, two epic Grand Tastings, LIVE on the Plaza where the stage was shared by GRAMMY-winning artists Train and Wolfgang Puck, and a star-studded Auction Brunch at the newly re-opened Bel Air Hotel to cap the weekend.  Throughout the weekend $400,000 was raised to support St. Vincent Meals on Wheels.

The festival will, without a doubt, be pulling out all the stops to ensure their 5th anniversary goes out with a bang…or, rather, champagne bottles being popped, attendees will once again have the incredible “Only in LA” kind of chance to experience the streets of Downtown like never before as they have the awesome opportunities to purchase passes for Grand Tastings, Cooking Demonstrations led by the top names in cooking & photo opps with their favorite foodies as there will be book signings & red carpets abound.

The 2 events that particularly caught my attention are the wine seminars & the famous champagne & caviar event. I have never had caviar, have you? If I get to the Food & Wine Festival, I promise to report back just what this infamous, sophisticated appetizer is like, & if it gets Mary approved!

Another wonderful tidbit about this festival is the giving back: Each year, The LA Food & Wine Festival gives hundreds of thousands of dollars raised from ticket purchases to awesome charities like St. Vincent’s Meals on Wheels & No Kid Hungry.

Whether or not you’re usually in Los Angeles, do yourself a favor & visit the festival’s web-site for information regarding ticket on-sale dates & to learn more. This is truly the event to be in Southern California this Summer! xo