Foodievents

Where Morimoto Meets Mary J. Blige and Ozomotli Joins Your Beachside BBQ

And I Can't Be Without You: Morimoto and Mary J.
And I Can’t Be Without You: Morimoto and Mary J. Photo: L.A. Food & Wine

Want to see Andre Agassi doubled up with Michael Mina? How about Morimoto sharing real love with Mary J. Blige? These, and crazier combinations of celebrities and chefs, will be found at October’s upcoming L.A. Food & Wine event. On Wednesday at The Santa Monica Farmers Market, Wolfgang Puck, Josiah Citrin, Sherry Yard, and Ray Garcia joined the founders of the tasting spectacular to announce the talent and event lineup for the four-day fest. It contains some pretty cool collaborations so far.

The giant multi-headed monster of an event will kick off on October 13th with a red carpet gala at Nokia Live (tickets-$250) where celebs and chefs will be paired off, as in the Agassi-Mina/Blidge-Morimoto duos (celebs are still being confirmed). 200 wineries will serve the crowd while the chefs are given the rock star treatment and actual rock stars perform on the stage.

All of the subsequent events are food, wine, and chef-focused, of course with L.A. chefs rubbing shoulders with toques from throughout the U.S. Todd English will host a Pigs & Pinot party (tickets-$125) at Lucky Strike on Thursday with the promise of “unlimited bacon”, superstar mixologists, and DJs. Sang Yoon will host “Bubbles and Beats” on Friday evening ($125), where champers is poured with little restraint and a DJ from America’s Best Dance Crew spins. Saturday afternoon will be a BBQ event on The Santa Monica Pier ($95) featuring chefs like Roy Choi, Roy Yamaguchi, Frank Ostini, Chris Consentino, and Stephan Pyles, where Ozomatli is scheduled to make the crowd move.

Anyway, it goes on and on with the star-power here, with lots of “major” live acts planned (which hopefully means more than confirmed attendee Joe Jonas). Standing out is a tribute to Daniel Boulud on Sunday with $500 tickets, a clambake with Tom Colicchio ($350), and a very cool Sang Yoon/Chris Consentino match-up called “Meat in the Middle,” that finds the two chefs respectively taking heads or tails of a pig and cooking with the pieces until they literally meet in the middle of the thing.

Then, of course, there will be cooking demos and wine events and probably a few panels. Basically, this thing appears unconquerable even by our fat, food fest-marauding butts. You can see the planned breakdown online as the specific days events take shape and then start budgeting accordingly.

Where Morimoto Meets Mary J. Blige and Ozomotli Joins Your Beachside BBQ