#1 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The festival is produced by Coastal Luxury Management and presented with founding partners Food & Wine and Lexus. In 2015, the growing event attracted nearly 15,000 attendees throughout the course of the late-summer weekend. It celebrated its fifth anniversary last year with master sommeliers, local chefs, and other big names from the food world coming together for the three-night and four-day program. Next: August 2016
#2 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The Los Angeles Times hosts the culinary festival each year on Labor Day; it comprises five distinct events over three days, all celebrating the Southern California food scene. The event takes over the Paramount Pictures Studios and this year will be the festival’s seventh iteration. Next: September 2-4, 2016
#3 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The festival is billed as the largest food and wine celebration on the West Coast. The event features 60 San Diego restaurants and 150 wineries, breweries, and spirits purveyors and brings in 10,000 wine and food fans from around the country. Next: November 13-19, 2016
#4 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The restaurant week program is actually two weeks long: The 14-day culinary event that takes place in more than 300 restaurants throughout Los Angeles County and points to the area’s dining diversity. The programming happens twice each year, in summer and winter, with restaurants offering prix-fixe lunch and dinner menus. Next: July 2016
#5 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The expo includes menu trends, design and decor, and business education for the restaurant and food service industry. It draws 500 manufacturers and 8,000 participants for the summer show at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Next: August 28-30, 2016
#6 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The culinary event, developed by Lucy Lean and Krissy Lefebvre in partnership with AEG, is newer on the scene and brings together some of the world’s top chefs for four days in mid-March. Each event within the program allows guests to get up close and personal with the chefs, who come together to cook in the Chefs Tasting Arena and Restaurant Stadium, a venue with stadium seating, lights, cameras, and LED screens. Next: March 2017
#7 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry draws top chefs and mixologists who donate their time and efforts to end childhood hunger in America. The event, now held at Media Park in Culver City, includes tastes from more than 50 restaurants, breweries, wineries, and mixologists with host chef Bruce Kalman. The family-friendly affair also includes games and activities. Next: June 5, 2016
#8 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
At just six years old, last year’s version of the event pulled in $1 million for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, breaking the previous year’s record by $300,000.The event at the University of California, Los Angeles attracted 2,000 people, including more than 100 chefs, mixologists, and vintners. A live auction that raised more than $300,000 included a women's chef dinner with Suzanne Goin, April Bloomfield, Giada De Laurentiis, Nancy Oakes, and Sherry Yard, bringing in $150,000. Next: September 10, 2016
#9 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
Last year’s 20th annual Taste for a Cure fund-raiser benefitting the University of California, Los Angeles’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center took place in May at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, raising more than $1 million—a record for the event. Since its inception, the benefit has taken in more than $10 million for highest-priority cancer research. Next: April 28, 2016
#10 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The event consistently ranks among Wine Spectator’s top 10 charity wine auctions. The benefit brings 50 international chefs and 75 California wineries to Warner Brothers Studios and has raised nearly $29 million in support of the mission of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Next: May 14, 2016
#11 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event (new to the list)
Planned Parenthood’s culinary event marked its 37th anniversary in 2016. This year’s event also raised $900,000—the most in its history. The fund-raiser features gourmet food and drink samples from more than 100 Los Angeles purveyors. The event began in 1979 with a cooking demonstration by Julia Child and has grown to become one of the city’s long-established food events. Next: March 2017
