LA Food & Wine Summer at the Shore

Synchronicity is a wonderful thing; one of my friends sent me a text to see if I had four 12" saucepans I could lend her for the Los Angeles Food and Wine Event in Santa Monica...in exchange she gave me a ticket to the event!

I arrived before the event actually began, so there weren't any crowds yet for the tables; it was nice to meander and see who was there before it was open.

Waiters and waitresses circulated with small bites as people arrived. This fellow had a chorizo and pork belly mini slider.

My friend Molly finally donned her chef whites in the 90 degree heat and looked every bit the professional.

My pans were used for the Kerry Heffernan booth, and it turns out he was the guest chef from NY at the event!

Kerry's dish was a crab and pasta ragu with green beans and micro cilantro.

Graham Elliot's presentation of fresh sea urchin, scallop, seaweed, and ocean foam was the most beautiful of the venue (he is about to taste Joe's watermelon BBQ plate in this pic).

There was even an option for vegans from Real Food Daily.

A sesame croquette.

Nyesha Arrington from Wilshire had beautiful flowers in her hair. And a beautiful snapper with peaches and mirco greens on her plates.

A very popular booth was Joe's Stone Crab, where Andre Bienvenu presented me with a BBQ watermelon taste which was followed with a hard lemonade shot that danced in my mouth!

Of course he also had stone crabs at his table!

My favorite bites of the night came from Bar Pintxos, their Paella with truffles and pork had the longest line at the venue for good reason, and their Jamon Iberico was the ultimate decadent snack (sorry no pictures, I was too busy eating to take photographs:)



There were wonderful wineries pouring at the venue, including some I had never seen before, like Ackerman Family Vineyards.

Alexander Vineyards' Cyrus was my favorite of the night, but J Ludlow, Bernardus, Saintsbury, and Rombauer also offered very good wines.

There were live DJ's spinning tunes all night long.

There were desserts from Fonuts (I loved the strawberry buttermilk and the booth loved the coconut chocolate), sweets from Godiva (in convenient to go packages), and even ice cream at one vendor!


Summers at the shore are marvelous, especially with great wine & food on a balmy night; tonight was indeed a testament to "all true benefits are mutual".