Month-Long LA Food Bowl Celebrates City's Best Chefs And Restaurants for A Cause

This month, The Los Angeles Times sponsored the LA Food Bowl, a 30-day festival full of food, wine and celebrity chefs. In addition to highlighting many of the city's best restaurants, the new event also aims to promote social awareness about food waste and hunger.

The festival’s proceeds benefit Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry. At the centerpiece of the event was the Night Market, an outdoor dining extravaganza at downtown’s Grand Park. More than 50 food trucks and restaurants participated with live entertainment and drinks from May 10 through May 14.

The festival will conclude on May 31 with an event hosted by Chef Thomas Keller at his Beverly Hills restaurant Bouchon. We're recapping all the great food featured this month, and giving you the details for snagging tickets to the grand food finale.

Sweet and sour meatballs, an appetizer from Valentino's Tuscany inspired dinner

Santa Monica’s Valentino restaurant hosted four regionally inspired Italian dinners curated by restaurateur Piero Selvaggio and James Beard award-winning Chef Luciano Pellegrini. The first three dinners, held May 5, 12 and 19 celebrated the cuisine of Piedmont, Tuscany and Sicily.

The fourth and final event, held May 26, will be a Cali-Italian Spectacular dinner. The menu will include The Cal-Italian dinner menu, which features tartare di gamberi Santa Barbara e olive taggiasche con salsa al pompelmo, bucatini ripieni di porcini e speck, medaglione di filetto prime affumicato con salsa di miele e cacao amaro, robioletta di bufala su crostino con marmellata d’aglio primizio, mousse di pistachio con cuore di cioccolato picante and biscotti. This special dinner will be held in Valentino’s wine cellar where Piero will open rare and hard to find classic California wines.

Spaghetti at Santa Monica’s Valentino

The Tuscany dinner included an appetizer of sweet and sour meatballs, kale and mascarpone crostini and sausage with fried sage. Main courses included sautéed shrimp with red peppers and raisins, steak Florentine with artichokes and spaghetti. Dessert included a vin santo semifreddo with chocolate chip gelato.

Steak Florentine with artichokes at Santa Monica’s Valentino

Vin Santo semifreddo with chocolate chip gelato at Santa Monica’s Valentino

On May 23, Chefs Michael Voltaggio and Duff Goldman hosted a tasting dinner at Voltaggio’s West Hollywood Ink restaurant. While being served an appetizer of smoked mozzarella with pomodoro sauce on a chickpea pancake, diners listened to host Billy Harris and the chefs discuss the issue of hunger in Los Angeles.

Chefs Michael Voltaggio and Duff Goldman at Ink

Hennessy cocktails at Ink

Main courses included a dry aged hoistein short rib with house made steak sauce and a branzino with grape juice and a fermented celeriac remoulade.

Dry aged hoistein short rib at Ink

Sides included romanesco broccoli with black garlic and salt and charcoal potatoes with sour cream and black vinegar. Then Chef Goldman provided a dirt cup dessert with strawberry, Mexican chocolate and frozen rice cream.

Dirt cup dessert at Ink

The festival will conclude on May 31, with an event hosted by Chef Thomas Keller at his Beverly Hills restaurant Bouchon. With a focus on fried chicken, the Soiree Poulet will include guest chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo from Son of a Gun and Chef Jeff Cerciello from Farmshop. Each chef will offer their personal versions of fried chicken, including Ad Hoc’s buttermilk fried chicken, Son of a Gun’s fried chicken sandwich and Farmshop’s gluten-free Jidori fried chicken. There will also be complimentary wine and beer, an open kitchen for guests to tour and interactive food stations with sides and desserts.

Tickets for the last-night Soiree Poulet party are $75 and can be purchased at www.lafoodbowl.com.