Rob Weakley and David Alan Bernahl, the founders of Pebble Beach Food & Wine who together form Coastal Luxury Management, will bring L.A. its own four-day culinary and wine event this October through a partnership with AEG and Dick Clark Productions. Plans for the first Los Angeles Food and Wine were revealed this afternoon at L.A. Live!, where a gathering of star chefs like Tyler Florence, and Masaharu Morimoto cooked lunch appeared alongside our own Walter Manzke, Sang Yoon, Rory Hermann, and Nancy Silverton. Being held at LA Live and various locations around town from October 13th-16th, one component of the festival will find renowned chefs, including Daniel Boulud, Wolfgang Puck, Tom Colicchio, and Thomas Keller (who had each recorded statements to be played during today’s announcement), paired with celebrities from the world of music, TV, film, and sports.
Chefs like Keller, Morimoto, Florence, Colicchio, and Boulud are frequent staples of the annual Pebble Beach event, where Manzke and Silverton are also appearing next week, so it seems fairly certain that Weakley and Bernahl are following a similar model and bringing a lot of the same star power, events, fundraisers, seminars, and tastings to L.A., no less considering that American Express is a sponsor to both.
Seeing as Puck recently announced a split from his own October food festival (which is yet to announce 2011 plans), some are already starting to wonder if Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival might replace AWFF as the city’s hot fall food festival ticket. UPDATE: The festival will be replacing AWFF this fall, even to the point where Meals on Wheels will be a beneficiary.
Stay tuned for more details on how the event is shaping up as it prepares for its fall debut, plus a look at what the chefs were cooking today at L.A. Live.
Los Angeles Food and Wine Festival
October 13-16, 2011
