Taste Of The Nation Los Angeles

Attended the 2016 Taste of the Nation event in culver city. This was easily the best food festival I have gone to to date. The food was, of course, amazing. The cause is also amazing. And the event was so organized! There were no lines. Excellent drinks. Great atmosphere. I will definitely be attending this event as long as they kept holding it!

Love food festivals specifically the higher end ones since you know quality of food and drinks will be reflective of ticket prices. Got to sample tons of lobster and champagne galore, seafood from Scarpetta, Hinoki & The Bird, and Knuckle & Claw… Octopus from Cliff’s Edge, the famous Philly Cheesesteak & incredible praline dessert from The Bazaar by Jose Andres. Melt in your mouth Lamb Belly from Terrine, got tons of baguettes from La Brea Bakery to go, Squid Ink Seafood Paella from Bar Pintxo which was probably one of the tastiest dishes we had today. I mean just really great food and enough drinks to set you off with a major hangover the following day if done right. Good times.

Hey Foodies,
Taste of the Nation is a foodie event from Share Our Strength, an organization that helps feed hungry children and stocks the local area food banks. So why did you miss it this year?
I attended Taste of the Nation over the weekend, because it’s a cause that I firmly believe in. This event was bigger and better than last year’s event in Culver City. The set up at its new location in West Hollywood was ideal; nice and spacious with plenty of tables and chairs to lounge in. I was especially amazed with all the wonderful gourmet food tastings from 50 Los Angeles area restaurants and specialty food shops. These guys spared no expense in giving the best of the best.
I loved all the confections from Valerie Confections. I also loved that Pazzo Gelato and Scoops were within my reach, because I love gelato. I enjoyed the delightful Asian flavored Panna Cotta dessert from Lukshon as well as their Cumin Lamb Carpaccio. I also enjoyed Korean Cold Noodles from Susan Feniger’s Street. It’s was awesome to eat especially when the sunny weather started to warm things up.
Top sandwich nods goes to Farmshop who had the best Pastrami Sandwich at the event. Burger domination goes to Umami Burger who had the balls to serve a Pink Slime Burger. I loved the whole novelty of the Umami’s Pink Slime Burger, because they made something that seems ridiculously gross into something that is incredibly delicious. Secret… this burger is just a burger with liverwurst disguised as pink slime.LOL. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.
Anyway, I suggest that you spread some love and reach deep into your pockets to pay the ticket price to attend this event next year. You’ll feel good knowing that your ticket paid to feed the hungry, needy children and you.
Share our Strength’s Taste of the Nation

A great event for a great cause.
Big ups to the standouts:
Michael’s: gazpacho
Comme Ca: mini burger
Bar Pintxo: big paella
Lazy Ox: Squid Ink Fiduea
Valerie Bakeshop: Rose Petit Fours will shake your foundations!
Veev: custom cocktails hand shaken in your own jar
Farmshop: Fried Pastrami Sandwiches
Global Cuisine: Crab Cake, Sea Bass and Poached Heirloom Tomato
Public Kitchen & Bar: Foie Gras, Strawberry Gazpacho
And so many more.

My boyfriend was lucky enough to win tickets off Twitter (shout out to Food GPS!), and I was lucky enough to be his +1! We had a blast here… All you can eat bites from some of the best restaurants in town and essentially an open bar throughout the lot. Everything was delicious, and it wasn’t crowded at all even when certain lines appeared to be long. I will definitely be coming back to the next event.
Great food for an even better cause. It was a successful Sunday Funday indeed!

FOOD and DRINK GALORE!!!
Umami
Father’s Office
Culini
Kerry Simon Restaurant
Border Grill
Street
Loteria
Chaya
Fig
Black Market
Scoops
Intelligentsia
Akasha
The list goes on and on and on! I’ve heard about Taste of the Nation and how it is a great cause in engaging millions of people across America in the «Share Our Strength’s» solution to childhood hunger. The fundraising effort of Share our Strength raise funs to support the campaign to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. Yes, tickets are not cheap. its $ 110 O_​o which is so expensive but when you educate yourself about the cause and understand that it is for charity and realize that the quality of food and drink that will be featured at this event, you know you will get your money’s worth especially when you have a list of celebrity chefs that are behind the great campaign.
I’ve been to these food tasting events in the past such as Taste of Beverly Hills and just from past experience, I learned to strategize my tastings by not staying in one area the whole time but picking and choosing what I want to taste at different stations.
For example, I learned now to eat the stations that offered sliders, pastrami sandwiches, or other items that will fill you up faster because of all the breading. –I also learned to stay away from carbonated drinks like sparking water or soda because the bubbles is also another thing that will fill you up fast.
–I learned to try to go for more expensive quality items like halibut, steak, and seafood because those items will get your money’s worth. Its great to be able to want to taste everything but realistically it would be difficult to be able to drink and taste everything at every station unless you are some food eating competitor that I don’t know about which in that case, props to you!!!
But yea, the restaurants did offer a lot of great dishes such as grilled halibut, steak skewers, freshly cooked paella, all you can drink cocktails, a lot of seafood items which I love but also there are alot of meat dishes for the carnivores too.
I met a lot of great celebrity chefs such as Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger who were both very approachable and friendly. Kerry Simon was friendly too and talked about his upcoming restaurant openings and Campanille’s Mark Peel was also very nice and joked around about how there is plenty of food to go around w/​out sharing. I also got to talk to Mo-Chica’s chef, Ricardo Zarate who was very gracious as well. If you enjoy meeting and talking to celebrity chefs, I think you would really enjoy this event because it is your chance to meet and talk to these chefs in a very open and informal environment.
Overall great event and I was seriously in a food coma for a very long time after having all the food and drinks. They had a lot of giveaways such as a whole cacique cheese, dessert to take home, bottled sparking water and regular water, and more!
*Tip– The event was HOT and SUNNY. got sunburned so be mindful of what you wear and bring your shades and sunblock cause it does get really really hot! You will be out walking around in the sun all day so wear comfortable shoes and wear light clothing. It would also be smart to bring a duffle bag in case you want to take home a few freebies that you get from the event w/​out holding it.
You won’t come out of the event hungry, I can guarantee you that!

All the food, drinks and goodies are portioned out well enough so that you won’t get full that fast. But there’s so many dishes that you’re bound to get full before you can visit all the vendors. Too bad we couldn’t take some to go (would have been good lunch). Anyway, a lot of the big time LA chefs have booths with good food, great drinks and it’s all for a really fantastic cause.
LA’s best food event.
Recommendation: Go and have a good time!