Earlier this week we found ourselves at the downtown Otium restaurant for the festival launch of this years’ L.A. Times Food Bowl. The inaugural festival last year drew more than 100,000 attendees with over 250 events culminated with the Night Market in Grand Park with 50+ restaurants and food trucks.
For 2018 they’re thinking even bigger with neighborhood food tours, a discussion about food in space at UCLA, a Sichuan Summit featuring food writer Fuchsia Dunlop and Chinese Chef Yu Bo and a conversation with chef José Andrés of the Bazaar by José Andrés.
Jim Kirk, the Times’ new editor-in-chief, told the crowd that many of the festival’s programs are focused on alleviating the crisis of homelessness and that the charity partners are “on the front lines helping to address this especially relevant issue.”
The Times’ food editor, Amy Scattergood, put it best: “I think of it as a monthlong, progressive dinner party, a way for all of us to explore this town and the enormous diversity that we have in terms of food and the people who cook it.’
