The Best Events of the 2017 LA Food Bowl

Come hungry! The LA Food Bowl guarantees a month full of events

This is the first edition of the LA Food Bowl, but this ambitious event is off to a flying start. The Los Angeles Times wants to do things in grand style and the Food Bowl is already set to become one of LA’s premiere events. The formula is simple: A whole month worth of events, including dinners, panels, parties, and workshops. Never-ending fun for foodies. Think of it as the Coachella of food. Food-chella. Just, longer (luckily).

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The goal is to celebrate LA’s diversity, as is reflected in the food industry. The festival will represent not just different countries, but also regions within the same country: Mexico, India, China and, why not, even Italy. The LA Food Bowl will show how traditions are preserved and reinterpreted, and different culinary legacies blend into one, shaping the food scene of a city in constant evolution. In fact, the variety and availability of ingredients makes Los Angeles a paradise for cooks and diners alike.

The LA Food Bowl also wants to focus on sustainability and food waste. It will shed a light on those who work every day in the fields and those who can barely feed themselves. The bowl is a symbol of variety, abundance, but also inclusiveness. An invite to be mindful and appreciate food, never taking it for granted.

RELATED: Johathan Gold Reveals Favorite Italian Food, and Much More

Ready to go? To guide you through the LA Food Bowl program, we selected some of our favorite events. Do they all feature an Italian theme, restaurant, or guest? Possibly… That’s why we are so excited about it! Please refer to the official program for prices and booking.

LA Food Bowl featured events and food celebrities

• Chef’s Fable at The Wiltern, LA Food Bowl’s official opening night. LA Times’ food critic Jonathan Gold will moderate a debate on how the food industry has recently become “trendy.” Featuring superstar chef Massimo Bottura (pictured above) of Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, one of the best restaurants in the world. A screening of the film Chef by Jon Favreau will follow. Leave the popcorn at home and enjoy some pasta by Pasta Sisters. Foodiamo will be there too: Come and say hi! April 30, 6:00 PM, Koreatown.
• WP Chef’s Series, with Massimo Bottura, Nancy Silverton, Wolfgang Puck, and Roy Choy. If Bottura’s Osteria Francescana is too far, but you still want to try his creations. Proceeds will go to Puck’s and Bottura’s charities. May 3, 6:00 PM, Bel Air.
• Food for Soul Forum, with Massimo Bottura and Mario Batali, among others, and hosted by Jonathan Gold. The panel will focus on raising awareness of food waste and undernourishment.  After the panel, the screening of Theater of Life will show what Bottura did, and what he’s doing, to reduce food waste and feed those in need. May 5, 8:00 PM, DTLA.
• Beast Feast, A Celebration of Meat, with Nancy Silverton from Osteria Mozza, Tuscan celebrity butcher Dario Cecchini, and other friends. Meat lovers, you don’t want to miss this one. If you don’t know Cecchini, watch the video below. May 21, 5:30 PM, DTLA.

Pasta Diem! Get these special menu items while you can

• AR Cucina will tempt you with pasta con le sarde, a typical Sicilian pasta dish with sardines, pine nuts, and saffron. Remember, AR Cucina was one of the most interesting openings of 2016. Throughout May, Culver City.
• Scott Conant’s The Ponte will delight you with spinach rigatoni drenched in ragù and Parmesan fondue. Of course, you can always the order Conant’s famous “spaghetti pomodoro” (is it really better than my mom’s?). Throughout May, Beverly Hills.

Pop-Ups, parties, & porchetta

• Porchetta Pop-Up, a meat-centered dinner in Orange County, if you’re all about meat. May 25, 7:00 PM, Santa Ana.
• Smorgasburg LA, in case you’re hungry for more porchetta. The all-new Porchetta Republic stand is waiting for you at Row DTLA, among many others (because man does not live by meat alone). Every Sunday and other festive days, 10:00 AM, DTLA.

Themed dinners: Dine your way through Italian regions

• Genet Goes Italian at Meals by Genet. Ever wondered what Italian food cooked by an Ethiopian chef looks and tastes like? May 2, from 5:30 PM, Fairfax.
• Cucina Povera Sotto le Stelle at Officine Brera, or “simple dishes under the stars”, is as dreamy as it sounds. Typical dishes from Northern Italy, with wine pairings. Or you can always order one of these three dishes at Officine Brera. May 16, 6:00 PM, DTLA.
• A Lemon Feast from the Amalfi Coast at Nerano. Seafood and meat dishes, paired with wines from Campania and Sicily regions, will make you feel like you’re driving by the Amalfi coast on a breezy summer night. Check out what we wrote about Nerano here. May 17, Beverly Hills.
• Dinner with Dario Cecchini at Osteria Mozza. As mentioned above, he’s a famed butcher from Tuscany. Vegetarians, stay home this time. You can always to Mozza, of course, for one of these specialties. May 23, 7:00 PM, Melrose.
• A Month of Toscana Classics at Toscana Restaurant. The name speaks for itself, go treat yourself to some Tuscan specialties! Throughout May, Brentwood.
• Wine Dinner Spectacular at Valentino, with Piero Selvaggio, restaurateur and Italy native. The dinners will in fact be four, themed “Piedmont”, “Tuscany”, “Sicily”, and “Calitalian”. May 5, 12, 19, and 26, 7:00 PM, Santa Monica.
• Small Vineyards of Italy Wine Dinner at AR Cucina, featuring sustainable wines and a springtime seasonal menu. May 24, 7:00 PM, Culver City.
• Soltanto at Sotto, a Southern Italian dinner series, featuring special ingredients such as summer truffles, Parmigiano Reggiano, and a pig (you read it right). May 1, 8, 15, and 22, from 5:30 PM, Pico.
• Una Serata in Fattoria at Tart Restaurant, or “An Evening on the Farm”. An interactive experience where you’ll learn butchery and pasta making skills while preparing a communal-style dinner at the farm. May 18, 7:00 PM, Fairfax.
• Life of Pie at Cosa Buona, a dinner combining authentic Italian dishes with their Italian-American counterparts. May 31, 7:00 PM, Echo Park.

Let #lafoodbowl begin! ??? Hundreds of food events are set to take place all over the city. Be sure to plan out your most delicious month of May ever at lafoodbowl.com. A special thanks to our premier sponsor @citibank #31daysoffood

A post shared by Food Bowl (@lafoodbowl) on Apr 28, 2017 at 6:35pm PDT

Learn and play: Classes, tastings, and workshops

• Olive Oil in Focus at Italian Cultural Institute, a conversation about making, tasting, and pairing extra-virgin olive oil. And while we are at it, here’s how you should buy your olive oil. May 8, 6:30 PM, Westwood.
• Build a Pizza at Baldoria. Have fun making your own (American) pizza! May 13, 12:00 PM, Little Tokyo.
• Italian Street Food at Italian Cultural Institute, with Milan-native chef and blogger Ale Gambini, aka “A Queen in the Kitchen.” You’ll learn how to make delicious Northern Italian specialties. And eat them too! May 13, 10:30 AM, Westwood.
• Beyond the Volcano: The Wild Wines of Campania at Sotto, a tasting of gems from the Campania region, with sommelier and wine blogger Jeremy Parzen. May 23, 6:30 PM, Pico.

This feature is unsponsored and unsolicited. Foodiamo received media passes to some of these events in exchange for social media coverage. Photos courtesy of the LA Times, all rights reserved. We thank Innovative PR for their assistance.

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