On Sunday, June 5, 2016, dozens of top Los Angeles chefs and restaurants descended upon Media Park in Culver City for Taste of the Nation LA, a fundraising event for No Kid Hungry, the Share Our Strength campaign to end childhood hunger in the United States. Chef Bruce Kalman of Union and Knead fame, and soon (by the end of this year) to have a restaurant on the Westside in Culver City itself, curated the event, and picked some amazing participants.
Some of my favorite bites included The Bellwether‘s heirloom tomato salad, The Cannibal‘s morcilla, The Culver Hotel‘s grilled apricot and burrata, Kali Restaurant‘s yellowtail crudo, and Sotto’s crispy lamb belly. Alas, I didn’t get a great shot of Kali’s dish, so I can’t show you their offering.
Other highlights included Birch’s cod tikka masala, Hatchet Hall’s crawfish boil, Sweetfin Poke’s yellowfin tuna poke, and Upper West’s lamb tacos.
A strong presence at the event was the Bombet Hospitality Group, with four restaurants participating: Faith & Flower, Hanjip, Terrine, and Viviane. I particularly liked Hanjip’s and Terrine’s dishes, and Stephan Bombet and François Renaud of the restaurant group were kind enough to host the after party at Hanjip.
Believe it or not, what I’ve shown above isn’t even half of everything I tried at the event–I sampled over 25 dishes–so please check out my hashtag for the event, #offalototnla2016, on Instagram.
I really enjoyed myself at Taste of the Nation LA 2016. Media Park is like a little wooded oasis in the middle of bustling downtown Culver City. The crowds were lively, the lines never got too long, and the attendees seemed happy! A great event for a great cause! If you missed this event but still want to help, and eat great food, check out the fundraising dinner this Thursday in Chinatown from chefs Alvin Cailan and Michael Hung for No Kid Hungry’s Chefs Cycle.
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