The Los Angeles Times Food Bowl is back and bigger, better, and brighter than ever! The monthlong festival celebrates our great city’s top culinary talent, at both swanky and free and open to the public events, including special dining series in honor of the Los Angeles Times’s Restaurant of the Year and Gold Award winners and an awesome and an exclusive launch party at Grandmaster Recorders to kick off 30 nights of divine food, wine, and fun.

The Gold Award was, of course, created by and named after former L.A. Times Food critic, editor and Pulitzer Prize winner, Jonathan Gold. The Los Angeles Times Food Bowl and I go way back, to the very beginning I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Gold at a delectable tasting and wine-filled evening at Paramount Pictures Studios in 2017.

The Los Angeles Times Food Bowl Launch Party will kick off the 30 nights of festivities at Hollywood’s Grandmaster Recorders on Thursday, September 1. Ticket prices start at $150, which isn’t cheap, but you’ll be sure to get your money’s worth with a night that will feature special tastings from exciting guest chefs, live DJs, as well as cocktails, beer and wine  all included. Plus, the L.A. Times Food team General Manager Laurie Ochoa will honor this years’ recipients of the Restaurant of the Year and Gold Award with a live presentation of the awards. Tickets are going fast so be sure to get yours here and read on below for the exceptional list of chefs and restaurants attending this year’s opening night bash. Celebrate The Times’ Restaurant of the Year, Anajak Thai,  and Gold Award honoree, Meals by Genet.

The annual festival is presented by City National Bank and will combine the best of local eateries and world-renowned chefs in a series of over 30 pop-up dining events across the expanse of Los Angeles, while also highlighting issues of food access, sustainability and waste reduction.  This year’s lineup will also feature The Times’ return to Paramount Pictures Studios’s backlot with Food Bowl’s Night Market tasting events Sept. 23, 24 and 25. Tickets are available now at lafoodbowl.com, with discounted early bird pricing for a limited time. 

Plus, you can feel good about a night of imbibing as the Food Bowl supports the The L.A. Times Community Fund, where you can give back to nonprofits working in the community addressing hunger and food insecurity. Donations to the L.A. Times Community Fund’s Food Insecurity project enable Food Bowl to make substantial contributions to non-profit organizations like Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Project Angel Food, World Central Kitchen, No Us Without You, and more. Just $50 provides the equivalent of 200 meals. The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, as just one example, has been fighting hunger in LA County for almost 50 years and has provided more than 1.5 billion meals to those in need. Yes, that’s billion with a B. Food and nutrition insecurity continues to challenge many of our community’s children, seniors, families and individuals. As a nonprofit organization, the LA Regional Food Bank relies on the generosity of organizations like the LA Times and its annual culinary festival.

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