The Knife

Your Gourmet is on fire!

I've decided that food festivals are the 21st century's bacchanalia, especially since they were originally attended solely by women. Heh.

The Bacchanal, by Peter Paul Rubens

No, really. According to our pals at Wikipedia:

The bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Roman and Greek god Bacchus. Introduced into Rome from lower Italy by way of Etruria (c. 200 BC), the bacchanalia were originally held in secret and only attended by women. The festivals occurred on three days of the year in the grove of Simila near the Aventine Hill, on March 16 and March 17. Later, admission to the rites was extended to men and celebrations took place five times a month.

The five-times-a-month bit seals the deal, as Los Angeles seems to host food festivals the way dentist offices host Brangelina cover stories. And this weekend's outing is a humdinger, the second third annual Gourmet on Fire at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. (Second for Loews; the first one was across the street, at the Viceroy. Thanks, LB!)

The list of chefs and restaurants is small but snazzy: Akasha Richmond (Akasha), Govind Armstrong (Table 8), Gregory Foos (Ocean & Vine), Joe Miller (Joe’s Restaurant), Katsuya Uechi (Katsuya), Neal Fraser (Grace and BLD) and Zoe Nathan (Rustic Canyon).

Last year was the first for sponsor Gourmet magazine and there were a few glitches. They've moved the event up by one week and down by three hours; what was once a sweltering summer afternoon now promises to be a cool, sunset-watching evening.

Of course, no food festival can exist without sponsorship, but Gourmet still seems to be getting the hang of it. Last year's lineup included Kikkoman soy sauce and McCormick spices (with aggressive product placement); this year, they've been replaced by Spice Islands and Pam. If anyone comes up with a way for, say, Windrose Farm to bring corporate backing to the table, I'd be happy to play matchmaker.

Tickets are $100, available at the Gourmet website or at (877) 490-3337. A portion of proceeds benefit the Southland Farmer’s Markets Association.

What you're doing Sunday: Taste of the Nation

Without sounding too crass, all food festivals have good causes; Taste of the Nation's is Share Our Strength, which supports local charities that fight childhood hunger.

However, if all you wanted was to do good, you could send donations via PayPal. The thing that makes these events worth your $115 (that's the advance ticket price for Taste of the Nation) is the food, wine and, for lack of a better word, fun. You want proof? I got proof.

FOOD: All the A-gamers, including Border Grill/Ciudad, Providence, Sona, Melisse, Craft, Grace, Fraiche, Water Grill and The Foundry as well as Culver City kings/queens Fraiche, Akasha and Ford’s Filling Station.

WINE: Whoever rallied the vendors deserves a prize. Robert Sinskey and Havens are two of my favorite Napa Valley winemakers and this represents a fairly rare food-festival appearance (in LA, anyway). Fingers crossed that Havens brings the Albarino; last I heard they were the only ones in Napa to produce that varietal. (I'm sure that won't be the case for long; Albarino seems to be the new Pinot Grigio. Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

FUN: If the annual Wolfgang Puck hootenanny is an amusement park, Taste of the Nation is the county fair. And despite scorching heat, last year's event was a blast; the June 1 Culver City forecast calls for 75 degrees and sunny. So go already.

Tickets are $115 in advance, $125 at the door and $175 for VIP. Nascent foodies rejoice: kids six and under free, ages 7-14 $25. Call (877) 26-TASTE or go to www.tasteofthenation.org.

Full press release after the jump, for those so inclined.

American Wine & Food Festival: OK, simmer down. That's enough.

Yes, The Knife lost her damn mind this weekend, what with the food orgy and the liveblogging. My apologies for what must have seemed like Twitter with ADD -- things would have been better if I could have taken photos. (The problem? Cell phones have outboxes, too. Clear them!)

Anyway, here's a highlight reel; I'll add more photos as they come available. (The image above comes from the Flickr account of the always lovely Caroline On Crack.)

* Glenmorangie rep Rick Edwards described the Nectar D'Or (see  bottle at top right) as having "the flavors of coconut pastry, lemon meringue and Honey Nut Cheerios." And he's right.

* Top Chef Tom Colicchio was utterly attitude free as he sliced flawless flatiron steak to top a farro risotto with chestnut puree, mascarpone and Parmesan. 

* My favorite wine of the night: Havens Wine Cellars' Bourriquot, a blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot. I didn't come close to trying all the wines on offer (and anyone who did wouldn't be able to remember them), but this reminded me why Havens seemed like a discovery when I visited Napa last fall.

* Nobu will open in the old L'Orangierie space in January. Nobu Matsuhisa said so.

* Just when you thought buratta couldn't get any more ubiquitous/unctuous, Paula Lambert's Mozzarella Cheese Co. will make burrino, a buratta enriched with mascarpone with sweet cream butter in the middle, to be sold in Williams-Sonoma's Christmas catalog. 

* The West Coast may have the weather, but the East Coast has Jasper White's Summer Shack. Shellfish chowder, fried belly clams and coleslaw; I could live on it.

For more coverage, check out Caroline's behind-the-scenes take.

The Knife will be posting live from the American Food and Wine Festival

I am starving myself today in anticipation of what's to come - W. Puck's gluttonous hootenany at 5 pm. And I'm taking my blackberry and my cell phone camera with me, with plans to send posts live on site. (Thanks, Typepad!) This one comes from my Blackberry. Apologies to any newsletter subscribers who were confused by the random test posts that featured a photo of a very cute dog; for the record, that was Hambone.

This weekend is nothing but food. And wine. And food.

If you can get out of this weekend without gorging yourself, you're not my kind of people. Probably a better person, certainly a thinner one, but really, how do you live with yourself?

To recap:

* Friday is the James Beard Dinner. And Wolfgang Puck is only getting warmed up. 

* Saturday is the American Food & Wine Festival. Beforehand, eat some of Gail Silverton's gelato at the Beverly Hills Williams-Sonoma or maybe the fresh mozzarella Paula Lambert will be making down the street at the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills. (Remember: Warm up and you won't get cramps.)  

* Sunday is the palate cleanser with downtown's fourth annual Grand Avenue Festival  (see menu above). That afternoon, downtown is also home to Ian Blackburn's LearnAboutWine loft, where people will be drinking liquid jealousy.