#1 Food, Wine & Hospitality Event
The Los Angeles Food and Wine festival, presented by Food & Wine magazine, is in its third year. The four-day epicurean event showcases top food and drink culture from all areas of Los Angeles, plus culinary personalities from around the country. This year's big-name chef lineup included the likes of Thomas Keller, Giada De Laurentiis, Daniel Boulud, and Scott Conant. Lexus is a founding partner with Food & Wine, and Delta Air Lines, Jenn-Air and the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas are also major partners. Executive director Caryl Chinn led the event. Next: August 2014
#2 Food, Wine & Hospitality Event
The Taste is The Los Angeles Times’s major Labor Day weekend food and wine festival. As part of a shift to emphasize the focus on Southern California food and beverage trends and culture, the event now comprises five distinct events at Paramount Pictures Studios produced in association with Best Events. Next: September 29-31, 2014
#3 Food, Wine & Hospitality Event (up from #4)
San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary this fall and claims it will be bigger than ever. It will bring big-name celebrity chefs and culinary personalities, plus more than 200 wineries, breweries, and spirit purveyors, 70 San Diego restaurants, and 10,000 attendees. Next: November 18-24, 2013
#4 Food, Wine & Hospitality Event (new to the list)
DineL.A. Restaurant Week is a twice-annual 12-day dining event intended to showcase the city as a top food destination and underscore the diversity of offerings around town. A wide selection of eateries offers special prix fixe lunch and dinner menus as part of the program. Next: January 2014
#5 Food, Wine & Hospitality Event
Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation benefit to end childhood hunger moved this year back to Culver City to the Lot in West Hollywood. The June event showcased local restaurants like Fig, Superba Snack Bar, Paiche, Border Grill, Ray’s & Stark Bar, MB Post, and Fishing With Dynamite. Guests who purchased access to the V.I.P. area got bites from James Beard “Rising Star Chef” award-winner Danny Boweien of Mission Chinese Food, all to benefit Share Our Strength, which received 100 percent of the proceeds from ticket sales, a culinary competition, and live and silent auctions. Next: June 1, 2014
#6 Food, Wine & Hospitality Event (up from #7)
In 2013 the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo drew thousands of restaurant and foodservice industry professionals to the Los Angeles Convention Center for its annual event, marking a 22 percent increase over last year. Attendees came for three days of tasting new products, meeting with new vendors, and attending education programs at the 77th annual event, sponsored by the California Restaurant Association, a partner of the National Restaurant Association. It heads to Anaheim next year. Next: August 17-19, 2014
#7 Food, Wine & Hospitality Event (new to the list)
L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade is now in its fourth year and already making a big impression. Sponsored by HBO, Northwestern Mutual, and Volvo Cars of North America, the event for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer invites food and wine fans for food and drink, children’s activities, silent and live auctions, and other offerings. This year’s event at Culver Studios included chefs like Giada De Laurentiis, Susan Feniger, Neal Fraser, Duff Goldman, Ludo Lefebvre, and Mary Sue Milliken coming together to cook for childhood cancer cures. Next: September 2014
#8 Food, Wine & Hospitality Event
U.C.L.A. Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center hosted its 17th annual Taste for a Cure food and wine tasting benefit at the Beverly Wilshire on April 26. The event, which focused on Santa Barbara County wines and signature dishes from California’s Central Coast chefs, honored co-head of Creative Artists Agency television department Joe Cohen. Next: Spring 2014
#9 Food, Wine & Hospitality Event
A Culinary Evening with the California Winemasters benefit for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is one of the organization’s most important fund-raisers in the United States and annually sells out its 1,400 tickets. The event takes over a sprawling space on the Warner Brothers back lot and has raised $26 million in its quarter-century history. Next: May 17, 2014
